I loved the part when Morpheus showed up and said "It's Morphin' time!"
wait
I know it's kind of blasphemy to play a series outside of release order, but frankly, having played III, the Norse games, and being filled in on a large amount of the story of the series otherwise, I feel like it doesn't ultimately matter that I went ahead and played Chains of Olympus before others in the series. And it was a pretty fun time.
Frankly, I don't feel like there's too much to say about the Greek God of War games. It's fun hack and slash action that defined the mid-2000s through late 2010s enough that you don't even see these kinds of games very often now. Kratos's blades are snappy and satisfying to use, though aren't very deep, and you can mostly get away with just spamming, throwing in some dodges or parries every once and a while. Puzzles are pretty simple, and exploration is encouraged - I quite easily got all items and upgraded all my weapons.
Late into the game you finally get a second weapon and man, I kind of think the Gauntlet of Zeus just blows the blades out of the water. At the expense of coverage, you smash enemies to bits with much more momentum which acts as its own sort of defense. On top of the two weapons are some magic attacks that I just simply didn't use. I used Efreet sometimes in the early game before I could parry things, as you're invincible while using it. I thought I was going to use the projectile attack more but I think a mix of me thinking I should conserve magic, lack of usefulness, and parries being stronger made me not use it past its introduction. The final magic attack I just didn't really know how to use effectively and also you just really don't need it.
This is a very by the books God of War in pretty much every way. If you already like God of War, you'll enjoy this one (and finally get to see that famous QTE scene in action), but if you don't like these games, it won't change your mind. Though its brevity might make you like it more, maybe.
I liked the story, too. It had a nice moment of things coming full circle at the end, a famous Greek mythical figure does the thing they're famous for, and there's a decent twist at the end. Basically all at the end so I'm being vague lol.
Weirdly though, there's a lot of stuff here that's mentioned a lot and just... doesn't come up. Morpheus is pretty much the one that brings about the main conflict of the game, but he never physically appears or comes into direct conflict with Kratos. Helios is consistently brought up as someone Kratos needs to save, but you don't see him at all. You meet Helios's sister, Eos, one time, and get talked to by Athena a total of one time. They feel like such random blips. Did they run out of time for Morpheus and Helios? Did they really need both Eos and Athena considering they pretty much accomplish the same thing here? How come you get an upgrade to swim in this game but you never use it after its introduction? Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?
The final boss design was sick.
wait
I know it's kind of blasphemy to play a series outside of release order, but frankly, having played III, the Norse games, and being filled in on a large amount of the story of the series otherwise, I feel like it doesn't ultimately matter that I went ahead and played Chains of Olympus before others in the series. And it was a pretty fun time.
Frankly, I don't feel like there's too much to say about the Greek God of War games. It's fun hack and slash action that defined the mid-2000s through late 2010s enough that you don't even see these kinds of games very often now. Kratos's blades are snappy and satisfying to use, though aren't very deep, and you can mostly get away with just spamming, throwing in some dodges or parries every once and a while. Puzzles are pretty simple, and exploration is encouraged - I quite easily got all items and upgraded all my weapons.
Late into the game you finally get a second weapon and man, I kind of think the Gauntlet of Zeus just blows the blades out of the water. At the expense of coverage, you smash enemies to bits with much more momentum which acts as its own sort of defense. On top of the two weapons are some magic attacks that I just simply didn't use. I used Efreet sometimes in the early game before I could parry things, as you're invincible while using it. I thought I was going to use the projectile attack more but I think a mix of me thinking I should conserve magic, lack of usefulness, and parries being stronger made me not use it past its introduction. The final magic attack I just didn't really know how to use effectively and also you just really don't need it.
This is a very by the books God of War in pretty much every way. If you already like God of War, you'll enjoy this one (and finally get to see that famous QTE scene in action), but if you don't like these games, it won't change your mind. Though its brevity might make you like it more, maybe.
I liked the story, too. It had a nice moment of things coming full circle at the end, a famous Greek mythical figure does the thing they're famous for, and there's a decent twist at the end. Basically all at the end so I'm being vague lol.
Weirdly though, there's a lot of stuff here that's mentioned a lot and just... doesn't come up. Morpheus is pretty much the one that brings about the main conflict of the game, but he never physically appears or comes into direct conflict with Kratos. Helios is consistently brought up as someone Kratos needs to save, but you don't see him at all. You meet Helios's sister, Eos, one time, and get talked to by Athena a total of one time. They feel like such random blips. Did they run out of time for Morpheus and Helios? Did they really need both Eos and Athena considering they pretty much accomplish the same thing here? How come you get an upgrade to swim in this game but you never use it after its introduction? Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?
The final boss design was sick.