God of War: Chains of Olympus

Chains of Olympus is usually lumped in with Ascension as being the series' weakest entry which I thought I would agree with seeing as it was initially a PSP title as well as a prequel to the numbered entries on home console; but let me tell you that I was absolutely stunned to find a game that looked, played and felt just like it's bigger siblings. Let me first preface by saying this is a short game, only about 4 to 5 hours long depending on your play speed; where a lot would see this as problem, I actually found it provided a bit of respite coming off the back of the 12 plus hours God of War II had to offer. Chains of Olympus also brings back the more emotionally charged story telling of the first game which was a smart move seeing as the scale of the second could not be achieved as well as the fact that it is a prequel to that first game anyhow, it just feels right. Speaking of scale, the epic boss battles have been toned down a bit with the exception of the first encounter being exactly what you'd expect from a God of War intro; that being said the rest of the bosses are for the most part designed brilliantly and make up for what they lack in scale in fun. It's also worth noting that Chains of Olympus maintains God of War II's quality of life changes making it arguably easier to go back to than even the original.

Verdict: An 8 out of 10