After a string of new announcements for PlayStation 3 and some new updates to handheld hits on the PSP, Sony dropped the big bombshell for the littlest PlayStation at its pre-E3 event. God of War II director Cory Barlog took the stage with Ru Weerasuriya of Ready at Dawn and finally revealed God of War: Chains of Olympus, the eagerly anticipated prequel to the PS2's instant classic. With a few screenshots in tow, Weerasuriya unveiled a teaser to show off the action, as well as some details about the game.
Chains of Olympus will take place somewhere in the decade between the death of Kratos' family and his deicidal attacks on Ares. It has also been promised that Kratos will explore new terrain that hasn't been seen in another game in the series, although that leaves a lot open to the imagination. The game is still a little too early for hands-on play, but we watched a brief demo level in action, and we can say, quite simply, that Chains of Olympus is God of War on PSP.
And when we say that CoO is God of War on PSP, we mean it. It's not a port by any means; as Ready at Dawn have proven with Daxter, it's in the business of developing familiar franchises with the hardware capabilities of the PSP in mind. While the audience watched the action on a bigger screen (which tends to blow up the pixels to a less attractive resolution), we managed to look over a Ready at Dawn rep's shoulder while he demoed the action. It truly looks like running the first game on a tiny LCD screen. Most importantly, we didn't see any dips in the framerate; the entire game appears to run smooth as can be on the hardware.
As for controls, we got a glance at a sheet on display. It appears that all of the functionality of the face buttons will remain intact from the PlayStation 2 versions. You'll hit X to jump, Circle to grab, and Triangle or Square for attacks, both aerial and ground, respectively. Of course, due to the hardware restrictions of the PSP, Ready at Dawn has found a workaround for the lack of two shoulder buttons and a right stick. L and R together will substitute as the evade function that the right stick provided for console play. The L button will modify special attacks.
While the trailer we saw had a different-looking font for combo attacks (likely a placeholder), the counter will be there for you to rack up some ridiculous double and triple-digit rampages. Kratos has the Blades of Chaos at his disposal for sure, but Weerasuriya wasn't able to reveal what other sorts of weaponry will aid our angry anti-hero in his epic quest, nor whether we'll see magic play a role in this game; no magic attacks could be seen on the HUD.
