Post by Bytor on May 10, 2011 12:47:32 GMT -5
God of War: Ghost of Sparta was released by Sony and developed by Ready at Dawn and SCE Santa Monica Studio for the PSP on November 2, 2010 in North America, on November 3, 2010 in Europe and the following day, November 4, 2010 in Australia. Although released after some (it was actually the sixth game released) of the other installment chronologically speaking in the GOW franchisee it takes place after God of War and before God of War II (technically God of War: Betrayal also takes place here but being a mobile game and not considered by some to be a true part of the storyline it will not be covered here). The game was directed by Dana Jan and Derek Mulder was the lead programmer and Adam Byrne the lead animator.. The story was written by Cory Barlog, Dana Jan and Ru Weerasuriya with Nathan Phail-Liff being the art director. The game was released to hugely critical acclaim with many declaring that no PSP game had ever looked or played so good and many critics believed it to be one of the strongest stories of the series.
The story, as before, focuses on Kratos but this time the story is much more personal than any of the previous games. Kratos, being haunted by the nightmares of his mortal past goes upon a quest to speak to his mother about his past and while doing so discovers that his brother is being held by the Olympians. The story centers on his rescue mission and the truths he finds during his quest.
The game play is once again pretty much identical to the rest of the series. Kratos is forced to solve puzzles, defeat various enemies and explore different locales in order to complete his goal. There are a few more weapons, although they used in a manner certainly recognizable and upgrades are found and utilized in chests as before.
The game has received virtually every award it was eligible for on handheld systems and has not only not showed any signs of slowing down the GOW juggernaut but has actually focused even more popularity and excitement about exactly where the series will go next. Ghost of Sparta also added plenty of back story to Kratos and made some of his actions in the other games more understandable, continuing his reign as the ultimate anti-hero.
