Simply put: A must have if you own a PSP.
The game puts you as the 'anti-hero' protagonist Kratos who is set on fulfilling tasks assigned to him by the gods. Kratos starts off in a mythological city being attacked by the Persian army from the sea. The game does a fantastic job in putting you in an exciting action-packed setting from the start. After you fight your way through the city the game shifts you the typical temple setting found in previous GoW games. Kratos ends up being asked by the gods to stop Morpheus the god of dreams and the Titan Atlus from their devious intentions on destroying the world and Olympus along with it. As you would expect from any God of War game the story is fantastic. I don't know what it is about Greek mythology, but it is full of action, adventure, and more importantly - boobs. Each God of War game always leaves the player asking for more and this handheld does not fall short of the task.
The fighting style in God of War is probably the strongest tool that has attracted so many fans. And Chains of Olympus is nothing short of badass. This handheld version adapts quite well taking the fighting style from the consoles and adds its own style with the PSP controls. I don't know how to explain it, but the control scheme may possibly work better than the console version. Expect button timing sequences for finishing of foes, brutal combos, and the oh-so-awesome magic spells.
Not much to say about the music, it's pretty much the same you would expect from previous God of War games. Cutscene music is fantastic, and simply looks amazing on the PSP. The music heightens up and slows down during fights, adding that excitement factor. The voice acting done by Kratos may seem corny at times and a bit over-done, but he still does a good job setting up his brutal personality. The game is greatly narrated all throughout making sure you don't miss a beat.
A full play through of the game will only last you a little over five hours. The standard for handhelds is around this time. A little more would have been nice as seeming it ends pretty fast. The game does offer unlockables and challenging difficulties to test your skills (and your patience). The game is plenty of fun and you may want to run through a second time considering how high the fun factor is. Only hard core fans of the series will get hours and hours out of this one.
In short, God of War: Chains of Olympus lives up to its predecessors. The game offers great fun and gameplay that currently isn't matched on the PSP. The graphics are simply amazing and probably the best out on the handheld market. No joke, you check to see if you're actually playing a handheld during the cutscenes, they look that good. Ready at Dawn did a marvelous job on handling the God of War lore and revealing Kratos' past. It is a fantastic game that is worthy of the prequel it claims to be. If you own a PSP, you need to get this game.
Storyline: 9.2
Gameplay: 9.0
Audio: 9.0
Replayability: 8.7
Overall Score: 9.1