Three years ago, Sony released God of War, a game based around Greek mythology that followed the action-packed adventures of Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta. The over-the-top, blood-splattered action, mixed with fantastic boss fights and innovative quick time events, made God of War a critical darling as well as a fan favorite. Last year, God of War II was released to the same critical acclaim as its predecessor, solidifying God of War as one of Sony's most successful series to date. Thus it was inevitable that Sony would eventually find a way to get the series onto their handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Portable.

Developers Ready at Dawn had already proven that they had a good handle on the system with the well-received Daxter and Sony felt confident enough in their abilities to hand them the reigns and miniaturize the Ghost of Sparta, bringing God of War to gamers on the go - and I am happy to report that Ready at Dawn have done a wonderful job of making God of War viable on the PSP; they have developed a game that not only controls, looks and feels like its big PlayStation 2 siblings, but that is truly one of the best games on the PSP to date.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is a prequel to God of War and once again Kratos is being used as a tool of the Gods, serving them with the hope that they will repay him by making him forget his past. Those expecting Chains of Olympus to delve deep into Kratos's past, especially the time when his wife and child were still alive, may be somewhat disappointed, although his daughter does have a rather important presence throughout the course of the game. The story begins with Kratos in charge of an army that's defending Attica from a Persian attack - and right off the bat we see just how much care has gone into the translation of the controls to the portable system. Despite the lack of a second analog stick, Kratos feels just right; you will start off with Kratos's mainstay, the Blades of Chaos, and just like before, the weapon has many combination attacks linked to it. Once again you collect red orbs by opening chests, destroying breakable objects, executing attack combos and killing enemies, which can then be used to upgrade your weapon. Each time you upgrade you unlock new combo attacks, including the highly useful Cyclone of Chaos, which sees Kratos spinning around with the Blades held over his head in a tornado of torment. [How about a whirlwind of woe? Ed].

Of course, you won't only be using the Blades of Chaos; along the way you'll gain magical abilities and pick up another weapon. The first magical ability is the Efreet, which doesn't seem all that impressive to begin with, simply causing area damage around Kratos. However, if you spend orbs to upgrade this ability fully then you will be equipped with a brutal magical attack, one that you will still be using quite late into the game. Unfortunately, the other magical abilities and weapons you will come across in the game I found to be highly unnecessary, but other players may find a lot to enjoy there, so spend your orbs wisely.

Given that the PSP has less buttons than a DualShock controller, it was quite nice to discover that Ready at Dawn managed to pack all the functionality that Kratos had on his big screen adventures into this smaller package. Some of the button presses to pull off movements may seem a little awkward at first, like dodging or dive-rolling, but after a few tries it all begins to feel quite natural and you will have Kratos looking like the acrobatic warrior we all know and revere or in no time, besting the hordes of enemies as well as the massive bosses that you face off against. The first two God of War games featured some truly awe-inspiring boss confrontations and Chains of Olympus is no different, other than that there just don't seem to be quite enough of them in the game. It is great to fight off hordes of bloodthirsty enemies, getting the combo meter up in the hundreds, but I would trade some of those battles for a couple of more epic encounters with mythological beasties. In fact, adding a couple more well placed boss fights might have extended the game a little bit because, as it is now, Chains of Olympus is rather short.

Played on Normal difficulty, Chains of Olmypus will take you about six hours or so to finish. Fortunately, Ready at Dawn has included a couple modes that should keep you interested at least for a little while longer. The first of these is God Mode, which will keep even the best gamers occupied for some quite some time, ramping up the difficulty to epic proportions. Then there is the Challenge of Hades, which pits Kratos in a gauntlet style encounter but with special restrictions, like having to defeat fifty soldiers by only using fire, or defeat twenty enemies without getting hit himself. It might not be a whole lot more, but when combined with the fantastic gameplay and the bonus content, Chains of Olympus offers quite a bit of playing time beyond just the initial play through.

You may have noticed that I have yet to even touch upon the visuals and the sounds and the reason for this is simply that there is just too much to say about it. However, it can all be summarized in one word: amazing. That's right, Ready at Dawn has delivered quite possibly the best looking and best sounding game on Sony's little system. Chains of Olympus is very near the quality of its PS2 counterparts, despite being able to take it with you, wherever you may venture. The rendering of the environments, the intricacy of the character models and the fluidity of the animation is all, quite simply, stunning - and I am having a hard time saying this, but despite how incredible the visuals are, the game sounds even better! From the sweeping orchestral score to the incredible voice acting (Terrence Carson and Linda Hunt return to reprise their roles as Kratos and the Narrator respectively), the sound is the best that the PSP has seen to date. I do want to point out that the incredible graphics and sound seem to come at the price of battery life though; playing on a PSP Phat, I've found that I can only play for about three to four hours without charging. This is good enough to almost beat the game on the easiest difficulty, as I beat it in just under four hours, but the harder difficulties - especially God Mode - take a lot longer, with tougher enemies and a lot more deaths and trying again.

God of War: Chains of Olympus takes almost everything that's awesome about its older siblings, including the sex scene mini-game, which has become a series standard, and miniaturized it to fit on the PSP. The game does run a little on the short side and is somewhat taxing on your battery life, but if you can get over those tiny gripes then there is a hell of a lot to like here, from the excellent controls that you'll use to push Kratos through each bloody and epic encounter to the frenetic, satisfying combat and the best graphics and sounds you'll find on Sony's portable to date. We may still only be in March, but Chains of Olympus is sure to be a PSP front-runner when the Game of the Year awards come around. Both fans of the series and fans of gaming in general should be rushing out to stores to buy this game immediately; it's an enthralling experienced that should not be missed by anyone, other than children who are too young for the game's adult nature (sorry kids, you'll just have to wait until you're older!)

Reviewed by James Fanciullo for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).