--The Grave Digger, God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Ghost of Sparta does a fine job of returning God of War to the PlayStation Portable without compromising the general style of the series. Half an hour to 90 minutes longer than Chains of Olympus, it even requires more time to complete than its PSP predecessor (though I downloaded it to my PS Vita). Visual and performance hiccups do not offset the iconic franchise gameplay or diminish the ambition of again putting the series directly on a handheld system. Within this one game, Kratos does not change very much as a character despite showing different sides of himself, but as part of a larger story, Ghost of Sparta helps show a gradual slide from a still-oppressive but more humanized Kratos in Ascension and the original God of War to an utter monster in God of War III. The evolution of Kratos to this point and then to his place in the 2018 God of War reboot/sequel is far more tragic and nuanced over the entire series than it might seem in Ghost of Sparta alone.
Production Values
The jagged edges and blurry textures suggest the increasing age of this game: it is a 2011 PSP game that I am playing on the larger PS Vita screen, meaning the images are slightly stretched and could look genuinely better on the smaller screen size originally intended to display them. It might be the age of my Vita, but while I played it again this year, Ghost of Sparta did momentarily freeze, and not all that unfrequently, especially in the beginning parts. The cinematics freeze less often and have smoother, clearer graphics than the game does while someone is actually playing it, at least. Scylla (from Homer's The Odyssey) and the giant Thera the Titan, contrived for this game and not pulled from Greek mythology, look the best in either cutscenes or gameplay--likely because they are some of the bigger entities in the game and thus could not be as distorted by the small and stretched screen ratio. The voice acting seems unaffected by running this PSP game on the Vita, and Kratos benefits from having the most lines thanks to his chance to show subtle changes in his mood as he experiences different situations and feelings.
Gameplay
The combat is very similar to that of the other main God of War games before the 2018 release, complete with the Blades of Chaos, a handful of magic attacks, quick-time events, and some of the same combos. Anyone who has played the main trilogy, Ascension, or Chains of Olympus has already seen what the fighting is like. A new mechanic called Thera's Bane that lets Kratos temporarily infuse his blades with fire damage and the eventually usable Spartan spear and shield are the new elements of the combat. Of course, red orbs can be spent on enhancing the damage of various weapons or magic abilities, which can also make new attacks available with them. These emerge from select chests or from enemies when they die, and chaining hits without waiting too long between successful strikes or being hit by enemies yourself earns more of these orbs.
Besides slaying enemies, light platforming, puzzles, and exploration constitute the rest of the gameplay. Connected with the last of these three things are the scattered items like Gorgon eyes that extend your health (or magic or Thera's Bane meter) when you collect a certain number of them, as well as the Relics of the Gods. These are items like Callisto's Armlet or Athena's Owl that unlock passive or active abilities for second playthroughs after completing the story. Some of them can be very useful for obtaining enough red orbs to unlock the entire contents of the Temple of Zeus, which unlocks after beating the game for the first time. Beyond this, there is the Challenge of the Gods, this game's version of the traditional challenge mode after the other entries (with the possible exception of the 2018 one, which I have not yet played) and a customizable arena mode--there is plenty to Ghost of Sparta!
Story
Some spoilers are below.
After killing Ares in the original God of War, Kratos continues to have visions and nightmares that torment him, prompting him to search for his brother Deimos, who was snatched away in his youth. First, Kratos journeys to Atlantis and unexpectedly meets his mother, who tells him that Deimos is in the realm of Thanatos and will not last much longer. A Spartan temple of Ares supposedly holds a significant clue. The journey reveals more of how the Olympian "deities" (none of them are uncaused causes) have meddled in the life of Kratos in ways that come to haunt both them and he himself.
Intellectual Content
Mild puzzles and exploration are the only gameplay-based aspects of Ghost of Sparta that require more than the most minimal awareness or rational intentionality. While the game also further showcases the conceptual/metaphysical distinctions between the so-called deities of Greek mythology and a true deity--again, none of them are supposed to be an uncaused cause--in perhaps unintentional ways, as the series has long done, the most philosophically developed side of this title is the snapshot of how Kratos changes across the different games. Although he is neither as outwardly sensitive as he is in Ascension nor as harsh as he is in God of War III, Kratos is still a conflicted character here, transitioning to his most egoistic and rageful version of himself in the series before he eventually transitions again to a more restrained, thoughtful being.
Conclusion
Ghost of Sparta is not the longest, most narratively complex, philosophically deepest, or most central of the God of War games, and it is still a great game in its own right all the same. What it accomplishes well is providing more of the familiar but excellent hack-and-slash combat that marked the series before 2018, as well as as casting more light on the personal evolution of Kratos as more than the simplistic character he might appear to be out the of context of the other games. Additionally, it does have bonus content beyond the first playthrough in the form of many unlockables in the Temple of Zeus, the ability to use artifacts collected in the initial playthrough, a player-dictated combat arena, new costumes, and, of course, the usual challenge mode that becomes available after beating the game the first time. While the PSP version does not have PlayStation trophies, it does give some incentive for replaying the game, even at higher difficulty levels.
Content:
1. Violence: Blood is routinely spilled in this game. In one scene, a Greek soldier is shown after he has been cut in half, with his organs spilling out. However, most of the game is far from this graphic.
2. Nudity: As always, I know this is not true nudity, but the breasts of gorgons, Spartan prostitutes, and Erinys, the daughter of Thanatos, are visible. The only context where this has sexual intent in the world of the game is when it comes to the prostitutes.
3. Sexuality: An optional sex minigame can be played and replayed in Sparta, though the sex ultimately occurs offscreen as players complete a quick-time event. Finishing this minigame three times actually grants a special relic.
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