So I bought Ghost of Sparta on Tuesday and beat it relatively quickly (for me anyway) with the intention of trading it in towards Donkey Kong Country Returns when I traded in all of my Wii remotes on Thursday (to put towards a Wii Remote Plus), I found out I only get $15 in store credit. Fail. I'll be keeping this instead. The point of that story is that I wish I took my time with Ghost of Sparta as it's a fairly short game. Longer (and better) than Chains of Olympus, but still short.
Through no fault of its own, the game suffers from simply coming out after God of War III and in the same year no less. There is absolutely nothing in this game that wows as much as the opening of God of War III though, to be fair , even the rest of God of War III wasn't able to top the Posiedon boss fight (more on that later). Ghost of Sparta, however, sh*ts all over the original God of War. More polished, no Hades level, better story, and so on.
Speaking of story, the game addresses 2 of the special secret endings in the original God of War while God of War III addressed the 3rd and essentially nullified it (more on that later). Kratos visits his mother and she tells him a secret then turns into some monster through a curse while the other mentions Kratos' then unnamed brother, who coincidentally, had long hair and wings thus is inconsistent with the new design. Not a big deal. What is a big deal is that Deimos is barely in Ghost of Sparta at all. He's strictly a MacGuffin which is a shame because giving him more depth would ultimately give Kratos more depth, depth Kratos sorely needs because he's a one-note character (i.e. revenge... two if you count anger). It's hard to care about Deimos or Kratos' attachment to him, when Deimos does next to nothing besides appearing in a few flashbacks and the end. Additionally, Deimos goes from utter hatred and rage to "Let's fight together Kratos. Love you, bro." In Ghost of Sparta, there is one fight with Deimos at the very end of the game which is then immediately interrupted by the final boss, Thanatos, who is literally one of the lamest characters not only in the God of War series, but most modern videogames. Once he's mentioned early in the game, it was pretty obvious that he would inevitably be the final boss, but without appearing until the very end, it's hard to care. He's "feared by men and gods alike" but when he shows up, all I could think of was that he looked like a homeless man. That said, Ghost of Sparta suffered at the end. Thanatos is such a minor figure in Greek mythology that him showing up at the 11th hour, right after Deimos is introduced felt unsatisfying. Who the f*ck is this guy, seriously? For comparison's sake, Persephone herself shows up very late in Chains of Olympus, but the story revolves around the mystery of who is responsible for kidnapping Helios, freeing Atlus, and plotting the end of the world so it works. Unlike Thanatos, Persephone is far more well-known figure and her motivations in the game's story, while simplistic, are fitting and justified. It never felt rushed.
It's a shame really. Ghost of Sparta's story serves as a much more important part to the series' lore than Chains of Olympus. While Kratos loses his daughter for good in Chains of Olympus, the Olympians are not as directly responsible for Kratos' loss as they are in Ghost of Sparta. Chains of Olympus, while leagues better than the original God of War in every way, adds almost nothing to the series (though the stakes in the series' world only ever felt greater in God of War III), whereas Ghost of Sparta serves as an important supplement to the God of War II and by extension, God of War III (it basically explains and, more or less, justifies why Kratos has shunned the gods as shown at the start of God of War II).
As for the gameplay, nothing new here. Kratos has a new tackle move which is just a different kind of grab though you can be knocked out of it. The new weapon, the Arms of Sparta, is kind of neat, just useless like most other alternate weapons in the series. It doubles as a replacement for Typhon's Bane/Apollo's bow, but is still pretty useless. The only alt weapons in the series I found interesting and useful were the Gauntlet of Zeus from Chains of Olympus and the Nemean Cestus from God of War III and they were kind of the same weapon. Usually, I just stuck with the Blades.
Side-notes from earlier: the 3rd secret ending in God of War was the fate of Cronos. His corpse is found in the desert in modern times with the Temple of Pandora still chained to his back. Obviously, God of War III rendered that non-canon. The Cronos fight was cool and the only thing that came close to matching the awesomeness of the Posiedon fight. However, I recently saw a video where Stig Asmussen, director of God of War III, admitted that they sacrificed the epic final boss three way between Zeus, Gaia, and Kratos to focus on the Posiedon and Cronos. That explains why the final boss fight in God of War III was a total letdown so I totally disagree with that choice. Well, Posiedon no, but Cronos yes. First, if Sony Santa Monica (and Ready at Dawn) declared 2 of the 3 secret endings in the original canon, why not all of them? The Cronos fight, while awesome, was extraneous and was part of the most illogical part of the game. Hephaestus sends Kratos on an errand to find some stone (in Cronos' stomach) for a special weapon, proceeds to make said weapon after Kratos retrieves the stone, then attacks Kratos after giving him the weapon which also happens to be the only way Kratos can kill Hephaestus. What the F, man? Second, the final boss should have been more of a priority since it's the last major part of the game.
Anyway, I recommend Ghost of Sparta. Nothing new for God of War fans, but if you are a fan, it's definitely worth it. Total missed opportunity with Deimos though.
Topic: God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Read 2836 times)
