God of War: Origins Collection
released on Sep 13, 2011
God of War: Origins Collection (known as God of War Collection – Volume II in Europe and Australia) is a remastered port of the two PlayStation Portable instalments in the series—Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta—for the PlayStation 3 on a single Blu-ray Disc. God of War: Origins Collection features native 1080p high-definition video, anti-aliased graphics at 60 frames per second, DualShock 3 rumble features, Trophies, and is the only God of War release to feature Stereoscopic 3D.
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These games ran on handheld, PSP hardware yet delivered full-fledged God of War experiences. This alone should warrant a play-through from every fan.
Chains of Olympus is easily the weakest offering here. It was the first outing for the spin-off games and while it has great creativity and a pension to spectacle, it squanders most goodwill with lack of narrative consistency. The game jumps all around like it's life depended on it and makes *ss-pulls like there is no tomorrow. In most ways unfortunately, the game just feels rushed.
All right, did you just read what I wrote about Chains of Olympus? Ghost of Sparta is none of that. Not only does it eclipses it's older brother in every conceivable way, the second spin-off adventure of Kratos punches WAY above it's pay-grade and manages to stand it's ground proudly. Ready at Dawn poured their everything into this game and it shows.
Chains of Olympus is easily the weakest offering here. It was the first outing for the spin-off games and while it has great creativity and a pension to spectacle, it squanders most goodwill with lack of narrative consistency. The game jumps all around like it's life depended on it and makes *ss-pulls like there is no tomorrow. In most ways unfortunately, the game just feels rushed.
All right, did you just read what I wrote about Chains of Olympus? Ghost of Sparta is none of that. Not only does it eclipses it's older brother in every conceivable way, the second spin-off adventure of Kratos punches WAY above it's pay-grade and manages to stand it's ground proudly. Ready at Dawn poured their everything into this game and it shows.
Though the games themselves were not "masterpieces" to me, this collection is a good way to experience them. It was also nice to see that the PSP gameplay translated nicely to a PS3.
A great way to experience the PSP God of War titles. It can be a little odd playing a game meant for the PSP with a console controller, considering the physical limitations of the PSP system. But even with that in mind, this collection is superb. If you want to play Kratos' side-journeys, this is undoubtedly the best way to do it.
A good enough game to say goodbye to the PS3 (with this, I finally finished my PS3 backlog). Short games and for a very casual GOW fan like myself, is nice enough.
Chains of Olympus: 5h 13min.
Ghost of Sparta: 6h 7min.
Chains of Olympus: 5h 13min.
Ghost of Sparta: 6h 7min.
God of War is one of the best action adventure games ever made. It pioneered everything we see in the genre today and there are dozens of copycats. God of War helped pave the way for cinematic gameplay and pretty much made quick time events an everyday thing in games. God of War also has one of the best combat systems ever created, as well as memorable mythology and one of the most recognized characters to date. Origins Collection puts two of the PSP’s best titles on one Blu-Ray disc. These are remastered in 1080p HD and look great. While each has its own issues, this is well worth a purchase for any God of War fan.
Chains of Olympus
This was the first ever portable God of War game and it blew everyone’s expectations out of the water. Not only for the game itself but the PSP. No one knew the system could pull off this great technical feat. You can read my review on Olympus for the PSP itself and a more in-depth look, but after playing it again on the PS3 I noticed that, compared to Ghost of Sparta, it doesn’t stack up. Even after playing God of War III I notice a lot of things that annoy me in Olympus.
Firstly, the game lacks the huge epic set pieces of the console games, as well as a lack of bosses. Sure there are a few memorable moments in Olympus, but there are only three boss fights and they aren’t that amazing. The first boss feels pretty boring compared to other first bosses in the series, and the locales are pretty generic for a God of War game. Olympus stuck to the basics of God of War and kind of played it safe. There are some interesting magic items like being able to reflect projectiles and Efreet. The combat system is almost exactly like the first game, which isn’t a bad thing, but longtime fans will be disappointed about this.
Secondly, the game is super short. You can beat it in about 4 hours which is two long sit-downs. The story isn’t as detailed or in-depth as other games in the series. Kratos is just trying to find his daughter Calliope while still seeking revenge on the Gods. Overall, Chains of Olympus is a warm-up for the more epic Ghost of Sparta.
Ghost of Sparta
This is more like it. More bosses, more memorable moments, and completely different locales. There’s even a whole new gameplay element here which is the Thera’s Bane. Like in God of War III you have a red meter that sets your blades on fire for extra damage and makes you invincible to some attacks. Right from the start, the game feels like a better, heavier God of War game than Olympus. Olympus started off kind of weak, but Sparta throws you right into the water (literally) with a pretty epic boss fight against a Scylla. The game has more puzzles, and the boss fights are pretty epic. The final boss against the God of Death, Thanatos, is pretty epic because you fight with a certain someone.
The story is even more memorable because you are searching for your brother Deimos while still seeking revenge on the Gods. There are some memorable moments here that top even some of the console games in the series like giving Kind Midas a beat down. The new magic items, however, aren’t as interesting as I had hoped this time around. Boreas’ Wind freezes enemies, but I rarely used it. The Eye of Atlantis felt kind of weak and didn’t do as much damage as hoped even fully leveled up.
Overall, Ghost of Sparta is much better with memorable moments involving more enemies, longer gameplay (about 6 hours), and more bosses. The fights system is tweaked to feel different from Olympus. The game even looks better because Sony finally unlocked the full 333Mhz of the PSP processor so Ready at Dawn was able to push the system to its full limits. Ghost of Sparta is a memorable God of War game and will probably become a fan favorite.
Overall, the entire collection is excellent and well put together. I was disappointed in not seeing any extra features exclusive to this collection, but each game has a Challenge of the Gods that will keep fans busy for a while. With full trophy support for each game, you are bound to have a couple dozen hours of fun here.
Chains of Olympus
This was the first ever portable God of War game and it blew everyone’s expectations out of the water. Not only for the game itself but the PSP. No one knew the system could pull off this great technical feat. You can read my review on Olympus for the PSP itself and a more in-depth look, but after playing it again on the PS3 I noticed that, compared to Ghost of Sparta, it doesn’t stack up. Even after playing God of War III I notice a lot of things that annoy me in Olympus.
Firstly, the game lacks the huge epic set pieces of the console games, as well as a lack of bosses. Sure there are a few memorable moments in Olympus, but there are only three boss fights and they aren’t that amazing. The first boss feels pretty boring compared to other first bosses in the series, and the locales are pretty generic for a God of War game. Olympus stuck to the basics of God of War and kind of played it safe. There are some interesting magic items like being able to reflect projectiles and Efreet. The combat system is almost exactly like the first game, which isn’t a bad thing, but longtime fans will be disappointed about this.
Secondly, the game is super short. You can beat it in about 4 hours which is two long sit-downs. The story isn’t as detailed or in-depth as other games in the series. Kratos is just trying to find his daughter Calliope while still seeking revenge on the Gods. Overall, Chains of Olympus is a warm-up for the more epic Ghost of Sparta.
Ghost of Sparta
This is more like it. More bosses, more memorable moments, and completely different locales. There’s even a whole new gameplay element here which is the Thera’s Bane. Like in God of War III you have a red meter that sets your blades on fire for extra damage and makes you invincible to some attacks. Right from the start, the game feels like a better, heavier God of War game than Olympus. Olympus started off kind of weak, but Sparta throws you right into the water (literally) with a pretty epic boss fight against a Scylla. The game has more puzzles, and the boss fights are pretty epic. The final boss against the God of Death, Thanatos, is pretty epic because you fight with a certain someone.
The story is even more memorable because you are searching for your brother Deimos while still seeking revenge on the Gods. There are some memorable moments here that top even some of the console games in the series like giving Kind Midas a beat down. The new magic items, however, aren’t as interesting as I had hoped this time around. Boreas’ Wind freezes enemies, but I rarely used it. The Eye of Atlantis felt kind of weak and didn’t do as much damage as hoped even fully leveled up.
Overall, Ghost of Sparta is much better with memorable moments involving more enemies, longer gameplay (about 6 hours), and more bosses. The fights system is tweaked to feel different from Olympus. The game even looks better because Sony finally unlocked the full 333Mhz of the PSP processor so Ready at Dawn was able to push the system to its full limits. Ghost of Sparta is a memorable God of War game and will probably become a fan favorite.
Overall, the entire collection is excellent and well put together. I was disappointed in not seeing any extra features exclusive to this collection, but each game has a Challenge of the Gods that will keep fans busy for a while. With full trophy support for each game, you are bound to have a couple dozen hours of fun here.
Definitely no where near the main series games for me but still some good times to be had and worth playing overall no doubt, also it's a good port from the PSP no issues there.