GC: Hands on with God of War: Chains of Olympus

Upon entering Sony's Heavenly Sword stand at the Leipzig Games Convention (which was infested with sharp Teutonic gaming elbows) we were delighted when we nearly sat on a God of War: Chains of Olympus demo unit, which was nestling on a bean bag and tucked away in the only quiet corner of the booth.

If you work the sort of job that has you coming home filled with tightly coiled rancour, then God of War: Chains of Olympus definitely seems to be the game you'll need to burn off some of that latent aggression. In our case, it proved perfect for relieving the stress of listening to the German attempts at SingStar across the hall.

The section we got to play began at the fabled battle of Attica, the place we started off last time we previewed the game. On this occasion, however, we got to play through nearly an entire level.

Certainly when the action begins, there's no hanging around. Developer Ready At Dawn understands gamers know how to slash things to smithereens without much instruction, so after a few brawls and some context sensitive set-pieces (you get to sink a battleship using a catapult for example), you encounter your first boss battle barely five minutes into the game.

After beating the large reptilian creature (possibly a basilisk) about the chops with your default chained weapon – Athena's Blades – to weaken it, more context sensitive prompts appear. As long as you're prepared to charge ahead, things flow nicely but the fact there doesn't seem to be a time limit for you to initiate the sequence made this encounter a tad on the easy side. (Of course, this could easily be tweaked down for the purposes of the demo.)

So, after plunging Athena's Blades deep into the creature's eye sockets a couple of times, our friend got the message and retreated to attack another part of the besieged city while we moved on to take out a huge door with a battering ram and delve into more brawling.

Fighting in God of War makes the player feel empowered in a way few other games do – there's such weight behind each blow and the scope for varying your attacks is vast. Before long you'll succumb to dispatching your foes with flair instead of efficiency, relishing any opportunity to swing those blades and experimenting with different combos and jump attacks.

The control scheme is the same as during our last hands-on, with Square, Triangle and Circle taking care of light, heavy and grab attacks, respectively, and the X button set aside for jumps. The L and R buttons, when used in combination with the other attack buttons, also yielded yet more flamboyant moves and could be used in conjunction with the analogue nub for evasive rolls (not that you will be doing many of them). The Circle button was also responsible for opening chests, pushing the battering ram and interacting with other elements of the scenery.

Before long we found ourselves fending off a horde of archers – something that really encourages you to exploit Kratos's questionable relationship with gravity, helicoptering through the air and bludgeoning enemies from an impressive range. We then went from air to water, crossing a moat to deal with yet more invading forces. A few quick skirmishes later and it was time to scale a vast ladder, just in time to catch a glimpse of the original reptilian boss clamber over the city parameter walls.

After that, the demo ended leaving behind two sweaty palms, a furiously beating heart, a big dumb grin and an almost irresistible temptation to immediately re-boot the demo and play it through again.

But aside from the game's actual action, what's interesting to note how Sony's decision to unlock the PSP's full clock speed for God of War: Chains of Olympus is apparent from the get-go. The difference in visual fidelity over other PSP titles is stark. There are no jaggies to speak of, with surfaces much smoother and rounded than in other offerings. Also, in situations where there is a viewable panorama (such as at the start and end of the demo) there's an impressive draw distance, filled with animated detail that gives a genuine feeling of being caught in the middle of a war. Animations flow, lighting effects are plentiful and there was not one second of slow-down to be seen, no matter how many enemies were on screen or how frantic the action got.

Ultimately then, God of War: Chains of Olympus seems to be the proof of the claims Sony's been making about the potential of the PSP ever since its release: that is to say, PlayStation 2 quality games made portable and without compromise.

Click 'Track It!' to catch our God of War: Chains of Olympus review, which is now due sometime in early 2008.