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[God of War: Ghost of Sparta] Out Now! Talk about it! (Demo available on PSN)
Lucascraft
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Rather than bog down the God of War 3 thread with discussion of Ghost of Sparta, I have decided to create a new thread for the purpose of discussing this PSP masterpiece.
The Demo is now available for download on PSN!!!
What is Ghost of Sparta?
From Wikipedia:
Preorder Bonuses:
* Ghost of Sparta Original Soundtrack – be part of the legacy, and relive the emotional soundscape of defiance and rage through the original soundtrack
* PSP Theme – Are you the ultimate God of War fan? Prove it with the God of War: Ghost of Sparta theme
* PS3 Dynamic Theme – Fully animated in constant motion, personalize your PS3 system with the official God of War Dynamic Theme
* PlayStation Network Avatar – Be one of the few to own the exclusive Kratos Avatar only available through this pre-order
* Legionnaire Skin* – Discover the origins of the Spartan Warrior as you experience God of War: Ghost of Sparta as Legionnaire Kratos
* Exclusive Creative Directors Documentary – A full length featured piece with all the past and present Creative Directors of the God of War franchise in front of a live studio audience.
But what if I don't own a PSP?
Good news! There is a system bundle coming out which will retail at $200 and includes the following:
* PSP-3000 system (Red/Black)
* God of War® Ghost of Sparta UMD® Game
* Downloadable Game PSN Voucher: God of War®: Chains of Olympus
* 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo
* Downloadable Movie PSN Voucher (Kick Ass - UMD Movie
Yes, you read that right. If you buy the new Ghost of Sparta PSP bundle, not only do you get the brand new God of War game, but you also get a digital copy of the previous God of War PSP game, Chains of Olympus. Not too shabby.
The Demo is now available for download on PSN!!!
What is Ghost of Sparta?
From Wikipedia:
God of War: Ghost of Sparta is an upcoming action-adventure game, set to be released November 2, 2010, being collaboratively developed by Ready at Dawn and SCE Santa Monica Studio exclusively for the PlayStation Portable. Ghost of Sparta is the second God of War title developed for the PSP and the sixth installment in the God of War series.
Loosely based on Greek mythology and focused on protagonist Kratos, the game forms part of a saga - the God of War series - with revenge as a central theme. This chapter is set to reveal the origins of Kratos and depict his early days as the new God of War.
Preorder Bonuses:
* Ghost of Sparta Original Soundtrack – be part of the legacy, and relive the emotional soundscape of defiance and rage through the original soundtrack
* PSP Theme – Are you the ultimate God of War fan? Prove it with the God of War: Ghost of Sparta theme
* PS3 Dynamic Theme – Fully animated in constant motion, personalize your PS3 system with the official God of War Dynamic Theme
* PlayStation Network Avatar – Be one of the few to own the exclusive Kratos Avatar only available through this pre-order
* Legionnaire Skin* – Discover the origins of the Spartan Warrior as you experience God of War: Ghost of Sparta as Legionnaire Kratos
* Exclusive Creative Directors Documentary – A full length featured piece with all the past and present Creative Directors of the God of War franchise in front of a live studio audience.
But what if I don't own a PSP?
Good news! There is a system bundle coming out which will retail at $200 and includes the following:
* PSP-3000 system (Red/Black)
* God of War® Ghost of Sparta UMD® Game
* Downloadable Game PSN Voucher: God of War®: Chains of Olympus
* 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo
* Downloadable Movie PSN Voucher (Kick Ass - UMD Movie
Yes, you read that right. If you buy the new Ghost of Sparta PSP bundle, not only do you get the brand new God of War game, but you also get a digital copy of the previous God of War PSP game, Chains of Olympus. Not too shabby.
Lucascraft on
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Anyway, nice OP. I should really, really get around to playing the demo already. I've had it for like 2 or 3 weeks.
I'm trying to finish up CV before I tackle this game tho.
Believe it or not though I've still never played through the first game. I got stuck on a puzzle and for some reason I never bothered to check gamefaqs. I have played through all of CoO and part 2 though. Never played the mobile game and next year when I get a PS3 I'll play part 3. Hell I might as well get the PS3 GoW compliation and finish part 1.
I was wondering why the code wasn't working, thanks.
Edit: OK the code still isn't working for some reason.
Otherwise the gameplay is exactly what you'd expect, and although the technical jump compared to Chains of Olympus isn't God of War->God of War II it's still a pretty impressive improvement regardless.
But Sonys marketing is always all over the place. Just look at move. They advertised that like a motherfucker over here, then a week before its release, they just stopped.
I bought Ghost of Sparta off the PSN but haven't played it yet. I think I'll try charge my PSP up and play it in the next few days. The pre-order bonuses (or first week purchase bonuses for PSN) were pretty neat but is it me or is the dynamic theme a bit glitchy? Whenever I exit a game/store back into it, something flashes onto the screen a couple of times before dissappearing.
That's pretty good. The previous one took less than 5 hours to beat and felt a little short.
The most interesting part to me is how much this feels like almost an alternate God of War II. One thing I noticed while playing the God of War Collection late last and early this year is that when you play the first two games back-to-back there's a rather jarring shift in tone from the first to the second. It's hard to identify what exactly it is that changed, but it seems that the original had a greater emphasis not just on Kratos' revenge but also how he had become who he was and how far he had fallen, while the second was just Kratos always pissed off and shouting at everything. The first made him at least somewhat sympathetic, and while it wasn't exactly subtle it did add the slightest bit of depth to the characters. The second couldn't even be bothered with that and made absolutely everyone cardboard cutouts. Chains of Olympus did a nice job of at least remembers Kratos has a human side, but while III tried it came across as awkward, forced, and ultimately unearned. Ghost of Sparta seems to be showing those faults more than any game since the first. Couple in the return of a character not seen since the original along with a plot that directly references two out of the three major bonus scenes from the first God of War (it ignores "The Fate of the Titan" and its implied modern-day setting) and it really has a very different tone. I know it has to fit within the established continuity for II and III so I'm sure it will eventually return to the course they ultimately took, but at roughly the half-way point it's a fascinating look at the direction things might have taken. In many ways I prefer it.
On the bright side, I do like that they seem to be explaining why Kratos turned on the gods so quickly in GoW2 and the location variety so far looks to be as good if not better than GoW2's. The graphics are beautiful too, despite the awful screen tearing.
I'm trying to finish this game tonight, since Assassin's Creed Brotherhood comes tomorrow and I don't like playing multiple games simultaneously (I usually end up enjoying one less and then it feels like a chore to play it instead of the one I prefer). It'll be a tough call, I'm only like halfway through it.
I loved GoW1-3, but I can't really justify buying a PSP, so I'll never play CoO/GoS. Out of curiosity, how do they make the controls work on the PSP's fewer buttons/sticks? In particular, I'm curious how magic and especially the roll/dodge move are handled.
Bah, I'm never going to play this, but I'd like to know what you're talking about. Mind just spoilering these allusions you've been making in your posts?
Anyway, it was graphically stupendous for the system. Haven't seen a PSP game go anything as good as what they did with Atlantis. The new weapon (Spear and Shield) wasn't as fun as the Gauntlet of Zeus, and I really only used it as this games ranged weapon. The spells, the only one I really used was the lightning spell, the others didn't feel very necessary when you have flaming Athena Blades of invulnerability (you take no, or very little, damage when these things are going, and they recharge quick enough that you can have them up for the majority of a fight).
Honestly though, story and visuals aside, it was the weakest of the series for me. Once you get over the whole 'WOW ATLANTIS!' phase, there wasn't much meat. There were very few boss battles, not much enemy variety, and not many enemy encounters. I remember near the end of the other games, you end up basically fighting waves of enemies in just about every room. Here, there's maybe a quarter of the combat rooms. The downside is they take the bulk of the playtime, so this game felt shorter. And easier - the only time it was difficult was when the game threw a cheap new enemy at you (a new kind of Wraith).
And again, another downer, is the upgrade chests. They tended to be pretty well hidden in previous games, either by the default camera position not pointing at them or being hidden by destructible walls. In Ghost of Sparta, cameras will pan past them as you enter new areas, or they're just sitting in plain sight as you move to new areas. Felt like a pretty lazy way to put them in the world.
All in all, this is more God of War, and I'm grateful that they got Corey Barlog to do the story again, and did a meaningful story at that, with some plot points visited that people have been waiting for. I just wish Ready at Dawn took as much care with crafting the levels and enemy encounters as they did in Chains of Olympus.
forty, if you want to know some of the plot revelations. Serious story spoilers here.
You're kidding, right? Barlog's writing in GoW2 was the reason why GoW3's story was such a mess, because they were trying to make sense of all the characters complete irrationality in GoW2.
Edit: The more I'm remembering of GoW2's plot, the more I have no clue what you're on about there Loki. GoW2's plot made no sense at all.
You mean the wraiths that go underground? Yeah they're complete fucking bullshit cheap shot enemies. In GoW3 they actually give you ways to fight those enemies, mostly by using combat grapple to pull them out of the ground but they were also a hell of a lot easier to dodge.
Anyway, I did manage to finish it last night. Total time was 6 and a half hours, which makes it the second shortest game in the series (Chains of Olympus being 2 hours shorter according to my last save in it). My opinion over the second half of the game really didn't change much from my previous impressions so yeah, the gameplay felt like a step backwards, Thera's Bane (the flame thing Loki mentions) was just annoying and I loved the Arms of Sparta (spear/shield). Sure the latter wasn't as great as the Gauntlet/Cestus but compared to the other two alternate weapons in GoW3, it's awesome. Overall, yeah I'd agree that it's the worst game in the series.
GoW III made some significant improvements to the combat mechanics that were lost here, and there were a number of design choices that were simply poorly though out. One huge step back is that off-screen enemies can now attack Kratos. This wasn't always obvious, but in every other game in the series any enemy that was off camera could only try to reenter the screen; they never attacked. This meant that every incoming hit could be seen and avoided/countered. In addition, any hit that stunned Kratos also gave him a significant period of invulnerability, preventing him from getting stuck in a stun-lock while two enemies alternated attacks. Ghost of Sparta gets rid of both of these, and there are several battles where this becomes a huge issue, as a single hit can lead to Kratos' dying. In addition, enemies now have grabs that require beating a QTE to escape their grasp and take as little damage possible; screw this up and a single attack can cause massive loss of life.
The worst decision, however, has to be the infamous wraiths, which takes everything mentioned above and combines it into a single enemy. Wraiths have been series staples since the first game, but they've undergone a few changes in Ghost of Sparta that make them among the most frustrating enemies in the entire series (satyrs may have been a royal pain in the ass, but they generally fought fair; they were just hard). First, any major attack on them drives them underground. However, from underground their attack now consists of an unblockable leap across the entire room at Kratos. While this can be countered, the jump is extremely fast and the timing is very unforgiving. You can also roll out of the way, but again they tend to home in on Kratos and the timing to dodge is very strict. In addition, you almost always fight them in groups, and they usually do this move sequentially, so you dodge one attack only to land right in front of another one. Once they grab you, you have to mash L and R as fast as you can to avoid your health being decimated. And did I mention they can initiate this extremely fast, unblockable move from off screen? So your only warning is when they enter your field of view and you have about a tenth of a second to respond. They also can raise an energy bolt out of the ground with effectively unlimited range; again from offscreen. If you're hit you have no invulnerability but Kratos takes a significant stun, and again they like to do this move sequentially so you get hit by two or three of these in a row with no ability to get out of it once the first attack hits. Later in the game they also like to have you fight these bastards while surrounded by a ton of fast enemies (like the new variation of harpies that can freeze you, and just like being stoned if you freeze one hit kills you), so you can barely keep up with everything on screen, or very powerful enemies (like armored cyclopes or minotaurs). These fights are immensely frustrating in the worst possible way.
Making things worse is the fact that this game focuses almost entirely on combat. There are far fewer puzzles than in any other entry in the franchise, and when the focus is almost exclusively on combat and there are such major issues, it really brings the entire game down. Finally, the level design is just boring frequently. The backdrops are impressive, but things don't connect or flow together well at all, and you frequently move from one area to the next without a good explanation of how you go there. There's also a noticeable shortage of environments like the swamp in II or the exterior of Hades in III. While these weren't huge parts of the game, they did serve to break the scenery from endless marble corridors and streets. Ghost of Sparta tries with an early sequence inside a volcano and a some other changes later, but it just doesn't seem to achieve the same effect, although I'm having difficulty figuring out why. I think it's mostly that the most interesting stuff in the area is the surroundings rather than the actual room I'm in. What I do know is that I can recount basically every major area from GoW I-III as well as CoO, but Ghost of Sparta all runs together with few areas that really stand out as truly impressive design.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot good as well. The visuals are nothing short of spectacular and easily the best I've seen on the PSP. The story definitely is an improvement over RAAAAAAGE Kratos of II and III, and I really enjoyed the throwbacks to the original God of War's bonus materials (notably Birth of the Beast and A Secret Revealed). In fact I suspect the fact that this game is why the GoW Collection had a trophy specifically for watching the Birth of the Beast video. In terms of narrative I think this game is truer to the original God of War than any other title since. But the gameplay is just...bland. The level design just isn't interesting. The combat is a significant regression. It just doesn't leave much of an impression. Even the original God of War, for all the faults I find with it, left an overall positive impression that has lasted the five years since it came out. But I'm afraid Ghost of Sparta will be quickly forgotten, which is a first for the series. Even when it pissed you off, it was always memorable. GoS isn't even that.
I think they could've at least delayed the game until early next year to get the gameplay up to par with GoW3. Or even drop the PSP release entirely, bring it over to the inevitable PSP2, use the extra time to make a few graphical improvements and Sony suddenly have a really high profile launch game.
Out of curiosity, how do they make the controls work on the PSP's fewer buttons/sticks in CoO/GoS? In particular, I'm curious how magic and especially the roll/dodge move are handled.
And yes, God of War 2 worked out terrifically as a PS2 title. In fact, I think it was a better game for being on the PS2 because they didn't have to figure out how to manage the PS3's infamously difficult hardware, which allowed them more time to work on polish, and it shows. II is definitely the most optimized game in the series with few major hang-ups and terrible design choices. You also don't see cut corners like you do in III where they clearly just ran out of time and had to ship the game. But as a business decision, putting God of War II on the PS2 instead of the PS3 when the latter really needed killer apps is a questionable decision even if the game and gamers definitely benefitted from it, and I do find it ironic that people are now sayign the same thing about Ghost of Sparta (although unlike II, Ghost of Sparta is the most unpolished entry in the series since the original).
Chris, seeing as Bluepoint Games ported both God of War's over to the PS3 in 3-4 months, I doubt Sony Santa Monica would've had much issue doing it.
But regardless, at least GoW2 was being released on a system that was still selling really well (at the time, the PS2 was still regularly outselling the 360), releasing Ghost of Sparta on a system that was all but dead in the US and Europe was stupid and it showed with GoS's sales. Waiting another year and a bit for the PSP2 launch and spending the extra time upgrading and polishing the game would've been a far better option.
Oh and as much as I criticise Ghost of Sparta, Dante's Inferno is so much worse.
As far as other comparisons like story go, I mean, I got the same thing out of this one, I get out of every god of war game. Kratos is pissed, something needs stabbed beaten or beheaded. The olympians are assholes and so is everyone else.
And If given the option between redemption and kicking more ass, Kratos will always opt for the latter.
I have not played god of war 3 though, so I don't have that in the background slightly despoiling my experience.
Honestly I don't think I've ever seen a series maintain it's gameplay so thoroughly in the move from full console to handheld.
As for God of War 2 on PS3, I'll let that one go because it really is speculation, but I will say that trying to release a new game on the PS3 in early 2007 is very different than porting one in late 2009. I have no idea what a hypothetical PS3 God of War 2 would have looked like though, but there's no question that putting it on the PS2 was the best thing for that game, and I agree with you that Ghost of Sparta on the PSP is a very different scenario and probably a mistake. That doesn't mean I could avoid the joke though.