God of War: Ghost of Sparta

God of War: Ghost of Sparta is an action-adventure game developed by Ready at Dawn and SCE Santa Monica Studio. It was first released by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable handheld video game console in November 2010. It is the sixth installment in the God of War series and the second for the platform. Ghost of Sparta was remastered and released in September 2011 as part of the God of War: Origins Collection for the PlayStation 3.
Loosely based on Greek mythology, God of War: Ghost of Sparta is chronologically the fourth chapter in the series, and forms part of a saga with vengeance as a central theme. The game focuses on protagonist Kratos, now the God of War, who is haunted by the visions of his mortal past and decides to explore his origins.

Gameplay

The game features gameplay similar to previous installments in the series. It is a third-person action adventure game, where the player controls Kratos, containing quick time events, box-based puzzles and boss fights. The game features new weapons, magical powers and navigational abilities not present in previous games, and has been cited as featuring 25 percent more gameplay than its PSP predecessor Chains of Olympus.
Kratos' arsenal includes the "Blades of Athena" and the "Arms of Sparta" (a spear and shield). Kratos also gains the ability "Thera's Bane" (infuses the Blades of Athena with fire) and in this game acts as the "Rage" feature. As with the Items used in God of War III, this ability automatically replenishes itself. Both Arms of Sparta and Thera's Bane are used to overcome environmental obstacles.
The combat system has been updated to allow Kratos to "pummel enemies to the ground as well as throw them", and perform air-to-air attacks. An "augmented death system" is also being used.
Magical abilities include the "Eye of Atlantis", "Scourge of Erinys", and the "Horn of Boreas". The relic "Poseidon's Trident" is retained (God of War).
As with previous games, chests found throughout the game contain orbs and are marked with a corresponding color for the orbs (green, blue, and red). Green Orbs replenish health, blue orbs replenish magic and red orbs provide experience, which in turn allows the upgrading of magical abilities and weapons.
Health and Magic upgrades—Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers respectively—reappear and can be found in chests, with five items needed for an upgrade. Minotaur Horns also reappear (from God of War III) and upgrade the Fire meter for Thera's Bane.
As with previous installments, a challenge mode ("Challenge of the Gods": five "Challenges of Ares" and another eight "Challenges of Athena" that can be unlocked) is included. Another mode has been added ("The Temple of Zeus") and allows players to sacrifice collected red orbs (both in-game and Challenge) to unlock additional features, such as the "Challenges of Athena", costumes and bonus videos. A Combat Arena (similar to the version in God of War III) allows players to pick adversaries and adjust the level of difficulty.

Plot

An oracle foretold that the demise of Olympus would come not by the revenge of the great Titans, who had been imprisoned after the Great War, but by a marked warrior. The Olympians Zeus and Ares believed this warrior to be Deimos, the brother of Kratos, due to his strange birthmarks. Ares interrupts the childhood training of Kratos and Deimos (with Athena watching) and kidnaps Deimos. Kratos attempts to stop Ares, but is swept aside and scarred (across his right eye) by the Olympian. Ares attempts to kill him, but Athena stops him, knowing Kratos' destiny. Taken to Death's Domain, Deimos is imprisoned and tortured by the god of death, Thanatos.
Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, has taken Ares' place as the new God of War on Mount Olympus. Still haunted by visions of his mortal past, Kratos decides—against the advice of the goddess, Athena—to explore his past and travels to the Temple of Poseidon, located within the city of Atlantis. The sea monster, Scylla, attacks and destroys Kratos' vessel off the coast of Atlantis, although the Spartan drives the beast off. After a series of skirmishes across the city, Kratos eventually kills Scylla.
Kratos also locates his ailing mother, Callisto, who attempts to reveal the identity of his father. When Callisto is suddenly transformed into a hideous beast, Kratos is forced to battle her, and before dying, Callisto thanks Kratos and beseeches him to seek out his brother Deimos in Sparta. Before departing from Atlantis, Kratos encounters and frees the trapped Titan, Thera, which causes the eruption of an underground volcano, and subsequently destroys the city. During Kratos' escape he has another encounter with the enigmatic Grave Digger, who warns of the consequences of alienating the gods.
After a battle with Erinys, the daughter of Thanatos, Kratos arrives in Sparta and witnesses a group of Spartans tearing down a statue of Ares, intent on replacing it with an image of Kratos. After killing the Piraeus Lion and a dissenter in the Spartan Jails and an encounter with the spirit of his child self in the Temple of Ares, Kratos learns he must return to the now sunken Atlantis and locate the Domain of Death. Before leaving, a loyal Spartan provides Kratos with his former weapons—used during Kratos' days as a Captain of the Spartan army—the Arms of Sparta.
Entering the Domain of Death, Kratos eventually locates his imprisoned brother Deimos and frees him. Enraged that Kratos failed to rescue him sooner and stating he will never forgive Kratos, Deimos attacks Kratos, but the god Thanatos—responsible for Deimos' torture—intervenes. Thanatos takes Deimos against his will to Suicide Bluffs (the site of Kratos' suicide attempt), where Kratos saves Deimos from falling to his death. A grateful Deimos then aids Kratos in battling the god. Thanatos kills Deimos but is destroyed, in turn, by Kratos. Kratos, remarking that his brother is finally free, places Deimos in his grave (leaving the Arms of Sparta as a grave marker), and is warned by the enigmatic Grave Digger who once aided him not to alienate the gods, stating Kratos has become "Death... the Destroyer of Worlds."
Athena begs for forgiveness (offering full godhood and even acknowledging Kratos as her brother) for not revealing the truth, but Kratos ignores her, returning to Olympus promising that "the gods will pay for this."
In a post credits scene, the Grave Digger places Callisto in a grave near Deimos (with an empty third grave nearby) and states "Now... only one remains." The final scene is a brooding Kratos sitting on his throne on Mount Olympus.

Characters

Main article: List of God of War characters

• TC Carson as Kratos (Antony Del Rio as Young Kratos): The protagonist. A former Captain in Sparta's Army, a former servant to the gods of Olympus, and the God of War after killing the Olympian Ares. Still haunted by visions of his mortal past, Kratos leaves Olympus to explore his past.

• Erin Torpey as Athena: The Goddess of Wisdom and Kratos' ally and mentor. Athena warns Kratos of the dangers of exploring his past.

• Mark Deklin as Deimos (Bridger Zadina as Young Deimos): The brother of Kratos. The victim of a prophecy that actually referred to Kratos (due to an unusual birthmark), Deimos initially resents Kratos for not rescuing him after a period of torture in the Domain of Death, but eventually aids his brother against Thanatos.

• Deanna Hurstold as Callisto (Jennifer Hale as younger Callisto): The mother of Kratos and Deimos, who despite the consequences, attempts to reveal the identity of their father to Kratos.

• Dee Dee Rescher as Thera: A lava-based Titan (original game rather than mythological creation) imprisoned in a volcano beneath the city of Atlantis. Atlantis is destroyed when Kratos releases Thera from her torment.

• Fred Tatasciore as Lanaeus: A minion of Poseidon who has two encounters with Kratos in Atlantis.

• Fred Tatasciore as King Midas: A king capable of turning anything touched to gold. Grief-stricken when he accidentally transforms his daughter into gold.

• Fred Tatasciore as Zeus: King of Olympus (only appears in the after-game Combat Arena after selecting The Grave Digger).

• Paul Eiding as The Grave Digger: A former ally of Kratos, he warns Kratos not to alienate the gods.

• Gideon Emery as Poseidon: The God of the Seas.

• Gideon Emery as The Last Spartan: A loyal servant of Kratos.

• Jennifer Hale and Erin Torpey as Erinys: The daughter of Thanatos.

• Arthur Burghardt as Thanatos: The God of Death and father of Erinys. Ruler of the Domain of Death and responsible for imprisoning and torturing Deimos.

• Linda Hunt as the Narrator.

Development

The game was announced on May 4, 2010 on the PlayStation Blog. According to Sony, Ready At Dawn will utilize "state-of-the-art visual technologies" that will allow "higher quality environments and characters." Ghost of Sparta will apparently offer "over 25% more gameplay" than its PSP predecessor, Chains of Olympus, while adding more enemies on screen and a greater number of boss encounters. According to Ready At Dawn, development of Ghost of Sparta began in September 2008.
At Comic-Con 2010, Game Director Dana Jan (previously Lead Level Designer on Chains of Olympus) noted that when development began in 2008, the goal was to make the game "bigger" than Chains of Olympus, which had apparently "pushed" the PSP to its functional limits. Jan stated that Ghost of Sparta has taken the PSP to its "absolute capacity", with one additional feature being more on-screen foes. On June 15, 2010, Sony displayed a cinematic teaser trailer narrated by Linda Hunt during their E3 2010 Press Conference.
The game concept was originally used as a teaser for players who obtained the platinum trophy from God of War III. The trophy revealed a site called spartansstandtall.com - initially featured a simple animation of torrential rain falling into a body of water and a Spartan shield encompassed by a meter on the screen. The meter is speculated to have been filled by players achieving the trophy and reaching the site.
On May 4, 2010, the meter reached maximum and the site was updated for a final time, revealing an image of Kratos standing above the reflection and the logo for God of War: Ghost of Sparta, now being the official site.

Demo

The first demo for God of War: Ghost of Sparta was available for play at Sony's E3 2010 booth by attendees of the event. Approximately 15 minutes long, the sequence pits Kratos against a variety of foes on both sea and land, with the main opponent being the sea monster Scylla. The sequence also features Kratos using new weapon "Arms of Sparta" (a spear and shield) and the magical attack "Eye of Atlantis. "
On September 3, 2010, Ready at Dawn emailed registrants of GodofWar.com and SpartansStandTall.com a voucher for the demo and on September 7, 2010, PlayStation Plus members received early access to the demo. On September 28, 2010, the demo was made available to all PlayStation Network members to download from the PlayStation Store.

Release

The game was released in North America on November 2, 2010, Europe on November 3, 2010, in Australia and New Zealand on November 4, 2010 and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 5, 2010.
Together with God of War: Chains of Olympus, the game was released as part of the God of War: Origins Collection on September 13, 2011 in North America and September 16, 2011 in Europe. The collection is a remastered port of both games to the PlayStation 3, with features including high-definition resolution, stereoscopic 3D, anti-aliased graphics locked in at 60 frames per second, DualShock 3 vibration function and Trophies.

Marketing

The Ghost of Sparta bundle pack.

As a pre-order bonus at select retailers, players received the God of War: Ghost of Sparta original soundtrack, a Ghost of Sparta PSP theme and PS3 dynamic theme ("Palace of Hades"), a PlayStation Network Avatar, a Legionnaire Skin for use in-game, and an exclusive documentary, God of War - Game Directors Live; a game directors documentary featuring the game directors of the series, David Jaffe, Cory Barlog, Stig Asmussen, Ru Weerasuiya, and Dana Jan. PSPgo owners had to purchase the game between November 2 and 23, 2010 in order to receive the pre-order items.
GameStop also offered an exclusive Challenge arena, "The Forest of the Forgotten", in addition to the other bonues.
For a limited time, specially marked boxes of God of War: Ghost of Sparta included an exclusive voucher enabling a download of the "Deimos Skin" for use in God of War III. The Deimos Skin was also available in the PSP bundle pack, with PSPgo owners able to receive the bonus skin via the pre-order item system.
The game was also available in a special limited edition PSP bundle pack, which included the game, a voucher to download God of War: Chains of Olympus, a UMD of the 2010 film Kick-Ass, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and a special black and red two-toned PSP-3000.