Is God of War Chains of Olympus worth playing in 2025?

The God of War franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2025, and it seems like the perfect time to look at its past. The mainline games started their run on the PlayStation 2 and continued their releases on future Sony consoles. In 2005, there was a handheld released by the company called the PSP, which received some great titles.

Among those was God of War Chains of Olympus, a small-scale project that featured combat, animations, and a story. The game was praised at the time for its ambition and performance on the PSP, but can it hold up all these years later?

This article will take a closer look at God of War Chains of Olympus to see if it is worth playing in 2025.

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The story here is meaningful

The storytelling here holds up (Image via Ready at Dawn)

Although God of War Chains of Olympus is a side story, it still does a magnificent job of developing Kratos as a character. The narrative here follows his journey when he used to serve the Gods. Kratos is tasked with finding Helios, the God of the Sun, who has somehow disappeared. During his adventure, he will come across Persephone and Atlas, who are trying to destroy Olympus.

During the game's ending, he gives up all his powers and abilities to stay with Calliope in the Fields of Elysium. However, to stop Persephone's plans, Kratos leaves his daughter behind, showing that he wants to fight for what's right by saving the world from destruction. This kind of character development and storytelling makes the game relevant all these years later.

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The gameplay is a mixed bag

Chains of Olympus gameplay does not hold up (Image via Ready at Dawn)

God of War Chains of Olympus manages to translate the gameplay from the PlayStation 2 into a smaller form factor for the PSP. The combat is largely the same as the mainline series but with the addition of new powers and abilities to keep the enemy encounters fresh and exciting. However, it can sometimes be difficult to evade because of the dated control scheme and lack of an analog stick.

Platforming and puzzle-solving are other gameplay elements hampered by the controls. This can make some sections extremely frustrating, especially if you are more familiar with the newer entries of the franchise. However, a fix for this is playing the remastered version of Chains of Olympus on the PlayStation 3, which adds support for the right analog stick and makes the control scheme smoother.

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God of War Chains of Olympus visuals and performance

The remastered Chains of Olympus still looks visually impressive (Image via Ready at Dawn)

Chains of Olympus on the PSP was praised back in the day for translating the thrill of God of War onto a smaller screen. The game ran at 30 FPS with little to no dips at a 480x272 resolution. While this may sound very basic, this was the norm on the PSP back in the day. Chains of Olympus looked visually pleasing on the handheld, which made it one of the best-looking games on the system.

However, modern standards now demand higher frame rates and resolutions. Chains of Olympus was remastered for the PlayStation 3 as part of the God of War Origins collection, which increased the resolution to 1080p and locked the frame rate to 60 FPS.

These enhancements help the game stay up there with more recent releases, making it a playable title in today's time.

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Is Chains of Olympus worth playing in 2025?

Chains of Olympus is worth playing in 2025 (Image via Ready at Dawn)

God of War Chains of Olympus is worth playing in 2025. Although it's a smaller game, the story here adds meaningful development to Kratos, showing his more heroic side as a vengeful character. The controls here can be rough on the edges, which can hamper the combat and other gameplay segments.

It is recommended to play the remastered version of the game, as it adds meaningful quality-of-life improvements such as increased resolution, framerate, and smoother controls. The remaster for the PlayStation 3 also makes the gameplay segments much less frustrating with a fluid control scheme and the addition of a second analog stick.