God of War: Ghost of Sparta [PS3]

This game, another PSP port, got a lot of praise. But I think it's undeserved. The background story might be somewhat interesting, but the narrative isn't. The core problem is that it doesn't make sense. Why is the new God of War starting from zero? What happened to his weapons and skills? How the hell does he know where to go to find his lost brother? And, really? Atlantis?!

But a mediocre story can be forgiven if the gameplay is good. Here we're just getting humdrum level designs in boring contexts. Atlantis is a series of gray, textureless closed rooms (in both times you visit it), a far cry from the grandeur promised by legend. As are all the other milieus, really. But could they have pulled it off even if the tried? The narrower portal of the PSP, which served well for the more intimate Chains of Olympus, might not be able to contain anything as epic as they wanted. At the end of the day, the designers were just unable to create something exciting or breathtaking here.

You can totally skip this one and read a synopsis of the story. It would probably fit in a small paragraph.