Platform: PS5Age: 15+Verdict: ★★★☆☆
God of War: Sons of Sparta
Sons of Sparta has some awfully big shoes to fill. A 2D spin-off of the long-running God of War series, it will inevitably be compared for quality to the two most recent chapters of the blockbuster series by Sony’s Santa Monica Studio.
You could fairly argue the 2018’s God of War reboot and the 2022 sequel Ragnarok set impossibly lofty standards that few could match. But you might also contend that Sons of Sparta feels unnecessary and anaemic.
As the title hints, this spin-off by Pennsylvania-based Mega Cat Studios delves back in time to an era before God of War hero Kratos was an unstoppable force, a deity of destruction. Here we meet Kratos as a young Spartan warrior – callow, naive, even weak. But his pride recognises none of this.
When a classmate in the Spartan academy goes missing, Kratos and his brother Deimos resolve to find him in the Greek countryside, a relatively barren 2D landscape populated by minor enemies from mythology.
At heart, Sons of Sparta is structured as a Metroidvania, in which Kratos gradually acquires new abilities to unlock access to sealed-off areas. You will criss-cross forests, dungeons and townscapes, finding your path blocked until you acquire a specific tool, such as a slingshot.
Across its 20-year history, God of War has been defined by arresting spectacle and unflinching combat, even before the 2018 reboot took those two pillars to the next level. Sons of Sparta doesn’t even try to compete, despite some sequences with outsized enemies.
Kratos mostly wields a spear and shield, rendering the combat somewhat pedestrian for many of the early hours of the storyline. It does improve in later stages but not enough to light a fire in your synapses.
The limitations of the 2D plane also restrict the game’s ability to match the majesty conjured by its 3D brethren. The pixel art simply can’t do justice to the Kratos we’ve formed in our mind’s eye. There’s also something deeply grating about listening to teenage American accents attempting to capture the complexities of a Spartan wrestling with his conscience.
Perhaps if you could overlook Sons of Sparta’s lineage, you might see it as a perfectly adequate Metroidvania. But Mega Cat Studios knowingly took on the burden of that name only to fall short of the stellar God of War pedigree.