Mega Cat Studios have taken the beloved God of War franchise and given it a surprise makeover as a 2D Metroidvania style title for the PS5
God of War fans get an old-school 2D side-scrolling battle game in this surprise drop from PlayStation.
Mega Cat Studios has taken the triple-A blockbuster franchise and delivered a Metroidvania style of indie game in the series to freshen it up.
The result is a solid title, one that doesn’t really offer a great deal of gameplay you haven’t played before.
Sons of Sparta details the life of God hero Kratos before he was a dad and at a time where he was a young Spartan in Ancient Greece.
Joined by his brother Deimos, the pair take you through a period of endless trials, their minds, bodies, and hearts have been molded to become Spartan soldiers for whom duty and honour mean everything.
After a fellow cadet goes missing, Kratos and Demios vow to find him and embark on an adventure that will put their training and Spartan spirit to the test.
This opens up huge maps to traverse, just like in the Nintendo Metroid games.
And you’ll find yourself rolling, darting and striking enemies at speed as they come at you thick and fast in purposefully low-res side-scrolling action.
It has a MegaDrive look to it with modern-day Voice over work that helps to propel the story along at pace.
The boss battles against big monsters are great fun but the more mundane map traversal and puzzle solving isn’t as engaging and feels like it’s been done before, such as in the recent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
While exploration is fun, gameplay is fairly basic – roll here, strike that – and it didn’t quite have that addictive must-come-back-and-play-more feel to it like the best in this genre.
The hi-bit pixel art graphics are retro and look lovely as a result, bringing a welcomed uniqueness to an action-adventure franchise used to pushing the limits in that department on PS5.
The soundtrack also pumps along well thanks to the score from Bear McCreary, the acclaimed composer behind the soundtracks for God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök (2022).
But overall this is a God of War game that fails to reach the heady heights of normal franchise levels.
And while it’s an okay game, this road has been well trodden in the genre and done with more surprise and addictiveness.
VERDICT 3/5
