God of War: Sons of Sparta

Note: The review contains spoilers for God of War: Sons of Sparta and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. 

The God of War series is no stranger to having canon installments developed by other studios outside of Santa Monica Studio, but not a full original console game. Such is the case with God of War: Sons of Sparta (Sons of Sparta), a PS5 exclusive co-developed by Mega Cat Studios, the studio behind Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit. Unusually for the series, let alone for its high profile, the game was shadow-dropped on the PlayStation Store during the February 2026 PlayStation State of Play. Although the release was sudden, I still got the game on release day, though it took a while to finish due to my own personal endurance. Upon completing it and reaching the post-game, I thought it was a worthy entry in the series, but not without some questionable design choices.

Sometime before the events of the original God of War game, the events of Sons of Sparta are framed as Kratos telling his daughter Calliope a story from his youth. In this story, set before events seen in flashback in God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ghost of Sparta), Kratos and Deimos use their Eiren’s Pass, which allows them to venture outside of Sparta unsupervised, to find a lost Spartan named Vasilis.

While Sons of Sparta is another prequel game set during the Greek era, it contributes a lot to the greater God of War mythos within its gripping narrative. In addition to showing more of Sparta and the surrounding areas of Greece, we are also introduced to more Greek mythological creatures and some more obscure gods and other mythological figures. Kratos’ upbringing and his relationship with his brother Deimos are greatly expanded upon, not to mention Deimos himself is greatly fleshed out more than is shown in Ghost of Sparta. Similarly, we also get to see more of Kratos’ relationship with his daughter Calliope than what was seen in God of War: Chains of Olympus, further establishing how caring Kratos can be as a father. Amongst all of this, the worldbuilding even extends to chronologically later entries, including the Norse games, while still staying within the confines of the Greek setting.

Shortly after completing the main story, I decided to do another replay of Ghost of Sparta to see how well they lined up. From what I could tell, the events of Sons of Sparta didn’t seem to contradict what was shown about Deimos in Ghost of Sparta, and in fact Sons of Sparta did such a good job expanding on Deimos’ character that certain elements hit differently. More specifically, Kratos wielding the Arms of Sparta and later giving them to Deimos felt different after using them as primary weapons in Sons of Sparta, and Kratos’ reunion with Deimos in the endgame carried a lot more emotional weight than it already did due to getting a better idea of their relationship as brothers.

After playing Sons of Sparta, this hits differently.

 

Similarly to the lone mobile entry, God of War: Betrayal (Betrayal), Sons of Sparta opts for a 2D side-scroller style, only this time with the gameplay stylings of a Search Action game alongside similar menu and crafting systems as seen in the Norse games. Even though it takes inspiration from more recent entries, the combat and gameplay systems harken back to the Greek entries, with Kratos bearing Life, Magic and Spartan Spirit gauges, as well as various Gifts of Olympus, each of which must be upgraded at Temples by sacrificing Olives from Sacred Trees or other appropriate offerings from Monuments, the former requiring completing a combat challenge to do so. Compared to other Greek games, the map is quite large, with many varied environments and enemy encounters. Fortunately, you have the ability to fast travel, but only between Temples at first. Later on, however, the world becomes a lot more digestible when you gain the ability to fast travel from almost anywhere, but only to Temples or Campsites, the latter of which serve as save/checkpoints (as well as a way to learn techniques or upgrade weapons) and are far more plentiful.

Betrayal's presentation gets a major upgrade.

 

Combat is somewhat reminiscent of previous Greek games, but takes its own approach to the problem that God of War: Ascension previously attempted to solve. Since Kratos does not wield the Blades of Chaos yet, on account of taking place much earlier in the timeline, he instead wields a Spartan Dory (spear) and shield, each of which be customized in the pause menu, allowing for a wide variety of playstyles (I personally opted for a fire-focused build). There is also a Belt of Tyche, which can grant an increasing number of upgradable Gouri that provide passive abilities to further expand on your chosen playstyle.

Kratos also has increasing access to abilities that use up either the Magic or Spirit gauges, with swapping between Gifts of Olympus, the Lycurgus Bust (which has its own increasing bevy of abilities) and the Olpe of Wellness (which can restore Health in a limited capacity) taking full advantage of the D-Pad. Like other Greek games, dodging is a mechanic, except this time it’s tied to Circle, which takes some getting used to if you have the muscle memory of flicking the right stick. If you have trouble at any point, you can also take advantage of the game’s wealth of accessibility features to suit your personal needs.

Blood Orbs return from preceding Greek games, this time becoming far more important than they were before. In addition to upgrading weapons, they are also used as a form of currency for learning new skills, as well as paying Vermillion Orbs to reveal more of the map of the area they are found in. This can often lead to some decision-making on what to spend your hard-earned Blood Orbs on and when, though it can make you relish unexpected windfalls.

Upgrade trees return from the Norse games.

 

One major mechanic that doesn’t get explained very well is the Level system: Every enemy you encounter has a Level (max. 6), as does Kratos. What the game neglects to mention, however, is that your Level is based on the combined Levels (max. 6 each) of your weapons and upgrades. Some weapon parts also have one of three diamonds, and it goes unmentioned that you get some sort of boost if you manage to fill in all three as part of your loadout. I’m not sure why there is a tendency for some high-profile games like Sons of Sparta to withhold this kind of information from the player, as it led to me struggling through the early game under-leveled before learning how the Levels worked, but I figured it worth mentioning here.

What determines your level goes unexplained.

A more particular frustration is the boss fight against Alastor, which proves itself difficult even when you know the solution, as it requires a lot of precise timing and understanding the rhythm of his attacks. The main issue is that such a difficult fight is placed within the early hours of the game, by which point you are woefully under-leveled and have only the bare minimum arsenal on you. As a result, it took me what felt like over a dozen tries to finally beat him, and even then only barely. Co-op may help here, but the feature is locked behind a second playthrough, so I can't comment on that.

Similarly, the way to unlock the final section of the map is to complete nine timed Muse Challenges, which unlock over the course of normal play. Once I realized where they were after unlocking all of them, I decided to go through all of them at once, each taking at most a handful of tries to complete. The eighth one, however proved difficult since it requires you to use all of your skills within a very tight time limit. Even after figuring out what to do, I could never quite make it to the goal, until I encountered an odd glitch that restarted the challenge, but without respawning Kratos or the timer, allowing me to take my time to properly complete the challenge. Fortunately, the end of the challenge still triggered properly.

Due to being a PS5 exclusive, Sons of Sparta notably takes more advantage of the DualSense’s features than even God of War Ragnarök did, including localized rumble and directional audio. There’s even a minor mechanic involving blowing into the speaker, as well as some audio coming out of it whenever Deimos communicates with Kratos from a distance. Even knowing how much development for first-party PS5 games was largely affected by PS4 and PC until recently, the DualSense’s unique features being used at all at this point feels rare enough to be noteworthy, at least from among the games that I’ve played, so I savored the experience as much as I could.

From what I’ve seen of their past work, Mega Cat delivers some absolutely incredible sprite work, each animation feeling very fluid and alive even when recycled. The sprites themselves strike the perfect balance between detail and signification, all while remaining accurate to the God of War art style. Environments also feel unique from each other, thanks in part to some great color coordination, and manage to feel very immersive even with pixelated visuals. To top things off, young Kratos and Deimos are visually consistent with how they appeared in Ghost of Sparta’s flashbacks, and the game comes complete with the iconic font used for the Greek games. If you feel lost at any point or forget how certain moves work, partly due to how quickly some gameplay hints disappear, everything is fortunately recorded in a meticulously organized Archive in the pause menu.

Unlike Betrayal before it (most likely due to technical limitations), Sons of Sparta features full voice acting, with some incredible performances amongst the main cast. Notably, Antony Del Rio reprises his role as young Kratos from all the way back in Ghost of Sparta, giving him not only a consistent voice, but giving his performance more of a chance to shine as well. Young Deimos, on the other hand, was recast with Scott Menville (best known for his work as Robin/Dick Grayson in various Batman and Teen Titans media), who does a good job capturing the essence of his character and helping to flesh him out more with his extended screen time. While Christopher Judge is a solid voice actor for Kratos in the Norse games, it made perfect sense for T.C. Carson to return as the voice of his Greek counterpart in narration, even managing to sound like he was never absent from the role in the first place.

Although Bear McCreary is a good composer, his work on the Norse games didn’t really stick with me. His work on Sons of Sparta, however, most certainly did, thanks in part to the chiptune stylings that match the game’s aesthetic, as well as different locations and objectives having their own distinct theme. This, combined with some great sound design, make for a memorable audio experience.

God of War: Sons of Sparta takes what the previous God of War: Betrayal did and expands on it greatly, featuring a highly-immersive world and a good balance of Greek and Norse mechanics, even if not all of them are explained clearly or at all. Its gameplay style and contributions to the series lore make it a more unique God of War experience that I found worth playing to the end and one that God of War fans should definitely pick up. That being said, the early game, especially Alastor, can easily be a make or break for some, and the lack of a New Game+ may make future playthroughs more difficult due to the game’s length.