What happens when you take the most brutal, god-slaying warrior in gaming history, strip away his legendary Blades of Chaos, shrink him down to his teenage years, and drop him into a completely different genre?

You might assume you already know the answer, but the reality of this highly unexpected prequel holds a few major secrets that will make you question everything you thought you knew about the Ghost of Sparta.

Shadow-dropped out of nowhere during a recent Sony State of Play, God of War: Sons of Sparta is a wild departure from the blockbuster 3D action titles we are used to, trading the cinematic, over-the-shoulder camera for a retro-inspired 2D action-platformer structure developed by indie darling Mega Cat Studios in collaboration with Sony Santa Monica.

The game takes us all the way back to the grueling days of the Spartan Agoge, offering an unprecedented look at a young, almost naive Kratos training alongside his long-lost brother, Deimos.

While the premise of exploring the untold origins of PlayStation’s angriest mascot sounds incredible on paper, the actual execution is a strange, mixed bag that completely shifts the tone of the franchise, stepping away from the blood-soaked, mythological epic scale to deliver a surprisingly intimate, banter-filled Metroidvania that has left both hardcore veterans and genre newcomers scratching their heads.

It is a bold experiment that attempts to bridge the gap between nostalgic 2D exploration and AAA lore-building, but as you dig deeper into its sprawling map, it becomes glaringly obvious that youthful ambition alone is not always enough to conquer the towering titans of the Metroidvania genre.

Gameplay

Diving right into the meat of the experience, Sons of Sparta firmly roots itself in the traditional Metroidvania framework, tasking players with navigating through vibrant, interconnected biomes like the fiery foundry of Daedalus and the eerie Veiled Bog, but it severely struggles to maintain a gripping pace.

Unlike the genre’s greatest heavyweights that constantly drip-feed you exciting new traversal mechanics and game-changing abilities, this Spartan journey moves at an agonizingly slow crawl, often making you feel like you are just aimlessly wandering through long stretches of unremarkable terrain rather than embarking on a legendary quest.

You might find yourself pushing blocks, jumping across rudimentary obstacle courses, and hacking away at repetitive enemy types for hours on end before you even unlock basic genre staples like a simple sprint or a double jump, which makes the early game feel incredibly tedious and unrewarding.

The level design itself is surprisingly conservative and lacks the visual spectacle or memorable landmarks that usually define the God of War universe, leaving you to trudge through beautifully drawn but largely forgettable environments to track down missing Agoge students or run errands that feel entirely disconnected from the epic destiny we know awaits our protagonist.

Even when you do finally unlock a new piece of gear or magical artifact that opens up previously inaccessible areas, the payoff rarely feels worth the immense backtracking involved, resulting in an exploration loop that checks all the functional boxes of a 2D platformer but entirely misses the magical spark of discovery that makes the absolute best games in the genre so endlessly captivating.

When it comes to the combat, which has always been the pulsing, adrenaline-fueled heart of the God of War franchise, Sons of Sparta introduces a strangely tactical, defensive system that feels entirely at odds with Kratos’s signature brand of unbridled rage.

Armed with just a traditional spear and shield, you are forced into a rhythm of poking and bashing enemies while meticulously managing two separate types of damage output: regular attacks that generate spirit orbs, and spirit attacks that consume that resource to build up an enemy’s stun meter for crucial takedowns.

While this dual-resource system sounds engaging in theory, the reality of enemy encounters quickly devolves into a frustrating game of “Simon Says,” where you are constantly forced to rely on a highly punishing parry mechanic and a repositioning dodge roll just to survive groups of aggressive monsters.

Because Kratos lacks the sweeping, crowd-controlling barbarism of his older self, fighting multiple foes at once turns the screen into a chaotic mess of visual noise, where you can easily be overwhelmed by overlapping attack animations and unblockable red-flashing strikes that feel downright unfair to avoid.

The crafting and upgrade systems offer a decent variety of tweaks to your arsenal, including magical ranged spells like the Evergreen Flame that can disrupt enemy combos, but very few of these upgrades significantly alter your core strategy, leaving you to endlessly mash the same basic attack strings while desperately holding the block button and praying you don’t get trapped in a corner by a swarm of lethal mythological beasts.

Review

Despite its obvious mechanical shortcomings, the narrative elements of Sons of Sparta attempt to offer a fascinating, albeit deeply divisive, character study of a Kratos who is shockingly charismatic, duty-bound, and even capable of cracking a joke with his brother Deimos.

The vocal performance by returning legend T.C. Carson as the narrator adds a tremendous amount of gravitas to the experience, and the well-written banter between the young Spartans provides a genuinely fresh perspective on the emotional trauma and rigorous training that eventually forged the God of War.

However, this lighter, more conversational tone has sparked intense backlash from franchise purists, including original creator David Jaffe, who publicly slammed the game for fundamentally misunderstanding the dark, violent essence of the license and it is hard not to agree when the endless dialogue sequences constantly bring the pacing to a screeching halt.

Ultimately, as highlighted by IGN’s somewhat forgiving 6/10 review by Jarrett Green, Sons of Sparta is a highly competent but thoroughly mediocre Metroidvania that simply exists without ever truly excelling or justifying its dramatic shift in genre.

It is a playable piece of franchise trivia that hardcore lore enthusiasts might enjoy suffering through just to witness Kratos’s awkward teenage years, but for anyone looking for a tight, revolutionary action-platformer or the visceral thrill of a true God of War title, this is one mythological origin story that is probably better left buried in the sands of time.

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Have you ever wondered what happens when a pharmaceutical company decides that humanity is the ultimate untapped resource for its next miracle drug, leaving you to clean up the mess with an arsenal of sarcastic, talking weapons? That is exactly the bizarre reality you are thrown into with High on Life 2, a game that somehow manages to take the already unhinged premise of its predecessor and turn the dial up to an entirely new level of weirdness that you simply have to see to believe.

Picking up a few years after the defeat of the G3 cartel, our protagonist has been living the high life as a superstar bounty hunter, only to have their world shattered when the sinister Rhea Pharmaceuticals kidnaps their sister, Lizzie, with the dark intention of legalizing humans for medicinal use.

While the narrative setup is incredibly compelling and promises a wild ride, the actual storytelling execution can feel a bit sloppy at times, often relying on lengthy monologues to explain complex motives and sci-fi technologies rather than letting the player experience the reveals naturally.

However, what the game lacks in narrative polish, it more than makes up for with its trademark absurdist humor and relentless meta-commentary that keeps you laughing even when the plot stumbles. The sequel brings back familiar voices like J.B.

Smoove and Betsy Sodaro while introducing fantastic newcomers, including a genuinely legendary boss encounter featuring Richard Kind, where his character literally invades your in-game menus to mess with your settings in one of the most creatively hilarious moments in modern gaming.

Throw in the ability to play fully emulated retro titles like Bible Adventures hidden within the world, and you have an experience that is constantly subverting your expectations, making you wonder what kind of insane joke or fourth-wall break is waiting for you around the next neon-drenched corner.

Gameplay

When it comes to the moment-to-moment action, High on Life 2 introduces a massive game-changer that fundamentally rewrites how you interact with its vibrant, alien worlds: a fully functional skateboard that injects a massive dose of kinetic energy into both exploration and combat.

Moving away from the purely foot-based traversal of the original, this sequel practically begs you to channel your inner Tony Hawk as you seamlessly grind on rails, launch off ramps, wall-ride across massive gaps, and zip around the expanded hub areas with an effortless, breezy momentum that feels incredibly satisfying.

This radical new mobility is heavily woven into the environmental design, making the simple act of exploring the varied planets or hunting down hidden collectibles an absolute joy that easily stands out as the game’s greatest improvement.

Unfortunately, when you are forced to jump off the board and actually pull the trigger, the gunplay itself hasn’t received the same level of refinement and often devolves into an overly chaotic and sloppy affair.

With an overwhelming number of enemies crowding the screen, bizarre room geometries that combatants easily get stuck behind, and wildly inconsistent weapon accuracy, firefights can frequently feel like an absolute sensory overload where you are just spraying and praying rather than engaging in tactical combat.

While new weapons like the burst-firing Sheath offer some mechanical variety, the sheer visual noise and unpolished combat mechanics mean that the shooting takes a noticeable back seat to the platforming and the comedy, leaving you to heavily rely on your skateboard to simply survive the messy encounters by never stopping your momentum.

Review

Despite the undeniable charm of its talking guns and the sheer thrill of grinding through an alien metropolis on a skateboard, High on Life 2 is unfortunately dragged back down to earth by a frustrating array of technical issues that desperately need some extra time in the oven.

Exploring this incredibly creative universe is frequently interrupted by severe performance drops, egregious visual pop-ins involving shadows and lighting, and a grainy visual fidelity that makes the expansive open spaces look far worse than they should on modern hardware like the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Beyond the visual hiccups, players are likely to encounter a variety of game-breaking bugs, including characters getting permanently stuck in the floor, dialogue lines cutting off mid-joke, and infuriating infinite death loops during critical boss fights that force complete game restarts just to progress the campaign.

The title is truly at its best when it leans into its weirdness and tries highly creative concepts, but these persistent technical flaws and the incredibly sloppy gunplay keep it from reaching the heights of its own comedic ambitions.

Ultimately, High on Life 2 is a beautifully flawed, laugh-out-loud sequel that expands upon the best ideas of the original while taking a noticeable step backward in polish and narrative cohesion, making it a must-play for hardcore fans of Squanch Games’ unique brand of satire, provided they have the patience to overlook the chaotic combat and the undeniable jank lurking beneath the surface.

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