'Chains of Olympus" is "God of War" writ small. Amazingly, it loses almost nothing in the translation.

It looks like a "God of War" game. Sounds like one. And most important, it plays like one.

This means players shouldn't expect innovation -- in fact, because the game takes place before the first in the series, antihero Kratos has fewer powers than he will gain later in the game's timeline. But where the originality is lacking, the incredible graphics and brutal action fill the void.

Need we even mention that the game is rated Mature? Well, we mention it anyway. The violence and a bit of sexual content make this one inappropriate for kids.

The game's story takes place when Kratos was still an errand boy for the gods and was plagued by horrible nightmares about his bloody past. It's a suitably epic quest for our angry protagonist, who is bound to do the bidding of the gods, but not to like it -- he mouths off frequently to his divine bosses.

After helping beat back an invasion by Persians (including a fight with a monstrous basilisk), Kratos witnesses the sun fall to the Earth, and darkness cover the sky. Helios, the sun god, is missing, and Kratos must search Greece and Hades itself to find him before Morpheus, the god of dreams, can irrevocably tighten his grip on this midnight world.

Kratos is armed as usual with a pair of blades chained to his forearms, which he can use as short swords and deadly whips. Collecting red orbs from fallen enemies and broken objects allows him to upgrade his weapons, adding new attacks and abilities with each level.

The blades aren't the only implements to be improved in this manner. Kratos gains several kinds of magic and pieces of equipment, including a fiery djinn, a magical shield that can block and reflect attacks, and a giant gauntlet that lets him punch his opponents into the next age. All these items and more can be upgraded like his blades -- but it's up to the player to decide which weapons have priority.

"Chains of Olympus" is only slightly scaled down compared with its console cousins. Some of this can be chalked up to hardware limitations, some of it to the game's time frame as a prequel.

Kratos fights fewer enemies at once, for example, and the foes he faces aren't quite as huge as, say, the Colossus of Rhodes from the second game, but he'll take on his share of cyclopses, harpies, undead warriors, gorgons and many other beasts. He also doesn't have some of his signature powers, such as Rage of the Gods/Titans.

The game's graphics deserve special notice -- "Chains of Olympus" would look great on the PlayStation 2 as it is now. Kratos looks a little small sometimes on the PSP screen, but there's hardly a loss of detail compared with the console games: The great character design and animation are intact. The sound and music, likewise, are indistinguishable from those of the console entries.

Finally, the controls have been reworked to make up for the PSP's lack of several buttons and an analog stick that the PS2 games use. Evasive rolls are now done by holding both shoulder buttons while pressing the analog stick -- it's actually a better method than the right-stick flick the first two games employ.

Magic is cast by holding down the right shoulder button and pressing one of the face buttons, which is simpler and more responsive than using the directional pad to select a magic spell before use, as in the console versions.

One hopes these control tweaks make their way to the inevitable "God of War III." But until that sequel arrives, "Chains of Olympus" will more than suffice.