God of War: Betrayal
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| God of War: Betrayal

Even though the original God of War was merely a humble PlayStation 2 release, it's still an unlikely series to translate well onto the mobile phone. As well as being epic in setting and grand in its presentation, the mythical hack 'n' slash also demanded fast-fingered button pressing and animation that moved more fluidly than Rudolf Nureyev.

All that should spell disaster for God of War: Betrayal, a game that tries to capture the power and agility of the series' brooding protagonist Kratos on a tiny screen and a numeric keypad. Fortunately, the opposite is true, and while Betrayal falls short of being a masterpiece, it does a wonderful job of interpreting the world of God of War into a pocket-friendly format.

Taking the form of a sizeable 2D platform game, the emphasis on leaping across gaps between rooftops, shunting crates into position and tussling with levers and chests is of course wholly familiar, but is executed with a keen sense of detail, and creates a thoroughly engrossing and accomplished action-adventure game.

Based purely on those merits, there's reason enough to pay some attention to Betrayal, but it's the game's combat system that really makes it stand out from the rest of the pack jostling for attention in the overcrowded platform genre.

The action button, usually found at the centre of the thumbstick, provides your basic melee. Tap it repeatedly and you trigger various acrobatic moves as Kratos pirouettes and spins, twirling his blades and dishing out pain in all directions with satisfying smoothness and impressive agility. That alone would make for a fairly ordinary scrapping system, but there are two other additions to the controls that ensure this title stands out from its peers.

The first is the ability to select magic-infused weapons. Your two standard armaments come in the form of a huge broadsword and two smaller blades on chains, and swapping between them is very easy. But both also come in enhanced forms that, whilst more powerful, drain a magic bar that must be refilled by picking up bonuses.

Second, there's a Quick Time Event system in place. QTE's are currently de rigueur in console gaming and here they're applied to enable you to pull off devastating moves and combos. After youve dazed an enemy with ordinary attacks, standing next to them and tapping down triggers the QTE chain. Symbols pop-up one after the other in the centre of the screen, indicating several buttons you should press quickly in sequence. Tap them correctly and Kratos initiates the kind of attacks that are essential for victory in almost all the fights with larger enemies.

Together, these two main techniques for combat make for a convincing interpretation of the action in the original console games, and bring the game's more ordinary platforming elements a touch of class. Aside from the fact that occasionally jumping with the '2' key can be a little fiddly, the controls are actually very workable.

Lastly, we couldn't possibly go without mentioning Betrayal looks wonderful, and is filled with lashings of bloody gore and plenty of nods to Kratos's previous adventures that God of War aficionados will enjoy hugely.

So what you end up with might not be a revolutionary experience, but it is a thoroughly impressive, utterly solid release that mobile platform fans will relish.

God of War: Betrayal

It might not reinvent the action platform genre, but God of War: Betrayal is an excellent release that does a superb job of translating the original console game's atmosphere onto mobile
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Will Freeman
Will Freeman
Will Freeman is the former editor of trade publication Develop, having also written for the likes of The Guardian and The Observer.