God of War: Sons of Sparta review: A 2D God of War that actually feels like God of War

Sons of Sparta is a 2D Metroidvania about teenage Kratos. It's made by a retro indie studio. And honestly? It's pretty great—not in a "great for what it is" way, but genuinely great in ways that caught me off guard. It's shorter, smaller, and quieter than anything else in the God of War catalogue, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. If you go in knowing that, you'll have a good time.

Spear, shield, and surprisingly deep combat

Combat is where Sons of Sparta does its best work. Kratos fights with a spear and shield the whole way through, but the system layered around those two weapons has real depth. Shafts change your combo-enders, tips add passive effects and unlock active abilities, pommels give you big special attacks. Then the divine boons stack on top—Apollo's sling, Hestia's arcing fire, a ricocheting hook—each one useful in combat and doubling as a key to unlock parts of the map. It all clicks together in a satisfying way.

The boss fights are the highlight by a mile. These are proper pattern-recognition encounters with long attack chains, and the later ones are genuinely demanding. Dying a few times, slowly reading the rhythm, and then finally running it clean—that loop is endlessly satisfying. Some of the best fights the franchise has seen, honestly.

Movement is fun too. The map is dense, vertical, and well-designed—every area looks and feels different, from a fiery foundry to a fog-thick bog to a frozen wasteland that literally slows you down until you light pyres. Backtracking with new abilities rarely feels like a chore because the world is interesting enough to revisit.

A good story that doesn't quite go far enough

The narrative frames itself as Kratos telling his daughter Calliope a story from his youth—and that device works really well. It explains the lighter, almost fable-like tone, and the Calliope scenes have a warmth that's easy to like. Young Kratos is pious, stubborn, occasionally funny, and spending time with him makes Ghost of Sparta hit harder once the credits roll. The brotherly dynamic with Deimos is the emotional core, and it earns its moments.

The main plot—tracking down a missing cadet across several locations—doesn't have much momentum though. It meanders. A character named Lydandra feels set up for something that never arrives. The lore threads that franchise fans will be watching for mostly go unexplored. It's not bad writing, it just doesn't go far enough—and for a game sitting at the very beginning of Kratos' story, that's a little frustrating.

Ten hours well spent

Around 10 hours for the main story, more if you chase post-game content—and there's enough of it to keep completionists busy well beyond that. Terrence C. Carson returning as the original Kratos voice is a nice touch that the game uses well. The pixel art is gorgeous. The DualSense feedback during combat is punchy in all the right ways.

Sons of Sparta won't shake up the Metroidvania genre and it isn't trying to. But it's a focused, fun game with combat that has more going on than one would expect and boss fights worth talking about. Franchise fans should just buy it. Everyone else—if a 10-hour 2D action game with great fights and a decent story sounds appealing, this is exactly that.

Our rating: 3/5