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0 Announced and shadow drop released at the end of PlayStation’s State of Play livestream back on February 12th 2026, and to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise, God of War: Sons of Sparta is a 2D Metroid Vania-inspired side-scroller and prequel to the famous God of War himself, Kratos.
Zeus! Your son has returned! (With his younger brother)
Story – A tale of two Brothers
Sons of Sparta tells a fun prequel story of Kratos as a young adolescent boy, joined by his younger brother Deimos, who previously featured in the PSP spin-off game, Ghost of Sparta.
The game’s narrative is framed as a story being told by Kratos to his young daughter, Calliope. The original Kratos voice actor, TC Carson, is reprising his role as the game’s narrator.
The story is fun and simple. For fans of the franchise expecting the same character depth featured in the Norse saga, you won’t find it here. This is simply a straight story that gets from A to B. Which is what this game intends to be.
Where the story shines best is in the interactions between Kratos and Deimos, and their discussions on the quests you undertake. For example, an early mission has the brothers searching for a missing Spartan boy, abandoned by Sparta for being seen as weak. The discussions and differing views of the brothers on this quest give intriguing insight into both the brothers and Spartan society.
New Cast and Kratos
Other than TC Carson returning to reprise his role. The game features an entirely new cast, including Anthony Del Rio, playing the younger, adolescent Kratos. Although Anthony has a solid performance, it is jarring at first to be playing a God of War game without the booming vocal chops of TC Carson or Christopher Judge.
Return to Greece
Sons of Sparta leaves the frozen world of Norse mythology, returning to its roots in Ancient Greek mythology. The game has you visiting pixelated fantasy recreations of several ancient Greek locations around the city-state of Sparta, such as Mount Taygetos and the port of Messenia. The ancient city of Sparta itself is even explorable as a small hub area.
The world is easily navigable, with a simplified world map in the options menu that shows you where you can and can’t go.
Gameplay
Sons of Sparta does not reinvent the Metroidvania formula, choosing to follow every single genre beat it can, just with a God of War paint. This isn’t a bad thing. Sons of Sparta delivers these genre tropes in a fun and engaging way. However, if you are expecting Sons of Sparta to deviate from this in any way, then you will be sadly mistaken.
God of Metroidvania or Metroidvania of War?
The game will have you exploring its world, encountering chests or hidden paths that can only be accessed later with new magical tools to open the way. This includes a magical sling for range attack, which can also activate switches out of reach. The formidable Hestia branch is a tree branch that flings small firebombs that can damage enemies or burn thorns that block your path. These tools allow you to reach previously unattainable chests containing blood orbs or resources to enhance your gear.
There are even sets of collectables to find, similar to collectable sets in the Norse God of War games. For creature lovers, there are even animals and creatures you can pet.
A True Spartan Soldier
Kratos and his younger brother Deimos are armed with traditional Spartan spears and shields. This game does not include the legendary Blades of Chaos or Leviathan Axe, due to the game being a prequel set before Kratos acquired those weapons. The spear and shield can be upgraded to learn new combos and abilities, providing a fun progression system that is easy to grasp.
The spear is your primary weapon for dealing damage to enemies. You can perform different combos, that suit different situations. For example, if you’re running low on health, you can hold R1 while performing a combo to stagger enemies back. This brings them closer to their stun state and makes them drop green health orbs.
Shields are used to defend yourself from enemy attacks, provided you’re facing the right direction! They can also be used to counter enemy attacks if used at the right time.
Your spear and shield are customised and modified through collecting resources that you find while exploring the world. You can also roll and dodge, which I found to be the most useful combat tactic, just roll behind a foe and stab them in the back. Works 90% of the time.
Monsters and Easily Controlled Mayhem
Kratos returns to fighting beasts and monsters from Greek mythology, from undead hoplite soldiers, to minotaurs and even gorgons. There is a nice range of different creatures from Greek mythology to encounter. Enemies will have the same strategy of different attacks that are found in many modern triple-A games today. Basic attacks can be dodged, parried or blocked. Whereas red attacks must be dodged, they cannot be blocked or parried.
Combat poses a challenge when you first encounter a new enemy. But after a few more encounters, you’ll quickly work out a winning strategy for defeating them and comfortably stick to it.
The same can be said for boss fights. You’ll quickly pick up how to avoid their limited number of attacks and when to strike. One large boss that I came across, a Minotaur Lord, became a laughably easy battle very quickly once I had realised that his fire-breathing attacks couldn’t actually reach me, so long as I stood on a platform just one level above him.
Blood Orbs of Dopamine
Like the original Greek trilogy, this game features Kratos collecting orbs again. Collected from fallen enemies or opening chests. Collecting a bunch of orbs delivers that shot of dopamine that platformers are famous for.
There are different types of orbs to collect. Green orbs regenerate health. Blue orbs regenerate your magic tools. Yellow orbs are used for regenerating stamina. Red blood orbs are used as currency to purchase new upgrades.
Sat Around the Campfire
Like Dark Souls and Horizon, you manually save your progress by finding campsites scattered throughout the world. These campsites are where you will trade red blood orbs for new combos/upgrades to your character skills, as well as enhancing your gear with the resources you’ve found.
Graphics and Audio
Being a 2D side-scrolling platformer, Sons of Sparta is not going to have the incredibly detailed character models and environments of the previous games. The game features a pleasing art style, with backgrounds that look amazingly hand-painted. Every location has a unique and distinct colour palette and design.
Pixelated Greece
Characters and monsters have a pixelated look, but a distinct design that makes them easily recognisable on the screen. The pixelated look of the characters gives them a sort of ancient Greek mosaic look.
Soundtrack
Once again, composer Bear McCreary returns to the franchise, delivering another captivating soundtrack that mixes retro games of old with the orchestral music used in the Norse and Greek sagas.
Longevity
While the game takes several hours to complete, Sons of Sparta offers local couch co-op for two players taking on the roles of both Kratos and Deimos. However, you must finish the campaign’s main story first to unlock co-op multiplayer.
Conclusion
God of War: Sons of Sparta is a fun and straightforward traditional 2D Metroidvania platformer experience, covered in a God of War paint that delivers a canon but largely uneventful prequel to Kratos’ story.
God of War: Sons of Sparta receives the Thumb Culture Gold Award!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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