Spartan: Total Warrior

Spartan: Total Warrior is a good game and it's a great deal of fun. You should know, though, it's not easy. Its not near as hard as, say, Ninja Gaiden, but its got a challenge. But the reason it is hard is the reason it's good. At any time you may face over 100 enemies, which is just awesome, admit it. But let's break it down:

That gameplay in by far the best part of the game, as it should be. You constantly have to multitask, whether it is trying to kill a Minotaur and fend off hordes of Romans or trying to save someone while at the same time killing Romans and trying to get re-enforcements. There is no "combo" system in Spartan, but that's okay because you still are stringing together attacks one after another. In the game, you have single- and multi-person attacks. You can also enhance these attacks with either magic or rage.

There are four different types of weapons in the game. You start with a single sword and shield. This is the most universal weapon set, because it has the best blocking ability while the strength and speed are medium. The next weapons you will get are the Blades of Athena. These do not block nearly as well, because you have two swords instead of a big shield. They are the fastest weapon and are great for trying to get through a large mass of enemies. Next is Deathbiter, the Hammer of Beowulf (who didn't have a hammer named Deathbiter in the poem, or fight Spartans for that matter). It kinda sucks. It's very slow and you can be attacked before you can finish your swing. This stops the animation, making you have start all over again and then you get attacked and... you get the picture. The last weapon you will get is the Spear of Achilles. It's easily my favorite weapon. It's strong in power, medium in speed, but fairly low. But you can light yourself on fire with it!

To enhance your abilities, you have Rage attacks, these are cool one hit kills for most enemies. You fill up your Rage by killing enemies with without getting hit yourself. Then there are the magic attacks. These are pretty cool. Each weapon has its own ability. With the sword and shield, you can turn one enemy into stone for a long time or all enemies on screen for a short time. With the Blades of Athena, you can stab you single enemy and lighting with strike him and make him explode or strike a lot of people with lighting. This will kill the weaker enemies but not the later ones. The magic for the Beowulf's Hammer is even slower than the regular attack. It provides a giant blast to the enemy you are aiming at. The multi-person magic attack hits the ground and makes everyone dizzy for a short period. But the spear is the best, with it, you can either stab your opponent and make him burst into flames, or catch on fire yourself so that you do extra damage on every enemy you hit, making them catch on fire as well. In addition you also become more resilient to enemy attacks.

You fill up your magic from blue orbs that the enemies drop. Once you Magic meter is full, you can unleash these attacks. There are also shrines that you can pray to and get magic. Each shrine has only a certain amount of magic in it and you can reuse it as long as there is some left. There are also shrines that give you health and these are green. There is usually a shrine or two at each check point and in large rooms. There is also a cool system in place when you get low on health in the heat of battle, your enemies will drop green orbs as well as blue ones. This usually gives just enough health to finish your current battle.

The graphic aren't too great, if you're looking for the detail. Things are kinda blocky and sometimes untextured. But that's only because of the massive size of each level. So when you're looking at the screen and there's fifty enemies running right at you, you forget about the blocky textures. Though the "graphics" are not great, the style of the game is. Everything looks exactly like you think Greece and Rome should, at least according the movie Gladiator.

The story is pretty much nonexistent. It basically gives you a reason to go to different places and kill everything you see (like you needed a reason). The music in the game is good. It's no great but it picks up going into battle dies down in slows part. All in all, it does its job and does it pretty well. That dialogue on the other hand IS BAD. Bad dialogue and bad scripts make for very laughable cut scenes. You will laugh a lot at the cut scenes, but I don't think you were intended to, but hey, they're hilarious.

Spartan does what it was meant to do and does it very well: lets you kill lots of dudes in a very bloody way. If you like games like Kingdom Under Fire or Dynasty Warriors, at least give this game a try.