Most likely the first thing that pops into your mind is Ridley Scott's film Gladiator. While an accurate picture of the ancient world, if a somewhat romanticized view of a gladiator's life, Gladiator succeeded in capturing the intensity of arena combat -- severed limbs, blood stained sand, and hectic, fast-paced battles. However, Gladius isn't connected to Gladiator, and it doesn't feature the hack and slash style gameplay you'd associate with a gladiator game. Instead, Lucas Arts has developed a gladiator based strategy RPG -- an odd choice, both for the subject matter and the collective audience. Does Gladius have what it takes to survive in the RPG arena?
The Facts
- Strategy RPG
- Two storylines, each with over 45 gameplay hours
- Interactive swing meters liven up turn based combat
- 52 character classes
- Dozens of arenas to fight in across four regions
- Hundreds of weapons, magical powers, and skills to acquire
- Up to four player co-op or exhibition multiplayer
One of Lucas Arts few departures from established franchises, Gladius is an odd clashing of ideas that works surprisingly well. Of course, Gladius isn't without its own share of problems, but the end product is rather astonishing.
Gladius takes place in a world recovering from a horrible war. The two nations, Imperia and Nordagh, have nearly destroyed themselves. The two states agree to end waged combat and to resolve all conflict in the gladiatorial arena. Gladius unfolds from the perspective of two characters as they struggle to build a school worthy of fighting in the Imperia arena.
Besides for slightly different difficulty levels and a different take on the same story, the two campaigns, while worth playing through, are fairly similar. One stars the Imperia citizen, Valens, whose recently murdered father was a great gladiator. Left in charge of the school, Valens must fight to make a reputation for himself rather than live in his father's shadow. The other is a barbarian princess, Ursula, who wants to join the gladiatorial circuit so that she can see the world -- while discovering that she possesses mystical powers.
However, like most strategy games, Gladius doesn't spend a lot of time on the story. Sporadic cut scenes outline spartan information about a heroes' character as well as some background information on arenas. A lot of it is relatively pointless, since it has little impact on the main story and simply tells you that a certain character is nervous about battle X or to watch out for a certain enemy type. Cut scenes that actually advance the storyline are few and far between. However, in each arena, league, and tournament, you can read up on bits of history, which allows you to piece together regional rivalries and the background story of Gladius' world if you're interested -- if not, you can stick to fighting.
