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A local game store that sells, games for your computer, is having a sale and I was having a look see whilst wandering about.
And discovered a game I liked the look of, so I bought it. Hey £20 isn't going to break the bank so if it sucked, I'd sell it to a stupid person.
However, I managed to have on of those rare treats where something surpasses your expectations and is actually very, very good.
Gladius.
The easy way to know if you'd like it is if you enjoyed the following pieces of entertainment:
Star Wars:KOTOR
Gladiator (Ridley Scott movie)
Barbarian (old Spectrum game with head-lopping)
If you answered yes to more than 1, then you really owe it to yourself to check it out.
You own and run a Gladiator school and beat the crap out of loads of others in an arena to advance. That's the basic version.
But the basic version as in "You find bits of a map and kill aliens" describes KOTOR.
There are 2 different storylines depending on whether you choose the male or female hero at the start, and each story lasts approx 50-60 hours (according to reviews I checked out afterwards), so it's an immense bloody game.
And, like KOTOR, it's a bit slow to reveal it's charms. You start with 2 basic, level 1 Gladiators that basically throw pebbles and run away instead of being mental Romans, but after a couple hours you start to buy and hire others to join your school, travelling from town to town to engage in fights.
There are 4 (I think) lands, with about 6-7 towns in each. Each town has a league consisting of about 40 battles split into 4-5 seperate divisions (you don't have to do them all, nor do all of each division - just enough to qualify as a victory in that one), then a tournament and then a championship.
So you're looking at about 50 or 60 fights per town.
I've been playing for 24hrs and haven't even managed to get off the 1st land yet, but it's huge fun to just smash things in.
The Gladiators are split into:
Light, Medium, Heavy, Support, Beasts.
And each catagory has about 15 different types, so the possibilities are endless. I've just had a ruck with 3 Minotaurs, before that was against 2 massive wolves and their pups. Next up is against 5 heavies armed with tridents and nets.
The graphics are superb, sound is excellent, gameplay is turn-based (but not crap like the FF games) and very fast flowing. You can use obstacles in the arenas to your advantage (like boxes or natural rock shelves for a height-advantage).
Think a video game version of that bit in Gladiator when he storms out and butchers those blokes, chained to the African and then stands there shouting "Are you not entertained????" afterwards.
Bloodthirsty, violent, tactical, exciting, massive depth to the fights, one of the largest games in terms of longevity and hours spent on it.
It's Star Wars:KOTOR with Maximus instead of some tossy space fairy, and massive great swords/hammers/tridents/axes/spears/maces/chariots instead of blaster pistols.
Well worth £20 and I recommend it 100% for those looking for a superb mix of tactics and smashing people's skulls in with melee weapons.
And discovered a game I liked the look of, so I bought it. Hey £20 isn't going to break the bank so if it sucked, I'd sell it to a stupid person.
However, I managed to have on of those rare treats where something surpasses your expectations and is actually very, very good.
Gladius.
The easy way to know if you'd like it is if you enjoyed the following pieces of entertainment:
Star Wars:KOTOR
Gladiator (Ridley Scott movie)
Barbarian (old Spectrum game with head-lopping)
If you answered yes to more than 1, then you really owe it to yourself to check it out.
You own and run a Gladiator school and beat the crap out of loads of others in an arena to advance. That's the basic version.
But the basic version as in "You find bits of a map and kill aliens" describes KOTOR.
There are 2 different storylines depending on whether you choose the male or female hero at the start, and each story lasts approx 50-60 hours (according to reviews I checked out afterwards), so it's an immense bloody game.
And, like KOTOR, it's a bit slow to reveal it's charms. You start with 2 basic, level 1 Gladiators that basically throw pebbles and run away instead of being mental Romans, but after a couple hours you start to buy and hire others to join your school, travelling from town to town to engage in fights.
There are 4 (I think) lands, with about 6-7 towns in each. Each town has a league consisting of about 40 battles split into 4-5 seperate divisions (you don't have to do them all, nor do all of each division - just enough to qualify as a victory in that one), then a tournament and then a championship.
So you're looking at about 50 or 60 fights per town.
I've been playing for 24hrs and haven't even managed to get off the 1st land yet, but it's huge fun to just smash things in.
The Gladiators are split into:
Light, Medium, Heavy, Support, Beasts.
And each catagory has about 15 different types, so the possibilities are endless. I've just had a ruck with 3 Minotaurs, before that was against 2 massive wolves and their pups. Next up is against 5 heavies armed with tridents and nets.
The graphics are superb, sound is excellent, gameplay is turn-based (but not crap like the FF games) and very fast flowing. You can use obstacles in the arenas to your advantage (like boxes or natural rock shelves for a height-advantage).
Think a video game version of that bit in Gladiator when he storms out and butchers those blokes, chained to the African and then stands there shouting "Are you not entertained????" afterwards.
Bloodthirsty, violent, tactical, exciting, massive depth to the fights, one of the largest games in terms of longevity and hours spent on it.
It's Star Wars:KOTOR with Maximus instead of some tossy space fairy, and massive great swords/hammers/tridents/axes/spears/maces/chariots instead of blaster pistols.
Well worth £20 and I recommend it 100% for those looking for a superb mix of tactics and smashing people's skulls in with melee weapons.
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This game is excellent. I've had it since christmas, it sucks you in for days at a time! So far I've done about 40-odd hours on the easy path. This game is definately the best turnbased fighter I've ever played.
There's a hell of a lot of variety in it.
There's a hell of a lot of variety in it.
I have been wondering about this one for a while. Hedfix was/is addicted to it. As soon as I have some time to finish off a few other games I might get this. Need something to get stuck into for weeks at a time.
Gah
Not really a fan of turn-based combat games. But the thought of building up a team of meathead gladiator types, then travelling round the world smashing 10 shades of sheet out of Minotaurs with battle axes and war hammers is kinda tempting.
Might have to have a look into this one.
Not really a fan of turn-based combat games. But the thought of building up a team of meathead gladiator types, then travelling round the world smashing 10 shades of sheet out of Minotaurs with battle axes and war hammers is kinda tempting.
Might have to have a look into this one.
Fiery Salamander wrote:
> Like an RTS game?
--------
Yeah, pretty much.
I wasn't expecting much for a game that cost £20 for a new release, just fancied something - and it's way way better than I expected.
There are some niggly points, and they are tiny. Certainly not enough to detract from the game (usual things like load times between towns, again like KOTOR).
But the plus points far, far outweight the negatives.
If you like thinky games coupled with lopping of limbs, huge Minotaurs battling Satyrs and Gladiators with tridents and a net facing off against each other, you should check it out.
Not sure if it's worth a rent, because it's taken me over 23hrs gametime to ascend to semi-pro and advance my gladiators beyond level 5. It takes time to discover the deeper and more enjoyable aspects (exactly like the tedious Taris level on KOTOR, once you get off there it's all good)
The cut-scenes/plot remind me of Warcraft 3 style. The graphics are certainly detailed, bold and bright. Sound is functional, gameplay varied enough to be interesting.
And each class has it's plus and negatives, so you can't just load up with heavies and smash the crap out of everybody. There isn't any particular class that dominates any other, it's all to do with tactics, planning and using whatever advantages are available. So you can't pick a winning team and just stick with them.
Hiring Gladiators in each town (either permanently or just for that fight), hundreds of different items of equipment to choose from, dozens of fights per town, 5-6 towns per region, 4 regions.
Almost 24hrs of play and I've only just now left the 1st region and began to develop some seriously ass-kicking gladiators.
I've gone from a medium level hero bloke that did between 10-20 damage each turn, to heavies that can smash to the tune of about 115 each go.
Minotaurs, Satyrs, Barbarians, goblins, wolves, bears, gladiators, witches, harpies, gorgons, giants, berserkers and about 20 other classes.
Thoroughly surprised and thoroughly enjoyable game that'll keep you going for weeks.
> Like an RTS game?
--------
Yeah, pretty much.
I wasn't expecting much for a game that cost £20 for a new release, just fancied something - and it's way way better than I expected.
There are some niggly points, and they are tiny. Certainly not enough to detract from the game (usual things like load times between towns, again like KOTOR).
But the plus points far, far outweight the negatives.
If you like thinky games coupled with lopping of limbs, huge Minotaurs battling Satyrs and Gladiators with tridents and a net facing off against each other, you should check it out.
Not sure if it's worth a rent, because it's taken me over 23hrs gametime to ascend to semi-pro and advance my gladiators beyond level 5. It takes time to discover the deeper and more enjoyable aspects (exactly like the tedious Taris level on KOTOR, once you get off there it's all good)
The cut-scenes/plot remind me of Warcraft 3 style. The graphics are certainly detailed, bold and bright. Sound is functional, gameplay varied enough to be interesting.
And each class has it's plus and negatives, so you can't just load up with heavies and smash the crap out of everybody. There isn't any particular class that dominates any other, it's all to do with tactics, planning and using whatever advantages are available. So you can't pick a winning team and just stick with them.
Hiring Gladiators in each town (either permanently or just for that fight), hundreds of different items of equipment to choose from, dozens of fights per town, 5-6 towns per region, 4 regions.
Almost 24hrs of play and I've only just now left the 1st region and began to develop some seriously ass-kicking gladiators.
I've gone from a medium level hero bloke that did between 10-20 damage each turn, to heavies that can smash to the tune of about 115 each go.
Minotaurs, Satyrs, Barbarians, goblins, wolves, bears, gladiators, witches, harpies, gorgons, giants, berserkers and about 20 other classes.
Thoroughly surprised and thoroughly enjoyable game that'll keep you going for weeks.
Yeah, it's supposed to be good.
gamesTM gave it 7/10 - I was quite surprised. Always looked pretty crap in the videos.
gamesTM gave it 7/10 - I was quite surprised. Always looked pretty crap in the videos.
Goatboy wrote:
> Fiery Salamander wrote:
> Do you play a fighter or do you just watch AI fighters fight?
> ------------
>
> You control all the fighters.
> Say a fight allows you 5 gladiators, and you have enough of that
> particular class to have all 5 in - then you control all of them in
> turn.
> The only AI are the opponents.
> And has co-op campaign play and multiplayer battles via system link
> or split screen.
Like an RTS game?
> Fiery Salamander wrote:
> Do you play a fighter or do you just watch AI fighters fight?
> ------------
>
> You control all the fighters.
> Say a fight allows you 5 gladiators, and you have enough of that
> particular class to have all 5 in - then you control all of them in
> turn.
> The only AI are the opponents.
> And has co-op campaign play and multiplayer battles via system link
> or split screen.
Like an RTS game?
Goatboy lend me your copy and if I like it I'll consider buying it.
and im not even gonna ask why hes called goatboy
Pandaemonium wrote:
> mr sunday night wrote:
> now now little boy dont go getting upset. I could use capitals and
> such but this is just a forum site and im not gonna win anything for
> typing properly on here. so if i want to type in' txt form i will u
> sad lil man who seems to think hes something special. So i will
> continue to type how ever the hell i feel like if thats ok.
> Oh and im doing well enough so i dont have time to be vandalising
> bus
> stops.
>
> No, but your posts might be readable, and not sound like a petulant
> child. Much in the same way that typing in capitals reads like
> shouting, typing in text speak makes me think of a knuckle dragging
> charva, complete with a Burberry cap. You don’t own a Burberry cap do
> you? A checked one perhaps?
lol no i dont, its just the more hes moans the more im gonna do it. Im off work sick at the moment and hes complaining is making my day better.mmm now where can i get one of those caps???
> mr sunday night wrote:
> now now little boy dont go getting upset. I could use capitals and
> such but this is just a forum site and im not gonna win anything for
> typing properly on here. so if i want to type in' txt form i will u
> sad lil man who seems to think hes something special. So i will
> continue to type how ever the hell i feel like if thats ok.
> Oh and im doing well enough so i dont have time to be vandalising
> bus
> stops.
>
> No, but your posts might be readable, and not sound like a petulant
> child. Much in the same way that typing in capitals reads like
> shouting, typing in text speak makes me think of a knuckle dragging
> charva, complete with a Burberry cap. You don’t own a Burberry cap do
> you? A checked one perhaps?
lol no i dont, its just the more hes moans the more im gonna do it. Im off work sick at the moment and hes complaining is making my day better.mmm now where can i get one of those caps???
mr sunday night wrote:
> now now little boy dont go getting upset. I could use capitals and
> such but this is just a forum site and im not gonna win anything for
> typing properly on here. so if i want to type in' txt form i will u
> sad lil man who seems to think hes something special. So i will
> continue to type how ever the hell i feel like if thats ok.
> Oh and im doing well enough so i dont have time to be vandalising bus
> stops.
No, but your posts might be readable, and not sound like a petulant child. Much in the same way that typing in capitals reads like shouting, typing in text speak makes me think of a knuckle dragging charva, complete with a Burberry cap. You don’t own a Burberry cap do you? A checked one perhaps?
> now now little boy dont go getting upset. I could use capitals and
> such but this is just a forum site and im not gonna win anything for
> typing properly on here. so if i want to type in' txt form i will u
> sad lil man who seems to think hes something special. So i will
> continue to type how ever the hell i feel like if thats ok.
> Oh and im doing well enough so i dont have time to be vandalising bus
> stops.
No, but your posts might be readable, and not sound like a petulant child. Much in the same way that typing in capitals reads like shouting, typing in text speak makes me think of a knuckle dragging charva, complete with a Burberry cap. You don’t own a Burberry cap do you? A checked one perhaps?
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