Reviewed: November 23, 2003
Reviewed by: Miguel Cervantes
Publisher
Lucasarts
Developer
Lucasarts
Released: October 28, 2003
Genre: Strategy
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen
8
8
8
7
8.0
Supported Features:
Antony and Cleopatra. Alexander the Great. Spartacus. Ben Hur. Lucasart?
For years Hollywood has treated us to the cinematic adventures of the classical world’s biggest names. Sword and Sandal epics have had a long and storied history in Tinseltown, but strangely enough have no equivalent in the world of gaming. In an industry where nearly every movie genre has its videogame equivalent the absence of a sweeping epic filled with toga’s, chariots, enchantresses and evil seems quite curious.
These days most gamers can name at least one movie genre and its videogame equal. Resident Evil gives us horror, Monkey Island supplies comedy, Myst provides adventure, and even Max Payne 2 has made significant inroads into the genre’s of noir and romance. Perhaps noticing this glaring deficiency, Lucasarts decided to bring us Gladius, a role-playing adventure epic that combines fantasy with strong elements of Graeco-Roman, Nordic and ancient Egyptian culture.
The Gladius epic unfolds in the lands of Nordagh and Imperia, where long ago, a fierce war between the two countries awakened a Dark God who fed upon the strife and hatred generated by the conflict. The Dark God was only prevented from destroying mankind after the Affinity (read: Olympian) gods above decided to intervene and lend their aid to valiant heroes who contained him. Centuries have past and Imperia and Nordargh now share a tenous peace. Gladiatorial combat has become the mainstay of both societies' entertainment, helping to channel man’s warlike aggression into the arena rather than the battlefield.
The story of Gladius centers around two young heroes, Valens of Imperia and Ursula of Nordagh. Valens is the son of Munio, the greatest gladiator in Imperia who, along with the aid of his boyhood friend Ludo, has taken over control of his father’s gladiator school, vowing to avenge his death at the hands of unknown assailants and bring the school of Munio back to its former state of glory and preeminence. Ursula is the restless daughter of King Orin II, the barbarian king of Noragh. Ursula has been raised in the palace, but longs to go forth in search of adventure. She has magical powers, the origins of which are known only to King Orin. As rumors of a resurgent evil spread across the land, fate thrusts both Valens and Ursula into an adventure that will determine the destiny of both their kingdoms.
Gladius gives players the opportunity to experience both Valen’s and Ursula’s adventures as separate campaigns, but the mainstay of both experiences revolves around gladiator combat in the arena. Put simply, the main objective of the game is to win fights against other gladiators. As you progress through the game you’ll enter local, regional and high tournaments, moving your way up the ranks, recruiting (or hiring) additional gladiators and collecting rewards for victories along the way.
Combat in Gladius follows turn based RPG rules. You’ll have your chance to strike, and then will wait a turn while your opponent makes his move. Because of this, combat tends to move at a slow to medium pace, and during play I found myself likening each move to an exciting game of chess – no button mashing here. For some this will be bothersome, but the tradeoff in speed allows you to take the time to strategize, pondering each move. This is something you’ll need to do because in the arena of Gladius, cunning is just as important as brute strength.
To this end Gladius provides you with a number of options concerning both your Gladiator (or Gladiator Team) and the environment. In true RPG style each fighter has his own special weaponry, fighting style and special moves. Your freedom of movement each turn is restricted by a limited number of ‘move-spaces’, so planning is critical in deciding upon your method of approach.
Fighters are divided into three classes – light, medium and heavy – and while each have the ability to trump one another based upon class (light beats heavy, heavy beats medium, medium beats light) additional factors such as special abilities, numerical superiority (i.e. attacking in pairs against a single opponent) and environment can often switch the course of battle unexpectedly. For example, a light fighter can run circles around a heavy one, and with his special ability can even disable him for a time. But if that heavy unit is attacking from above (say, on a crate or some over object found around the arena), or has additional units to support him, the outcome is very likely to be different.
Even the mere act of swinging one’s sword is a gamble, thanks to the ‘swing-meter’ Gladius uses. Every time your Gladiator gets ready to swing a thin line travels quickly across a red and blue meter. Hit the X button when the line travels across the red zone and your swing will cause more damage to the enemy, hit outside this small zone however and your hit won’t have nearly as much effect. It may even cause you to miss. If this is all starting to sound a little complicated, don’t worry. After a while the rules of engagement in Gladius become second nature. The numerous ways in which the fighting itself can be tweaked however underscores an important point about the sheer enormity of this adventure.
In other words, this game is HUGE. Not only in the amount of territory to explore but also in the sheer number of stats to tweak and customize with each character. To give you an idea of just how much depth and complexity the game offers, let’s take a look at what we can do with Valens, the young hero of the saga. Along with Ludo, Valens is the first gladiator you acquire in the game. When the time comes to manage him, you first have the option to peruse his hit points, damage, power, attack, defense, connect and movement capabilities. Scroll to his equipment, and find that you can equip weapons, capes, shields, helmets and special tokens. Move on to his skill chart and decide where to spend your hard earned ‘Job-Points’ (aka experience points) on affinity attacks, combo moves, physical evasions and other tricks (there are actually three different kinds of skill points that level your character up in unique ways).
After that you can customize his appearance. Choose from skin color, hair color, outfit color (top and bottom) and armor color (top and bottom) – each four of these options has sixteen different variations to choose from. Think Valens should have blue skin and blonde hair? No Problem! Think his outfit could use a touch imperial purple around the lapels or roman red on his sash? You’ve got it. When that’s all done you can go over his statistics, which chronicle every single tidbit of information you could ever want to know about his life in the arena like damage stats (inflicted and taken), number of times attacked, damage absorbed, the number of times he’s been killed in the arena and etc, etc. Phew.
Keep in mind that all of this is just for Valens alone. Over the course of your career you’ll likely have more than twenty gladiators in your school, each with a list of customizations and tweaks as long as Valens! Needless to say, this all entails a huge commitment on the players part. Such a deep level of customization will truly appeal to connoisseurs of the RPG genre, but the nice thing is that you can tweak as much or as little as you want; either way you’re guaranteed complete control over each gladiator that enters your school.
The visuals in Gladius are done quite well, and it’s clear that Lucasarts took advantage of all the power the PS2 has to offer. In-game graphics are clear and colorful, and depictions of the surrounding world are rich and vibrant. I was particularly impressed by the modeling done on Ludo, Ursula and Ludo for the in-game cinematics – even at this stage the PS2 can still render some extremely realistic skin textures and body movements.
In addition to the graphics there are also a number of artwork stills used to help narrate the story. Each storyboard is reminiscent of comic book panels and adds a nice touch to the visual experience.
Creating music to enhance the world of Gladius must have presented quite a challenge to composer Mark Griskey. On the one hand the brutal nature of gladiatorial combat demanded a soundtrack that was equally as stirring; something that not only encapsulated the adrenaline and excitement of the arena but that also evoked memories of Hollywood’s most dashing sword and sandal epics. Outside of the arena, a slower thoughtful musical cadence would be necessary, something to enchant the player as their character journeys through Gladius’ fantastical world. It was a pleasure to discover that Griskey hit the mark on both counts, providing a soaring score that contains echoes of both Willams and Korngold.
Those of you familiar with the song ‘Parade of the Charioteers’ from the movie Spartacus will have a good idea of the kind of music to expect in Gladius. Proud, triumphant horns and vibrant string instruments lead the charge for a fully rounded orchestral score that’s light and entrancing during ambient moments and stirring when swords leave their scabbards.
My only wish is that a greater variety of scores would have been included during arena combat. As it stands, only one track is used during combat matches, and though it is suitably energetic, it starts to wear on your nerves after a while.
On the other side of the sound spectrum, we have Gladius’ sound effects, which do quite an admirable job of supplying all the innumerable grunts, groans and sounds of steel clashing against steel throughout the game. Power ups, affinity skills and taunts are also played out well upon the sound stage and it was quite pleasing to find Ludo, Valens, Ursula and any of their myriad opponents shout out phrases appropriate to their condition. When the upper hand appeared to be theirs taunts were bold, but when hard pressed they were terse or defiant, adding a nice touch to each confrontation.
Another component of the sound category that bears mentioning is the voice acting, which was excellent. In an industry for which half-baked voice-acting is overly common, Lucasarts has always stood apart with its custom crafted baritone heroes, deep throated villains and siren-like damsels. With Gladius, that tradition continues.
Even with a single player adventure mode as in-depth and engrossing as the one Gladius offers, there’s still more to explore. After all, in the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator Russel Crowe didn’t have to fight in the arena all by himself, and neither should you. With a nod to the growing revitalized popularity of cooperative play (made extremely apparent by EA Game’s Return of the King) Gladius offers a special co-op mode that allows you and a friend to fight side by side in the arena.
For example, if there are four of your gladiators set up to fight, you’ll control two and your friend will control two. Working as a team to fight against your opponent adds a whole new dimension of fun to these battles (as I discovered with my little brother) and should not be missed. Your friend doesn’t even have to stick around for other portions of the single player game. As soon as you’re ready, the extra controller can be activated with the push of the start button, but won’t come into play when you are ready to return to the world map or the menu screens.
If you’d care to test your mettle against a human opponent, Gladius’ offers the opportunity for two players to go head to head in the arena. Unfortunately you can’t gain experience points or prizes in head-to-head competition and apply them to the single player mode, but it makes for great practice and quick lunch break games.
All in all, Gladius’ offers a quite the bang for your denarii, though an online component would have been nice. Could you imagine battling out online with other players’ gladiators and having the option to create online tournaments where players could meet and swap or buy gladiators from one another? Such a Pokemon-esque feature may have added an intriguing flare to a game that already boasts quite a number of feature rich options.
With Gladius Lucasarts has put forth another monumental effort that is sure to appeal to a wide range of RPG and adventure fans, particularly those who loved NeverWinter Nights and Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III. Those who have been waiting for an adventure game loosely based on ancient cultures of the Mediterranean and Northern Europe may want to give this one a try as well – right now no other game gets you closer to the sights and sounds of ‘Ancient Rome’ than Gladius.
The engaging story, featuring classical heroes and heroine’s following an arc of revenge, destiny and the confrontation of evil is a timeless fixture in fantasy epics, and the addition of elements from Graeco-Roman, Nordic and ancient Egyptian culture add a unique twist that seems both historical and mythological at once. Like the ancient Roman spectacles upon which it is based however, Gladius is not for the faint of heart – it demands attention to detail and a willingness on the part of the player to listen to instructions and take time to learn the ropes. Players looking for a Golden Axe-like hack and slash venture will soon find themselves buried in instructions on power ups, tournaments, and character statistics and should probably look elsewhere.
If however, you’ve been looking for an immersive role-playing and adventure experience with Lucasarts production values, and don’t mind taking a little extra time to learn about the unique interactive experience that comprises the game then this is a title you won’t want to miss. If you belong in the latter category and have been searching for an adventure you can sink your teeth into (almost literally), then the call of the ancient gladiator beckons – strap on your helmet, sword and armor and enter the arena – the battle awaits.