Spartan Total Warrior Review (PS2) By manutdfan_2006

9 / 10
09 May 2006 at 21:14

Review by: manutdfan_2006

Spartan: total warrior is brilliant. The game was developed by creative assembly, the hugely successful total war brand, the same people who made, Shogun: total war, Medieval: total war and Rome: total war. And was published by SEGA, and unfortunately you can’t play online and the game is only a single player game. The setting, Sparta, second city of Greece, currently besieged by a mighty Roman army hell-bent on breaching the gates and securing possession of the whole country. Lucky for the massively out numbered defending force, then, that war god Ares has chosen to bless the mysterious warrior known only as the Spartan (that’s you) with heroic strength and bad-ass fighting moves. So what’s your side of the bargain? That he repaid with souls, and lots of them. This unholy deal is sealed just as the opening battle begins, and what with Ares ominous voice sounding brutal encouragement in your head you’re struck from the get-go by a moral queasiness never sure whether you are a hero or villain. Shame, then, that more isn’t made of this – a delicate ethical question having been posed. It’s dropped immediately when the actions starts. Luckily, its damn good action, you would be forgiving for thinking, after a quick glance at the shots on this page, that Spartans is a third person slasher like so many others – but you’d be way off. There is a complexity to the missions which comfortably fends off any sense of repetition. For instance, on the very first level, protecting the walls of Sparta from the Roman invasion, there is one point where you are set three simultaneous tasks spread right across the battlefield – preventing the Romans from breaching the city gates at the back of the line, protecting Sparta’s king Leonardis on the city ramparts, and releasing a portcullis to introduce reinforcements whenever numbers dwindle. The effect if frantic, pulling you away from all out fighting and making Spartan so much more involving than a straight up mass bundle. And this is not just a one off, missions throughout are balanced and gripping, be they rescue attempt or tricky escort detail.

The real triumph though is the combat. The system is pinned on two basic types of attack, centred and radial targeting an individual foe and radial a sweep at a bunch of enemies. Perfectly measured complexity is added by variations on these basic attacks – straightforward thwacks, shield bashes and powered up rage strikes. Combined with jumps and defensive rolls, this forums a tight, workable combat mechanic that you will feel in complete control of at all times. Button bashing really is a no go; you will get away with improvised stabs at the dual shock for maybe the first level, but then you will hit a brick wall until you master the moves. See, different enemies require different tactical approaches – some call for a lot of blocking, others speed. While its easy enough to work this out and hack ‘em up individually, Spartans very adept at stretching your skills by throwing tweaked combinations of Romans at you. One long fight I had with a couple of agile two sworded assassins and a hulking praetorian slasher turned into a battle of wits as much as anything else, with me constantly on the back foot, knocking with the assassins away with my shield to give me a shot at rolling round the back of the big guy. Its cracking stuff and every fight demands a new strategy!

I shall leave you with the best features of this game, the gameplay: the fighting makes this stand-out. The lifespan: You’ll be coming back for more slashery! God Of War probably just shades this, but Spartans combat makes every massacre the purest of joys.

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