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Spartan: Total Warrior (PS2/Xbox/GC)

Spartan: Total Warrior

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: Sega
Platform: PS2, Xbox, GameCube
Genre: Button Bashing
UK Release: 07th Oct 2005
Article Date: 14th Nov 2005
Difficulty: Medium
Price: £34.99
Score Breakdown
Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:


Overall Score: 74%
Discuss this review in the Forums
Pros
  • Addictive Gameplay at times
  • Breathtaking Soundtrack
    Cons
  • Camera Lock
  • Health and Power System
    Screenshots

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    Spartan: Total Warrior is the latest 'button bashing' fest from the guys over at Creative Assembly (Rome: Total War). Trying to take the series even further, Spartan features a breathtaking soundtrack, legions of warriors fighting on screen at once and a pretty destructible environment. The end result may be that the game looks great but will the limited gameplay be enough to see you through the multiple acts the game offers?

    Well this time you step into the shoes of ‘Spartan’ a young warrior trying to save the Greek city of Troy from a prolonged Roman attack. At first Spartan is nothing more than a brutal killer with the means to dispatch death to numerous foes at once, but with the correct training and obligatory ‘upgrade points’ and you’ll soon be a Hero. Fail in your quest and the Romans will take Troy and finally kill off the Greek race once and for all, succeed and you’ll become a legend, and have access to all the farmers wives you can handle – hell, I know which I’ll prefer..

    The whole campaign is broken up into large ‘acts’ which in itself contain further missions. After you have completed an Act you’ll be able to add certain attributes to Spartan until you finally fill all the points and you’ll move up a level. In a similar vein to the previous ‘Total Warrior’ games these consist of Warrior, Hero and finally legend status.

    And if you want to decapitate and brutalise wave upon wave of enemies that the game offers up then you had better bring the right tools for the job, fortunately for us all Spartan: Total Warrior has this pretty much sewn up. You start off with a pretty basic sword, and in the beginning it provides just enough power to crush the initial Roman attack. As you get further into the story however you’ll bump into quite a few mythological characters who’ll offer up more of a challenge, and their weapons if you manage to defeat them. Every boss character you fight will be armed with a new weapon (with distinctive power moves) and it's always pleasurable experimenting with the pro's and con's of each weapon. All of these weapons pail into insignificance though when you get you hands on the Blades of Athena. Surprisingly given the amount of power this weapon holds, you actually get you hands on the blades quite early on in the game.

    Action wise Spartan only has a few attacks up his armoured sleeves but given the genre and indeed subject matter, that is to be expected. The quickest attack is the standard lunge; the lunge becomes particularly useful when fighting soldiers with shields. This quick blow sends your opponents reeling which can normally be followed up with a standard jab. Rage moves offer up more devastating blows when the right combinations are pressed and depending on what weapon you have selected, power moves have the ability to send multiple opponents spinning but these moves can only be pulled off if you have enough stored power. Finally the fatality move makes sure any mythological ‘undead’ creature stays down, although the gruesome move is necessary for certain creatures to stay dead, the effect is so cool you’ll probably perform it as standard (or we are just sadists).

    Graphically you will be in for a treat whatever platform version you finally settle for. We tried the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube versions and were impressed with all three, and were more than impressed that the slowdown was also minimal – an astonishing feat when you actually witness the amount of enemies that are on screen at once. Even the granddaddy ‘Kingdom under Fire: Heroes’ seemed to pail into insignificance to what we encountered with Spartan in our twelve hours of gameplay. With the Blades of Athena in hand nothing comes close to matching the visuals that Spartan offers up as you hack up around 42 guards with one outstanding chain move. Total Warrior takes the phrase 'painting the town red' to whole new levels, as demonstrated with the mature rating.

    That being said, the soundtrack is without doubt Spartan: Total Warrior’s strongest achievement. Hooked up with some decent speakers and you’ll actually be reaching to increase the volume, something which cannot be said for the majority of current games. Some excellent use of orchestral pieces perfectly compliments the hectic gameplay and really wraps you in the environment. There’s also some fantastic voice acting at work here as well, not only with the major characters, but with the godly voice inside Hero Spartans head. Pull of a major move or total crush numerous opponents and a voice will boom out congratulating you of your achievements, it’s a simple touch but it does add to the tremendous overall atmosphere. The upshot is that Spartan: Total Warrior is one of the finest pieces of work ‘audibly’ that we have come across this year.

    There were only a few problems, but oh what problems they were. The automatic targeting system when using the bow and arrows was simply horrendous, and made any of the ‘bow and arrow’ mission specific requirements a complete pain in the ass. During one mission we had to blow up some explosive barrels, and due to the higher, inaccessible location, using the bow and arrow was a necessity. The problem here though is that the camera has a mind of its own and instead of locking onto the barrels (which we had kindly centred on the screen) it decided to swing the camera around 180 degrees and lock onto something else. Mission critical and time sensitive actions were demoted, and the whole experience became annoying. So much so we had to clear the whole environment of enemies before the bloody bow would lock onto its originally 'intended' target.

    Obviously even someone as mighty as Spartan occasionally needs some extra health and power. Thoughtfully the Greeks have built prayer statues throughout the land that will replenish any that you have lost in battle. The prayer statues come in two flavours, one that replenishes your power (which allows you to pull off some of the spectacular special moves) and one that replenishes your health. More often than not, due to the large scores of enemies on screen you’ll be heading for their distinctive glow on first sight (blue glow for power shines and green for heath). Depending on how infuriating you like your games, the prayer shrines only administer a certain amount of relief before they explode (and cannot be used again) and as mentioned, they take time to administer.

    This presented problems in itself. We weren’t particularly bothered that we had to wait while our health/power gauge increased slowly, but what we didn’t like was the fact that Spartan couldn’t protect himself at all when praying at the statues. Imagine the scene. You notice that your health is low and you run to a prayer shrine, you thoughtfully kneel down and pray and wait for the meter to slowly fill. Meanwhile around twenty Romans who have located you are hacking at your head and your health bar is actually now decreasing! Why Creative Assembly disabled the block feature that they have so adequately in place throughout the game is beyond us, especially when they have utilised such a health system.

    Overall, problems aside, Spartan still deserves your attention. Creative Assembly have in their grasp the engine and know-how to really push the total warrior franchise further. It’s a shame they dropped the ball in certain areas, as with a little more thought Spartan: Total Warrior could have been that essential purchase.
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