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Gladius |
by Chad
11/12/2003 |
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Russell Crowe has helped make epic Gladiator battles popular with the kids, and whenever there is a spike in popularity for anything in the world, a video game will follow. This fall gamers have several gladiator-laden virtual challengers to choose from. One of the games to make its way to the top of the pile of gladiator corpses is Gladius, a turn based RPG-style epic adventure from LucasArts. Gladius follows the saga of two young heroes, Ursula the Barbarian and Valens the Imperial Warrior. Since the end of the Great War between Imperia and Nordagh, battle has become dormant in the lands of Gladius. Combat is now confined to the gladiator arenas, which attracts schools form around the world to compete for the title of Imperial Champions. Ursula and Valens are following divergent paths to accomplish the same goal – recruit and train a team of warriors and compete in the gladiator games. You can choose which path you wish to follow, Ursula or Valens. Along the way you will build your battle strategy, learn how to battle with deadly weapons and powerful magic, learn combat tactics, and enhance and customize your character.
There are several different classes of characters in Gladius. Gladiators are light, medium or heavy class. In addition to the main combatant classes, there are also Support Classes, Arcane Classes and Beast Classes. Support and Arcane are neutral gladiators; they have advantages or disadvantages over other gladiators. Each character carries class statistics, which are made up of HP, defense, power, accuracy, initiative and movement.
 
If you choose to lead Ursula to the glorious victory, you will begin your journey in Nordagh. Ursula must conquer Nordagh in order to move on to Imperia. The beginning of Ursala’s journey is considerably easier than Valens. The leagues have an easier entrance requirement and there are many light-type classes. Ursula is a medium-class, creating an instant advantage in the early battles. However, because there are so many weaker class combatants in Nordagh, there are not a lot of classes available to recruit. This can create a disadvantage when starting Chapter 2 and advancing to Imperia. The key to playing with Ursula is to use your mystical powers whenever you can. These will ensure that she develops more powerful skills as the game progresses.
Valens has a more difficult beginning, but the difficulty can prove advantageous later on in the game. Imperia is the starting point for Valens, creating a more advanced game from the outset. The diversity of the recruitable combatants in Imperia is superior to Nordagn, allowing you to assemble a more advanced unit that can even include heavy-type classes. The skill required to successfully compete in the tournaments is greater, creating a more challenging environment, but this can lead to a little frustration as you are turned away from several tournaments while you build your skill set.
Speaking of tournaments and leagues, there is a wide assortment available to choose from in various arenas located in Imperia, Nordagh, Windward Steppes and the Southern Expanse. Leagues are used to gain experience and prove yourself worthy of competing in tournaments. Your goal in each location is to earn a certificate of completion for each battle that you participate in. You must win a certain number of battles to win a league. Finally, to finish a location you must earn three badges that reflect unique aspects of the location you are battling in. The number of battles and leagues vary from town to town. There are also varying requirements for entering leagues. These requirements can include class, level, popularity, gender and completion or other battles. Leagues earn money by hosting the battles you participate in, thus the themed requirements. There are also several different types of battles you can engage in, including king of the hill, dominance (which has three spots in the battle area that you have to control), destroy the monument (inflict damage on the other teams monument), points battle (most damage in a set amount of time), and destroy more barrels than your opponent.
 
Battle mechanics follow the turned-based RPG approach and utilizes an interleaved system of turns, which allows for multiple players to move simultaneously. The goal of this system of movement is to speed us the non-combat moves a player will make during battle. Movement made around the arena is done via a cursor that displays your available paths. With the interleaved system, your movement can be interrupted or blocked by another player’s movement. There is also a targeting cursor, which can be used to view an oppositions formation, display hit points, skill points, status effects and more. Any opponent within attack range of the move-to-attack skill will have an orange cursor displayed around them. You also use the targeting cursor on yourself to perform defensive skills. While this all sounds quite daunting and complex, it actually feels really smooth while in the moment. This is a real testament to the thought and effort placed into Gladius. The developers attempted to create a fluid, real time experience, and they are quite successful at it.
Attacking is done once an opponent is within move-to-attack range, or players are on adjacent squares. The move-to-attack range comes in handy when using distance attacks with qualified weapons, such as bows, spears and spells. Accuracy is determined by a number located in an icon above your enemies head. There is also a health bar and an affinity bar located on either side of the icon. These determine the accuracy and damage you inflict with an attack. It is important to face and engage your enemy when being attacked. If you are attacked from behind or the side, the damage inflicted upon you is greater. Other important elements of combat that require close attention are the crowd meter, terrain modifiers and battle objectives.
One fantastic aspect of Gladius is the training session that you must go through when you start the game. This session helps clear up many of the question and problems you may have when first playing the game. The training guides you through all of the basic gameplay elements, including movement, attacking, defending, etc. By the time you are done with the initial session, you should feel extremely comfortable with the system.
The one major complaint I have about the game is the length of the load times between the menu screen, the combat screen and the map screen. They interrupt the flow of the game, and seem out of place for an Xbox title.
 
Graphics – 8
The graphics alternate between really nice and mediocre, at best. You can definitely tell that this game is a multi-platform game, and while the Xbox version is noticeably superior to the others, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The cutscenes are well done, for the most part. They look nice, and from what I can tell, they accurately depict the point in history they are representing. The one thing that stands out on the Xbox version is the inclusion of several details that are missing from the other platforms. Textures and lighting are significantly improved, and environments include details that the others are lacking.
Sound - 7
Okay, Gladius does not have the all-star lineup of talent that other games on the market are currently boasting (i.e. True Crime: Streets of L.A.). The voice talent is serviceable and they get the job done, but I don’t see any Oscar nominations in their future. The musical score makes up for the voice talent in that it lends itself to the action on screen very nicely. It blends in with the game, making it a part of the story, which is all you can ask for from a score. The downfall of the soundtrack is the continuous looping song while you are in the arena. You will be sick of it by the time you are through one long battle. Variety would have been greatly appreciated here.
Gameplay - 9
The gameplay is revolutionary in that it is a pioneer in the RPG realm. The gameplay style if the first of its kind in the genre, and it is quite successful. The gameplay has a strong lasting appeal and I did not tire of it while playing. There is something mildly addictive about battling in Gladius, and the peer-pressure inflicted by a disapproving crown proves solid motivation for winning them over. This is the strength of the game, and it is extremely apparent that this is where the developer spent a bulk of their time.
Overall - 9
If you’re after and RPG strategy game, Gladius is a definite winner. With over 90 hours of gameplay, and a multiplayer mode that I haven’t even touched on, there is enough depth to keep any gamer who is interested in strategy combat happy for a long time.
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Ursula Major
Heckler
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Looks pretty sweet, I´m an old school RPGer who has never found a decent RPG on Xbox, so maybe lucas arts will help me out her!
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IP: 24.9.89.181
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american psycho
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M´kay all I know about this game is that I was intrigued from the start, until I played the xbox live demo... It was sooooooooooo sssssssslllloooowwwwwww, that it cancelled out the fun of the strategy role playing. Has anyone pleyed the final version of this game? have they rectified the snails´ pace of the demo?
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IP: 146.7.216.9
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CALLMESPARTICUS
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Sorry this game- big heap of s------------------------------t
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IP: 202.129.109.138
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Weapon X
X365 Member
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I played the OXM demo and it sucked!
Will have to rent the final version.
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Guest
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The review is so biased.
I bought the game..... and I´m really disappointed! The game is so slow, I don´t know if I should call it super-slo-action game or slo-RPG game, or just plain-stupid-Strategy. Don´t buy this game, or you will regret it!
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Room
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get out of here, this game is great. if you liked KOTOR your gonna love this, if anything give it a rental. once you start buying more gladiators for your school, S**T´s gonna hit the fan baby
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IP: 128.205.71.59
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Deep
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I don´t know why people seem to dislike this game, unlike most other games it involves alot of strategy and thinking, there are a few "easy picks" that make the game ridiculously easy but you pretty much have an option as to whether or not to use it.
The thing I like most is the fact that almost any ability when used correctly could turn the tides of battle in your favor...however getting there isn´t easy, this game is NOT for the impatient gamer.
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IP: 67.166.122.41
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christinak
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How do I get in multiplayer mode??? Im clueless!
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IP: 24.48.125.67
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BUTCHER
X365 Member
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HoW the HECK do you multiplay this piece of RPG?????????? What a piece of crap if it doesn´t multi. GEEEZZZ should it be this hard to figure out. Thank you Lucas Arts.
And thank you christinak for making me not feel so dumb with the above post.
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Deto
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guys to get versus multi-p u gotta win the 1st regionals with either char then next time u play press start when it says ´press start´ then select the versus option.Press A to join in so that u got like 2-4 ppl playing then goto continue and voila ur there i dunno what to do after that i never tried it
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Deto
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PS guys how do u get that equip all cheat to work how u press:
RIGHT DOWN LEFT UP LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT Y Y Y
please help me someone im in desperate need
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IP: 203.166.57.11
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MINOTAURSonICE
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You press start in the school menu then right,down,left,up,left,left,left,left,Y,Y,Y and that is it!
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lainedru
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If you can´t get the all equip to work that way... try going to the world map (not in a town). Press X, Then START, then on your d-pad press these buttons: Right, Down, Left, Up, Left, Left, Left, Left, Y, Y, Y, Y. Your beasts with be able to wear helmets and stuff. And it helps your Stats. The only problem is that you still can´t equip stuff that isn´t in the right level range.
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MitchDOGG
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I don´t know what it is about this game but I rented it two days ago and I´ve played a total of over 22 hours! I give it an A+, the only downside is that with the amount of time each battle takes there should be some way to turn off some of the videos to make it alittle quicker and more battling. You can still exit out of the some videos by pressing select but like I said my select button has been getting alot of unwanted attention. :)
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Liv
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Does anyone know what the Signet of the Valkyrie is for or how to get into the Palace in the Expanse?
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IP: 67.195.91.133
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highnoon
Heckler
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This is not game for people who like Shooter ups. It is a great stradegy game where you move your gladitors around what I like to call a chess game arena.. Great Game and I'm still playing it after 50 + hours... looking for some help now on how to get past this one part
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Phreaker
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I just recently got this game, and it is fantastic! If you like trun based-strategy games, get this!
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Sandy
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Hi. I and my significant other are wondering if it's possible to hire characters like Galdyr and the Undead as part of the school. If so, how can this be accomplished?
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Sandy
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Hi. I and my significant other are wondering if it's possible to hire characters like Galdyr and the Undead as part of the school. If so, how can this be accomplished?
Please send reply to:
keensl@telus.net
NOTE: PLEASE do not send spam. I am simply interested in a response to my question at this time.
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k_art
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this game rocks
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sans dross
X365 Member
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thanks for the help folks. rental expense adds up. you cats sure can save me money!
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aaawwww tartarsauce!
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