Gladius (video game)
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| Developer(s) | LucasArts |
| Publisher(s) |  LucasArts Activision |
| Release date(s) | October 29, 2003 November 28, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Xbox, GameCube, PS2 |
Gladius is a tactical role-playing game released in 2003 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube video game consoles.
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[edit] Overview
The game allows the player to build a school of gladiators and take them into battle against opposing schools in a quest for fame and glory. The plot focuses on several of the main characters and slowly affects the decisions of the group, eventually leading to a final large battle that tests the skills of all members of the school. Upon starting the game, the player can choose between a school in Imperia, home to a strong military mentality and soldiers who consider their northern neighbors uncivilized and bullish, or a school in Nordagh, where witches and woodland beasts dwell, and who in turn detest the Imperials for their desire for greater conquest.
The gladiators have the opportunity to travel through four distinctly different regions on their road to the ultimate championship. Depending on the player's school choice, he or she begins in either the Northern lands of Nordagh (Barbarian school), which has a culture similar to that of 'Nordic' lands, or Imperia (Gladiator school), an Imperial Roman land. Upon completion of these two stages of play one proceeds onto the Windward Steppes, a grasslands region dominated by archers and beasts, reminiscent of the steppes of Asia, followed by the Southern Expanse, a desert region filled with spellcasters, nomadic warriors, and insects. The latter is an area reminiscent of Egypt; the main insects of this region are beetles, which held a high importance in Egyptian mythology, and scorpions, a staple arachnid in any desert region. The conclusion of the game takes place in and around the large central arena of Caltha in the Imperial Region.
As in many role-playing games, players outfit their characters with gear to increase their abilities, and as they win fights, they gain experience which allows them to don new equipment and undertake new quests. Additionally, winning certain hidden or difficult contests allows the players to recruit unique character classes such as yetis, minotaurs, and the undead. Fighting in Gladius follows a turn-based mechanism, but with a twist. There are "swing meters" - like those found in many golf games - that determine the accuracy and effectiveness of strikes. For those who enjoy more traditional turn-based strategy role-playing games, the meters can be disabled in the options menu. This tends to increase the difficulty level and force the player to rely more on sound tactics than nimble fingers.
[edit] Heroes
The storyline focuses on one of two heroes, although both storylines merge for a significant portion of the game. Ursula, voiced by Scooby-Doo and ER actress Linda Cardellini, is associated with the "beginner" path, although the main difference is in which land the player first competes in. Valens, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor of Smallville fame), has an additional hero as a part of his school for the first half of the game.
The main characters of these storylines are automatically made members of the school. There are six heroes total, but players will never have more than five in their school at any one time, and eventually two will drop out, leaving sixteen remaining slots to fill by the end of the game. The other main characters are generally of the recruitable categories, although they frequently have special abilities of their own. Their participation in battles is, on occasion, mandatory. These other heroes include Urlan (Ursula's brother), Ludo (Valen's best friend), Eiji (an archer), and Gwazi (a secutor). Both of the main heroes, as well as Ludo and Urlan, are considered medium gladiators.
[edit] Gladiators
The game employs a rigid rock-paper-scissors approach to character classes and combat. Heavy classes dominate medium fighters, who in turn outperform light classes, who themselves easily slay heavy classes. This triangle is such that unless a fairly large level gap exists between two opposing-class unit, the "dominating" class will almost always prevail.
Every gladiator recruited into the school the player runs is classified into one of five categories:
- Heavy Characters are slow, powerful units with high attack and damage, but low speed and accuracy. They are superior to Medium characters, but weak against Light characters. This includes Minotaurs, Samnites, Centurions, Ogres, Cyclopses, and Yetis.
- Medium Characters are general troops who have decent scores in all stats, move fairly fast, have decent accuracy and speed, and do a good amount of damage. Medium characters are weak against heavy characters, but very strong against light characters. This includes Valens and Ursula, Barbarians/Urlan, and Legionnaires/Ludo, Murmillos, and Undead Legionnaires.
- Light Characters are extremely fast and nimble. With good accuracy, movement and speed, they suffer in attack power and hit points. Light characters are frequently able to dodge attacks from heavy characters, but are weak against medium characters. This classification includes Bandits, Mongrels, Secutors/Gwazi, Dervishes, Satyr, and Beserkers.
- Support Characters are the ranged units of the game. In the "Heavy vs. Medium vs. Light" relationship, they are neutral, but all support characters are weak in melee combat. As the name implies, support characters are often used to support other characters and to do damage at range. This class is limited to Archers/Eiji, Amazons, Peltasts and Gungnirs.
- Arcane Characters are the spell casters of the game. They are also neutral in the heavy/medium/light matchup, but they specialize in attacks that use affinity to attack. Arcane characters are even worse at melee combat then support characters, and their damage is lackluster at best. This class includes the Undead Summoner, the Human Summoner, the Channeler, Mongrel Shaman, and the Galdr.
Additionally, Beast Characters are a separate class, although each beast class can also fit into the light, medium or heavy classification system. Bears are classified as heavy, along with the Scarabs, and Greater Beasts, while Wolves, Scorpions, and Plains Cats are classified as light. Regular beasts are cheap to own, only being able to equip accessories, support characters can shoot over their heads, helping those characters maintain line of sight.
[edit] Swing meters
The game also employs what can be described as swing meters to determine the strength of almost every strike in the game. While they differ in form for the various attacks in the game (melee, ranged, combos, etc.), they offer the same benefits for all but add an element of "gamble" to the fights.
The meter has three segments: yellow (normal hit), red (critical hit) and blue (miss). The yellow zone is easily scored and is effectively a sort of "bypass" for those not wishing to bother with the swing meter, and it results in a normal hit of average damage and accuracy (the auto function of the game removes the meters and automatically scores a normal hit). However, should the player feel more "game", he can attempt to hit the much narrower red zone to score a critical hit, which, depending on the attack type and the position of the player's character on the attack triangle, can utterly devastate his opponent. On the other hand, should he fail to hit the red zone accurately, he overshoots into the blue zone, which indicates a missed swing. Missing too often results in a seriously impaired chance at victory.
This leads to somewhat of a problem for the different attacks present in the game, as the different meters vary in difficulty. For example, the yellow/red/blue bar for a normal strike is fairly easy to use if the player has good concentration and reflexes. Combo attacks, on the other hand, require the player to hit a much narrower "red zone" accurately up to five times in a much faster succession, a feat that is fairly hard to achieve and often results in a catastrophic fumble. This can be frustrating to players who, not taking this into account, spend their hard-earned skill points to equip their gladiators with effectively useless upgrades.
At the other end of the spectrum are ranged attackers, whose critical "red" zone involve rapid button presses in random sequences. This is much easier to achieve consistently and failure to succeed usually results in a normal "yellow" hit. This, coupled with their damage rate across the attack triangle, long range and accuracy, means that a single archer or javelin thrower can quickly wipe out an arena full of opponents, as long as the other character can provide him with melee protection.
Another point to consider is the state of alertness of the player himself. Given the reflexes necessary to consistently overcome his opponents in battle, and the consequences of missed hits on the battles outcome, if the player should become tired after a long playing session (or for any other reason), victory becomes much harder to achieve.
However there is an option in the settings that can turn the swing meters off entirely. With the swing meters off, the computer effectively runs the meters for the player. Since the computer misses about ten percent of the time and criticals ten percent of the time, this can make combat much easier or more difficult depending on the skill of the player. If the player is skilled at using the swing meters (and thus commonly scores critical hits), turning the meters off tends to make the combat less predictable as critical strikes cannot be dodged or parried (and makes heavy gladiators less effective).
[edit] Sequel
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LucasArts left the door open for a sequel to the game (and hinted at one in the ending), but has not followed up on these plans due to lack of commercial success. While the game has received strong critical and gamer praises, it has not fared well in terms of reputation and sales. The game was rated as one of the "best Xbox games most people never played" by The Official Xbox Magazine.
[edit] Console comparison
The PlayStation 2 version suffers from somewhat lower quality graphics and longer load times. The GameCube version runs quite smoothly with better textures and quick load times. The Xbox version runs the best and has some additional textures that don't appear in many of the other versions.
