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Your the Gladiator.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: January 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is going to rock! I'v heard everything there is to hear about it out and this game is going to be awesome. I know its been said that no game lives up to its hype, but thats not true-GTA3, GTA:Vice City, Metal Gear Solid:SOL, Final Fantasy X, and Ace Combat 4 just to name a few. I believe that this game will be one of those exceptions that will astound you and make you further appreciate the fact that you own a PS2.
This is a role-playing type game, but there is really no way to put a certain label on this game. There are several character classes to choose from at the beginning of the game and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. When you choose a character, you then go on to prove yourself in the Colliseum. While doing this, you can create a band of gladiaters from different character classes and whats cool is that based on your decisions and strategy in the battle or in the game, then they will start taking a personality of their own. Check into to this game more, because I can almost bet money that this game will become a hit and possibly strike up a new franchise!

A game worth the hype!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

So far I have only played the demo for this game. The demo offers 3 different arenas where you max out at 4 gladiators per battle, all with different abilities, although it looks like there is empty slots in the 'real' game for about a dozen members on your team. Each gladiator has several basic weapon attacks, some have magic attacks, and some can even shape change into animals such as a bear and a wolf while in the arena. The gladiator team is almost always outnumbered so careful strategy has to be employed. The combat system for combo strikes and ranged weapons has a unique system for determining accuracy and damage, done through the player having to quickly mimic a random combination of buttons flashed on the screen when a specific strike is selected. All I can say is that I am an extremely picky person when it comes to video games that I'll consider worth my time. So far, in a year of having had PS2, the only games I have thoroughly enjoyed were SOCOM and Mark of Kri. As long as the developers speed up some of the loading time between battle sequences, I think Gladius will probably be one of the best and most unique games on the market, finally a game worth all the hype and price of PS2.

The Best Game of The Year-Ben N.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 27
Date: July 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the best game of the year it proved to be powerful success at the gaming aution gamers praying for a chance to even look at this game were overwelmed with joy Gladius is a type of Gladiator Game that take you Beyond the Stadium and into the Ring itself feeling as if your the one who is alive feeling the pain itself of course this game has naother adventure the role playing part which is spectacular when this game arrives buy it with pride-----Thumbs Up!!!!!!!!

Overall Grade: A

Finally A Perfect Gladiator Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: October 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is going to be perfect because it all reminds you of the gladiator days; from weapons to arenas. Graphics look perfect and so does the gameplay.

2 Years Of Waiting Pays Off!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Before I start to review this, let me say I had reserved this game 2 years before realease. That's how much time, maybe even more, i would wait for this game. Wow. From the beautifully done opening sequence, to the intense brutality of the galdiator rings, this game is one of a kind. It has a Final Fantasy Tactics feel to it in the sense of the way you move and attack. In my opinion, the most innvoative feaeture is the swing meters. I like how if you time your swings right, you do more damage. Another thing that just blows me away is the animations. From Ursula's spells to the incedible cut scenes.
That brings me to another point. The acting in this game is phenominal. Kudos to the actors and writers!! Gladius also lets you create your own school. This makes for a very open ended experienece. It almost follows Baldurs Gate in the sense of having a story, but not really having to go with it. You can do quite a bit without the story. That is because of the Godly world map. Yes godly. This may be one of the best world maps i have ever seen. It rivals FF7 and Wild arms 2 in terms of vastness and beauty. I honesty spent 3 hours alone on the world map gazing at its supreme beauty. The arenas In this game really bring the experience together. They are all differnt and have differnt scenarios like King Of The Hill, Domination, Deathmatch, Fast-Money, and Beast Battles. This makes for an ever changing gameplay experience that never gets old!! I also love how the characters advance. It is very easy to understand and very easy to master. This makes a gameplay experience that all can enjoy. All in all, Gladius is one of the best RPG experinces for any console. I reccomend this game HIGHLY!! It's now one of my 4 favorite games. Please Check this out!! I finish with the words of Crowe: "In the ring we die, and in the ring we are more alive than ever"

GLADIUS IS AN RPG???????

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 30
Date: November 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I DON'T LIKE RPG'S BUT AS ALWAYS LUCAS ARTS MAKES IT BEAUTIFUL

Decent concept, mediocre execution

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: November 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I must say, this game is pretty fun. However, there are lots of little things that have decreased the enjoyability of my experience, this game definitely lacks polish.

The most critical thing for me here is the lack of stability. During the beginning of the game, it is very stable and fully playable; but the further I progressed, the more and more it crashed on me. It is very frustrating to lose the results of a 20 minute battle (assuming that you save between every battle) simply because the code just isn't robust.

There are plenty of other pet peeves that I have with the game, but they are relatively small, and numerous. This game is good, and I probably would've given it 4 stars if the stability wasn't so poor. Keep in mind, this is for the PS2 version, I do not know about XBox or Gamecube versions.

Great turn based combat with a plot too!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: November 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Gladius plays on the popularity of Gladiator by bringing arena combat to the main console systems. It's not Rome this time, but a fantasy planet with good and evil.

I had originally played the Demo of Gladius on XBox and wasn't very impressed. Luckily they did make some solid changes to the game by release time to add to the interest factor.

There's a basic story of good and evil, with the Queen of the Valkries giving her life to slay the demon of chaos. There are also two human tribes, in essence the Vikings vs the Romans. When you begin the game you can choose to be a Viking woman or a Roman man, both strong, young warriors.

You work your way up through gladiator combat, which is the 'peaceful' way that the two tribes work out their aggressions now. You earn certificates in various areas to allow you to fight, and move through various stages of arena level. You build up your skills, gain team members, and learn more about the plot and the underlying good-evil conflict as you go.

The graphics are reasonably good, and I have to say, I'm actually impressed with the plot. It's not just "filler" for button-mashing combat. It really does give you a sense that these characters have dreams and worries, that they have friendships and that things affect them. The characterizations and voices were well done.

There is in-arena combat which is just fought until there is a winner, and out-of-arena combat where the fights are to the death. The locations do feel different from each other, and you get a sense of wanting to gain more reputation and explore your options.

I'm much more a real-time combat person myself - I love Dynasty Warriors 4 and Return of the King, for example. I felt sort of stifled by the turn based system, having to stop and wait for my turn to move on the grid and attack. But really, I love the Final Fantasy games and those are turn based. So it's something about the moving and fighting combos that just wasn't my style. People who are more into turn based will really love this game.

Highly recommended for turn based fans looking for a quality game!

Enjoyable RPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had fun playing Gladius for PS2. The graphics, story, and gameplay were all well-done. I think the voice-acting was a little wooden at times, but it didn't detract significantly from the game experience.
The thing that really stands out in the game is the strategic element. Learning to use the various classes in the proper way, as well as taking advantage of terrain variations,takes a bit of time, but it is necessary to be successful.
The reason I didn't give the game 5 stars is because the enemy AI in the game often did some pretty inexplicable things. For example, archers will often fire an arrow up into the air instead of defending themselves, even if they are really close to getting split in to by the nearest axe-wielding Samnite. And with free-for-all battles, one usually needed to merely stay put and wait for all the enemies to wipe each other out before mopping up the beat-up survivors.
I thought that the game got fairly easy after the battle with those three goons right after winning the Imperial Championship, but the end made playing through the story worthwhile. Overall, it's a great game.

Much Ado About Nothing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 10
Date: December 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Based on the picture on the box cover, I got this game thinking it was based on the movie Gladiator. I thought it would play similar to the Lord of the Rings games, which were fast moving and pretty fun. Wrong! We played this game together as a family and all of us agreed it was the most boring and tedious game we had ever played. A great deal of time is consumed by the character's trite and meaningless conversation. Blah..blah..blah..we thought they would never shut up. When they acutally do get around to fighting, you have to plan every single movement and attack in advance for every single character in turns. Everything in this game takes forever. It took about 30 minutes for all of us to give this gladiator game thumbs down. Someone should put this thing out of its misery.

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