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Great sword-swinging fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: January 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Gladius is a turn-based tactical strategy game. That is, your gladiators and your enemies each take turns moving and attacking in a grid-based arena. Gladius is very deep and can be complex if one does not take the time to learn how to really play it. I had this game for a month before I really discovered how great a game this is. I would reccomend the strategy guide as well, to help you spend your gladiator's earned Skill Points more effectively.
There is so much customization and character development - it is great! The gold you earn from battles is spent on better Weapons, Shields, Armor, Helmets, and Accessories. The graphics are very good, and the "paper doll" representation of your character looks great as you try on all the different equipment. Just like in Japanese RPG's, your character stats change colors, red or green, to indicate if the equipment will help or hinder your chance of success in the arena. You can also customize the color of your character's hair, skin color, armor, and clothes. They also have four different styles of outfits you can choose from for each character - you can make all your gladiators the same color (i.e. team colors) or just make them all individually completely different. It's really cool.
As you earn more Experience, your Level or stats goes up - Hit Points(HP), Defense(DEF), Power(PWR), Damage(DAM), Accuracy(ACC), Initiative(INI), Constitution(CON), and Move Rate(MOV). As these abilities go up, the better your gladiator will perform in the arena. Different equipment will also change these a bit. For instance, a certain sword might increase your DAM by 2, but reduce your DEF by 1 which might be good for your offensive-heavy Samnite, whereas your Archer might prefer a weapon that increases ACC but decreases MOV, or whatever. That's just two examples, but the customization is limitless.

Your gladiators are divided into 5 classes - Light, Medium, Heavy, Support, and Arcane . Combat works on a paper-scissors-rock style. Light beats Heavy, Heavy beats Medium, Medium beats Light. Support and Arcane classes are best used from a distance (arrows and lightning bolts, obviously.) As you go up in Level, you also earn Skill Points. These are used to customize your fighters even more! Each character has dozens of different Skills to potentially learn, but you will never earn enough Skill Points to learn them all, so you must select few that complement the gladiator to your liking the most. Once again, I recommend the Gladius strategy guide to help you choose the best Skills for each Class - there are so many branches to develop your character, it can get daunting and hard-earned Skill Points unwisely spent.

The Swing Meter is what keeps the combat from getting boring and static. Just like in golfing games, it's a meter at the bottom of the screen. You have a normal hit(yellow), critical hit(red), and miss zone(blue). It's not too terribly difficult to score critical hits on a semi-regular basis, but it makes you pay attention and be involved in how your fighters do in battle. Enemy A.I. is actually OK. During the fights where the object is something other than all-out combat, (i.e. Points Battle, Barrel Break, Defend the Statue, or King of the Hill) the computer will do some dumb things, but during true battle the computer will stomp you if you don't employ the right tactics and appropriate gladiators (luckily, you can preview who your opponents will be beforehand, so that you may assemble your team with the best advantage.) You are the leader of a gladitorial School, so you are able to recruit a large variety of fighters to choose from.

This game is HUGE. It will take a long time to go all the way through it. You must travel with your School through 4 different lands and compete in numerous Leagues and Tournaments, with the ultimate goal of being able to take on the best Schools in the High Tournament in Caltha.
Each land you travel through (Nordagh, Imperia, Windward Steppes, and Southern Expanse) all have an average of 3 to 7 towns. In each town, there are numerous Leagues and Tournaments to compete in.

Please give this game a try. If you enjoy deep and involved games that can quickly consume hours of your free time, this is a game for you. I hope this game does well, so that we might be able to look forward to Gladius II.

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!

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"

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

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.

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!

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.

Great Plot, maybe TOO gory...NOT

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: December 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Welcome to an alternate world where people, much like the ancient times in Greece. You are a gladiator, your only purpose in life is to kill your opposing foes.

This game is a lot of fun, not to mention so incredibly gory it's sickening. This game almost makes you vomit at the realisticness and gore...ALMOST. This game is so much fun to play, and so much fun to make horrid combos that will knock your enemie out cold, for good.

Overview:

Fun- 15/10, After you play this game you feel disgusted, it's great.

Gemplay- 15/10 a lot of fun to put together bone-crushingly brutal combos.

Graphics- 20/10 so gory, so great.

Difficulty- 10/10 pretty hard.

Overall-60/40

This game is so gory it's uncanny.But this game is a lot of fun to play.

Rent this game and see what you think, before you go out and buy this "Gore-Fest"...It's a lot of fun, but it depends how much gore you gcan tollerate.

Turn Based Combat Gladiator Style. Woot!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is turn based combat. If you don't know what that means, you may not like it, ok. However, if you think that Front Mission 3 was one of the best games back on the PSone, or Advance Wars is some killer GBA action, then you just might be very pleased with this.

I've only played to the Egypt like land in the Viking gal half of the game, which I assume is about 75%. That's about 60 hours of play.

This game differs from Front Mission 3 or Advance Wars is that this is with Gladiators. And you're fighting in arenas. Characters level up, you buy new and better equipment, and recruit and expel fighters from your school.

The graphics are good. The load times are acceptable, and it's also nice that questions from the FAQ are presented during load times. Combat is tense at times, or overly easy at other times. And, even though I have 20 gladiators in my party, I really tend to use a core five or six mostly. And these actually aren't the main characters in the game either.

With it selling for $10 used here on Amazon right now, anyone who likes strategy or knows they like turn based combat, this shouldn't be missed.

Very fun and well done

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To start, this game is listed as an RPG and while it is most certainly that, it is a turn based RPG, which means that players take turns on the battlefield plotting out their moves, attacks, spells etc. If you've ever played Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1 and liked it, then you will like Gladius. If you aren't a fan of those games and are buying this game because you expect a Final Fantasy type of game then I'm afraid you will be disappointed. That being said, on to the game. The game starts off a little slow with some tutorials on how to adjust to the battle system and flow of the game. Luckily, if you have played it and know what you're doing or just want to figure it out for yourself, you can skip through most of it fairly quickly. The graphics are fairly good--the people and the beasts look pretty realistic. There is a lot of customization in the game --you can choose where to put skill points and like Final Fantasy Tactics the armor you wear will also improve your HP on top of leveling up. The strategic gameplay on the battlefield is also very fun and simple to learn, although I really don't use the affinity system much myself and am probably missing out, but I succeed anyways. The game is a game that you can easily put down and then come back to and it's not so addicting that you'll waste your life away playing. I find that its a very fun game to play leisurely when you have a half an hour to kill or more. You can play it battle after battle if you want. So to be brief, I will give the pros and cons in a list:
Pros
-Very fun gameplay that is easy to learn
-Lots of characters to recruit for your school for a changing face in the gameplay
-Customize the colors of skin, hair, and outfits of your gladiators
-Story that is not too deep but well enough written to move the plot along
-Lasting fun

Cons:
- Corny voiceovers and dialogue
- Battling gets tedious sometimes

So there you have it. This is a good game that is pretty cheap right now and if you are fan of tactical games like I am, go ahead and pick it up! I promise you won't be disappointed.

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