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Mindlessly Entertaining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was highly anticipating this game's release before it came out. I'm a great fan of the Creative Assembly's Total War series and felt inclined to buy their stab at a single-player action game.

Overall, this game was worth buying. It wasn't nearly as I expected however. I expected it to be somewhat like Koei's Dynasty Warriors series, which I was once a fan of. It was, though instead of slaughtering thousands of Chinese peasants, you're slaughtering weakly-equipped Roman legionarries (excuse my spelling) as well as Thracian axemen and skeletal warriors, plus many other less-encountered units. The game is essentially the same, except allied soldiers actually attack and you can't downright mindlessly slaughter. Creative Assembly has, of course, thrown in their own variations, which manage to make the game seem original enough.

The gameplay itself varies considerably from level to level, though the purpose is essentially repeated: destroy all enemies, destroy strategic locations, escort special units, etcetera. Even so, this repeated action is replayable, and I find myself playing a level over twice or thrice. It is laced with anachronism, and other parts that may cause Greek historians to chuckle. Such as the classic phrase, 'Return with your shield, or upon it'. Crassus is the leader of the leader of the subjugation of Greece, though they say this is under the rule of Tiberius, which, unless I'm mistaken, was the adopted son of Agustus, a few generations after Crassus. They also have several refferences for the help of the gods, who wouldn't care less if a militarily-oriented Greek city-state fell to an aspiring empire. They also grossly misrepresent the ruins of Troy, but these are all minor issues in the game.

Overall, while the game is a lot like the Dynasty Warriors series and in some ways like God of War, it certainly isn't a rip-off. The core of the game can run thin, because the hack-and-slash lifeblood of the game wares off after a while. But the game still has enough varying in each level to keep a gamer entertained, and you will certainly get your money's worth.

Almost most a masterpiece

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game a couple days ago and just finished it. For it being the first one in the series the creators did a really good job of putting it together. If you are a fan of hack and slash games then this will definitely be for you.
The game doesn't have the best graphics but it is more than tolerable when you have more than a hundred people on the screen fighting at once. And there wasn't even any lag in the game like on dynasty warriors. The game is fairly violent but not over the top and it is nice that almost all the bodies stick around for a long time (I like finishing a fight and being able to witness all the carnage I've done). The voice acting is so-so, not the worst I've heard, and the story line is pretty good. What I wouldv'e like is for a longer story mode (I beat it on easy in around 7 hours of gameplay), but they make up for it with arena mode(which is when you fight wave after wave of enemies until you die. You can also get bonus, like support troops, more ammo, and arenas for this mode.
So basically if your looking for a game that has great hack n' slash gameplay and a decent story, that isn't too overbearing, this will be perfect for you.

Fun and challenging.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Spartan: Total warrior is an action adventure game made by Sega. The game takes place around 300 B.C. in ancient Greece. The Spartan (the only title given to him), along with his only friends, Castor and Pollux must defend the city of Sparta from the Roman empire.
One might think that this game is merely a hack-and-slash, but there is more depth to the controls and story than a typical game of that genre. Instead of smashing one or two buttons to attack enemies or press switches, there are many combinations of buttons one can push in order to attack one foe, or many. Moving the spartan is done with the left stick and the camera with the right. There is actually a bit of strategy in this game. You can't just run around hacking enemies, they will block. At times The Spartan will have to kick a foe to make him lose the grip on hi shield for a second, giving you the chance to attack with the sword. Strategy is essential if you want to live in this game. I haven't noticed many problems with the camera, it is easily controlled and rarely positions itself at an odd angle. The Spartan can attack a single foe, do a swinging attack to hit several enemies while also clearing the area in front of him, fire a bow and arrow along with some special attacks. One of these special attacks is a rage attack. As The Spartan hits enemies he builds up rage, when the rage meter is about three quarters full, he can do a rage attack. This is done by holding R1 and pushing one of the attack buttons. During a rage attack the game will go into a short slo-mo mode and The Spartan will perform an extra violent attack which usually results in decapitations. The rage attack can also be used with the bow to shoot many arrows very quickly. Another special attack is the "Power of the Gods," The Spartan can do a wide range lightning attack on enemies by filling up the gauge associated with the special attack. This is done by collecting blue orbs that appear after killing enemies, or praying at shrines located at various points on the map. There are two types of shrine, one will fill your "Power of the Gods" and the other will fill your life. While praying at a shrine you are vulnerable to attack and once the shrine is completely used, it crumbles. Occasionally, enemies release green orbs which will fill your life a little.
Every level starts with an introduction of objectives. The Spartan will be given orders to perform various tasks, usually consisting of killing everybody, or protecting certain people. Occasionally The Spartan will need to control arrow turrets and arm explosives in order to complete the objective. The Spartan is never alone on the battlefield, he always has his friends by his side and many spartan warriors to assist him, although they never seem to do a lot to help. Game play is very fun, but at times can be very frustrating. Spartan: Total Warrior is not the typical easy hack-and-slash, this game is hard! There are many enemies, fellow soldiers, and sometimes civilians on screen at once. There are times when it can be hard to keep track of the objectives and your health. I have died many times while playing and it does get frustrating. Because of the difficulty, when you do finally finish a level, it feels very rewarding. It's nice to know that this game was not made to be excessively easy and can be enjoyed by people who like a good challenge. Graphically, the game is about average for the Playstation 2, but the amount of on screen action is very impressive. I have not noticed any slowdown even with hundreds of enemies charging at me. The sounds are good, screams and decapitations sound as realistic as they need to. Voice acting is well done, everybody sounds like they look.
Beside the regular story mode, there is an Arena Challenge mode where The Spartan is pitted against many enemies at once, the higher the level, the more enemies. Throughout the story mode you can find secrets, which will unlock special armor, weapons and the such for Arena Challenge.
Loading times are mediocre, there is a little bit of a wait at the beginning of each level, but no loading during the level. There are regular check points also, so if you need to take a break you can always exit and save, then come back at the last checkpoint. Sometimes it seems that the checkpoints are to far between, but that just adds to the strategy of the game.
Over all, Spartan: Total Warrior on the PS2 is a very fun and challenging game. I would recommend this to people who like games such as Devil May Cry and God Of War.

Cunningly disguised fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I *rented* this game and thought it was going to be simple hack and slash. I found it to be slightly more complicated hack and slash. It's not bad for what it is. Yes, you've played games like this before, but that doesn't make it bad. I found it entertaining from start to finish. If you've got a better game around save your cash. If you're bored or have some spare time, it's worth it.

Highly enjoyable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Not being a great fan of slash and bash games, I was disapointed to find after I'd bought this game that that was exactly what it was, and not a whole lot more! But within five minutes I was hooked and just couldn't put the controller down. The game maps are cleverly designed with smooth looking graphics (apart from the storyline sequences) and each level has a unique storyline which leads into various nail bitting missions which may involve protecting a large group of prisoners as you bust them out of a Roman camp, or defeating an entire army of Romans whilst dodging giant lazer beams of light from the sky that turns everything in its path to stone! The music doesnt really go with the theme of the game, but its not terrible, and it changes during the dramatic inter-level storyline sequences which involve voice overs from quite a few famous actors. There are plenty of moves to make the fighting more interesting, and the character learns new moves and upgrades weapons as the game progresses. Different enemies later on in the game also keeps the game flowing as you can face gladiators and even zombies. Overall the only thing I found annoying about this game is that sometimes you can find yourself in a situation where you suddenly have to fight a bad guy, and if you dont have enough health to begin with it can be next to impossible. Its also not clear that you can actually save the gave half way through a level just by exiting which was a bit annoying after I'd already done the game! Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the game especially after hearing all the bad reviews, and it takes a good game to impress me.

A very addicting game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just love this game! It has graphics like the game from Xbox state of emergency! If you enjoy fighting slash games from the old roman times you will love it! It is as addicting as the PS2 game Katamari Damacy! I give it 5 stars all the way!

Great fun. Historically inaccurate

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I loved the plot and fighting in this game. I have always been fascinated by the Spartan culture and this game finally used the ultimate fighting civilization for a main character.
I know games don't have to be historically accurate but this game's developers seemed to go out of their way to be inaccurate. Sparta conquered by the Roman Empire in 300 b.c.? All they had to do was use Persians instead of Romans and the historical accuracy would have been nearly perfect. Rome was barely a village in 300 b.c. and by the time they built an empire, that was all Sparta was.
Anyway, this game was a lot of fun to play. Not being a huge gamer, it was nice not to have to memorize a lot of attack codes and just concentrate on building up health and killing as many people as you could. The graphics were good and the area navigation was pretty easy. I recommend it.

Don't listen to what that idiot says

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'd realy give this game a 4 but because the other guy gave it such a bad review I'm giving it a 5. This game is truely a great game, you can't compare it to God of War because thats a masterpiece, but so is this in a way. This is a very fun game, at some points its a button masher but very rarely (only if you suck at playing it). This game definetly lived up to the hype and recommend it to everyone, there's only minor faults in it but that all so listen to me not that other guy!

Spartan Total Warrior Rocks!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Spartan Total Warrior Rocks. Its a great game. Lots of pepole say its worst than Rome Total War but I think its just as good. Maybye even better. It has alot of Greek mythology in it. It also has some Greek history in it but not much. The graphics are pretty good and so are the controls. The music is okay. But its a pretty good game especially if you like hack-and-slash games. I also wish they had more combos besides XXX. But overall a pretty good game. If I could give this game a 4.5 or 4.75 I would.

surprisingly fun... but some frustration mars things

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

spartan: total warrior is not quite as mindless as it looks.... but take heart, it's close! ;) much like painkiller brought us a beautiful FPS game uninhibited by crap like "stories" and "puzzles" (i'm looking at you, half-life 2), spartan aims to perfect the art of mashing those buttons thousands of times to defeat the thousands of enemies on your screen. i never play "hack and slash" games. i'm more a fan of FPS's, but spartan is quite addictive. the game gives you some help at the beginning to master your totally awesome spartan warrior moves.. but to really understand and learn them all, i recommend you glance over the manual or on-screen manual. it's not all "attack attack attack." if you don't master the practice of the "radial shield bash" to repel enemies and THEN attack, you'll quickly become a corpse. unfortunately, even though this defensive element does add variety, things do become too repetitive. however, if you use the X attack instead of the O (radial) attack, you can quickly do combo moves and build up your "rage meter." then you use your rage attack to demolish multiple enemies at once. unfortunately, it's too hard to aim, but when you do get it right, you can decapatitate, say, 2-5 enemies at once. cool!! also, when enemies are down and dazed, you can press the square button and perform a "fatality," killing them so they don't get back up and fight you. love that. there are also bows and arrows, some of which are on fire and deadlier. you find these in treasure chests. you regain health by praying at shrines.. unfortunately, you can still be attacked while praying, so you have to be careful. while the action is repetitive, nonetheless it is fun, and there's a story to carry you along on your quests. for instance you'll have to go lift this level or free those prisoners or protect the king, protect civilians. nothing requiring great amounts of brainpower.

cons: while your "allies" supposedly help you kill enemies, in reality sometimes it feels like they're doing nothing at all. at times i saw 5 or 6 of them trying to kill someone.. i'd come over and kill him in one hit! what the heck? but at least the game lets YOU do the killing.

spartan is basically a good game to rent and have some violent fun for hours. i wouldn't buy it. here's the problem i have now: i defeat tons of enemies in one checkpoint, and immediately it throws me into a 1 on 1 battle with the powerful beowulf. my health is very low from the *previous* battle. and *this* is where it saves my game?! entering into an epic battle with no health?! ridiculous. you'd think it would automatically give you full health or a chance to get it, but nope, not in that case. so the game ends there for me. i'm not going to try to battle beowulf for 32 hours because i have low health.

also, the camera is a bit of a problem. while the game looks much more detailed and nicer in close view, i didn't use it any because i wanted to get the full layout of the enemies... ruining that lovely detailed view. oh well.

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