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 Before
you even turn on Spartan: Total Warrior you're going
to have suspend belief as any history buff will tell
you that the Romans never fought the Greeks...nor
did the Romans create a giant robot warrior. Armed
with that knowledge you can enjoy Spartan: Total Warrior
as a kind of mindless hack and slash "what if"
story that will put your thumbs, fingers and oftentimes
patience to the ultimate test.
Playing
the role as anonymous kick ass warrior #348 (kidding)
your character could be best described as the Spartan
ancestor of Marvel's Wolverine. At the start of the
game you'll be tearing into hordes of Roman warriors
with nary a shirt on, nevermind protective headgear
or armor. While your comrades stand around and look
busy thanks to some perplexing teammate AI, you'll
have to shoulder the fate of Sparta yourself.
While
you attempt to go from zero to hero, upgrading your
characters attributes through 14 levels of total chaos
and destruction, Total Warrior's money shot is instantly
recognizable. Thanks to some creative programming
you'll be almost constantly surrounded by dozens upon
dozens of enemy soldiers. Cutting a swathe of mayhem
through a hundred + enemies is definitely invigorating
and pretty much what gaming is all about. To this
end, The Creative Assembly absolutely nailed it. It
is supremely satisfying to run head-on into a gaggle
of oncoming Romans while everyone else is running
in the opposite direction. What a great stress relief
after work. Actually since reviewing games like this
IS my work, I prefer to needlepoint as a stress relief,
but you don't need to know that.
You
start each level with a fairly simplisitic objective
and will often be given multiple new objectives even
before you've arrived at or completed the first one.
This is where your effective time management skills
come into play. Are you going to save your comrade
or stop the Roman army from some other terrible deed?
Chances are you'll fail miserably more than a few
times as you attempt to save Sparta. Sometimes your
failure will be due to making the wrong choices while
other times it may have to do with a few of the games
rather infuriating problems which I will touch on
momentarily.
Gamers
of any skill level will be able to instantly pick
up and play Spartan: Total Warrior but even with three
difficulty levels offered, only a smattering of gamers
will see the end of the game. You'll start the game
with a small smattering of attacks and a pretty meager
health bar. Health can be replenished on the battlefield
by praying at specific kiosks littering the landscape,
but you'll be prone to attack as the ritual takes
a couple of seconds to complete. I'm assuming the
delay is caused by a bad PING from Greece to Mount
Olympus... Some enemies will also drop small amounts
of magic and health when they die which are identified
as green or blue orbs. As you improve and upgrade
your abilities, you'll earn armor, new weapons and
magic which can really turn the tides of battle. New
weapons include wielding Athena's duel blades, The
Hammer of Beowulf , Medusa's Shield, and an upgraded
version of your original sword. The weapons work on
a three tiered system of destruction. In their basic
form, you'll have a couple of attacks that will enable
you to take on one or two opponents. If you build
up into your Rage zone, the weapons will triple your
attack damage - if you take it to the third level
and unleash your magic attacks, you will see some
incredibly cool and devestating powers unleashed.
The magic which will allow you to turn enemies to
stone, turn yourself into a flaming maniac of pain,
slice and dice through a group of soldiers or pound
dozens of them into the air (when the corresponding
mythical weapon has been selected with the d-pad)
can only be used sparingly per level as these special
attacks use a lot of juice which doesn't regenerate
itself. Magic is replenished at magic kiosks in the
identical manner as the health kiosks.
 Unfortunately
Spartan: Total Warrior is mired with a few odd quirks
of design which had they been eliminated would have
made the experience far more enjoyable overall. The
previously mentioned delay at the health kiosks is
a major annoyance - perhaps not on the easy level
- but it sure is tough to get some much needed health
when you're being shot by arrows and stabbed in the
back by hordes of enemies. Secondly, the reason there
are attacking hordes is because the teammate AI is
almost nil. They stand around and do nothing while
you're working your fingers to the bone. Had The Creative
Assembly placed a water cooler on the battlefield
for your comrades to gather around it would have been
almost more acceptable...and funny. This way, it's
just frustrating. If you're going to make the rest
of the Greek army brain-dead at least allow me to
bring in a player 2 to help out. Unfortunately Spartan:
Total Warrior is a one player affair and I believe
it would have been a much more rewarding experience
had co-op play been a factor. Lastly the bow and arrow
control is extremely wonky and I found myself avoiding
it for almost the entire game. I just didn't feel
as though I had any proper control over it.
As
you might guess many of these 'historic' battles culminate
with a boss encounter, generally ripped out of the
pages of mythology rather than history. Some of these
battles will drive you insane as not only are you
responsible for recognizing the boss pattern and exploiting
its weakness, but you must also destroy dozens of
enthusiastic kiss ass Romans who naturally want to
protect the head honcho so they get a bonus at the
end of the month. It's overwhelming to say the least.
One in particular that I just referenced actually
takes place early on and I found it to be one of the
hardest in the game.
Storywise
The Creative Assembly managed to effectively flesh
out the game events and turn it into three chapter
story which has a definite beginning, middle and end.
It might not be the equivalent to a Final Fantasy
epic, but for the hack and slash genre it certainly
attempts to slap more meat on what could have been
a bare bones event considering your ultimate goal
is to stab everything that moves.
Visually
the game is certainly impressive when you take into
consideration the number of characters onscreen at
one time - with only very infrequent episodes of slowdown
- and the draw distance. The enemies are obviously
cookie cutter and don't have that Dead Or Alive Team
Ninja quality to them but to expect anything more
is absolutely unrealistic. Considering this is probably
pushing the envelope on the aging Xbox (as well as
the PS2 & GameCube), you almost wonder why the
Xbox 360 is on its way. I'm sure there's a helluva
lot of life left in the old Box and Spartan: Total
Warrior is proof of that. The lighting effects of
the various magic attacks, the explosions and damage
to the surroundings and the animation of the main
character is excellent.
The
voice acting isn't all that bad either, although I'll
pretend not to notice that the good guys are Americans
and the bad guys aren't. The announcer at the beginning
of the game sounds a bit too much like Frank Zappa
for me to take seriously. I found his voice to reminiscent
of Sega arcade game announcers and I didn't care for
the goofiness of it. The sound effects are extremely
well done with the metallic clash of sword against
shield, booming explosions and thunderous special
attacks. Orchestal flourishes pump up the excitement
while the low level crowd noise creates the illusion
of being in a large area with filled with people.
 As
I said in my preview of Spartan: Total Warrior I wouldn't
be surprised to see this series continue on the next
gen consoles, although it can't be ignored that next
gen technology wouldn't have eliminated the mistakes
made in this one; careful programming would have.
With some attention to the games weaker spots, I have
no doubts that this could be a valuable future franchise.
As it is though, only the hardcore will see the end
of this one due to the overwhelming odds and kinks
in the foundation. If you're up for a challange and
don't mind taking on the entire Roman empire yourself,
Spartan: Total Warrior is waiting.
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