Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance

PS2 review by Jim Smith - Monday 26th January 2004

Gladiators are, by all intents and purposes, a vastly underused video gaming commodity. I'm not talking about that bizarre TV show where meatheads smack each other around with massive cotton buds either, by the way, and neither am I referring to the recent famous movie which won far too many awards. I'm talking about the real thing, the real gladiatorial games of ancient Rome. I remember clearly doing stuff on Gladiators at school, in fact I think that topic was one of very few I didn't sleep through in my early teens. So when I went to Rome for a weekend recently I made sure as hell I paid a visit to the Coliseum. I'm so glad I did, it's quite amazing to see first hand the site of the original blood sport, to see where brave gladiators of a whole other era valiantly fought lions, tigers and other gladiators and, of course, where they massacred countless numbers of Christian slaves. Brutal perhaps, worse when you consider that this spectacle was purely for the entertainment of the Emperor and his people. I also heard a few tales of the theatrics used as the Romans loved to put on a really good show; spikes popping up through the floor, fatal trap doors and stuff like that. Hell, one tale tells of how at one point the Coliseum was actually flooded to stage a mock sea battle, although historians do believe that to be stretching the truth a little. Still, no one can deny the shear grandeur of the place, and standing inside that stone auditorium fills you with nothing but awe. It's therefore a crying shame that Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a mite under-inspiring in comparison.



Hack, slash, mangle, chop, cleave, impale.

In Sword of Vengeance you are cast as Invictus Thrax, a gladiator of formidable reputation who has never been bettered in combat. With such a formidable record, Thrax soon became the Emperor's champion and as such was soon expecting to be granted his freedom, which was the customary reward for holding down such a role for any length of time. All this changed one day, however, when the Emperor was mysteriously slain and the evil Arruntius comes to power. Invictus, it appears, is going nowhere and is forced to fight for his life in many unfair tournaments of increasing difficulty. Arruntius's plan is simple; demolish everything that relates to the former Emperor, and it looks like Invictus is top of the list.

Hack, slash, punch, gore, hit, pierce, mutilate.

So, the game starts with you, or rather Thrax, being thrown in to the Coliseum to battle wave after wave of other gladiators, which in actual fact acts like a sort of training level. It all ends soon enough, though, as Thrax is killed in a short cut-scene by a massive and mysterious creature whose identity is kept secret for most of the game. He awakes in the afterlife, where he is confronted by two young boys in theatre masks who turn out to be the twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the Roman God Jupiter. This is all explained later on as part of a quite patronising history lesson, although all you educated types should have a guessed that by then. Anyway, they explain that Arruntius's ascension to Emperor was an unjust one as he was helped out massively by Phobos and Deimos, the sons of Mars and the main boss bad guys in this game. Invictus, the lucky fella, is charged with eliminating Arruntius and restoring the balance between good and evil, a task he readily accepts. Consequently his life is returned and he sets out on his merry quest; a quest for vengeance!



Hack, slash, stab, puncture, twist, throttle, impale.

It's at this point in the proceedings when it's time to reveal the underlying game mechanics behind this title. Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is, in fact, a weak hack and slash 'em up thinly disguised as an adventure title. Or maybe it's a weak arcade adventure thinly disguised as a hack and slash title. Hang on, maybe it's a bad platformer with a lot of fighting in it thinly disguised as; Oh what's the use; Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a straightforward beat 'em up, the ultra-simplistic likes of which we haven't seen for a long time. The controls are uninspiringly basic; two attack buttons, a universal action button, a magic button and a button that allows you to switch targets. During combat the attack buttons can be hammered in some sort of random sequence to generate combos and your action button allows you to dodge attacks. Outside of the melee the action button is used to pull switches, open doors and to jump from the occasional ledge to ledge. All this explained to you throughout the training level, however, and it's not exactly rocket science so there's no need to take notes or anything.

Hack, slash, slice, spear, stick, puncture, butcher.

As is often the case, the training level guides you step-by-step through all the moves at Thrax's disposal, while not letting you take any actual damage. The theory is that this gives you the opportunity to experiment with moves and combos care free, but considering the fact that Thrax's moves are limited to say the least, this gets dull fast. You'll find yourself bored within minutes, willing it to be over so you can get on with the real game, so to speak. And then it dawns on you; is this it? Is the difference between the training level and the rest of the game simply that in the proper game you can take damage? If it is, are you going to be gutted? Well, it could be time to get used to disappointment.



Hack, slash, smack, bang, bitch-slap.

Outside of the monotonous training level, the game works like this. You essentially guide Thrax from one area to another, navigating the landscape until you reach an area with baddies in. It's obvious when this happens since they tend to spawn from everywhere; out of the floor, through doors, out of pipes, etc, etc. Also, your stance changes to match, directing Thrax's attention towards his nearest foe, and then it's button-mashing time. In theory the two buttons you have for attack should give you the option to string combos together, but I admit I didn't really notice anything spectacular here, I thought the guy averaged about 3 or 4 hits per combo no matter what combination you pressed. They do however allow you to change direction and target mid-combo as is the current trend (thank the maker for Devil May Cry), so all you really have to do is hammer the buttons while wiggling the analogue stick occasionally to point Thrax in the right direction and Bob's your uncle. Oh, every now and again you'll see a bad guy actually block, or if it's getting a bit hectic you might only hear the 'ching' of sword hitting shield, but that's no drama; that's what the action button's for. Tap it quickly to roll away and then quickly switch back to button bashing. Err, and repeat. The only other option you have in combat is magic. The idea is to mash some enemies up a bit until your meter fills and then hit magic to unleash some kind of heavenly fury. No surprises here either, it's usually a strength boost, or your swords ignites and you dish out flames for a few seconds, or something like that, you know the drill.

Smash, mash, crash, bash, thwack.

So let's recap. Hack, slash, biff, pow, do a little roll, smack again, hit magic, smack faster for a bit and back to hacking again. And that's it. Thing is, once you have peace with the fact that that really is it, it becomes kind of fun. You do wade in blindly, often using the force to work your way through what seems like endless reams of ogres, trolls, demons, skeletons, shadow beasts and what have you, but it's not totally unsatisfying carnage by any means. It actually reminds me of playing asteroids in the same way that Prince of Persia did recently. By that I mean the shoot-wildly-while-dodging carefully tactic, which worked on that old arcade classic more than 20 years ago, now and works in Prince of Persia and works well here too. You often zone out and it can be quite relaxing, but don't get your hopes up for this title quite yet. I have to point out here that the combat is just about the only good bit in this game, and that's without going into the tricky secondary target lock business. Ugh, let's just not go there, ouch.



Biff, bash, bosh.

So what else can I tell you? Well, the 'tween combat platformy bits are embarrassingly lame since all jumping is handled by an in-game engine like in a point and click adventure, effectively taking all control away from the player and rendering that element redundant. Also, the right analogue camera control convention is flaunted since up and down pans the camera in and out but you can't swing the camera round at all. This means your only viable option is to pan the camera back as far as you can and hope for the best. It doesn't effect the game that much I'll admit, but it's needlessly irritating all the same.

Kapow, boom.

The graphics are quite passable, and all the sound's good, as are the cut-scenes too actually. You do get new weapons, power-ups, spells, stuff like that, but you would expect nothing less these days. The problem is that the game just doesn't do anything to keep your attention and it soon turns into a button mashing frenzy. That's okay if you're clinically insane or a heavy drinker, but it's not much fun for the gaming masses. The bottom line, I guess, is that even though some bits of the game show considerable promise, it's just not worth it in the end. Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a bit like Prince of Persia except without all the cool bits, so do yourself a favour and buy that game instead; that's where all the smart money is right now.

Hack, slash, maim, kill, mutilate... oh, what's the use...

Thunderbolt score: five out of ten

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