Kills us all alright.
Visuals and Sound: 45 out of 50
Overall: 65 out of 100
Alright, this is a mixed bag. First off I'm against forced online gaming. In other words if I can't play it offline, I really am not going to play it. However I loved the premise of Spartacus, am an avid fan of the show so I sucked it up and played for 39 hours before I finally had to set aside my controller.
Let's be honest first, this is not counting the forty-eight plus hours I had to wait after the games initial release to even try to play more than fifteen minutes of, if any. This is why I am against online only. There should have been an offline game mode to this. You'll see why in the coming review.
Let's start with Story. Story? Who needs a story in the modern day. Here's your story. You have money, you pay for a guy to kill in an arena for you... you control said guy doing the killing. Kill your way to awesomeness. That enough story for you? Because that's about as much as Legends gives you. And that's just fine. The idea here is that you are to write your own legends in the realm of the Starz show Spartacus.
Problem is, the above statement is for me. A lot of people actually might not enjoy that quite so much, and miss having some type of DEEP MEANINGFUL INTERACTION with the characters they know and love from the show. So there goes any points I would otherwise give here. In other words people do want story out there, all of them? no. But enough of them.
Well once we get our first gladiator given to us, they give us a quick tutorial stage for the basics. Gotta love that. And in that tutorial is where we get a good look at how the game plays. And to say it plays superb would be exactly what I want to say, but I can't. I can't because the hype that comes with this game is too much. The hit detection is sloppy and mediocre at best. the motions and animations all seem rushed and hectic. while the backgrounds and music are all stunning and gorgeous I am left to wonder if it was made this way to distract you from the poor reaction time of your character. -shakes his head and drops in defeat as yet another sword penetrates through his ghostly foe only to be pummeled and de-faced for his efforts.-
Yes. You can cut off your opponents face which brings us to the gore and online. The gore and incredibly-simple-yet-still-super-fun kills to execute are what really got me through my near-to forty hours. (Literally, all you have to do is plan your blocks and attacks right to raise an audience meter high enough by the end of the fight, then press one button.) The online is what made me nearly break my controller for almost 50% of that time. You see, being the game is always online other people can challenge your gladiators if you're fighting. (Think old school arcade machine when that neighborhood bully dropped his quarters in and pressed start only to tromp you and steal your last two quarters.) Only in the modern technological age we are left with the following scenario:
I'm fighting in the arena. I'm finally winning. The screen goes black and "a challenger appears" comes across my screen. I'm thinking 'What the hey? You couldn't just walk into the Colosseum and challenge someone in the middle of their fight?' but I humor the silly little game for whatever reason. Time passes, the screen stays black. Then, I see my character on the screen long enough to see him die. and I am back at my home screen with no gladiator and less money.... Great.
See the problem here? The game play, while the controls are simple, fun, and fantastic (well timed presses of X, Y, B, and A are all you need to master to really have some simple, bloody, good fun)... is destroyed and eaten alive by online insanity and the above mentioned poor hit detection.
As a counterpoint to myself, IF you're lucky, or you pay for a fast enough internet connection I could see the large appeal of the game, unfortunately "affordable gaming internet" is not as widely available as we would like to think it is. Thus the only saving grace and points here in this category come from the actual game itself. the few fights I had against my friends at home, and the computer were more than amazing.
In conclusion. There's a great game in here somewhere waiting to be made for offline gamers, until then all we have is Spartacus: Legends to play with and enjoy... if we believe in the hype.