Greece Lighting
It's not quite an A rank beat em up due to certain blemishes I will adress later but it comes close mainly one on the B rank but there's nothing wrong with that.
t's pritty much "Dynisty Warriors" but in a roman setting. Like with that franchise what I really like about the game is in it's sense of stratagy. This to me really kept the beat em up from becoming boring because your hacking and slashing isn't just simply that. In this game you have more reason for it other than just survival, but sometimes it's to stop the enimy from doing somthing that can turn the tide of the war, or to simply get from one place to the other on time while your fellow soilder provide you some cover. This really give the game the group dynamic feel, which I really like and don't see often in beat em ups. But most of all just simply a bigger sense of importance because you actions and how you do things really will affect the tide of the battle.
The graphics I think are very good, I say that because there are a few rough spots but I hardly noticed. The background animation is great, it really captured the look and feel of a civilization long gone. Even the character animation is good, the main character you play looks almost like he could be related to the prince character from the "Prince of Persia" series; as well as gore which this game has a lot of. This game is crazy violent, heads get decapitated, bodies and heads get stabed, shreaded, or even explode. Down to the enimies and bosses you fight and there are a good varity of them. Music score is soild, it fits the game really making it feel like a roman epic. And the gameplay is soild, you have a decent combo system with a decent varity of weapons to use each have a power to use if your power metter is full, but also there is a rage metter. Depending on the amount of kills when it fills up it makes your weapon glow giving you time to utilize two of your sub power moves either a thrust or swing which will destroy a bunch of enimies. There not so much a fast solution (even though in some cases it is) but more of an equilizer a way to cut down the odds a little when things get harry.
However it does take a while to fill both of them metters up again, refill stations can be far away so use your powers wisely.
I also just really like the story, and the voice acting is pritty good or decent (though I would of recast the vocal for the Electra charcter). I like how both historical facts on Rome warfare along with mythology intermix, this made it all the more intreging and a bit engaging.
Though this game isn't perfect, the game does have a slight fundamental problem like most beat em up of having a bit of monotony and there is a damn escort mission which I really hate which slows the game up a little for me, honestly why the hell can't the people being protected seek good cover or just hire more security; and some weapons aquired you don't get to use much in the game like the hammer and Athena's swords. But my main problem is really with the cinamatography it is cumbersome, there are times it can switch to certain viewpoints and angles which make it hard to see where you are sometimes or causes blindspots which can easily give enimes opportunities to sucker punch you, so the cinamatography needed to be tighter.
Other than those problems Spartan: Total Warrior is a solid game, if your into hack and slash beat em ups or even roman epic movies like "Gladiator" and "300" then this is the game for you. In the immortal words of Leonodias from "300" "This is SPARTA!"