Best Spartan Total Warrior - Gamecube Deals

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Spartan: Total Warrior is a game that is quite cool. You play as The Spartan, a nameless warrior who is favored by Ares, the Greek God of War.

While the concept is quite cool, the game itself is basically pretty mindless. It mostly consists of just running around slaughtering everybody. Variation in this is accomplished by forcing you to dart around and hit a switch every now and then.

The combat itself never gets old. You face hordes of enemies in the thick of battle in pretty much neverending waves. It is quite a rush to charge into a swarm of enemies. And it is even more fun when you activate rage and power attacks.

As you advance through the game, your character's appearance gradually changes to look cooler and cooler. You get a simulated form of "Leveling Up" in the form of "Favor of the Gods" tokens. The bosses that you have to beat in the game are extremely challenging. But once you kill a boss, you can then use his/her weapon from that point on. Weapons include the Twin Blades of Athena, the Medusa Shield, and many more.

Combat is rushed and very fun. It is sort of like Gauntlet in a way, but much more realistic-feeling. You do have ranged attacks in the form of your bow and arrows, but it is more fun to just charge into a horde of enemies and start wasting 'em. To survive you not only have to know how to use your various attacks, but you also need to know how to block with your shield. Your shield is mainly used to sweep back a crowd of enemies and clear out some space so that you won't be COMPLETELY surrounded.

When you do some violent kills such as decapitations or horrendous mass-killings via power attacks, carnage numbers flash on the side of the screen. The numbers don't mean much that I can tell, other than telling you how many you have killed. But when you get the number high enough, it seems that the god Ares starts commentating in the background.

That is one of the really cool parts of this game, when Ares speaks. Believe me, it is more than a little bit disconcerting when you are finishing off enemy after enemy after enemy and you suddenly hear the deep, booming voice of Ares say, "Send their souls to me!", "Blood! I need more blood!", or "I will drown the world in chaos!" Ares really starts up when you man the ballistas and start mowing down giant hordes of Romans.

PROS:

-Novel concept, executed quite well for the most part.

-Fairly good story, with nice graphics and introduction for each level.

-Good play control. Rage attacks take advantage of the analog nature of the Gamecube's shoulder buttons. This takes some getting used to but works very well once you get used to it.

-Some pretty awesome visuals at times.

-Very challenging bosses that are fun to fight.

-Good secondary weapons that you can switch back and forth between at any time after you have obtained them.

-Good music. I liked the background music of this game, which sort of goes techno in the middle of fights. It just kind of adds to the frantic pace of the killings.

-Good camera control. You can get a really high overhead perspective, or zoom in way up-close to see all the beheadings.

-Good checkpoint locations, good save system.

-Simply a very fun game.

CONS:

-Uses the highly simplistic and much over-used "go here and hit this switch" gameplay.

-The story is not as deep as it could have been.

-Graphics are quite good at times but you quickly notice that each identical soldier class looks (and moves) exactly alike. This is understandable considering that the game engine is having to handle hundreds of soldiers at once, but it is still hard to shake the feeling that everyone is wearing exactly the same uniform and are just all clones of each other.

-Instructions are a bit lacking. This is not that big of a deal, but I think it kind of stinks that the instructions don't even tell you that power attacks won't work at all until you get the Twin Blades of Athena, and they won't work with your normal weapon set until you get the Medusa Shield.

-Statistics at the end of each level (time and how many killed) were cool but I wish there was more information. Also, I am glad that you can replay levels but I wish it would display how many unlockables are still left to unlock in each level.

-Fairly crappy unlockables in general. All you get is some concept art and a few items to use in the Arena mode, which ain't all that great.

-No multiplayer. This may be understandable considering the huge amounts of enemies involved in this game, but I personally would have liked a multiplayer mode. Multiplayer always adds a lot to a game's replay value, and it is kind of disappointing that we don't have any here. A good multiplayer mode would have been a split-screen co-op mode. Oh, well.

-Can get a little bit old after a while. I don't play this game all at once. I play a level, then play something else. I think if I tried to beat this game all at once, I would probably get kind of sick of it. Better to make it last.

Bottom line, this is not a deep game or the most involving. Though it is still a VERY GOOD game. I spent $30 on it, and I don't regret it. We don't have enough Spartan/Roman/Gladiator games for the Gamecube as is, and this is a pretty good entry. I am not going to say this is the one of the most awesome games ever made, because I feel like it somehow could have been more than it is. But it is still a good game and I recommend buying it when the price comes down a bit.

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I Love The Game, And Spartan History, The Movie 300 Was And Is My Favorite. Just The Fact That Leonidas Is In This Game Is Awesome, However The Depth And Detail Of The Storyline Is Good Too

Best Deals for Spartan Total Warrior - Gamecube

Amazing thinking this was made by the same people before making Rome:Total War. It's a great ride, and a good use of time if you have a lot of it free. Definitely recommended.

Honest reviews on Spartan Total Warrior - Gamecube

If you like hack and slash games with a little GOW thrown in there and a little diablo or Champions of Norrath for you PS2 fans, then check this game out.. It's dirt cheap these days so that's why I got it and it's a blast. Sega is a great company and about 8 out of 10 games are good from them. They have a knack for picking games to publish and they have proven that time and time again over the years. It just seems like they don't get enough respect these days and hopefully this game will entertain some of you for hours on end as it has me.

Just to make things clear, it has a lot of similar gameplay but it's not a loot hunting game, it's more story driven than anything else and I can't remember for sure, but I think you just get upgraded versions of your weapons. The gameplay itself is similar with some type of magic/overdrive attack and then your health. So it's your typical isometric 3-D hack and slash game but it doesn't take place in creepy dark dungeons, more so out in the open of the Spartan world which is in itself pretty good looking and holds up very well for such an old game.

That's about it. To be honest, I haven't played this in quite a while, just too many current gen games but I tell you one thing, I remember loving it and I'm about to jump off the computer and play it for a minute right now. Later and you won't regret this purchase if it's your forte. 4/5 stars in my opinion

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From my grown-up point of view the gameplay is frenetic, I can barely keep track of what's happening. The Spartan has near-superhuman strength and stamina. The battles are intense. My kid LOVES this game, which is all I'm concerned with. It's somewhat violent, but nothing objectionable. Overall I'm impressed with the design of hte game, the graphics are really spectacular. But I've learned that all that really matters about video games is whether or not my kids find play value in them, and this one gets TWO THUMBS UP -great one-player game.