Gladius (2003)
Genres:Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS)
Themes:Action, Fantasy
Game modes:Single player, Split screen
Story:Gladius is a turn-based gladiatorial RPG. Players try to build a championship gladiator school by gaining experience through fighting battles in the arenas and recruiting new members.
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So many good memories of trying different combinations of gladiators! Watching to see if Ursula and Valens would end up together! Never will forget this game!
(as of this writing those two first person screenshots are NOT from this game)
A real hidden gem of its time, Gladius is a cherished experience for me. Has a real KOTOR 1 tone to its story full of character and dramatic moments through one of two chosen routes that eventually converge. Either the son of a war hero from Imperia (fantasy rome) or the daughter descended from the King of the warrior nation of Nordagh (fantasy germanic tribes).
Beyond its actual plot, it has a kind of emergent story telling similar to XCOM with its recruitable gladiators, ranging from more traditional warriors like secutors, archers, and axe wielding barbarians, to witches, assorted animals, a few unique fantasy creatures, and the undead.
Serwacy the secutor sounds like every other male secutor, but through their successes, failures, and a few voice lines, units tended to take a life of their own for me (and although the armor gear slot doesnt change the visual, you can customize hair, skin, and armor colors, and helmets, weapons, and shields do affect the model). There's such a visual and functional variety in the classes, as well as in the stages. Fighting takes place in a wide range of arenas from standard colosseums rings, palace courtyards, and an animal pen or two (gotta start somewhere), to inside a volcano, atop a snowy mountain, or among the bones of a dragon god.
not to oversell it though, the graphics are decent for the time, textures are good, baked lighting does the job, but particle effects are pretty lacking. still, the games full of color and character, not to mention the soundtrack courtesy of lucasarts' in-house orchestra.
naturally all of this is colored by my nostalgia. it got lots of 8's and 9's back then, never rated below a 7 if I remember right. worst I can say about it in my bias from recent playthroughs is the early pace is a bit slow. all of it together though creates a fantastic turn based rpg, and one I believe deserves as much attention as it can get.
A rare and unique hidden gem a combination of turn based strategy and rpg elements you choose your playstyle tatics weapons as you cross 4 different areas of the world commanding the gladitors in unique arena's. should be part of every tacticians library
so many amazing characters you can recruit and add to your ranks from many different regions, like sorcerers (both undead and human), amazons, ogres, cyclops, even bugs like scarab beetles and scorpions. each of them have their own movesets and animations, different ways of traversing the environment. magic spells you can master to throw the tides of battle like summoning monsters and even elemental gods. top quality acting talent from linda cardinelli (velma from scooby doo (2002), freaks and geeks) who plays ursula, michael rosenbaum (lex luther in smallville) who plays valens and jason marsden (haku from spirited away) who plays ludo. more and more people need to play this game, truly a fun time
Tactical turn-based, grid-based RPG with leveling and unique skills sets, a bunch of weapon/item choices, both story and generic characters, in a gladiatorial setting with some occult/folklore/mythological stuff tossed in? Yes, please. Closest we've gotten since is probably the arena fighting in Battle Brothers or the pit fighting in Wartales. Give me a few quality of life improvements, a couple of balance changes, and remove the cap on the number of gladiators we can have and I will give you all of the money. I hooked up my PS2 just last year to specifically play this game only to find out it apparently went to console heaven in the 15 years that had passed since it was last hooked up.
a tactical turn based rig set in mythological rome, what’s not to love!? rented this from hollywood video back in ‘03 after seeing its trailer in the movies section of kotor1. it broke my heart when my mom made me return it after the rental period was up and never saw it again
Before XCOM Enemy Unknown, there was this gem of a tactical RPG. Played it a LOT on XBOX (original). So many characters to pick from to build your own unique gladiator squad. With 2 protagonists to start with, it added a bit of replay potential. Always hoped for a sequel, but love to see it pop up on GOG as I haven't played it in years.
This is one of my all time faves. Endless replayability, gameplay that holds up today, a super cool setting, and just an sll around good time to be had. Gladiator game done right.
This really feels like a game that could only have come from the PS2 era. Jank, unfinished, horribly slow but completely unique and seemingly made only for the subset of people that might click with it to enjoy.
We got this for Xbox and jammed 4-player. Everythign we could have wanted out of a gladiator tactics game. everyone had thier own character. We took this to a buddies grandparents where they had a basement setup as an Ode to Gaming. (There was a TV with Tetris that never shut off, high scores burned across the screens of the CRT.) We darkened the room and spent several days jamming on our vacation. We were a vicious lot when it came to our enemies. Lol
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