Gladius developed by Lucasarts is a departure from the typical Star Wars licence. Following the story of brother and sister Ulan and Ursula or Valens and his friend Ludo.Each telling a different tale. Travel the lands entering the many arenas.Fight opponents of all shapes and sizes. Recruit other warriors to join your cause. Build a reputation for yourselves and your school of fighters. Customize and equip your fighters with weapons, armour, and magic. Follow the tale of the two leading characters as they travel the lands unfolding a story of the return of a great evil. This is Gladius, let the games begin.

Gameplay:
Gladius is essentially a turn based statedgy RPG. Upon starting the game the player is introduced to the leading characters. I opted to play as Ursula and Ulan. Free from the watchful gaze of their protective father. Its up to the duo to run their gladiator school and become great fighters so that they can protect themselves from the ever present evil that lurks within the lands.

Playing Gladius is fairly simple whereby you enter a series of events at various locations on a realtime World Map. Each location has an arena and a shop where a number of options exist. At the arena one could choose to fight in the many league events(completing these raises your reputation and allows you to take part in other events). Or you could recruit more fighters to join your school. There are a number of fighters to choose from, each having their own strengths and weaknesses and coming at different costs.The game boasts over 100 characters from 16 different classes. They range from male/female charater types such as Bandits, Barbarians, Berserkers, wolves, bears,satyrs and much more as you progress through the game. Finally there is a shop where you can outfit all of your characters with the weapons/armour/accessories that they require. The shop is also a good place to hear some local gossip and history.Customising your characters is also quite impressive whereby you can choose their looks, weapons, armour and what special skills or affinities with the gods they have.

The events themselves take place in arenas which are not always flat pieces of land and vary from all out battles with multiple teams to king of the hill and domination type matches.Once the player has chosen which combatants(usually more than two) are going to enter the battle, the player must choose their starting locations. Then the battle begins. Movement is handled by placing a cursor over a segment of land then ordering the character to move there. Attacking is handled in the same manner except the character needs to be in range with an opponent. Once in range the player will either need to press the A button at the correct time to ensure a critical hit. This is represented by a bar (as seen in many golf games) which requires quick reflexes, there is little room for error here. Other moves require the player to input button presses as quickly as possible or perhaps tap A and B buttons alternatively.The terrain and position of the enemy is also very important regarding the power of an attack i.e higher ground and from behind being the most powerful. Scoring a critical or powerful hit either through a special attack or ability will encourage the audience to favour your team. This will often give your team a slight edge however if your team is attacked then this favour is lost. Victory for standard matches is usually when all teams have been wiped out except your own. The other gametypes require a different set of victory conditions to be met, such as dishing out the most damage in a time limit or holding an area for the longest time.

I enjoyed playing Gladius in small doses as I found the gameplay a little on the repetitive side. However with the vast amount of options available to the player there is enough to see and do here. The menu screens are fairly easy to navigate yet the overall pace of the game feels sluggish and overly time consuming. The attack bar is welcome and makes battles a little more involving.

Graphics:
Graphics in Gladius are somewhat underwhelming for an Xbox title. Although they convey the gladiator feel quite well they are nothing to get excited over. The character models are nice and can be viewed at close range in some of the menu screens. There is also some nice character artwork that can be viewed here as well. The animation is also very basic yet serves its purpose. Overall the graphics in general are functional at best.

Sound:
Gladius features a typical orchestral soundtrack and some reasonable voice acting. However the lack of variety in the music may actually begin to annoy some players.As with the graphics the music is pretty functional and does nothing to actually inspire the player. The character voices are varied yet lackluster with limited speech/moans during battles.

Longevity:
The game is pretty long as there are 2 stories to follow and many combinations of characters to recruit into your school. There are loads of events to take part in which can also be tackled multiple times. Gladius also features multiplayer support with up to 4 rival schools being able to participate. I am not sure how this game could have worked on Xbox Live however as it stands its not needed and is perhaps wishful thinking.

Round Up:
Gladius is a good and entertaining game in its own right. If you can overlook the slow paced gameplay then you should be fully entertained. Sadly I was not overly engrossed in the game as I perhaps could have been due to not being drawn into or captivated by the story. I can see that the game will not appeal to all gamesplayers especally those used to a little more action orientated gameplay. However for a long term game that will keep you coming back for more over time then perhaps Gladius is for you.

Pros:

• Loads of characters to choose
  
• lots of varied event types
  
• Simplistic Gameplay
  

  Cons:
  

  • Perhaps a little repetitive
    
  • Poor music
    
  • Not for everyone