Gladius (2003)

This game represents the best “bang for the buck” of any game that I have played. I picked it up back when Circuit City had a bunch of games on clearance for $5 when they were clearing room for the upcoming holiday line up. If I remember correctly, the first play through of the game was done in a “hurry up” mode, and I believe we beat it in just over 50 hours. Now, we are once again replaying it, and are well over 50 hours.

Most games these days take about 10 hours to beat, and they have little to offer after that, and they usually cost $50, so you are essentially paying $5 per hour of gameplay. Now, if you figure I have put in around 110 hours into Gladius, when I bought it at $5 that is about $0.045 per hour of gameplay.

For though of you that have no idea what this game is like, or about (aka everyone), it kind of operates like a Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. However, it is also very different. Rather than having all your actions be determined by chance, they are determined by a series of different skill oriented tasks such as alternating A and B, timing, and button combinations. But, perhaps the best thing this game has for it, is that you can play with up to three other people in the battles, something that traditional RPGs have always lacked.

The game itself is kind of like a Roman / Mythological era affair, featuring everything from legionnaires to amazons to minataurs. Basically, the game has you travel from town to town as a gladiatorial school fighting in tournaments. Ever different place has different rules and restrictions as to what you can do. It all keeps things pretty interesting, though some things are lame depending on what style you like to use. There are numerous sub-quests you can do through out to gain more experience and to break up the rigor of regular battles.

The overall main plot is kind of interjected here and there as you travel throughout the lands, but it is nothing special, and you can skip the cut scenes since they don’t really matter all that much. Once you gain enough strength to fight in the “big arena” you are forced into a linear series of events that carries through the rest of the game. This part is pretty lame, so once you beat everything else, you might as well call it a day.

Despite a couple of areas that need polish, I highly recommend this game to anyone if you can find it. It was release for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox, but most of the retailers pretty much dumped all their copies. Occasionally I see it around priced between $20-30, which is still well worth the price.