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Spartan
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Graphics & Sound:
If Spartan looks a little familiar to you, there’s a reason. It’s been published by Slitherine Software, the same people who brought you Legion and Chariots of War. Spartan carries you a little farther east to the Aegean Sea and the world of Asia Minor. The most notable graphical improvement comes with the battles. You have an option of viewing them in the original 2D mode, or you can opt for a more impressive 3D experience. The world map has also gotten a face lift, as the landscape is also represented with rolling 3D hills and forests.
Musically, Spartan is great. Serene tracks play as you manage your empire from your objective vantage point. Once you get into battle, the pace picks up a bit to accompany the sounds of war. Men screaming and metal on metal is the common audio theme during these bloody scenes, and are delivered in a solid, convincing way.
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Gameplay:
Spartan not only shares the same graphics as Legion and Chariots of War, but also the same questionable gameplay. The slow, micromanagement necessary for your cities’ development (sometimes numbering in the dozens) is punctuated only by brief but nerve wracking battles; battles where you have almost no control over your units and must watch as they try to rely on your vague, initial orders.
But first, the cities. Spartan is a strategy game, and a turn-based one at that. This style of strategy play is held alive only by a few successful titles such as Civ III and the Total War series. Spartan borrows some pages from these games’ books, and adds a few unique elements of its own.
As the ruler of any province in ancient Greece or the smaller region of Asia Minor, you plan your cities’ strategy on a monthly basis. Each turn counts as a month. You must deal with things like research, taxes, what each city will build, what resource each city can create, and so on. This part of the game is very attention dependant. Each turn must be taken slowly and in stride; there are a lot of things to think about, what with countless neighbors constantly plotting to overthrow you. One small slip in an early turn could spell disaster further down the road, and it’s hard to spot without looking carefully.
The city management and diplomatic portion of the game can be easily swallowed. You have a lot of choices to make, and none can be taken lightly. This system of play lends highly to hardcore armchair emperors, and may turn casual gamers off. Unfortunately, the other half of the game is what may turn hardcore gamers off. Of course, I’m speaking of the notorious battle system.
Battles take place in a very unorthodox way, at least compared to most other video games. As your armies roam the map, one will ultimately come in contact with an opposing force. When this occurs, you are transported to the field of battle, where you see a two dimensional layout of everything. From here you place your armies, give them a vague order, and then hit a button and watch how it all turns out. There is almost nothing you can do after you hit the start button, save for calling a full out retreat. You will either love it or hate it.
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Difficulty:
Initially, the game is hard. Very hard. You start out weak, alone, and with very little idea of how to survive in a harsh world. From the start, computer opponents will attack you. Do what you may with your diplomats, you just can’t seem to make friends. Thankfully, for both myself and for the sake of this article, I found a patch that tones down the initial aggressiveness of the AI players. This patch almost makes Spartan a completely new game. The AI is still aggressive, but it at least lets you get a foothold early on so you can fend off their inevitable attacks later.
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Game Mechanics:
Spartan plays like most other games of its type. You can view the global map, with its cities, armies, and borders well defined on it, or you can zoom down into one of your cities and start getting into the meat of the game. There are a couple of other useful windows that you’ll be utilizing along the way, but the initial two are where you’ll be spending most of your time.
For all its differences, Spartan plays like most other games of its type until you get into battle. This is the factor that will play the ultimate role for anyone experiencing the game; do I keep playing or turn it off for something better? I’ll admit, spending a good 5 to 10 minutes setting up a huge army on the battlefield, factoring unit types, terrain, experience, how good my initial scouting of the field was, where I think the enemy will place his units, just to watch them get trampled because you had a weak flank is kind of annoying. Watching and not being able to do anything about it is even worse.
The developers are definitely on to something with this style of battle, but there’s something not quite right about it. You can give each squad (made up of any number of troops) an initial command like charge, wait, or attack the nearest enemy, but when they get onto the field and you lose all control, it’s hard to imagine why your squad of elite cavalry would continue charging past the enemy’s lines for about three hundred yards just to let your infantry get slaughtered. Too many times will the winning factor be based upon something you couldn’t possibly predict, and it wears on the nerves quite a bit.
Spartan is made to be enjoyed, not conquered. The goal of the game is to experience ancient Greece as one of the many diverse cultural entities that existed back then. You won’t conquer the Aegean as the pitiful island nation of Crete. Each region has its victory conditions; conquer 20 cities, amass so much silver, be the first to construct a unique building. The goals themselves should tip you off as to the nature of the game. You’re not supposed to wash the lands with the blood of all your enemies; just your worst neighbors. There is a lot of history and context to Spartan, and if you’re willing to play through and soak it all up, it has a lot to offer. It definitely won’t be winning any AAA awards, but it does continue and slightly improve upon a trend that, with a little more refining, could be something great. For now, we can only keep our fingers crossed and try to enjoy what we’ve got.
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-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 98/ME/XP/2K, 233 MHz Processor, 128 MB RAM, 500 MB Hard Disk Space, 4 MB Video Card |
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Test System:
Windows ME, AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 128 MB GeForce FX 5200 Video Card, 40 GB Hard Drive, Creative Labs Sound Card, Cable Modem Internet Connection |
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