Gladius 2003

Is it still worth playing?

A turn based tactical role playing game developed and published by LucasArts for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube in 2003. You build a school of gladiators and take it into battle against rival schools, winning regional tournaments to earn a place in more important ones. You choose Valens, who runs a school in Roman like Imperia, or Ursula, a member of a school in Nordic like Nordagh, and the two stories are connected but different. Fighters fall into four classes, light, medium, heavy and support, where heavy beats medium, medium beats light and light beats heavy, and higher ground gives an advantage. Attacks use a swing meter: a timed button press decides whether a hit is weak, standard or critical. Fights on the road have no healers, so fallen fighters are lost for good. A school with different classes to balance gives each fight a puzzle.