Ancient Wars - Sparta

Sparta: Ancient Wars is a period RTS by Playlogic International that takes place in the very unique years around 400 B.C. The gameplay formula is split into 3 different races all having distinctive abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Each of the 3 races: the Egyptians, Persians and Spartans are surprisingly well balanced and equally enjoyable to play; but the truly impressive part to me was the attention to detail in all the diversity of architectures, unit design, and even music. Each race feels fresh while still keeping the basic “food, money, resources” formula. Sparta looks to be coming together quite nicely.
 
From the main menu the game allows you to play all three campaigns right off the bat and all three tell different stories from a wide variety of viewpoints. The basic game mechanics are the same as most RTS’s: 1.gather resources and 2. build units to obliterate the enemy. The uniqueness here is the individuality of the three races and the units themselves. Playlogic introduces a couple new features including the ability to equip each unity with both primary and secondary weapons. This exponentially increases the strategic complexity but also the efficiency of each unit (not to mention the price). Even workers, the second group of units, are more helpful and capable than most common RTS’s. They can gather resources, build and repair buildings, farm, hunt for food, move catapults and other ancient “vehicles” and even gather weapons and armor left behind on the battlefield.

Some other highlights of the game are the graphics and physics engine. Both are fairly impressive and really are capable of showing off the detail of the time period although one of my only few complaints are the muddied textures when zoomed in. The visible crispness gradually fades away into only a fraction of the beauty they once displayed when zoomed out. Hopefully a higher detail option will be included at retail. And while my beta version did not include multiplayer, the developers have promised both internet and LAN skirmishes that will keep players happy long after the single player campaigns end. I’m itching to get a final copy to in my hands, take bets on my dorm hall and then hustle them and put the smack down.
 
The game is not polished to perfection at this point in time and only a few gripes stand out thus far. There are some balancing issues in a couple of the upper class mages and “vehicles” as well as some speed issues ensuing when a lot of action is taking place on screen. The mages and catapults wipe enemies out so ridiculously easy and reload or recharge with ease. But I must state that the A.I. never countered my catapults with some of their own so that might end up being the true equalizer, I don’t know. And again, the graphics look good overall, but the textures look very bland when zoomed in and the aliasing issues are murder to the eyes. My version wouldn’t even allow access to the options menu so whether or not Anti-Aliasing will be available is unknown. My last complaint would be the crashing issue. Albeit a beta and these things are expected, the game repeatedly crashed with errors asking for certain files or sounds that apparently didn’t exist and became slightly annoying after the 10th time or so. Other than that last issue though, most of the others are nit-picky and could even be classified as opinionated if you wanted. Overall Sparta is shaping up very nicely and I’m pleased in Playlogic for taking the bold step of doing a period RTS with all of the research that is usually involved.

Sparta: Ancient Wars takes a proven formula and improves on and individualizes itself from its predecessors and the competition. With a month or so of tweaking and polishing, Sparta looks to be an enjoyable answer for the RTS druggies among us all and a formidable time guzzler for Q1 next year. Even if you hate RTS’s, playing this game will at the very least teach you a thing or two about ancient weaponry and fighting techniques and who doesn’t want to see someone run over by a spiked horse chariot? Look for Sparta: Ancient Wars and our full review in the coming months.