There’s no doubting that the RTS market has seen some top knotch moments over the past few years. Great titles and series like Warcraft, Civilization, Age of Empires, and a handful of others have blessed us with some superb sequels and some great new entrances to the market as well. Unfortunately, too much of a good thing can occasionally lead to a lack of interest, and games are no exception to this rule. This last statement is the exact reason why I was pleased to see some developers trying to breathe new life into the popular style of RTS titles, like the recent release Impossible Creatures and now … Gladiators : Galactic Circus Games by Arxel Tribe. Gladiators shows that it is an RTS at heart, but definitely provides a unique and fun gaming experience which deserves major props for incorporating some new things into the popular but sometimes overdone gaming style.

Gladiators revolves around the story of Sgt. Greg Callahan, a military officer who is evidently a gritty, rude, and rough necked individual who is released from prison in the opening scene of the game to undergo a task that only he would be capable of. He and his troops are sent into space to investigate a black hole, and wind up getting captured on the other side by an alien race. Callahan is scheduled for execution, but is offered a second chance at life by a princess who wants him to fight in her name in the brutal and violent gladiator tournaments being held to determine the next holder of the throne. Callahan accepts the mission, and off you go.

OK … as I stated before, Gladiators remains an RTS at its heart and core. The controls will be nothing new to anyone who has played or is a fan of RTS titles, with left click and dragging allowing you to select multiple troops or right clicking areas which tells troops where to go or telling them which enemies to attack. Each stage has an objective that you need to reach in order to complete the stage, and a time limit set as well. As far as similarities to other titles goes … that’s really about it.

The first thing that makes Gladiators different from some of its brethren out there is the game set up in general. Arxel Tribe has completely done away with the whole “managed resources” idea in this one, so there will be no chopping down trees, hunting animals, or mining gold in this game. Instead, there is a little bit of a cross with an FPS or 3^rd person action title by placing the focus primarily on action with you picking up and using powerups to heal troops, increase weapon damage, and create new allies at designated spawn points. This is a good thing to those of us who like our gaming a little more on the fast paced side, and would rather annihilate enemies than build houses and buildings.

Secondly, the environments themselves have areas that really try and put focus on strategy. Oh sure, lots of RTS games have defensive towers that shoot arrows and such at incoming opponents, but Gladiators uses towers as a strict defensive point to provide cover fire for other troops and give you an advantage when confronted by a swarm. There are also bunkers that can be used for additional defense for incoming ranged attacks, and even the vegetation that is also here and there and ranging from trees to tall grasses can be your friend. For example, use it to set up ambush points for enemy patrols or unwary bad guys who just had to follow that lone scout you sent in to investigate the next part of the map. In addition, there are things which can work for you or against you as well, like exploding barrels or land mines which can either put you up one knotch or possibly cost you the game if you use them the wrong way.

The last major thing here in Gladiators revolves around troop assignment. I enjoy playing RTS games, but I’m not the best at them. (Ask anyone who’s played me in Age of Mythology online … I’m an easy win for them!) One big issue that I have run into is trying to left click and drag all the time to separate out various troops from one another or have them go their separate ways. Arxel Tribe has included the ability in Gladiators to have up to nine one button assignments. This makes it simple to set up something like X troops and X bazooka carriers in squad A, X troops and X bazooka carriers in squad B, and X troopers in squad C that I will use as my scouting crew. This makes it easy to just hit a button and shoot right over to the team I want, and keeps things fast and non complicated. As you can imagine, it also kept me from losing a ton of well needed allies due to the screen not scrolling fast enough or whatnot.

Really, there are only a couple of reasons that I can see why someone who is a big RTS fan would choose to skip this game. The main reason of course is in the overall lack of the “GodSim” style found in some other titles like Cultures 2 or Age of Empires which allows you to build big kingdoms and spend X hours assembling an army. Make no mistake about it, Gladiators has some great strategy elements to it but is built for action and for fast paced entertainment … period. Also, the levels themselves don’t feel as wide open as a lot of other titles do, since most of the stages will have you going from point A to point B along a designated pathway rather than having a large body of land to move around on.

Secondly, there isn’t any kind of difficulty control or way to make it a little easier. Now, that’s not a horrible thing overall since strategy is strategy, and making mistakes and getting killed many times is just part of the game. Well, that may be true, but to someone like me who enjoys RTS games but am better at stuff like FPS titles or whatnot, multiple do overs on the same stage a lot of times can get a little frustrating when I just can’t figure out how to get by a seemingly unstoppable army ambush for four or five tries.

Graphically, Gladiators looks fantastic. The environments are well detailed and the lighting effects from shadows to the flashing of explosions or weapon fire look great. Zooming in close also shows good detail and even at close range, the game does not show any graphical deterioration or pixelling. Water will pulse and move around the shore and out farther in the sea, and the trees will occasionally blow a little bit and wave around like a breeze was coming through. One thing in particular that I thought was impressive about Gladiators graphically was the crowd themselves. While there were a lot of similar models used and all of them seem to move very similar, the whole setup had a 3-D look to it rather than the typical 2-D flat group that usually attends gaming sports.

The sound in Gladiators is also top notch, from the cheers of the crowd when you begin ripping into a group of opposing creatures to the announcer who will come on and make little remarks about how horribly you are about to die or why you won’t live another 5 minutes. The music itself was also really neat to me, even if it was a tad repetitive, since it has a “drop D” style of pulsating, grungy heavy metal complete with double kick drums and a tone that helps to set a violent and aggressive background to the whole experience. I like that kind of music, and it’s nice to see someone use it rather than the typical techno beat but also use it pretty well.

Overall, Gladiators reminded me of something that would be seen in a Heavy Metal comic (which I am still a big fan of, by the way) or in one of the animated movies … so those of you who are fans of the publication will no doubt enjoy the overall presentation of the game. RTS fans should definitely give this one a shot, since the overall makeup will make it simple to get into, but will provide a challenge and an experience that is different enough to stand out on it’s own. My hats off to Arxel Tribe for venturing “out of the box” here, and thanks for a cool, action packed, and fun RTS title!

Gameplay: 8.7
Basically, Gladiators is simple to pick up and get into for anybody, but hard as heck to master. It’s a whole lot of fun to play, and the unique presentation and little crossovers to styles like FPS games and 3^rd person action titles was a unique and neat little twist to give it something different from your run of the mill RTS title. The environments are more linear than other similar games out there, and while the lack of resource management was great for a run and gun person like me gamers who enjoy a more God-Sim approach may not feel as positive about it as I did. Regardless, I don’t think there are a lot of RTS gamers who don’t enjoy the combat aspect of it out there.

Graphics: 9.0
The graphics in Gladiators were well colored, bright, flashy, and looked great. The crowds were really impressive to me, and had a somewhat cartoony presentation to them that had a 3-D look to it rather than the typical 2-D thing that we see so often nowadays. Close ups show no pixellation or deteriorating in the graphics, and the cutscenes are played out in a comic book style form which looks really cool. Lighting effects were well done, including natural environmental lighting and flashing of guns or explosions.

Sound: 8.8
The voiceovers in the game and the cutscenes were done well, and didn’t sound too corny or scripted overall. The crowd cheering as you and your enemies ripped each other apart was a great add on to the whole experience of the gameplay, and the announcer who came on periodically to make little remarks and get the crowd worked up was nifty as well. The music was a heavy metal style presentation that set the tone for a fast paced and violent game which worked well and set a good tone overall.

Difficulty: Hard
OK … the game is very challenging as you play and try to learn where some key ambush points or places to look out for may be while getting smoked a few times, but picking it up and playing it won’t take longer than a minute for just about anyone … RTS fan or no. Everything from assigning and selecting squads to moving into defensive structures was easy to figure out. If you buy it, you can be assured you’ll have the game mechanics figured out quickly to enjoy.

Concept: 9.1
While it remains a tried and true RTS title at it’s core, the overall game presentation made it completely different in a lot of ways to anything else that I have played in the same ballpark in a long time. Getting Gladiators will be good for a lot of you to be assured that you aren’t just buying a game identical to the other 50 RTS games that you already have lying around.

Multiplayer: 8.9
Yes, Gladiators has an online and LAN supported multiplayer mode with it as well. Like other RTS games, you have your pretty standard deathmatch game, but you also have some styles that can be found in other game styles as well like capture the flag and team deathmatch to mess around with.

Overall: 8.9
While gamers out there who don’t particularly like RTS titles may wind up walking away from this one with the same feeling, this is the kind of game that also might make fans out of those same kinds of gamers as well. The incorporating of action game styles into a neat little RTS package definitely caters to a broader market and may bring a lot of newer fans to the RTS market. I applaud Arxel Tribe for the fun game, and also for doing something different in a somewhat flooded game style. RTS fans … go buy this one. You’ll enjoy it. If you are more of an action game fan, but enjoy a dash of strategy, you also probably won’t be disappointed with it and will find the blending of the different styles to be right up your alley.