Spartan: Total Warrior

Spartan: Total Warrior
Developer(s)	Creative Assembly
Publisher(s)	Sega
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox
Release	October 24, 2005
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single player

Spartan: Total Warrior is a spin-off action game of the Total War series, developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It was released on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The game has 14 varied levels, in which the player is a lone Spartan warrior, fighting alongside his Greek allies against the Roman Empire, guided by Ares.

Whilst the Total War series has traditionally focused upon historical and legendary scenarios with each installment, Spartan: Total Warrior is somewhat more liberal in its approach to history and has more in common with games such as God of War.

Story

The game takes place in the time of the Roman Empire, during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. The empire has expanded into Greece, conquering the entire country, but one city, Sparta, remains to stand against it. The Romans, under General Crassus, have besieged the city, and are preparing to attack. The Spartan (controlled by the player) fights alongside the Spartans, with Castor and Pollux, defending the walls. The Romans are repelled, but Crassus sends Talos, a giant bronze man, to attack the walls. The Spartan destroys Talos using ballistas on the walls. That night, Ares instructs the Spartan to enter the Roman camp and recover the Blades of Athena. He succeeds, aided by Castor, and in the process frees Electra and several other prisoners. Electra warns the Spartans that the Romans have a new, powerful weapon. She is proved to be correct when the Romans attack with a weapon powered by Medusa, with the capability to turn entire phalanxes of troops into stone. The Spartan once more enters the Roman camp, kills Crassus, and destroys the weapon, recovering the Medusa Shield in the process.

Ares once more speaks to the Spartan, and instructs him to go to Troy and recover the spear of Achilles in order to save Sparta. The Spartan travels through the Badlands north of Greece with Castor, Pollux and Electra, arriving at Troy having saved a village from barbarian warriors under the control of Beowulf, and recovering his hammer, Death-Biter. The Spartan enters the underworld of Troy, alone. He fights his way to Achilles' tomb, along the way encountering Sejanus, the Praetorian Prefect, Tiberius' right-hand man, and necromancer. Sejanus resurrects many skeletons and undead Trojan and Greek warriors to fight the Spartan. Upon reaching the tomb, the Spartan is once more met by Sejanus, who makes him fight his nemesis, an exact copy of him who has the same abilities, and who knows the Spartan's every move and thought. The Spartan again survives, and takes the spear of Achilles which his nemesis was armed with. The Spartan fights his way out of the underworld rejoining his allies, and leaves the city, killing the Hydra along the way. However the Spartans were informed by Sejanus that Sparta fell to the Romans in their absence, as they were not there to protect it.

The Spartan realizes that Tiberius must be killed and the empire stopped. He travels to Athens, where he meets the scientist Archimedes, who leads the Athenian resistance against the Romans. The Spartan aids the resistance by protecting Archimedes, saving several resistance members from execution, and using Archimedes' invention, the Eye of Apollo, to activate a lightning gun, which he uses to shoot down Ladon, employed by Sejanus as a steed. Sejanus kills Pollux easily, turning him into an undead minion, and proceeds to battle the Spartan and Electra. The Spartan prevails and cuts down Sejanus, who remarks that Sejanus was right, he was more of a challenge than Crassus.

Leaving Athens, the Spartans travel to Rome, via the Gates of Saturn, a fortress in the Alps, where they encounter an undead Sejanus. The Spartan kills his priestesses, the sources of his power, before finally killing Sejanus, defeating him for the last time. The Spartans then continue to Rome, where they plan to kill Tiberius. The Spartan would go through the Roman sewers and catacombs to get into the city, while the others traveled on the surface to the colosseum, where Tiberius would be attending an event, at which they hope to kill him by blowing up his stand. The Spartan succeeds in navigating the sewers, and reaching the surface, after killing the Minotaur. Unfortunately, the others had been discovered and had to detonate the bombs too early, with the result that Tiberius survived. The Spartan saves Electra and Castor, and makes his way to Tiberius. Tiberius, however, falls off the stand to his death. The Spartan then makes his way to the arena, where he meets the true antagonist of the story: Ares, who reveals the truth to him.

The Spartan, who had never known his identity, was really the son of one of Aphrodite's handmaids, who revealed Ares' affair with the goddess to her husband. Ares killed the handmaid, but was banished by the other gods. The Spartan had all memory of his past removed, and was sent to live with the Spartans, having been granted superhuman powers and abilities. He was hidden from Ares, who wanted to kill him. Ares had helped the Romans conquer Greece purely to find the Spartan and bring him to Rome. Ares and the Spartan duel, and the Spartan emerges victorious, destroying Ares.

In Spartan Total Warrior the player is able to play two modes, the campain or arena battle mode which the player and a bunch of spartan soldiers have to hold out in the arena.

Gameplay

Spartan Total Warrior features fast hack and slash gameplay. The player is able to use two main types of attack, a simple attack which damages one enemy, and a radial attack that damages multiple enemies over a large area around The Spartan. The simple attack is fast and causes the most amount of damage, whereas the radial attack is slower, but damages multiple enemies at a time with a moderate power.

As the player progresses through the game, he will unlock new weapons, including a basic sword and shield, a basic bow, an upgraded sword and shield (medusa shield), dual swords (swords of Athena), an upgraded bow, a hammer (Death-Biter) and a spear (Spear of Achilles). Each of these weapons have some good and bad points. The swords of Athena supply very fast attacks but cause a moderate amount of damage, the Death-Biter is extremely powerful and causes a great amount of damage but is very slow, and the spear of Achilles is very fast with semi-powerful attacks, a good all-round weapon. Aside from melee attack the player can use a bow and arrow with limited ammo to destroy enemies from a distance. It is also possible to use the 'power of the gods': when the magic tank is full, the player can use a simple or radial magic attack, and each weapon has a special magic power. Another important feature of the game is that when the spartan lands a certain amount of attacks, his rage meter fills, and then he can utilise powerful attacks with each weapon which causes a lot of damage.

The Spartan has some Greek allies who help him in his battles, and they play an important role about the fate of each mission. The Spartan is their leader and they follow him in his missions.

Allies And Enemies

Allies

• The Spartan is the ultimate Spartan warrior who was abandoned at birth.
• Castor is Pollux's twin brother and a good soldier.
• Pollux is Castor's twin brother and is one of Sparta's best swordsmen.
• Electra is an Amazon princess and a skilled warrior.
• Leonidas is Sparta's king.
• Archimedes is the inventor of the Eye of Apollo lightning gun used to shoot down Ladon.

Enemies

• Crassus is the Roman general in charge of the siege of Sparta.
• Beowulf is a fierce warrior, chieftain of the Danes and commander of the barbarians. He wields Deathbiter, the undefeatable hammer
• Sejanus is the Praetorian Prefect who has knowledge of dark magic and head of the Praetorian Guard.
• Tiberius is the Roman Emperor who has gone mad. He fears the Spartan, and demands that he be killed on sight.
• The Priesteses Sejanus's spiritual guids and his Achilles' heel to his sorcery.
• Ares the god of war and the surprise villain of the story that organized the Roman assault on Greece in a search for the Spartan.

Featured Mythical Creatures

• Talos
• Medusa
• Gigantes
• Minotaur
• Hydra
• Ladon
• Ares

Trivia

Spartan: Total Warrior's levels and missions are built into a five-act, three-scene structure made popular by Ancient Greek plays. The story follows the same pattern, with a doom-laden end to act two as Sparta falls before building to a glorious third act climax.

In the game's first level, "The Storm Breaks", Castor proclaims that "the Roman arrows will darken the sun!" The Spartan replies "Good, we shall have our battle in the shade", a phrase used by the Spartan Dienekes at the Battle of Thermopylae in reference to the Persian archers.

Music

The original music soundtrack for the game was composed by Jeff van Dyck. Van Dyck also wrote the music for the games in Creative Assembly's Total War franchise.

See also

• Several Spartan: Total Warrior music files from Jeff van Dyck's official site
• Spartan: Total Warrior chosen by Actionbutton.net as 24th best game of all time