To be sure, there are some interesting tweaks here and there to the traditional RTS, most notably ship combat and the development of warriors. Ship combat is far more intricate than any other game I've played, with different types of soldiers on the ships affecting the battles. In terms of warrior development, while there are only a couple of buildings necessary to "train" (read as "create") your warriors, through the use of researchable technology upgrades, each building can create warriors with a number of different weapon and shield combinations (which all cost varying amounts of money). In addition, the laborers who construct buildings, farm, and get gold can pick up the weapons of dead enemy combatants, making them available for kitting your own warriors (but only in the specific amount that were picked up).
While this is a wonderfully interesting feature, the implementation leaves something to be desired. The laborers need to be directed to each individual weapon and shield to be picked up, even when they weapons and shields are all right next to each other, rather than being able to set the laborer to a "scavenge" mode and have them troll for dropped items. Having the ability to pick up advanced weaponry is great, but not if all your soldiers are dying in a battle because you're busy clicking on each individual bow to get them into your stockpile.
Ancient Wars: Sparta is, at turns, frustrating and incredibly fun. I hope that the "Ancient Wars" preface to the title is a precursor of more games to come in the series. There are certainly good elements here to be built upon and refined in follow-ups. In its current iteration, the game provides a decent bridge to tide over gamers to the next blockbuster release in the genre.
Ancient Wars: Sparta is rated M (Mature) for blood and violence by the ESRB.
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Article comments
1 - Bill
Sparta.
Where do I begin. I played a little over 5 minutes of this game to realise it's probably the biggest waste of money on a pc game. Graphics are good but HUGE, so there's little in the way of creating a thriving community. Gameplay is laboured and often banal. The accents are totally beyond reason (I've never heard of a cockney Spartan)and the slightest movement of a character is met with more banality... 'hmm', 'yes', 'I approve of your plan', I only moved a character 10 feet.
In closing.
SAVE YOUR MONEY.
1/10