Gladius for the PS2, A gaming gem from 2003 Options

[Mercer]

I recently picked Gladius for the PS2 for $6, and long story short, I got a little obsessed with it. It basically became another part time job. I logged about 90 hours on it (saved game time, not counting restarts) in the course of a month.

It's a turn based strategic combat game, in which you're a gladiator managing a school. You recruit different types of warriors (light, medium, heavy, support, animal, and arcane), equip them and run them through battles at various arenas throughout the world. It's not a fighting game really, accuracy in combat is determined by swing meters not unlike those in golf games.

Overall, I thought the game was a lot of fun. There's a lot of beancounting and micromanaging of the gladiators in the school (down to what they wear), and while that may not sound like a lot of fun, to my particular set of dysfunctions it's a perfect match.

The only down side is the end of the game. Gladius should be taught in schools as how not to end a video game. Once you got into the final championship it leaves the arena and becomes about saving the world. I'm not adverse to raising the stakes, but once you go into the final 5 or 10 battles you start levelling your characters pretty fast and once you complete the game it's over, the credit roll and you can't go back to arena battles. Why on earth am I picking abilities and skills at every level for characters that I am never playing again?

I ended up loading my last save point before the championship and now I just roam around redoing old battles or seeking out random wilderness encounters.