Spartan: Total Warrior is a 2005 hack and slash game for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega, it was released on all platforms in October. It is a spin-off of the Total War series.
The game tells an ahistorical story focusing on the "Spartan", a Spartan warrior fighting alongside his Greek allies against the invading Roman Empire. An orphan with no knowledge of his true identity, Spartan is secretly guided by Ares, who has promised him aid during the conflict, and information as to his identity after it. In return, Spartan must help Ares achieve an unspecified revenge on someone.
Total Warrior is the only installment in the Total War series to have been released for video game consoles rather than PCs or Macs. It was the first Total War game published by Sega. The game originated in an examination of whether or not it would be possible to make a "true" Total War game work on a console. When Creative Assembly realised it would not, they decided to go in a different direction; making an action game within the traditions of the series, but one that would push console hardware to its limits.
The game was well received, with critics praising the combat mechanics, game engine, controls, and, especially, the game's sense of scale. Common points of criticism included a high difficulty level, unfair boss battles, and repetitive combat. Some critics also found the game to be something of a glorified button-masher.
Gameplay Spartan Total Warrior is a hack and slash game played from a third-person perspective. The player character has two main types of attack; a simple attack which damages one enemy and a radial attack which damages multiple enemies. The simple attack is fast and causes more damage; the radial attack is slower and deals moderate damage.
The game's combat tends to focus on large battles with multiple combatants. A crucial component of the gameplay is blocking incoming attacks in between offensive blows, hence the player must balance offence and defense. The player's shield can also be used offensively to shove enemies back (the player has the option to shove back a single enemy a good distance, or perform a radial shove, pushing a group of enemies back a small distance). This allows the player to interrupt an enemy's block or to shove enemies off ledges. Shield attacks are especially important for fighting enemies who themselves have shields, as shield attacks can knock them off balance briefly, leaving them open to attack. The player can also execute a shield-break attack by jumping towards an enemy and attacking. Another move available to the player is an evasive roll. When an enemy has been knocked to the ground, the player can perform a one-hit finishing move, which differs with each weapon.
The player begins the game with a sword, shield, and basic bow, but as the story progresses, new weapons are unlocked, each of which comes with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. The Blades of Athena are dual swords which are considerably faster, but somewhat weaker, than the single sword. The Shield of Medusa can turn enemies into stone. The Bow of Power can set enemies on fire. The war hammer Death-Biter is very strong, but slow. The Spear of Achilles has a long reach and deals significant damage, but is cumbersome to wield. The player character also grows in strength as the game progresses. At the end of each level, he is awarded tokens which he can use to increase his damage, health and magic.
As the character lands attacks, a rage meter fills, which, when full, can be used to unleash more powerful attacks. Each weapon has its own specific rage attack, and the player has a choice between an individual rage attack or a radial rage attack. Magic in the game is in the form of the "Power of the Gods." When the player's magic tank is full, the player can use single or radial magic attacks, with each weapon having a specific magical power linked to each attack. For example, the Blades of Athena's radial magic attack strikes all enemies on screen with lightning, causing moderate damage to each enemy. On the other hand, the Blades of Athena's single magic attack causes a single enemy to explode.
Story It is 300 BC and the Roman Empire has conquered most of Greece. Overseen by Emperor Tiberius from Rome, the only remaining holdout against the Romans is the city-state of Sparta. As the game begins, the Spartan king, Leonidas, is preparing his soldiers for an attack. One such soldier is a man known only as the Spartan, an orphan with no knowledge of his true identity, who was raised to be a soldier due to his exceptional combat skills. Waiting for the attack, Spartan hears the voice of Ares, God of War, who offers him a deal; he will aid Spartan in defeating the Romans and reveal his true identity in return for Spartan delivering an act of unspecified revenge.
Led by General Crassus, the Romans attack with Talos, a mechanised bronze giant. However, Spartan and his closest friends, the brothers Castor and Pollux, are able to destroy the machine. That night, Ares instructs Spartan to infiltrate the Roman camp and recover the Blades of Athena, lost since the Trojan War. Accompanied by Castor, Spartan is successful, and during the raid, they encounter Electra, Princess of the Amazons. Back in Sparta, she tells Leonidas that the Romans have built a powerful new weapon, and shortly thereafter, Crassus reveals a weapon powered by an imprisoned Medusa, capable of turning entire phalanxes to stone in a split second. Spartan fights his way to Medusa, destroying the weapon and killing Crassus.
Ares then instructs Spartan to go to the ruins of Troy and recover the Spear of Achilles. Accompanied by Castor, Pollux, and Electra, Spartan soon encounters Sejanus, the Praetorian prefect. Sejanus says that Crassus underestimated Spartan, a mistake he has no intention of making. Spartan fights his way through the ruins, forced to battle a clone of himself and subsequently defeating the Hydra. With the Spear in Spartan's possession, Sejanus reveals that Sparta has fallen and Leonidas is dead.
Crestfallen, the group heads to Athens, seeking the advice of the scientist Archimedes. Spartan protects Archimedes from Roman assassins, saves several resistance members from execution, and leads the people of Athens in a rebellion, storming Sejanus and the Praetorian Guard's base. Pollux attacks Sejanus but is swiftly killed. Sejanus then turns him into a zombie whom Castor is forced to fight whilst Spartan and Electra battle Sejanus and the dragon Ladon. They are victorious, freeing Athens from Roman dominion.
Leaving Electra to oversee Pollux's funeral, Spartan and Castor head to the Gates of Saturn, a heavily guarded fortress in the Alps through which they must pass to get to Rome. There they encounter an undead Sejanus, who has been resurrected through necromancy. Spartan is able to kill Sejanus's priestesses, who are the source of his power. He then battles Sejanus, killing him for good.
Spartan and Castor continue on to Rome and meet Electra, with Spartan planning to use the catacombs to get into the Colosseum. En route, he fights and defeats an escaped Minotaur, and eventually makes his way to Tiberius, who commits suicide out of fear of an unknown "master."
Spartan is then confronted by Ares, who tells him that he is the son of one of Aphrodite's handmaidens. The handmaiden had revealed Ares's affair with Aphrodite to her husband, Hephaestus, and Ares killed her in revenge. However, he was banished by the other gods. Knowing Ares would also want to kill the handmaiden's son, the gods hid the baby in Sparta and granted him superhuman powers so as to protect himself should Ares ever locate him. Unable to find the child, Ares manipulated Tiberius and orchestrated the Roman invasion of Greece, knowing the war would bring the man to the forefront because of his abilities. The revenge which Ares seeks is the death of Spartan himself. Ares and Spartan fight, with Spartan killing the god. Joined by Castor and Electra, they celebrate the fall of the Empire as Castor, now king of Sparta, labels Spartan "a warrior, a hero, a legend."
Development Announcement and demos Spartan: Total Warrior was announced at the Game Developers Conference in March 2005. Sega revealed they had partnered with Creative Assembly to publish a console spin-off of the Total War series, marking the first time Creative Assembly had worked on a console-exclusive game. Set for release on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, the game was promoted as more action-orientated than the real-time tactics games that make up the series, with the player controlling a single warrior throughout the campaign, rather than commanding a legion. Scott A. Steinberg, Sega of America's vice president of marketing, lauded the game as offering "both dynamic, real-time combat sequences and epic-sized battles; a combination that has never been accomplished on this generation of hardware." The following day, Sega announced they had purchased Creative Assembly as part of their strategy "to strengthen [their] emphasis on the western market."
More information about the game was revealed prior to the E3 event in May where two non-playable demo sections were shown; a section from the opening level with the Romans using siege towers to try to get into Sparta and the battle against Crassus after he has unveiled the Medusa weapon. These demos specifically demonstrated the game engine's ability to create battles involving up to 170 soldiers, with advanced AI resulting in enemies and allies fighting one another irrespective of the player's actions. A longer demo was made available at E3 itself, showcasing the player protecting a village from a horde of invading Barbarians, the catacombs of Rome, and the Colosseum. The E3 demo won "Best Action Game" at the Best of E3 2005 Awards.
Technology The origins of the game go back to 2002, when a small development team was put together within Creative Assembly, headed by programmer, designer, and project lead Clive Gratton. The team had a simple goal – to do a traditional Total War game on a console rather than a PC or Mac. However, they quickly discovered that because of technical limitations, the task they had set themselves was impossible. In a 2012 interview with Eurogamer, Creative Assembly director Mike Simpson explained, "we couldn't fit a Total War battlefield, with 10,000 guys, into any of the consoles. It just doesn't work. You can't fit a gallon into a pint pot, it doesn't go." As such, the team decided instead to do an action game, but one based within the tradition of the series; rather than the real-time tactics gameplay in which the player controls a commanding officer overseeing the army, in Spartan, the player would control a single soldier.
As soon as the team completed work on Rugby, they shifted focus to Spartan. The first task was to address the technical issues, and having worked on so many sports games, they were already in a position to push the technology. As Simpson explains,
With this in mind, the team set about creating a proof of concept; a demo to determine whether a console could handle hundreds of independently acting characters on-screen at once. The demo, utilising a game engine that took six months to code, consisted of 300 Roman soldiers running over a hill with a castle in the background and the player character in the middle of the group. The demo ran consistently at 60fps and had a draw distance of 750 meters, which was much deeper than Gratton had anticipated. Writer and designer Sophie Blakemore said of the technology that resulted from the demo,