Aaaahh a gladiator game, I've been waiting for one of these since I saw the film… Now what was it called? - Oh yeah - "Gladiator". But can this game be as big a hit as the hit movie? Short answer no - read on.

I was expecting a realistic gladiator combat game and at first I wasn't disappointed. You play Invictus Thrax, a champion gladiator and you start off in a gladiatorial battle put on by the emperor of Rome. You battle your way into the colosseum only to find that it's a trap set by the emperor to kill Thrax for entertainment. When you awake your main quest begins, but how can that be when you're dead? Well you wake up in Elysium (the Roman heaven) only to find you've been chosen by the gods to get back Rome's life force that has been stolen by Phobos and Deimos. The main quest has you visiting mythical lands such as the Isle of the Titans.

   

Playing G:SOV is really simple; you go from level to level hacking and slashing mythical creatures like skeletons and Cyclops' with multiple weapons. You have 2 buttons for attacks which lets you pull off combos easily. Your other buttons consist of magic like Herculean strength, and an action button. The action button is used a lot to use switches, keys and jump at certain points. It's also used in combat to dodge, and when an enemy is stunned you can use it to pull off a gory finishing move. The fighting is your typical hack, hack, hack (with a bit of slash) in the battles the floor will get covered in blood and it looks really cool. When on your journey though the levels you'll find power up plinths where you can win allsorts of power ups and items by completing the task it tells you to do, such as kill all enemies or destroy all barrels within a time limit. The items are things like small and large health pots. The game's puzzles are also really simple, like 'find key and take it to other side of the room use key then pull lever', personally I like puzzles with a bit more puzzle in them.

   

Graphically the lighting impresses most, especially in the indoor environments when you get light coming through cracks on the walls and ceiling. The levels look good enough but won't blow you away. Thrax looks average with some nice looking shiny armour but nothing special; the enemies also look like your average 3D business with some unimpressive animation and nothing that grabbed my attention. Without wanting to sound like a psycho, and as I mentioned before the blood splatters look great and a room will soon be full of it after a short battle, but other effects like power ups and water are really bad. Sound is a mixed bag, with this title on one hand you have excellent music that sounds like it's been taken out of the motion picture - some really great haunting themes (if you've seen the movie you will know what I mean). But then on the other hand the voice for the lead character 'Thrax' is really out of place and I really didn't like it - He's way too posh and proper (sounds like he's reciting Shakepeare), and call me shallow but I would expect a more gravely voice for a gladiator, but most of the other voices seem to fit in well with the theme.

So in conclusion the game is average, it's far from great but it isn't exactly rubbish, but the repetitive hack, slash, hack and slash gameplay really doesn't give you the drive to play it to the end.