Hero of Sparta

This is my first review that I did specifically for a different site, TheAppEra, so I thought I would share it with you who didn't see it. These reviews won't generally be put on this site as well

I don’t think there are too many of these button smashing and mashing games on the app store, but this one definitely comes out trumps in my eyes. The amount of detail and great storyline provides a great experience.



Hero of Sparta ($5.99)

Fun gameplay, stunning Spartan lands, easy controls and the three difficulty levels makes it hard to resist yelling, “THIS . . . IS . . . SPARTAAA!” when killing some of the many enemies in this game.

Unlike the other two Gameloft games reviewed this past week, Hero of Sparta has been out since 2008 and many people should have had the chance to play the game. The great storyline means there is a reason for everything that happens in the game, and provides a lot more entertainment than walking around killing random creatures.

Forums: Hero of Sparta

Design

I wasn’t expecting this game to have much to actually do. I was thinking maybe 2 or 3 levels and then harder difficulties but was very surprised. There are eight chapters to play through in order of the story, with an average of 20 minutes to complete each chapter on each. So there is over 9 hours in total if you wish to finish each difficulty level.



Your surroundings are highly detailed and the graphics of this 3D environment are beyond superb. Each chapter has its own soundtrack to hack your way through as well as realistic sounds of fighting, jumping and everything else. Many in-game cut scenes take place and use the in-game scenery for them since it is so good. Over the whole game I only found frame-rate to be an issue once and it generally ran very smoothly for such a busy game.

Controls

There isn't much that is needed to know in order to play Hero of Sparta as the controls are fairly self-explanatory. The first level is really an in-game tutorial that gives clear instructions of what to do with each of the buttons.



As you can see above the instructions are fairly simple but clearly show what is needed to do. I believe there were about four of these instructions during the first level. These instructions however didn't appear when needed all the time. For example when you were randomly walking along the fighting button was explained, not as monsters were appearing.



The green button on the right of the screen is dragged around to run, which makes it a lot easier than trying to tilt the device. On the right side of the screen there are two buttons which are generally used during fights. The top right button is used to attack with one of your five weapons that you find along the way and can be mashed repeatedly as it generally is. The lower left button is used as a defensive button to block attacks, but I never used it for that purpose. When dragging the button to a North East direction you can trigger your current weapons special attack which can be used on either enemies or walls blocking your path. In the upper right of the screen is a button that can be used to change your weapon.



Two buttons sometimes appear above the attack button. One of these is a green arrow that when pressed allows you to jump up to a higher ledge. The other button is a blue one that lets you focus kill one of the bigger enemies when they have been hit enough times. When this is triggered skull buttons come up on the screen and they must be pressed to kill the enemies and get extra orbs than a normal kill.



Gameplay

There is only one game mode in the game but it comes in three difficulty levels easy, normal and heroic. Heroic mode is locked until you complete easy or normal and all weapons you have from your previous game are brought with you into Heroic to make it a little bit easier.



After selecting the mode you are taken to the start of the game with one of the many awesome in-game scenes.

I will talk about Level 2 onwards here. Each level provides you with something to complete in order to finish the level. Sometimes it may be to defeat a certain creature at the end of the challenging puzzles that are incorporated in the game or to destroy a certain building. Whatever is needed to be completed is stated by the Fairy that follows you through the depths of the Underworld in another great in-game scene.



Whatever is needed to be completed, it generally ends with you earning a new weapon or piece of clothing that adds to your skills. The weapons can be upgraded with the red orbs that you get from killing the enemies.

Conclusion

Hero of Sparta is a superb game that I would recommend to any fans of these type of games. The one concern for me with a short playing time was thrown out the window the minute I played it. Amazing graphics, great sound effects, super fun gameplay and the perfect layout provides you with a top notch effort.

The only downside is once completing the game there is generally not a lot to do so I would like to see maybe a HoS 2 or downloadable stories that could be of the same length when the iPhone OS 3.0 comes out in June.

If you haven't bought this game already after reading the review do it straight away otherwise this huge dog will eat you!