Spartan: Total Warrior is, to put it simply, a good game that could have been, should have been, great.

Total Warrior is Sega’s latest offering based on the Total War games, which are based during the tumultuous time of the war between the Romans and the Greeks. But the similarities pretty much end there. Where Total War is a strategy game, Spartan: Total Warrior is an action game through and through. Total War got your brain juices flowing, but this game is more suited to exercising the muscles and tendons in your fingers and hands.

I got the chance to play this game and let me tell you, it was pretty thrilling. The action is intense, the gameplay mostly intuitive, and the AI was really, really good. I really felt like I was fighting a horde of independently-thinking enemies, each with their own attack strategy.

And attack they do. Ferociously. As many as ten enemies at a time come at you from all sides, slinging swords and shouting. The hero has some interesting moves, including diving rolls and nice finishing moves like thrusting your sword in an enemy’s chest, jumping on them, pulling your sword free, and kicking the corpse away. This happens in slow motion, with blood splatters adding just the right dose of gore.The game has missions, and even some puzzles to work out, such as opening a gate for reinforcements or shooting exploding barrels to take out a dropped portcullis. You have to occasionally guard people, retrieve quest items, or destroy enemy placements.

And here is where I tell you why it was just a good game, and not a great one.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what the quest is, it really all amounts to the same thing: kill them a lot. Help a bomber to destroy siege engines by killing everything that tries to get in his way. Retrieve a quest item by killing everything that gets in your way. Open the gates for reinforcements by… you guessed it. Hey, some people like straightforward hack-and-slash, and for them this is fantastic. I prefer a more mixed gaming experience.

Also, all those great finishing moves are kinda hard to see, as you play the game from a free-floating third-person camera that seems like it’s about fifty feet away from the action. It’s enough to enjoy it, but not really feel like you’re participating.

The voice-acting leaves something to be desired. In this day and age, when gaming companies are regularly hiring top-notch talent to do their voice-overs, I expected something more. I expected a lot more, actually. Still, in the context of what this game is about, I don’t suppose it would have made that much of a difference.

Ultimately though, what really disappointed me was the complete lack of multiplayer capability. This just seems like a game that would have benefited vastly from cooperative online multiplayer action. A squad of you and your friends against the legions… alas, such is not to be.

So, my verdict? If you regularly play action games alone, or are looking for something to play when taking a break from more serious and involved games, this is definitely worth it. With earnable achievements that unlock special powers and awards, and varying difficulty levels, it has plenty of replay value.

If, however, you enjoy a more strategy-oriented games with plenty of varied and thought-provoking things to do… this game probably won’t be as fulfilling as you’d like.

Spartan: Total Warrior, by Sega. Check it out.