Enter Valens, a gladiator living in the shadow of his father, and Ursula, a barbarian vixen coming to terms with her mystical powers. In the role-playing game Gladius, you’re presented with the choice of these two main characters, either of whom you can use to build a school of Gladiators and fight your way to the Super Bowl of Gladiator fests. Along the way, you’ll unveil the mystery of the evil that’s once again rising in this land. Sounds pretty sweet, right?

Well, I must admit that Gladius took its time to win me over. Maybe I went in with the expectations of a Morrowind-type RPG: expansive territories, compelling storylines and well thought-out characters. At first, this game was anything but, and it felt more like a beginners’ RPG with horribly written pop-up dialog boxes that made me want to hit the scroll button faster than a hack-and-slash hero. I soon found out that Gladius is not about story or expansive worlds; it’s about strategic gameplay in rich, graphically intense arenas. When I realized that, Gladius became much more interesting and borderline addictive.

As in most RPGs, the fun is all about developing the skills of your character. What armor can I find, what weapons to use? Should I spend time developing close combat skills or healing spells? These decisions are more than just pointless options, because the two primary characters are surprisingly diverse. Ursula is more of a beginner level, and Valens is for more advanced gameplay. While this initially seems limiting for an RPG, you’ll eventually get the chance to develop more characters along the way.

Recruiting and developing the right gladiators is imperative, but as the story develops (and I use that term lightly), certain characters will join your quest automatically. Going on the side missions is also a nice way to find characters whom you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to recruit with your winnings from battle. It’s a bit puzzling, though, that your gladiators can’t die in the ring but can be lost in the wilderness.

The Great Outdoors aside, to succeed in Gladius you have think about strategy and match-ups, including those of your recruits. Flying into the turn-based combat with your two-handed axe to wreak "Kill Bill" havoc may work in the beginning, but as the game and AI characters develop, you have to think strategically. Will my heavy Ogre match up on a much faster berserker? If I don’t hold the high ground, will those freaks throwing exploding javelins skewer my head?

The extensive battles aren’t just about chopping people up, though; the designers have created a unique set of games and challenges. Some involve destroying your opposing school’s statue, some involve looting treasure, being king of the hill or amassing the most points. And then there’s everyone’s favorite, kill everyone else on the board.

The mystical sorcery of Gladius also comes into play. Characters use spell blasts and defensive power-ups, and a defensive spell could literally root you to the ground, or a blinding spell could, well, blind you. These more-specialized skills take up more power, though, so spend two turns casting a spell, and you’ll probably be reduced to spending the rest of the battle hacking some undead summoner with your dull broad sword.

Presuming your hacks are successful, each player in your school who competes and wins a battle will earn you gold, weapons and glorious "job points." Job points are used to enhance attributes like affinity skills, defensive maneuvers and combo attacks, which tailor your gladiators to your barbaric will and command. The more job points you build up, the better the goodies get. You also earn money for new weapons and armor, or you can use it to recruit new gladiators for your school.

Unfortunately, equipping and shopping for characters is a little clunky. Unless you’ve got a photographic memory, you constantly have to hop back and forth between different screens to compare new weapon/armor descriptions with what you’ve already equipped. When you’re dealing with arming a team of seven gladiators, this gets a little annoying.

But that team of seven gladiators, once equipped, will keep you very busy when in combat. Unlike many turn-based RPGs, it’s not all about "move barbarian here, hit Ogre there, wait my turn." Instead, you control all of the gladiators on your team, and Gladius’ use of hit meters ensures that there’s an element of skill in that control. For example, combo attacks require a three-button progression for each strike, while long-range throws and spells make you match certain buttons to boost your power and aim. There’s no blaming the AI for making a bonehead move.

There is some blame in the repetitive gameplay, though, because without those hit meters, Gladius could get pretty boring. Especially when there are 12 gladiators in the ring, and you’ve got to wait for each of them to make a move, cast some spell or scratch his butt. The opposing AI also isn’t that advanced, which doesn’t exactly help matters. In the beginning, opposing gladiators aren’t that bright, but as the game progresses and Gladiators get much more difficult, it’s more a matter of their increased power than it is their superior intelligence.

If LucasArts compensates for this in any way, it’s got to be in the graphics. The gladiator arenas, in particular, are phenomenal. The actual world map that you navigate is pretty unimpressive and one dimensional, but the arenas include classic Roman architecture, the bones of a dragon or historic ruins, making each battlefield really well-crafted and unique. And there are a lot of them, which means you’ll become addicted to seeing the next and best arena on the circuit.

There’s also a pretty good scope of warrior classes in the game, each of which is realistic in movement and appearance. Where the graphics differ from that realism is in their edgy painting/illustration style, but that’s a nice touch for setting up the archaic gladiator vibe.

As for the audio, let’s just say I found myself constantly skipping the dialogue, and the sound effects are often repetitive. You pretty much hear the same overlaid battle theme, and characters like to give a battle cry before they strike, which after a while really starts to get on your nerves. How many times can He-Man yell, "By the power of Grey Skull"? I did enjoy the authentic clanks of swords, and spells give off a nice whoosh and explosion, but overall the audio was disappointing (surprising for a LucasArts title).

So in the end, why didn’t this game slay me like it did so many other critics? For me, it was the repetitive nature of the battles. Yes, I got new powers and weapons. Yes, the spells and gadgets were cool. Yes, I fought different characters in superbly crafted arenas. But after a while, it became same battle, same game, different graphics. I got bored with the monotony. And when it was all said and done, I felt no connection to the plight of my main characters. The gameplay of Gladius is a revolutionary way to attack the Dungeons & Dragons RPG-style game, but it falls short on story and plot motivation. Hopefully LucasArts can take this format and improve upon it for their next title.

See more screens on the Gladius media page