not worth the price at the monent, rent it, borrow it but dont buy it until you know wether you like it or not
v addictive, ive given this game a bad rating but i still cant be assed to stop playing it, after 6 completions and over 2,000,000 kleos earned (i still have 1,000,000 to spend, and i havent bought any upgrades on battle skills or dual sword combo's exept the basic one) i have given the gameplay a 7, but everything else around 5 or less, because this game is hardly going to be remembered as resembling the film.
the bit where you sneak in to the camp, and the upgrades are a nice touch, but it spoils it when you become so advanced you no longer look like a spartan, more like you have an armourer whos colour blind, apart from the little lini chest plate you get after the third upgrade, colour is all the armour has to enilghten you, your character only looks like a spartan if you dotn upgrade any armour/shield or weapon, although kopis of titans does look pretty neat. although many would probably get bored, as the constant swarm of heavy wrath enemies(where you have to hold R and press square), and enemies you have to knock onto the floor and then stab in order to kill them, proves annoying, especialy when your completing the game for the first time, and your armour and weapon etc isnt up to scratch, and you dont exactly have the neccesary combo's to use, so throwing a spear is the likely option, and you cant get your spear back? once youve thrown it your spear is gone until you pick up one thats flashing gold, what sort of spartan would leave a spear just because its stuck in a fabricated tent?, aslso for some reason on one level in which you spend about 5 minuites protecting a wall from enemies who run very close to the wall to attack, even if they are using ranged weapons(in this case a fire bomb thing) , upon finishing, General Mardonius, whom you have to kill twice during this game (bosses never seem to quite die the first time, even this big fat guy with swords for hands, whos wearing a brown leather thong, who you have to kill with the ability blood drunk (douubles your attack for a certain amount of time) he has to die twice., and when killing mardonius on the second time, hes probably even easier as you will have more upgraded equipment, and better combo's etc, as a last boss hes pretty weak.
the first time you fight him, you p3wn his armour, then spend ages stabbing the bastard whilst being constantly rained on by arrows. quote "our arrows will block out the sun!"
the first few mins before you fight mardonius, you make a Dome phalanx for the first, and only time in this game, which you just use the anolog stick to poke the incoming immortals, but you can just regain the health of your done phalanx whenever you like, and dont receive any kleos (game currency that lets you buy upgrades) during the proccess, so its pretty pointless if you ask me.
theres about 7 or 8 people on the screen at one time, which isnty bad considering the size, but the fact that on some levels your outnumbered by like 80 to 1, you never seem to fight more than 10 men without a cutscene or a pause. on one but, theres a general stood on some sort of rock overlooking you and 3 other spartans ( you dont actualy have 300 on this game, maybe they should have called it 3: march to glory instead, although near the begginning where you have to "rescue" 2 spartans from 4 of the second weakest enemies on the game, theres about 50 spartans stood behing you, in a line, doing nothing, you never get anymore than 4 spartans helping you at one time)theres what seems like hundreds of men stood there at all times, even after they send a few waves at you theres always the same amount of the same unit, in this case a few men wearing turbans and diapers, though they send better men at you aswell its tjhe same, and after you kill 20 or so men, the general retreats, still with the same amount of slaves he started with stood at the back doing nothing, id have prefered to have them all attack me at once and send aload of heads to china.
it isnt like that though. when you start your first phalanx, all of a sudden there is aload of your fellow spartans behind you, who appear out of nowhere form a phalanx, in the fiml, and durning the narration which clearly states the phalanx shields cover the mans head and chest to the left of the man holding the shield, on the phalanx's in the game you hold it infront of yourself, and isnead of the spears being next to your shield, your holding them high above you as if your about to throw it, then stabbing your enemies downwards.
the first boss you fight is a blue persian champion, whith a really bad camp accent, who is awesomely easy to kill. once killed there is a cutscene where leonidas says : "the bigger they are.... the more of them i see" and this if followed by the camera turn to face the hoard of 50 or so slaves running towards leonidas, even though they are running from the wall, which has no exits or ways in, the cutscene ends and the next level loads , without killing the mass of slaves.
theres also no wounds in this game whatsoever, when you finish mardonius at the end of the game, he has blood spurting out of him from his chest, but no cut, no hole, no nothing. same when you stab someone, theres blood, but no wound graphics are a real letdown
i finish by mentioning the clever use of cardboard enemies throughout
when fighting the blue champoin AGAIN, and his ironicly named brother the RED champoin, dilios (i think its him anyway) says "i think where slightly outnumbered my lord." bedinh them is hundreds and thousands of men stood with shiellds over there faces. at first glance i thought: holy f***! this is gonna be mint. but the guys where cardboard. stood still. not even breathing. weapon in same place, shield in same place, as if the animators realised they wernt being payed to make the game have real fight scenes s they just added cardboard extras. iw as annoyed at this point realising no big fight :(.
theres also aload of cardboard enemies surrounding you when fighting mardonius for the first time, theres aload of immortals and others stood around while xerxes is stood on his stand shaking his hips left to right doing nothing.
once youve finished mardonius, your dome phalanx suddenly appears behind you again, and your shield has dissapeared. spear in your hand you shout " XERXES! DIE! AYARRGH!" and you throw your spear at him, although it misses in fast motion, then xerxes says "kill him" and a rain of arrows come from behing xerxes and the cutscene finishes.
where was my shield? why didnt it show me dieing? i dont normaly die anyway if i dont use shield when arrows come down on me, i just lose around half of my hp.
im then left finishing the game as dilios, which is kinda gay as he wears no helmet and has eyepatch.