The most innovative aspect of the combat is the swing meter. Like something you'd find in a golf simulation, in Gladius, whether you use the simplest attack or the most devastating combo, you'll almost always have to properly time your button presses to make the most of it. There are different types of swing meters; most require you to hit a button at a precise moment to deal maximum damage. If you press too early, you won't hit nearly as hard, and if you press too late, you'll probably whiff the attack. Other types of moves require you to quickly "dial in" a random sequence of buttons to deal full damage, and one annoying type forces you to quickly alternate buttons as though you were playing the button-mashing arcade classic, Track & Field. At any rate, the timing on most of these is tuned just right, so that even after countless hours of play, you'll still have to work a little to make sure all your hits count. It would have been nice if there were even more types of swing meters, but the presence of this system serves to make the combat much more hands-on and more engaging than it tends to be in otherwise similar turn-based combat systems.

Mastering the swing meters allows your forces to deal maximum damage with every attack.

One consequence of the swing meters, and of the turn-based combat in general, is that Gladius isn't particularly fast paced. For a turn-based game, it does move fairly briskly. But since the vast majority of the game consists of one gladiator pit fight after another, and since you'll come to rely on the same sorts of moves over and over when you're nearing the end of the lengthy campaign, the game can occasionally feel too time-consuming. It doesn't help matters that loading times are frequent and fairly disruptive and noticeably break up the combat, the town interface, and the world map. Still, it's not like strategy RPGs are designed for those who like a quick fix from their games. For players who prefer a much richer, longer-lasting gameplay experience, Gladius' occasionally slow-paced gameplay shouldn't be a problem. These players should instead be warned that the gameplay here can be very addictive. Hours will pass in a flash as you work your way through the ranks.

For good measure, Gladius offers cooperative or competitive multiplayer options for up to four players on the Xbox and GameCube and two on the PlayStation 2. In the campaign, players can choose to take control of individual gladiators so that they can take turns fighting the AI. And, after you win your first regional championship, a competitive multiplayer mode is unlocked, which lets you pit your gladiator school against that of an opponent. You can choose from the various arenas you've visited and bring all your best troops to bear against your friends. It's a good bonus.

Gladius has a great look to it, thanks largely to the stylized, well-animated character models used for Valens, Ursula, and most all the characters in the game. There's also beautiful hand-painted artwork in some of the cutscenes. Despite being a turn-based game, Gladius succeeds in making its fully 3D characters look dynamic and lifelike, for the most part. During the game's story sequences, the characters exhibit a great deal of personality through their facial expressions, so it's too bad that you can't quite get a close look at them during battle, though the right analog stick can be used to rotate and zoom your viewpoint to some extent. The game's arenas mostly look good, too, though spell effects and such aren't all that special. There are also some clipping issues when characters are standing too close to obstacles. Only the Xbox version shows any blood on the ground after a hit connects, which seems appropriate for a game that revolves around people slashing each other with swords and axes. The Xbox version looks (and is) the best, overall, and it runs the smoothest--which helps give you a consistent feel for the swing meters. The PlayStation 2 version looks great, in its own right, but it's certainly not as sharp, smooth, or colorful as the Xbox version. The GameCube version is closer to the Xbox in terms of overall quality, but it's prone to a less consistent frame rate.

Don't play Gladius for a quick fix. Play it if you're looking for a game to really sink your teeth into.

The game features an appropriately brassy, triumphant-sounding soundtrack, which is different for each region. Unfortunately, each region uses one main battle theme, and it's pretty brief, so you'll likely grow weary of hearing the same music over and over. In each fight, the music also changes when one side or another is about to win or lose, but these transitions are too abrupt. The game's voice acting is well done. Each of the character classes (most of which have a male and female counterpart) has its own voice and a few catchphrases, some of which are pretty clever. Yet some of the catchphrases repeat too often, and, despite how most of the sound effects are suitable for the game, some seem missing. For example, certain characters, when defeated, will drop their shields and weapons before they collapse, but you'll only hear the body--not the equipment--hit the dirt. Nevertheless, Gladius sounds pretty good overall.

If you're up for a deep, long-lasting, strategic gaming experience, then Gladius is perfect for you. Once you've played it for many hours, you'll spot little things about it that could have been fleshed out or polished up. However, at the heart of this game is an interesting and well-thought-out combat system, and there are so many viable combinations of characters and skills to experiment with that this game could easily keep you busy for much longer than most games do these days. The swing meters also add a refreshing bit of action to an otherwise fairly static style of gaming, which makes Gladius not just a great game but, in certain ways, a pioneering one.