Review: Hero of Sparta 2

Serious control issues and a very cheap checkpoint system hamper this otherwise excellent game.

___________________________________________________________________

7.5

The Good

Balanced and cohesive combination of combat, trap-puzzles and platforming sections * Multifunctional weapons * Able to ride on and control bigger beasts after you focus kill them * Upgrade orbs gained from Arena mode (survivor mode) can be used in campaign mode * Game lasts a massive 8 hours which is twice as long as the first game

The Bad

Unresponsive controls * Use button shares the same space with block button; block button fails to switch to use button on time during difficult platforming sections * Checkpoints are placed increasingly further apart in the later half of game * Checkpoints are placed right before inescapable cut-scenes * Unethical practice of placing platforms which aren't actually platforms you can land on (only late in the game) * Dated graphics

___________________________________________________________________

You slice the head of the beast away and quickly turn around to plunge your blood soaked sword into the heart of another before racing off to dismember your remaining foes. The game hastily pushes you to the next arena and you repeat the process. There’s an almost morbid pleasure in playing the original Hero of Sparta. Certainly, it’s a wildly addictive and satisfying, albeit unoriginal focus to build a game around. For the iPhone gamer, Hero of Sparta was as close to a God of War experience as there could be. Hero of Sparta 2 brings the killing spree back into the palms of a bloodthirsty gamer like me, with new elements and tweaks permeating just about every aspect of the game. Unfortunately, despite the good intentions, not every change turned out to be as impressive as each other.

Don’t get me wrong. Hero of Sparta 2 is a massive 8 hour adventure which means it’s twice as long as its predecessor. But the amount of content can only be an ill-considered measure of the quality of a game. Luckily, wrapped within these 8 hours is an ingenious conglomeration of concepts which stretches well beyond what the first Hero of Sparta could possibly offer. This sequel features the same fluid bone crushing combat but you get the sense there isn’t as much emphasis on the slaughter here as there was in the first Hero of Sparta. Rather, Hero of Sparta 2 seems to come off as a more fully realized vision of what the first game was supposed to be. Different puzzles and traps have been worked into this sequel and challenging platforming sections and on-rail segments have been integrated as well. Hero of Sparta 2 constantly shifts your focus from one combat scenario to the next intelligent trap which requires a bit of puzzle work before pulling you over to platforming sections which necessitate the need for precision and quick reflexes. A pair of on-rail segments only serves to add more variety. At every point of time, I felt that I was doing something new in the game. Granted, trap-puzzles and platforming sections aren’t new to Hero of Sparta, but these components have come to be more prominent in this sequel, with most of them being major, considerably complex self-contained portions of a level rather than bridges between one combat scenario to the next. When you string all the components together, Hero of Sparta 2 quickly starts to feel like a very balanced and cohesive combination of combat, trap-puzzles and platforming sections.

The game gives you all the necessary tools of destruction to facilitate this type of gameplay. You get the idea that the weapons you’re entrusted with are there not only to set your killing spree in motion but also to make all the trap navigation and platforming segments possible. The golden wings, for instance, are multifunctional, allowing you to slash out at the beasts as well as glide in the air while a pair of tethered gloves not only extends your radius of your assault but also gives you the opportunity to swing around like Spider-Man, navigating over large gaps.

Unfortunately, unlike the first Hero of Sparta, there’s little chance that you’ll get to upgrade more than one weapon to its maximum level. This is due in part to the reduced emphasis on combat as opposed to the first game. Despite that, the combat is still rooted in very much the same way it was left in the first game. Those who have played God of War before would feel right at home here as slaying monsters rewards you with various orbs. Purple orbs allow you to upgrade weapons while green and blue orbs allow you to replenish your health and mana repsecitively. When a foe is near death, players would be able to go into focus kill mode where successive quick time button presses will not only put the foe to rest instantaneously but also reap more orbs. The keener eyed player would however find that Hero of Sparta 2 no longer rewards you with as many health orbs as compared to its predecessor so this sequel is slightly more challenging. One thing new to Hero of Sparta 2 is the ability to ride on and control bigger beasts when you enter into focus kill mode. It makes for some enjoyable moments and it’s certainly an admirable effort to differentiate itself from God of War.

With combat feeling so familiar, it’s surprising that the way that the moves are executed has been changed. Gameloft has designed a work-around to button cluster and came up only a single button for combat. The remarkable thing about this single button is that it can be twitched left, right, up or down. Twitching it left or right translates into left and right slashes on-screen while nudging it up swings the foe upwards for an aerial combo. Directing the button down initiates a strong attack which breaks shields with ease. It could have been an impressive solution to button cluster but the poor responsiveness left little to desire. This isn’t helped by the close proximity of the jump and block button. There were many occasions where I couldn’t execute the move I really wanted to do because the button failed to respond to my twitches and I discovered that constantly tapping the button for the slash attack proved to be more convenient and useful in the long run. I suspect many players may not derive as much fun from the combat as the developers may have hoped to provide.

Another odd design choice is the decision to allow the use button to be same button as the block button. The block button is permanently featured but when something which can be used pops out, the block button changes to a use button. This could have been workable had the game been more aware of the circumstance you’re in. Waiting awhile for the use button to appear for you to activate an object may be forgivable but when you’re in mid-air and waiting for the block button to turn into a use button for you to be able to grapple onto the next hook, the results can be devastating. There were several times when I fell cheaply to my death because the use button didn’t appear on time. When you’re forced to restart such segments again and again, the frustration can mount.

None of the control issues hamper the enjoyment of the game as much as the flawed checkpoint system. You won’t encounter any weird design choices for the first half of the game but it may seem that the developers deliberately cranked up the difficulty of the game after the midpoint. Checkpoints are increasingly further apart and there’re no checkpoints at the most difficult platforming sections so if you fall (which you’re going to because of the problematic use button), you have to start right at the beginning or some point far away from the progress you have made. At other times, a checkpoint is placed right before an inescapable cut-scene so if you die from a fall several times, you have to rewatch the same cut-scene the same number of times. And there’s also the unethical practice of placing a platform that isn’t er, a platform, meaning you’ll fall right through the platform if you land on it. It’s maddening and the sudden spike in checkpoint difficulty and cheap deaths near the end of the game couldn’t make the developers’ unethical decision more obvious.

The whole package is wrapped in very dated graphics even by iPhone standards. There’s a noticeable improvement in the visuals from the first Hero of Sparta but textures are still unacceptably muddled and character models ugly. There’s effort made to support the iPhone 4’s high-resolution Retina display but it only helps in getting the muddled textures to be more obvious. When put into comparison with other recent releases from Gameloft like Splinter Cell Conviction, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Zombie Infection and even older titles like N.O.V.A. and Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Hero of Sparta 2 doesn’t stand the test of time.

One noteworthy feature I would like to point out before the end of this review is the inclusion of an all-new Arena mode – essentially the game’s survivor mode. One nice touch is that you can enter Arena mode at specific points in the campaign and the upgrade orbs you earn in the mode transfer over to the campaign so you can supplement your campaign upgrade orbs to further increase the levels of your various weapons. It’s a great solution to the limited number of upgrade orbs earned from the lesser emphasis on combat in the campaign. The Arena mode is also unlocked after you have completed the campaign so you can drop in for a quick slash if you have time to kill.

Final comments
When striped down to its very core, Hero of Sparta 2 can be an excellent game. It’s a balanced and cohesive combination of combat, trap-puzzles and platforming sections. The weapons are multifunctional and you can ride on and control bigger beasts after you focus kill them. But the controls are unresponsive, greatly hampering the enjoyment of the game. The use button can also be a huge problem for platforming sections requiring precision. The checkpoint system becomes really cheap in the later half of the game and there’s the unethical practice of placing surfaces which aren’t really platforms you can land on. The visuals can be an eyesore as well. The whole game lasts a neat 8 hours and a survivor mode is unlocked as a reward. Without the accidental flaws (the control issues) and deliberate errors (the very cheap checkpoint system), this game could have been an easy 9.0. This game is really good but because the control issues and flawed checkpoint system are so serious, it’s hard to recommend this game outright. For those with a high tolerance level, Hero of Sparta 2 is a must-buy but for others, stay away.