The Spartan's ability to use super attacks is dictated by his power meter which fills through the collection of blue orbs left behind by slain enemies or by praying at blue shrines dotted throughout each level. Similarly, health can be replenished by the occasional green orb left behind or by praying at green shrines. These shrines have limited power however and will explode when depleted, so use them wisely.

The graphics in Spartan are a mixed bag. The graphical effects are quite nice especially the lightning and arterial sprays. Unfortunately the character models and level geometry are not up to the same standard. Now I can immediately understand that the Xbox is only capable of so much and when you have tens of soldiers fighting each other simultaneously, game designers have to make certain sacrifices. For games like the Dynasty Warriors and Kingdom Under Fire series, the most obvious sacrifice is in draw distance which manifests itself in the form of a persistent fog in the surrounding.

For the most part, the draw distance in Spartan is pretty good and clever level design serves to give an even greater sense of scale. Additionally, during combat the camera rarely gets close enough to the action to highlight the games modest character models but during the in-game engine cut-scenes it is all too obvious. The ugly, angular and low-resolution textured characters are thrust right into the face of the player severing the suspension of belief in the same blow. Spartan would have benefited greatly from the use of pre-rendered cut-scenes for the cinematics.

The level design itself, while sometimes cleverly giving the impression of scale, is actually pretty simplistic and linear. Linear levels are not always a bad thing as player always has a clear and distinguishable path and objective to follow but cast your eyes on the Greek and Roman architecture that surrounds the Spartan on his quest and it is a little on the simplistic side. Granted, this is most likely another one of the sacrifices for maintaining a rock solid frame rate during battles on a scale rarely seen on consoles.

The camera in Spartan is one of the better 3D camera systems you will find in a third-person perspective game. It does a good job of keeping the action on screen and the camera outside of level geometry. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the targeting system. Targeting in Spartan is done automatically for the player with the Spartan usually attacking the enemy closest to his front. It works fine in melee combat (although rolling can be a bit random in regards to where you will end up), but for ranged combat, the controls are what I would consider broken.

Targeted enemies and objects (the game staple exploding barrels for instance) glow green when targeted but there is no way to cycle through target other than by manoeuvring the Spartan himself. That would be fine if you weren't limited to side stepping when your bow is equipped. Add to this the inability to target and or see enemies at elevations higher then the normal camera range and you will find yourself almost always frustrated when the need for arrows arrises.

But don't think Spartan is just another mindless action romp as it does involve an element of strategy. After each act, the player is awarded a number of tokens. These tokens can be used to upgrade the Spartan's Health, Damage or Power (Special attacks). Players distribute the tokens however they see fit based on the way they play the game. By the time you reach the final battle the Spartan should well and truly be maxed out in all areas and be quite a force to be reckoned with.

Additional depth can be found in the games many simple puzzles. These puzzles are usually tasks such as protecting sappers or innocents, finding and activating switches or setting explosive to destroy fortifications or opening passages for further advancement through levels. None of them would stump a trained chimpanzee, but they do break up the monotony of the hack and slash gameplay.

Besides the story mode, Spartan contains an Arena Challenge mode with is akin to score attack modes of many fighting games. The Spartan enters a selected arena for a series of consecutive battles against scores of increasingly difficult enemies. You do not regain health between waves so one bad performance will most likely doom you in the following wave. The aim of this mode is to last as long as possible and beat you previous highest score. Secrets found during the story mode unlock things that may help you in arena battles such as a squad of Spartan spearmen or archers or health and power shrines.

Music in Spartan may not be exactly what you were expecting. Instead of the Hanz Zimmer esk orchestral soundings of films such as Gladiator, Spartan's soundtrack has more in common to what you would hear at a hardcore dance party. There are orchestral sounds, but the majority of the games action takes place to thumbing techno beats. Sounds weird in theory but works a treat in practice. Voice acting is generally well done but a few of the accents seem a little out of place and more football hooligan than Roman general.