From the developer:
You wake up alone on an unknown beach – your boat and entire fleet missing… It’s the beginning of an epic odyssey to find out just what game the gods are playing with you, King Argos. Your fate now lies in their hands. Battle like the fierce Spartan warrior you are to avoid a tragic death as you journey from the Oracle’s Island, Atlantis and finally to the depths of the Underworld. You will fight the most phenomenal monsters from mythology, defy Cerberus and the Cyclops, and challenge the gods themselves! It’s your chance to write your own legend… if you can survive this mythic adventure.
Features
- A full 3D experience: move in 3 dimensions in superb and varied 3D environments.
- iPhone-specific controls: unleash the hero’s special powers by performing touch screen move combos.
- 8 different levels to explore: the mysterious Atlantis, the depths of the Underworld, and more.
- Face legions of enemies and the most impressive mythical creatures such as the Cyclops or Cerberus.
- Fabulous equipment and 5 mythic weapons to upgrade: draw your mythic swords, ax, and bow!
- Fight, explore, solve puzzles – more than a basic hack’n’slash: a real odyssey.
It has been thought for some time that the iPhone will change the mobile gaming world. There have been many good offerings and developers seem to be slowly pushing the iPhone to becoming a true gaming machine. Hero of Sparta is a perfect example on where gaming is going on the phone. In the past, mobile gaming consisted of small puzzle games and very casual titles that were useful for killing time while waiting in line or riding the train.
Hero of Sparta, around for a while but on sale right now, proves that a true console style gaming experience is truly attainable.
Hero of Sparta reminds me of the movie 300, especially after watching the intro video. Guide King Argos through a mystical adventure. The first level begins on a beach and Argos is introduced to basic movements and attacks before forging forward and meeting the first enemies. The game has amazing 3D graphics and gives the feel of an older console game.
Of course, there are various weapons and power-ups. Each time an enemy is killed a colored glowing ball is collected. These increase energy or can be collected to improve weapons and powers. Each enemy attacks with different weapons and all of them are rendered in great detail. The environment is also detailed and quite attractive and the sounds are nice. The game is beautiful!
Until recently, I had not been a fan of many of the game controls on the iPhone since many games are difficult to control, whether it be utilizing the accelerometer or the touch screen. Hero of Sparta proves this to no longer be the case. Argos’ movement is controlled by a touch stick on the bottom left of the screen. There were no issues with freely moving in all directions at any time, and the controls feel natural and responsive. Buttons on the right side of the screen provide control for all other tasks. Attack and block buttons are always available. The buttons do change in appearance signifying changing weapons or having an available power-up. The controls are set up perfectly and work GREAT!
Another great aspect of the controls is the fact that other actions available add a button, then disappear when the action is not available. In other words, if there is no need to jump, the jump button is not seen. This serves two great purposes. First, the small screen is not cluttered with unused buttons. Second, when a button appears it TELLS you that that action is usable at that moment. I jumped in and found the controls to be very intuitive and usable.
Hero of Sparta does a great job of juggling hardcore and mobile gaming. Lets face it, while many people want a hardcore gaming experience on their iPhone it still has a small screen with no buttons. Gameloft has simplified the attack buttons and navigation just enough to allow gamers to enjoy a hardcore 3D gaming experience with the casual platform of a phone. After playing the game for some time, I see many low battery warnings in my future! Go get the game now as it is on sale for a limited time!
What I like: Beautiful 3D gaming on the iPhone with great gameplay.
What I don’t: The ability to suck the battery out of my phone while trying to finish one more level!
Should you download? If you want a console style 3D adventure game, this is worth the money on sale or not.
Get it here!