Action & Arcade

One of my favorite shows on TV is Spartacus: Blood and Sand which is aptly titled. It’s about Spartacus fighting in the gladiator arena and basically involves fighting, blood, sex and politics. Despite all the gory blood it’s a well done show with a sophisticated plot and overall, its very entertaining. In general, I love the gladiator genre and that’s why I was excited to review Blood & Glory. This game lets you live out your fantasy as a gladiator fighting to the death in an arena in front of a blood-thirsty crowd. But this game is no cake-walk so be prepared to claim your glory as a champion gladiator or die trying.

I played the non-rated (NR) version of the game because I personally enjoy blood when slashing my opponents. Also, that was the only version I could get working on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 as the “bloodless” version constantly crashed during the download. But the NR version worked fine and I had no issues or crashes during gameplay. Now on to the good stuff.

Blood & Glory has great graphics with realistic fighting and action. The first thing you will notice when you play the game is that all of your opponents are bigger than you. But that’s okay because with skill and some good armor you can take them down. The game is in a third-person style and you can’t move your character around the arena. You are stationary with options to attack, dodge, block and parry. Some users do complain about the controls but I found that they are easy to use and are designed well for the game.

You can attack by swiping across the screen and there are 3 combos that you can use. But this game is more about dodging, parrying and blocking rather than a simple hack and slash. You can dodge by pressing either the button on the left or right side of the screen and it needs to correctly correspond with the attack coming from your opponent. You can block with your shield but each attack will lower your shield points based on the type of attack. You begin with only 10 shield points but you can upgrade with better armor or potions. Parrying is the best way to fight but also the hardest to master. You have to swipe the screen exactly in the opposite direction of the incoming attack with correct timing. If you master parrying then you will be well on your way to becoming a champion gladiator. Also during the gameplay your view-point will change which adds another level of challenge to dodging and parrying.

The game tends to be easy at the beginning but quickly becomes difficult. At first, you wait for the opponent to attack than either dodge, parry or block which then gives you a chance to attack back. As you face more challenging opponents you’ll have to evade two to three attacks in a row before being able to strike back. The attacks become more difficult to predict and harder to avoid. Once you enter a tournament you need to win five fights to become victorious. Your health meter carries over from fight to fight and doesn’t regenerate. You have potions which you can use during the game to regain health, attacks and shield points to help you win the match. But your potions carry from one tournament to the other so if you use it all then that’s it. As you gain points you can upgrade and buy more equipment and potions.

Although the game is free you might have to spend some money to buy gold coins. It seems very difficult to proceed very far in the game without having to upgrade your equipment which will require some real cash. Just winning tournaments doesn’t seem to provide enough points to upgrade significantly. That’s probably the biggest issue with the game and one of the biggest complaints by reviewers. It would be much better if you could just buy the game outright and not have to worry about spending money just to help you complete a level or increase your power level. Other than that annoyance, the game is really fun with great graphics and excellent game play.

This is one of the games that I personally enjoyed playing on the tablet with very smooth gameplay. Despite the issue with having to use money to upgrade your equipment, the game is fun and challenging to play. You can always play previous tournaments that you have won to gain points and master your skills. If you put in the time, you can master all the moves and become an expert gladiator. Download Blood & Glory and find out if you have what it takes to become a gladiator champion.

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