The environments in general have a great amount of detail to them, everything from the way the maps look to how you can look at individual buildings such as farms or your forge and actually see your worker units toiling in them. Combat is both frenzied and bloody, and when units die their weapons, helmets, shields, and sometimes the horse they rode in on are all equally affected by the physics engine. Though bodies and bloodstains on the ground disappear fairly quickly the weapons and armor remain, and after a large scale battle the victor will often see a battlefield covered in items used by either side (and of course squirrel them away for their own future use via a small army of obedient workers).

Wind also plays a factor and changes quite often in terms of its direction and intensity. If your ranged attackers have the wind at their backs their projectiles will fly farther, whereas your melee troops get the advantage rushing a line of bowmen if the wind is with them and helps to slow the enemy’s arrows. Wind can also help spread fires that have been started on your buildings or farmland to other structures.

Naval combat is done in a rather interesting and graphically entertaining matter as well. Some ships simply plow headlong through a weaker enemy vessel, shattering it into two and sending it to the bottom, (which is somewhat historically accurate) but for larger ships that have thicker hulls you can select one of your ships to grapple onto the enemy vessel and lash the two together. At this point any units on your ship will leap off of your vessel and onto the enemy's to engage them in melee combat. Given that all ships can hold a varying number of units it can be both great fun and a great idea to load one up with powerful units, board an enemy ship, and send its occupants toppling over railings and into the depths. The victor of any grapple attempt, be it you or the enemy, not only wins but also gets control of the other side's ship, giving this gameplay element a distinct tactical use. The enemy has a nice shiny battleship that's causing you grief? Load up a fast ship filled with brutish melee units and swashbuckle it right out from under them.

There's a fair amount of content to wade through. There are three campaigns chronicling not only the Spartans but also their enemies the Persians and the Egyptians. The story lines of the Spartan and Persian campaigns intertwine a great deal covering not only the battle of Thermopylae (as currently popularized by the movie “300”) but also many events before and after that particular conflict. The Egyptian campaign is much more its own beast and follows the story of a man following his heart to free the woman he loves and rallying his people to remove the tyrannical Persians from Egypt. All in all, the solo game keeps you busy for quite some time. Multiplayer, for up to eight players, is somewhat limited due to a lack of maps (there are around 12 in all) and slow pacing. Skirmish play against the AI is available, and you can play teams games or group deathmatch, but the multiplayer suite isn't the game's strength.

The voice acting is also a big letdown and while technically not gameplay related, it is a distraction because most of the units don't sound particularly heroic. The overall musical score fares much better and fits the mood and is varied enough to not become repetitive, and the pieces themselves are both memorable and numerous.

Ancient Wars: Sparta isn't going to win any awards for innovative design; in fact if you have had your fill of workers building bases and fiddling with resource management the game's nuances aren't going to save it for you, and the ho-hum multiplayer support is certainly an issue. If, however, you want to play a game with a different and effective spin on an old idea, Sparta fits the bill.