Ancient Wars: Sparta is a real-time strategy game with fairly derivate gameplay but with enough added wrinkles to keep it interesting, and for a design that doesn’t stray too far off the beaten path, this is a surprisingly well put together game.
The gameplay at its most basic level is not unlike many other real-time games. You must first construct the functional equivalent of a headquarters to start your “base” and train workers, build farms to feed your populace, order your workers to build and even sometimes operate your buildings, and construct various facilities to train your troops.
Been there – done that.
However, just when you think you've got the gameplay pinned down, you find quite a few aspects that are unique and entertaining. Take the Spartan infantry, for example. At a glance there are only three types of infantry that the Spartans can create. However, before you cry that the number is too small one must realize that to actually create a unit you must first give it a melee weapon (clubs, short and long swords, spears, etc.), optionally a ranged weapon (slings, javelins), and one of the many types of shields. Stables produce horses, which any of your infantry can then be ordered to ride to increase their combat effectiveness.
This is where some serious tactics come into play, as equipping your units properly in light of the situation you intend to use them in is just as important as using them effectively in battle. Spears and tridents have a longer reach and are great for taking people down from chariots or from horseback, but using a sword or an axe might be a better choice for your front line fighters. Giving a bunch of light infantry a javelin or bow as a ranged weapon and putting them on horseback can be used for deadly hit and run tactics, or you could put a heavy infantry on that same horse with a longsword to turn him into a heavy cavalry unit.
On the other hand that heavy infantry with the shiny longsword and the gigantic carved shield costs much, much more than if you were to make a dozen light infantry armed with clubs, and there is a balancing act between researching the latest and greatest weaponry and equipping your infantry with the best items on hand; gold and wood is needed to make equipment and deciding how to spend your resources is one of the core elements of the game.
To offset the cost of creating new units you can send your worker units to scavenge after a battle has taken place, collecting all of the armor and weapons of fallen units and bringing them back to your base. The same applies to horses and chariots; if you kill the rider without killing/destroying what it rides you can then order just about any infantry unit commandeer it, and there are few things cooler than using a bow to pick off a chariot rider then using that same unit to hop onto the now-vacant chariot and use it in combat.
Ancient Wars: Sparta features a decent physics engine which serves a dual purpose; on one hand it is used for mere eye candy in the form of ragdoll death animations and the realistic movement of debris from collapsing buildings, but on the other it actually serves a distinct gameplay purpose. The projectiles of ranged weapons such as slings and javelins heed the laws of physics (or at least appear to), giving a clear advantage to using those units on a relative higher ground than their enemies and a clear disadvantage if the positions are swapped. Traps such as rock mounds can be constructed on hilltops in order to create a surprise avalanche of death upon any advancing armies coming up the hill. The funniest aspect though is watching a silly Persian infantry unit beat on your headquarters only to see a piece of it break off, fall down, and crush him instantly.
