Video Game News

Gameloft’s original Hero of Sparta was a landmark game, helping combat premature criticism that the iPhone could not handle traditional videogames. A God of War clone – something Gameloft made no efforts to hide – Hero of Sparta was a bloody, slam-bang action game with lots of skewered monsters and quick-time kills. Hero of Sparta II builds on that crimson-soaked foundation, delivering even more giant mythological beasts, more fantastical weapons, and more God of War-style slaying.

The problem, though, is that none of this feels fresh now. Kill all enemies to open doors to the next arena-like battle area? Massive boss battles solved by pattern recognition and a quick-time event? Powering up weapons with orbs collected from fallen foes? Flying sequences? Nothing in Hero of Sparta II seeks to advance the ball. Instead, Gameloft seems perfectly content with mirroring the moves of past God of War games. Kill, heroic King Argos, kill – and when you’re done, kill some more.

Yawn, right?

Fortunately, the specter of button-mashing boredom is pushed back by a very slick combat system. Instead of just hammering on a virtual attack button to swing away, pushing that button in four different directions results in different moves. Need to break through an enemy’s shield? Pull the attack button down to cleave that shield in two with a heavy strike (but watch your flank because it takes a moment to recover from this move). Left and right slides unleash slashing attacks that are good for crowd control. Pushing up potentially starts an aerial combo. It’s a good solution for cutting down on virtual button clutter. I still accidentally hit other buttons – shield and jump – but considering how either of those moves can be chained into a combat combo, doing so was rarely catastrophic.

Without this combat system and Gameloft’s brisk rollout of new things within Hero of Sparta II – a new weapon, a new enemy within every stage – I would have been hopelessly bored within about 20 minutes. Because like I said earlier, this really is just a naked riff on God of War. I’ve played this before. And chances are good, the kind of gamer that would download Hero of Sparta II for the iPhone over something like, say, Plunderland or Pix’n Love, has already played their fair share of God of War, too.

According to Gameloft, Hero of Sparta II has been optimized for the iPhone 4. This is true – to a degree. The higher resolution graphics do look much better on the iPhone 4, but the game is a little choppy. Surprisingly, Hero of Sparta II plays better on the iPhone 3GS (and third-gen iPod Touch) and the visual hit is not all that significant. So, if you are rocking an older iPhone, don’t worry about getting a subpar version of Hero of Sparta II. In fact, you’re actually getting a smoother game.

Closing Comments

Hero of Sparta II is a fine “homage” to God of War and it benefits from its solid combat system. The push-able attack button is a great idea that I expect to see in many more games now, as it successfully removes the need for a bunch of virtual buttons that crowd the iPhone screen. But though Hero of Sparta II offers more of everything – more weapons, more monsters, more gigantic boss battles – it’s effectively running in place. And like 95-percent of gamers that would download something like Hero of Sparta II, I’ve played this before.

IGN Ratings for Hero of Sparta II (iPhone)