Swords and Sandals Classic Collection

Swords & Sandals, paying homage to the glorious combat seen during the days of ancient Rome most prominently dramatized in the famed Colosseum, is the key inspiration led from a series of classic Dungeons & Dragons campaigns created by Oliver Joyce and Gregory Bernard who worked on the setting and its many iconic characters alongside the world that the S&S games themselves take place in. To briefly discuss what these games are all about, Swords & Sandals is what I would describe as primarily a 2D turn-based action-focused gladiatorial RPG where the goal is to work your way up from the bottom of the food chain of gladiators and fight your way to the top through glory and vicious efficiency, though you'll find later on that not all games follow the same gameplay formula here. Given that this is a collection of various Flash games from the series, I will be covering the main five games that will likely be the key reason for many to buy this game and primarily focus on each one and how they develop as the later entries progress, both in terms of the new mechanics they introduce and expand upon as well as how they distinguish themselves in their own right. Starting off, the very first game Swords & Sandals: Gladiator introduces us to the isolated island known as Doomtrek where the objective is to beat all seven arena champions in succeeding order. Accomplishing this involves making the best use of a gladiator that fits your playstyle with each of the seven stats (Strength, Agility, Attack, Defence, Vitality, Charisma & Stamina) whilst also saving up gold to purchase new weapons and armour for your fighter. Notably this is the shortest of the five games as there is only fifteen fights in the entire game, eight of them randomly-generated gladiators and the other being the seven arena champions as each victory guarantees a level up. Swords & Sandals II: Emperor's Reign continues the story and greatly expands upon the original as it takes place some time after the first game where a much larger eighteen arena champions stand in your way with tournaments that grow in size the further you progress. Alongside boasting non-lethal duels in which it is the first gladiator to draw blood (non-armour damage essentially) that allows players to more easily grind for money with the inclusion of a 'crowd appreciation' system' inbetween tournaments, it also introduces ranged weaponry to the fray and magic spells + potions that make use of an eighth stat in the form of 'Magicka' that further varies up the gameplay, plus other nice QOL changes that include a day and night system that also throws in random events upon leaving shops which can positively or negatively impact your gladiator depending on the choices made. Then we have Swords & Sandals III: Solo Ultratus that evolves the gladiatorial game even further, boasting an entire new artstyle and even more weapons that now include various musical guitars for those on the Charisma path to utilize and the strange inclusion of modern weaponry alongside the tried-and-tested bows and arrows, all to aid the player in the series of fights to work their way up against an even larger twenty-four arena champions this time around! Although the stats have now been simplified into five, ditching Attack, Defence and Stamina whilst Magicka is renamed Intellect, they have included a new 'alignment' system which grows in power and strength the more you align with either good or evil by whether you spare or kill a gladiator at the end of each fight. Now for the last two that switch things up quite a bit as Swords and Sandals IV: Tavern Quests takes the genre of gladiator fighting in a new direction, opting to focus primarily on the 'Mario Party' genre of casual party gaming instead with progression taking the form of eight maps styled as a 'board game' that players can play repeatedly with either 1-3 CPU or human opponents. This typically includes taking turns and rolling the die to progress one to six panels at a time, gaining or losing gold alongside the rare Fate Mask and Golden Sandal (acting as 'mini stars' and 'stars' respectively) whilst also playing any of the twenty-three minigames to win big and also incorporating elements from the S&S games. This includes shops to buy gear with gold earned and random events that have a 50% chance to go well or poorly for the player as well as featuring an arena tile where one can challenge another to fight, the chosen gladiator in question always playing on second turn but getting to dictate the reward for victory. Finally there's Swords & Sandals: Crusader, a game that again changes things up as a strategy wargame where you control an entire legion of soldiers and various units as opposed to a single gladiator in an attempt to successfully conquer the realm of Brandor. This game is split into four game modes that each vary up the gameplay in different ways, though the main goal is to defeat all rival armies either by yourself or with allied factions by successfully destroying their strongholds in their pre-determined locations. However accomplishing this often requires the smart allocation of soldiers and acquiring as much areas as reasonably possible to build up gold reserves for more and stronger units, with levelling allowing the player to assign points to various abilities and skills that enhance their armies' stats. As far as the positives of these five games go, I'd say that S&S 1 is the easiest to start off with as there's not as much to learn and is generally the simplest of the five. S&S 2, my personal favourite, is easily a much more enjoyable experience if you want a lot more out of the first game and is balanced much better on the difficulty side. S&S 3 adds the most combat options of the lot and does well to keep every style of combat fairly viable without being too weak or overpowered. S&S 4 is a nice way to chill out with something more casual and playful if you have a fancy for party games and S&S Crusader is a fairly fun strategy game on its own merit and has a fun dynamic of how to build power within your army without stretching yourself too thin and when to pick your battles, a close second for me in the collection. Though for the negatives, S&S 1 is way too short whilst also being prone to large difficulty spikes and often falls victim to needing to reset multiple times even with an ideal build. S&S 2's tournaments can often drag in later levels and certain challenging bosses will likely have players needing to reset and go through waves of gladiators just to try again. S&S 3 unfortunately feels dumbed down in certain aspects and is especially padded out when compared to its predecessor, also with the alignment system not differing enough from a good-focused versus evil-focused player with no unique abilities to either. S&S 4 isn't a particularly fun take on the board map turn-based gameplay of Mario Party as it lacks certain features needed to make the gameplay more interesting and worth repeating maps over and over. Finally, S&S Crusader does suffer from repetitive missions during the campaign and a lack of decent challenge for most missions once you get a good understanding of how it all works. Outside of a handful of bugs, mostly harmless graphical issues and the odd text/grammar error typical for Flash games of the time, I'd argue that the faithful (if sometimes flawed) collection of these small gems is well-worth buying for the price point of just £8.50 which, considering the full version was at a steeper £10.00 for each individual game back in the late 2000s, is easily a good way of having a nicely-contained collection of not just the main S&S games but also various fan mods too that have been included by Whiskeybarrel Studios. In short, buy Swords and Sandals Classic Collection if you have any interest in the Flash games of old as well as those who love a good turn-based RPG that also features plenty of old-school action and gore to enjoy on the side!