Swords and Sandals Immortals

As a long time S&S player, I cannot recommend this game, even though it is like 3$ currently. The UI is atrocious. Finding the most important stats is a pain in the ass. Even armor display somehow got worse than in the previous S&S games. There are like 50 needless clicks, such as adventuring or the animations. Speaking of - you can't skip animations at all. You exit a shop? Witness the 3-second dialogue animation. You enter a shop? Witness the 3-second dialogue. You want to skip to the next fight? You need to click through the "Fight the local champion" option. Every time you fight. This is an unpolished turd. Also, somehow the devs thought that it would be a great idea to make the second arena champion a full defense champion. This is great if you have a fighter and absolutely unbeatable if you play a mage, bard or anything relying on skills, because they all have huge ass cooldowns. And you'll naturally miss all the hits, because the champion is a full-defense one. Then you'll run out of mana and gg. The animations SOMEHOW feel worse than in freaking Swords&Sandals 2!!! They feel more clanky, inaccurate and just low quality. Even for a S&S game, mind you. This absolutely doesn't feel tested at all. An unpolished turd is all I can say about this.

I gave my life to this game as a child, and now... as a man.

So as a big time swords and sandals fan. While i enjoy this game, I still find myself liking SaS 3's art style and mechanics more than the new mechanics. That being said its still a very good game and worth the money easily.

This game is perfect for those who want to reminisce Swords and Sandal series with upgraded graphics and gameplay for sure.

I played the Swords and Sandals games a lot back when I was a kid, they where pretty innovative for the time, being basically a turn-based 1v1 fighting game, I can't think of any other games that mixed these two kinds of gameplay back then, so when I saw that there was a new Swords and Sandals game on Steam I had to buy it. Swords and Sandals Immortals plays like a much more polished version of Swords and Sandals III, keeping the same core gameplay while offering improvements where necessary, along with removing some of the more frustrating mechanics of Swords and Sandals III like the level caps and the random shop inventories, some of the most notable new mechanics are the ability to explore the word, allowing you to fight on different arenas with different rules and take on quests scattered all over the map, it also has a much more elaborate character creation/customization system, being more intuitive than the character creation on previous games and allowing you to play as gladiators with a wide variety of different skills and abilities. So Swords and Sandals Immortal had everything to be the best game in the series, but it has one big problem: the whole game is one big, barely playable minefield of glitches, the glitch that happens the most often is that when you go to the world map there will be a big black rectangle covering a big chunk of it, or in some cases covering the entire map, preventing you from seeing anything, that might sound like a minor annoyance but I swear it happens all the time, 9 times out of 10 when you open the map it will be glitched and you won't be able to see it, and the only way to fix it that I know of is to reset the game, and unfortunately this also applies to most other glitches in the game, they are frequent and can only be fixed by shutting the game down and booting it up again, but the worst glitch of all is when the game hardlocks you, sometimes, usually when you enter the camp or open a sub-menu, all of the buttons will stop working and you will get stuck there, or even worse clicking on any of the buttons will cause the game to crash, I would recommend you to save a lot to avoid getting stick but there is another problem: the game only has one save slot per character, and it auto saves to, I played for over 200 in-game days and almost reached the maximum level, but I lost ALL of my progress because the game auto saved while I was stuck in the camp because of a glitch, and now my only choice is to start the whole game all over again and hope I don't get locked in a glitch this time. It's unfortunate since gameplay-wise this is probably the most solid Swords and Sandals game to date, but having great gameplay doesn't matter when all the glitches make the game virtually unplayable.

I just finished Swords and Sandals Immortals and I did not expect it to be this good. After playing through Swords and Sandals II Redux and Swords and Sandals III Redux, I thought I already knew what to expect from the series, but this one actually surprised me in a really good way. This is not just another arena game. It feels like a proper RPG where you travel around the world, take on different challenges, and slowly build your character into something powerful. That sense of progression is what kept me playing. You are not just fighting random gladiators one after another. You are exploring, facing different regional champions, and dealing with all kinds of situations that make the game feel bigger than previous entries. I played as a Warrior with the Fighter subclass this time. After finishing Swords and Sandals III with a Rogue style build, I wanted something more straightforward and reliable. Fighter feels a lot more stable. You still deal solid damage, but you are not as dependent on RNG as with crit focused builds. It made some fights easier, but the game still has its moments where it pushes you hard. One thing I really liked is the alignment system. I ended up going for a good path and reached around +850 alignment, basically becoming a pure good character by the end. It actually feels meaningful because it changes how certain things play out and gives your run a bit more identity. It is a simple system, but it works well in the context of the game. There were also some really memorable moments during my playthrough. One of the biggest surprises was seeing Antares fighting on my side in the final battle. That caught me completely off guard. Especially because earlier in the game I had already beaten him during one of the dungeon journeys without much trouble. Seeing him return like that and actually help in the final fight was something I did not expect at all. Speaking of fights, the game still keeps that classic Swords and Sandals difficulty style. It is not always fair, but it is always intense. Some enemies can feel completely overpowered depending on your build and the situation. And yes, the Yeti Project Redux. That thing gave me actual PTSD from the old days. If him being absurdly strong was not enough, now he is dual wielding. That fight is just brutal. It took me multiple attempts to finally beat him. I think around the fifth try I managed to get through, and even then it felt like everything had to go right. Moments like that can be frustrating, but they also make victory feel earned. Another annoying part were certain paladin type enemies with ridiculous defense stats. There was even an arena rule at one point where I could not use skills. So I was stuck relying on basic attacks with something like 25 percent quick attack chance. That was not even difficult in a fun way, it was just slow and painful. You just sit there chipping away while they barely take damage. Not the best design moment, but thankfully those situations are not constant. Despite those frustrations, the overall experience is very smooth. Compared to older games in the series, Immortals feels much more refined. There are no major broken mechanics or anything that completely ruins the game. There are small issues here and there, but most of them are so minor that you barely notice them while playing. You can also clearly see how much effort the developer put into this. After playing this, it makes complete sense why Swords and Sandals III got a Redux version. A lot of ideas here feel like they were built upon that foundation and expanded into something bigger. The structure works, the progression feels good, and the overall experience is much more complete. The art style is also worth mentioning. It keeps that classic Swords and Sandals look but adds more detail and personality. Some character designs really stand out. There was one female warrior with a hammer that instantly reminded me of a draenei from World of Warcraft, very much that holy warrior loyal to the light type of vibe. Whether it was intentional or not, it looked really cool and made those encounters more memorable. What I like most about this game is that it respects what the series has always been while still improving it. The core is still there. Turn based combat, stat progression, gear upgrades, and a mix of strategy and RNG. But now it is wrapped in a larger RPG structure that gives you more reasons to keep playing. By the time I reached the true ending, it actually felt like I completed a full journey, not just a series of arena fights. Getting that ending after pushing my alignment toward good made it feel even more satisfying. Overall, Swords and Sandals Immortals is probably one of the best experiences I have had with the series. It takes everything that worked in the older games and builds on it in a meaningful way. It is not perfect, and there are still frustrating moments like the Yeti or certain high defense enemies, but the good easily outweighs the bad. If you enjoyed the older Swords and Sandals games, especially Swords and Sandals III Redux, this is an easy recommendation. It feels like a natural evolution of that formula. And honestly, after finishing this, I am even more interested in seeing what the developer does next with the series.

I bought this on sale for $5.19 CAD. For this price I think the jank present in this title is absolutely reasonable. The game is wacky, no doubt. And not just Goat Simulator wacky where it's all entirely the point, this one is also wacky in genuinely obtuse and irritating ways. It's not a total dealbreaker but it's not something I've found myself interested in playing for long sessions yet. I think going forward I'm literally just going to mute all the game audio for starters, and have some Gamers Nexus or Some More News on the side lol.

GLADIATOR. GLADIATOR GLADIATOR GLADIATOR. GLADIATOR. GLADIATOR GLADIATOR GLADIATOR. Why is this game's music so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. i got stuck in a loop at the cutscene to the final boss cuz i didn't have my weapon equipped and now im crying and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my pants.

Mindlessly repetitive. Melee doesn't work well at the highest level, where kiting and staying out of range are better. Since melee is a major number of player options, if that doesn't work as well, then the game wasn't thought through very well.

7/10