Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #3400
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  Gladiator   (a.k.a. OpenGlad)  View all Top Dogs in this genreCollection: Open Source Games
Action   Military shooter

Rating: 8.88 (67 votes)

Gladiator box cover

Gladiator screenshot
Gladiator is a fun top view, real-time action/RPG game with a good dose of strategy thrown in. You control a team of mercenaries who fight for the glory and riches. Along the way, you will explore a fantasy world full of typical monsters such as the undead, elementals, and so on. In RPG fashion, your gladiators will gain levels and new powers as they defeat more opponents and accumulate treasures.

The gameplay is easy to learn, although the graphics may seem to amateurish for some. You start out with some money which will be used to hire warriors, archers, slimes, and other creatures to form a small army. You then train and control these members as they battle monsters in real-time. Up to four players can play on a single team, and you can split up the party into smaller ones if you wish. A nice feature is that you can control either one unit at a time and leave the rest to the computer, or the whole army simultaneously. The battles are quite simple - you only have a few choices such as melee, ranged attacks, and using special skills (e.g. healing and turn undead for Healers). Since the game is played in real-time, it is not uncommon to see dozens of units at a time on the screen, and all you will have time to do is to keep your troops together so no unit will go off alone on a suicidal attack. Some maps (i.e. levels) have special features including teleporters or locked doors, but the terrain is typically used only to either help you plan your attacks or shield yourself from the enemies. Similar to Warhammer games, the story is told as you move from map to map, in the form of your diary. Sometimes you will get an ally or two during the scene (they oddly seem to die easily, however).

Overall, I enjoyed Gladiator. The blend of RPG, action, and some strategy elements is quite well-mixed and stirred. If you enjoy kill-everything action games with more depth, Gladiator is well worth your time and $10 for the registered version (which offers more levels and unit types). It's a great bang for your buck, especially since up to 4 players can play, and you get a nice level editor as a bonus for this great underdog. Best of all, in 2002, the designer kindly released the source code under GPL license, and the result is OpenGlad, a polished port of the game done by a team of fans. The SDL (for Windows) is the version you can download here, as well as the original DOS shareware version. For Linux and other versions of OpenGlad, check out the official website.

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: Tom Ricket & Sean Ford
Developer: Forgotten Sages
Publisher: Freeware
Year: 1992
Software Copyright: Tom Ricket & Sean Ford
Theme: Fantasy, Design Tool, Shareware
Multiplayer:  
System Requirements: Windows XP
Where to get it:
Related Links: Official site
Links:    
If you like this game, try: Gauntlet II, Fire King, C-DOGS

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.