Swords and Sandals 3: Solo Ultratus

The mighty gladiators may have lived a long time ago, but their legacy lived to this day, thanks to their legendary feats of courage and strength. As such, they have also been included into a multitude of books, movies and, in the end, into interactive video games, which aim to give you a more personal look into their lives and preferred method of making a living.

Swords and Sandals 3: Solo Ultratus provides you with the opportunity to create your own gladiator alter-ego and make use of his abilities to defeat other champions in the arena. The creation process involves the aesthetic characteristics of the hero, such as size, weight and body type, which allow you to model the warrior as you desire.

There are, however, a set of skills that can be personalized as well, which determine various feats and abilities when it comes to the actual battle. Hence, you can spend the received character points into improving your strength, charisma or agility, all of which depend on what type of fighting style you prefer. Beside hit points, the gladiator also has a magicka bar, which can be used to cast various spells on the enemies.

As you make your way through the challengers, the fights you win are rewarded with gold as well, which can be used to purchase items and improve various abilities. Thus, you can choose to equip new helmets and armors to increase your defense skills, or opt to buy new spell scrolls to extend your magical arsenal with more powerful attacks.

Depending on the type of item you want to acquire, you have to visit the appropriate merchant. These are displayed on the main screen of the game, from where you can also see and access the arena. Each merchant is specialized in a certain type of artifacts, ranging from healing potions, to armor sets, shields and all sorts of weapons you can use on your opponents.

Although the fighting mechanics are turn-based and they cannot be regarded as too energetic, they do hold their share of excitement, especially in the case of evenly matched opponents. The nicely animated graphics give you plenty to admire between the punches, while the soundtrack contains some very inspiring tunes to get your adrenaline pumping at the right time.