Pros Play as the villain Gorey Tries to be a metroidvania Combat is punishing and rewards decisive action Gameplay is unique Ending feels like it comes out of a movie Some of the little touches are nice (funny to drop on enemies while they're sitting on the john) Cons Game is too short for its price (feels like a $10 game) Extra upgrades are irrelevant as game is over by the time it's convenient to collect them No final boss to use the extra upgrades on (or any bosses in general) Falls short of the depth of other metroidvanias (which would have given it more playtime) Doesn't appear to have any replay value beyond the simple desire to do it again Judgement: Excellent $10 game, a bit sad it falls short of the potential it has. Bosses and would have served it well.
Since the decline of the Dawn of War series and the limitations of modding the original DoW, I've been looking for modern 40k games to scratch that old itch. Gladius fulfilled that for me quite well, in spite of it being turn-based. My only complaint is that there are currently only 4 factions, despite there being paid DLC available. Luckily Tyranids are on the horizon and from what I can tell the devs are working to expand the game to respectable proportions. The other con one could figure is that the AI 'could' be considered suboptimal, but I get around that by going against larger teams of AI. I see complaints about there being no story mode, but most 40k campaigns are tacked on anyways so I'm glad they did without it, so long as they are working to bring more factions and other features. They have a "story" baked into each game by way of each faction's Quest, so if you're really hurting for something, it's in there. Definitely buy the game on sale, and get some for friends, since with this genre of game it is boring to play alone. It's just a bit too expensive for only 4 factions. Regarding another review here, the game 'is' finished. It could just do with some more factions.
