300: March to Glory

Mar 15, 2007

Famed comic writer Frank Miller turned his attention toward Hollywood in the early '90s (scripting the RoboCop movies no one likes to talk about) but it wasn't until 2005's Sin City that the comic book luminary successfully made the jump to the silver screen. Hot on the heels of Sin City's success comes another Miller major motion picture adaptation: 300, the historical account of a small group of Spartans who held off overwhelming numbers of King Xerxes' invading Persians in order to ensure the survival of Greece's fledgling democracy. The "widescreen" graphic novel garnered tremendous critical acclaim upon its release, and by all accounts, the cinematic version does justice to its source material. Sadly, 300 will only end up two-for-three in the quality department, as the PSP's 300: March to Glory is a derivative, repetitive and shallow tie-in that fails to capture the dynamic energy of the comic or the film.

Simple to a Fault

March to Glory is essentially a stripped-down version of Dynasty Warriors, putting you in command of Sparta's King Leonidas as you hack and slash through endless waves of Persians and the occasional boss. And while critics have accused DW of relying too heavily on simple button-mashing gameplay, March to Glory makes DW look like Gears of War by comparison.

Initially you're armed with a sword or spear and shield. Later in the game, you earn the ability to wield dual swords. The X button serves as your light attack, Square is the heavy attack button, and Circle is a shield attack. Holding down the L button raises your shield, and holding L and R together causes you to "tuck tail" and hide under your shield to escape the periodic volleys of Persian arrows that darken the sky. And while there are a handful of weapons and combo attacks to purchase (with kleos - honor points - earned in battle), the gameplay rarely varies from a set formula: enter a small region of the level, kill every enemy in the area, and progress to the next part. It's strictly linear, and once you've cleared an area, you can't simply walk back into it; you need to choose the "replay" option from the main menu.

When you're just tearing through hordes of fodder, the game's actually a lot of fun. Simple combos quickly result in a pile of Persian corpses and the occasional extremely satisfying decapitation. It doesn't take long for the Persians to realize that equipping their foot soldiers with shields might help them survive slightly longer, but switching to your trusty spear makes short work of those. But as soon as you start facing more robust foes, the game mechanics that are designed to vary the combat experience actually just get in the way of the fun.

For example, as you rack up kills, you earn "Wrath," which you can use to activate battle skills that you acquire over the course of the game. One of the Wrath skills is an ability called Blood Drunk, which temporarily increases the damage of your attacks. It's a handy technique, especially when you're facing overwhelming numbers of enemies and need to clear the area in a hurry. However, there are certain boss enemies that can only be defeated while you're Blood Drunk; normal attacks inflict no damage whatsoever. So if your Wrath meter is empty, and there are no minor foes around to slay, you're reduced to avoiding the boss's attacks and countering with useless strikes until you refill your Wrath meter and can finally finish off your foe.

The Wrath mechanic also lets you unleash more powerful attacks by holding down the R button and attacking, but again, the gameplay gets in the way of the fun more often than not. It's bad enough to have to build up your Wrath meter when fighting a boss. It's downright frustrating when minor, heavily-armored grunts require you to hit them with a Wrath attack to make them vulnerable to a finishing blow. And to make matters worse, your usually reliable AI allies are useless against enemies that require any special techniques to take down, and they're not smart enough to stay out of range once they realize that their attacks do no good. This is especially frustrating when your objective is to ensure that an ally survives combat. Yes, there are escort missions, and yes, they're just as annoying here as they are in every other game.

Phalanx for the Memories

Another attempt to bring the movie to life in the game is the addition of the phalanx formation. At certain points in the story, you and your fellow Spartans automatically line up in a (hopefully) impenetrable wall and march forward in lock-step, impaling enemies on spears and shielding each other from arrow fire. But like just about every other aspect of March to Glory, there are some rough spots in the gameplay. For example, the first time you phalanx, it's to bring down a war elephant in a tedious battle where it's difficult to tell if you're actually hitting the beast or stabbing at empty air. Also, although I'm no scholar of ancient Greek combat techniques, I'm pretty certain that a phalanx can't block an elephant's stomping foot simply by raising its shields. At the end of the battle, you are told that, "Xerxes will cower behind a thousand such beasts before coming within a spear's cast!" And when you hear that, the temptation to run very, very far from the PSP is almost overwhelming.

There are a few bright spots in the production. Story-advancing cutscenes are hand-drawn comic book style, although unfortunately the art style is completely different from Miller's original graphic novel. The voice acting is solid, despite the fact that only one of the movie actors, David "Dilios" Wenham, appears in the game. And the game's soundtrack is suitably epic, coming straight from the movie's score.

Window dressing aside, however, it's not a terribly good-looking game. The character models are reminiscent of first-generation PS2 characters, the environments are generally small and cramped, and there's no camera control whatsoever, which gets incredibly frustrating in stealth missions, where you can be detected by off-camera enemies.

But really, does any of this come as a surprise? March to Glory, like many other movie tie-ins in the history of video games, is a slapped-together product that borrows heavily from other, better games and was rushed to store shelves in order to take advantage of marketing synergy. If you go in expecting exactly that, you won't be let down. But if you're expecting something that lives up to the accolades garnered by the graphic novel or the movie, you're going to be sorely disappointed.