Ancient Wars: Sparta

"It's not exactly what you might call inspiring stuff, overall - and while releasing a game about Sparta so close to the cinematic success of 300 might seem like a canny move, from a gamer's perspective, it actually heightens the disappointment. The rich, stylised Sparta we've seen on the silver screen - or indeed, the overblown Spartan mythology of God of War and its ilk - are ultimately much more interesting than a more stuffy historical view strapped to an exceptionally mediocre RTS game. However, it's not comparisons to 300 that hurt this game most - it's the fact that its icon on your PC desktop will probably sit next to things like Supreme Commander, Medieval 2, and even Command & Conquer 3. Any one of those games, or half a dozen others, is a telling reminder of just how stuck in the past Ancient Wars: Sparta really is. We thought the title referred to the historical setting; in hindsight, we might have been assuming a little too much."

"Don't expect any grand, over-the-top treatment of Spartan history, as Sparta: Ancient Wars is a very generic real-time strategy game."