Gladiator Manager

I am a veteran of manager games going back to the early 90s when i played Championship Manager 91 (now Football manager). I have essentially played any manager game out and purchase the new versions of OOTP, FM, FHM etc every year. Pros: - Gladiator Manager is a good indy game, especially for it's price. - It is pretty easy to play and master. I got promoted every single season and already have a cup win (season 4, getting promoted soon). Division 1 could be more difficult though. - I did not face any major bugs so far. - There is some strategy involved and it makes sense. Negatives - Do not expect any great graphics or sound effects, this is a text based game though, manager games are not suppose to be graphics orientated. - It get's somewhat repetitive after a while, but there is space for expanding the game, it is still early. Some suggestions: Personally i would like to give some input to the game, if the developer is open to that, if possible contact me by email. Here are ...

Gladiator Manager is a single-player strategy/management game set in a customisable universe with five leagues and a cup. Game play involves a cycle of hiring and training gladiators and fighting it out in the arena, in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 fights mostly described through text reporting but also with very low level animation to visually signify the main events. I’ve been excited about this one for a while since I saw it in development last year. I managed to get it straight away and wanted to post my immediate impressions. [b] Positive [/b] [list] [*] Loads of options for character creation and portrait generation. The portraits are really something and I’m nowhere near seeing the same face twice. [*] Tons of variety in gladiators, combining different classes and attributes. The class advantage system makes trying to outguess your opponents’ choices interesting. [*] Good feedback on what’s going on in the battle reporting and tutorial systems. There’s definitely a lot to ...

Having played for 5 minutes, my first intention was to refund the game. Because of the small font, reading is literally a torture. The game, on the other hand, shows potential. We have been waiting for such a deep game with lots of stats and the thrill of battle. In fact, this genre and settings is among my favourite. I will try to play again as soon as my eyes stop hurting. For the time being, in spite of the fact that I want to support the Developer, I am affraid I must give a negative review. Something must be done about fonts size. P.S. I am going to change the review into positive. The Dev needs our support especially at this moment when the game is launching. As far as I am concerned, our point has been taken. 02.02.2021 The fonts in the game has been made larger (as an option). Now it's comfortable on the eyes.

For the price, it's reasonable and this is the creator's first game, which is impressive. However, it's essentially a glorified random number generator and spreadsheet system with visuals and sounds. Will you be able to see a prospective new gladiator's key details to have an idea of whether to hire them? Random chance (but probably not). Will they be a 'gold' type, with high growth potential? Random chance (but certainly not at the lower divisions). Will they be greedy and cost you far too much or be a criminal that will leave your team no matter what after a certain number of games? Random chance (but probably not). Can you beat the superior enemy in combat with good strategy, overcoming their stat advantage? Very, very unlikely. Random chance again, but it's really not happening. Can you even hit them? Will your slightly superior stat guy lose to someone who has a type advantage that assists against them? Will they lose as the enemy has a trip move and your otherwise far better fig...

Gladiator Manager is definitely worth its price if you're into text-based management sims. The game shines during the battles that can be experienced as a mix of turn-based strategy with auto-battle in accordance to the discipline stat of each fighter. There are many dice rolls/ checks in every turn giving the fights a fascinating unpredictability that stays true to the immersion expected from a gladiator-themed game. It's quite balanced though so you can expect most of the time the best fighters to prevail. The team management part is interesting and well implemented. Economy, training & roster management need strategy without being overly complicated. The developer works consistently to improve the game, is until this day responding to all forum bug and suggestion posts, and introduces new updates frequently.

Let me start by saying I usually don't write reviews. I'm over 40, had experience as a graphic designer, and I have painful issues with my hands. That said, I want to write this review because of how much I love the game. In these strange days that are so different from the 80s when I grew up, I just want a game to play. The old tropes of RPGs, their stories, and the game play mechanics are so worn out. The AAA companies have sold themselves to Wall Street, and it reflects in their games. Neither do I want a game laden with virtue signaling, politics, or bad writing. I don't even need top-of-the-line graphics. What I do want is functionality, deepness, and replayability: in a word, I want value. For such a price as game is listed, it fits the bill perfectly. This game starts without pretense; the concept is simple: make people try to literally kill each other. While I can wax philosophical about violence here, I'm not going to. I'm a human, and as such, the idea of conflict is import...

I play a ton of management style games, and I definitely have some feelings towards how the games should be. This game fit into the genre very loosely. I already have played much better and more expansive gladiatorial management sims where you have real control over the arming and training of the gladiators. Here beyond choosing which gladiators to hire and which ones to enter into each fight you only have a minimal effect on their growth. You do get to "shout" commands to them during the fight, but they may or may not actually execute the commands you gave. And from what I saw the RNG for the fights is very unforgiving. If your fighter is better they win, no matter how weak your strategy is. It just never drew me in. The gladiators aren't real enough as characters to make me car and the fights are exercises in frustration and randomness. Sorry, but there are much better versions of the gladiatorial manager sim available. This one just doesn't have enough to make me suggest i...

I'm not an avid fan of manager games but I do like playing strategy games in general so have that in mind. The overall way managment of gladiators is made was not very exciting for me. I guess I expected a bit more depth and less breadth. But the breaking part for me when I entered actual battles. They last soooo long where I expected them to be short and sweet. The low level tactics required in a battle do not justify their length. It's very RNG and guess heavy where the game partially supports the battles taking longer by having you rest and defend to gain back control. There is a way to skip battles but this means you will spend more time on the unexciting part that came before it. Perhaps bigger fans of the genre will appreciate the game more, but as occasional visitor I did not enjoy my stay.

Don't get if you have an ultrawide monitor, the game doesn't scale properly and will cut off necessary buttons from view so you'll be stuck at character creation. I found a bug report of this from 2022 that the dev responded to and acknowledged the issue, so I suspect they have no intention of fixing it at this point (almost 2024).

As a 35 year old gamer that is borderline obsessed with turn-based tactics/management games, I can say this game is quite possibly the best $8 I've spent in my entire life. I've recently played Gladiator Guild Manager and Domina, and while both of those are good games in their own right, Gladiator Manager is so far my favorite of the three. The threat of death and permanent injury makes every fight a potential nail biter, because you never know if your new favorite gladiator will make it out unscathed. It's best to no get too attached to any particular gladiator, because chances are they'll eventually catch a mace to the face or lose a limb. As far as game play goes, the game cycles between 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 fights with the two teams lined up on opposing sides of the arena. There are a total of seven classes and each one has it's own particular strengths and weaknesses. Each class (with the exception of the freestyler) also has a default 25% bonus against another particular ...