The Creative Assembly is famed for creating the world-class Total War strategy series on PC. However, the only strategy required in Spartan: Total Warrior is the frantic button-mashing kind. Leave your brain at the door and lube up those fingers, because they're going to get one hell of a workout. If you don't, you'll end up with repetitive strain injury. It'll be interesting to see if they put an RSI warning in that part of the game manual that everybody ignores.

Crippling finger conditions aside, Spartan is all about epic battles, and the UK-based developer has done a great job making the graphics pack a seriously hard visual punch. Backing up the looks is a plot that serves up more mythical monsters than Jason and the Argonauts for you to hack and slash at. You play the Spartan, hailed as the saviour of Sparta, the bit of Ancient Greece he's from. All the pressure of saving your fellow men, women, children and chickens from the evil Romans and the odd pack of rabid barbarians comes with a price, though. And it's a reassuringly expensive price that your right hand is going to pay dearly for.

Spartan's opening level throws you straight into a furious battle, which pretty much sets the stage for the entire game. You can't help but smile when you hear the cries of hundreds of little men running to meet the enemy head-on in a sword-slashing fight to the death. It's one of those moments where you have to look around to find someone to share it with. If there's no one behind you, go fetch your mum and dad. They'll love it.

With over 160 units on screen at once - all going mental at the same time - it can be quite hard to see where your character is or what he's doing. The Spartan blends into the background of blood and gore perfectly, and you'll only figure out where he is after pulling off a special move that chops off the heads of those around him. It's the buckets of blood and flying noggins that give it away.

Combat isn't really the art-form that Russell Crowe made it look like in Gladiator. Repeatedly hammering the life out of the B button makes your man wave his sword around like some sort of lunatic. You can perform shield blocks and thrusts with the triggers, which are more useful than they sound. These defensive moves are vital when you're surrounded and need a bit of breathing space. Belting your enemies with the shield knocks them back, giving you enough space to get a grip of the situation. The more heads that roll the quicker you fill up your bloodlust meter. By clicking down on the thumbsticks you can perform special moves that'll take out handfuls of enemies at once. These moves depend on what sort of weapon you're clutching at the time, with different attacks suited to different situations.

Spartan's combat isn't all about swords, though - there's a little sorcery thrown in there for good measure. Which magical mega-move you pull off depends on what weapon you're holding, and these pack a much bigger punch. Of course, some very pretty lighting effects accompany all the magic attacks. It just wouldn't be right otherwise. And if all this hacking, slashing and magicking isn't enough, you also have the option to whip out a bow and fire arrows all over the place too. Spartan is brimming with intense, frantic, repetitive button-mashing action.

Each completed level takes you closer to becoming a legend in your own right. Smooth cut-scenes let you know what your next challenge is (though they all pretty much involve killing hundreds of Romans), but there are a few objectives scattered around each level that have to be completed before you can move on. Taking out guard towers and blowing up walls become second nature after a few levels. But every now and then you come up against a boss of truly mythic proportions.

You won't tire of all these epic battles, but your fingers certainly will. Spartan is possibly the finest example of endurance gaming yet made. Sure, it looks great and a lot of time, effort and liberties have obviously gone into the mythology and plot, but where are the epic strategy-driven battles that formed the meat and veg of movies such as Gladiator and Troy?

You might face several armies'-worth of foes at once, but you never get to command your own, and you don't get to call formations and tactics - surly the best bit - as the AI does all that for you. It's just you against the entire Roman army. We're sure we heard our Xbox laughing at us during some of the more intense button-bashing moments. Spartan is great fun, but we can't help but feel a little disappointed that the mighty Assembly's console debut isn't much more than a pretty-looking Dynasty Warriors. .

1. Gorgeous-looking environments really do hammer home the beauty of a game that is the playground of the gods.
2. There's no slowdown whatsoever, even when there's something like 200 characters going for it on screen at once!

1. Gameplay can become repetitive quickly, and all that button-mashing really does make your hand ache after a while.
2. Even though The Creative Assembly is famed for strategy games, there's no strategy to this at all. It could have been ground-breaking...
3. A fiddly interface can confuse you during frantic battles. Especially when you accidentally press the thumbsticks during a fight.

Spartan is great to look at and will amuse you for hours, so long as you like repeatedly hammering the buttons until they break.