One might be able to infer just what Gladius is about by looking closely at the title. Their suspicions would indeed be correct, as Gladius does involve gladiatorial combat.

The demo pretty much tossed me straight into the game world, so figuring out what to do at first was a bit difficult. But I've gathered that you control a traveling school of gladiators. As to what they can do, and their purpose, I don't know yet.

I did get into a couple battles and was fairly impressed with the ease of use. The battles are turn-based real-time, meaning characters with more speed get their turns quicker. Sometimes when an enemy is zeroing in on your chracters, you can escape because large movement gets cut off in the middle, probably because another character's turn comes up. Also interesting was this meter that engages before attacking an enemy physically. I have no idea what it does or how it works, but stopping it in the small red area seemed to work best.

Lucas Arts has created something that is obviously different from their usual fare. I was very much interested in the battles, and I'm curious as to how these schools actually work.