While the combat is truly turn-based, most combat actions in Gladius require a bit of arcade-like finger-twitching, requiring the mastery of swing meters. These meters display hot spots which, when reached by a moving icon, require the precise clicking of certain console pad buttons, sometimes in a particular order, during a combat attack. If you press the right buttons when the hot spots are reached, your gladiator scores a critical hit during the attack. This adds an action element, which initially alarmed an arcade-challenged gamer like me. So, originally I used the game’s option screen to disable the meters, but critical hits by the computer were few and far between. So, I switched the meters back on and, after some practice mainly restoring saved games after many early battle defeats, the swing meter became a fun challenge, and enhanced gameplay appreciably.