overlooked ps2 gem - shadow of rome

[Shrooin]

anyone ever played this game? i dont think many have its sort of rare a few times ive looked it up on ebay and nothing came up.

its a very cinematic game with a good storyline. takes place in ancient roman times during the times of gladiators, you start off as a general in the army but end up voluntarily becoming a gladiator in order to save your father from execution. for half of the game you play another character who has to sneak around the senate and such in order to find out the real murders of julius caeser. you would do 2 or 3 battles in the arena with the fighter then you would play as the other character following someone by sneaking sometimes you have to knock people out and take their clothes so that you would not be noticed.

when in the arena there are different types events so there is some variety but it is mainly mindlessly hacking off people's limbs (lots of blood and gore). theres 4 arenas in all with 5 events each except for one of them which is a chariot racing arena (only has 4 events) which has no rules except for whoever crosses the line first wins. also there are some non arena fighting scenes which are related to the story line. all in all a very very addictive and well designed game, you get the best of both worlds (fighting and reconnaisance) with plenty of other things to distract you such as collecting coins to buy some roman furnishings for your private room and bonus mini games and such to unlock.

so heres some screenshots, if you think it looks good hire or buy it i guarantee you will not be dissapointed.

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/020/reviews/919760_20050121_screen008.jpg

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/020/reviews/919760_20050121_screen031.jpg

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/screen0/919760_20041122_screen002.jpg

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/screen0/919760_20041201_screen003.jpg

[gepeto]

Alot of people loved this game. I have just been waiting for the price to drop. It doesn't want to drop past the 24.99 point.

[Howie6925]

I love this game, one of my faves for the ps2. I love the free for all arena, I always thought it would be nice for them to do it online..

[FantasiaWHT]

When my EB store had the demo for it, we would load it up (whenever there weren't kids around) and people would absolutely love it.

Too bad there's so much slow-down in the action... the stealth-detective levels with Octavianus are just PAINFUL, I can bring myself to trudge through them :(

[pookninja]

its a great game.i was looking for a copy for a long time,until a few months ago,i found a brand new copy on amazon marketplace for $9.99 the last time i check they still had some new copies on there,i think for about $15.00 its well worth the price.

[Technosis]

Too bad there's so much slow-down in the action... the stealth-detective levels with Octavianus are just PAINFUL, I can bring myself to trudge through them :(

is it a matter of there being just too much action on the screen, or likely poor programming? Are we talking SNES levels of slowdown or worse?

[Neo Rasa]

is it a matter of there being just too much action on the screen, or likely poor programming? Are we talking SNES levels of slowdown or worse?

The action is actually relatively quick given the size of the characters. What he's talking about is the pacing of the game itself.

Basically you have Conan: Pit Fighter the game and it gets interrupted with these EXTREMELY forced stealth levels where you play as some bishounen chump that goes around like a detective to get clues. They suck. Like you walk through a huge empty room to talk to a single person, then hide behind corners to sneak down another long hallway, then a cutscene happens and you go back to the action. It's so stupid. I don't hate stealth gameplay but the game was made at that point where your game HAD to have a stealth level or it was a stupid and not a "thinking man's action game" or whatever. It's so forced.


I would still recommend the game to any action fan though. It succeeds in spite of its level structure though and not because of it.

[FantasiaWHT]

Yeah, slow-down = pacing problems, not graphical problems, sorry for the confusion!

[50s Brawler]

One of the best games ever made IMO. I was playing it most of yesterday acutally. Freggin' awesome. I also love Gladius as well. Anything that's a BEU game or a celebration of the more rugged days of valor where men where men, belching... fighting... TAKING what was in their grasps dammit! Barbarians or Street Brawlers, it's all the same, and the game is right up there with the best. I felt it had a few problems but overall was perfect. The game I have yet to play is this "God of War" everyone's made such a fuss over. I'm hoping it lives up to the hype for me.