The time is 44 B.C., and the Roman Empire is in a state of turmoil. Caesar has been assassinated, and the wrong person has been accused. The general of the Roman army has become a gladiator. He begins fighting in smaller city arenas, but his drive to succeed takes him to the Coliseum for the final matches. Surprisingly enough, I am not talking about the movie Gladiator. I am referring to Shadow of Rome, which is, from start to finish, an extremely beautiful game. Yes, the premise sounds exactly like Gladiator, and for the most part it basically is (heck, there is even a scene where General Agrippa, said gladiator, yells "Are you not entertained?" to the crowd). But to steal a line from Cone, if you're going to rip off a movie, at least pick a great movie. And Capcom did just that.

I'll explain the story in a little more detail. Agrippa, the Roman general, has led his armies to victory against the Germanic tribes and is on his way back home. What the general does not know, however, is that back home, Julius Caesar has been assassinated, his last words being "Et tu, Brute?", and his father Vipsanius is being accused of the murder. As Agrippa returns home, his friend Octavianus warns him that his mother is on trial for a public execution. Agrippa tries to stop them, but he falls short and sees his mother die right in front of him at the hands of Decius, the new Emperor's right-hand man. A girl of unknown origin named Claudia helps Agrippa and Octavianus escape, then together the three hatch a plan to save Vipsanius. Claudia suggests that Agrippa become a gladiator (her brother Sextus owns a gladiator stable), as the winner of the Coliseum games gets to slay Vipsanius, leaving a chance for Agrippa to save him if he himself wins. Agrippa agrees, and meanwhile Octavianus sneaks around the Roman Senate searching for clues to the true killer's identity. I say that the game is like Gladiator, and fundamentally yes it is, but the game is more like an imaginative take on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The events of the story pan out very nicely, and the battle that is the culmination of all events at the end of the game is fantastic.

Naturally, with two stories going on at once (that of Agrippa and that of Octavianus), you can expect the game to split into two parts-stealth and combat. I hate stealth games with a passion. I will never buy (another) one as long as I live, and because of this I'm probably biased. With that being said, I think Capcom made the biggest mistake of their lives by adding stealth to this game. It slows down the pace of the game tremendously. While you control Octavianus around the Senate, you must not be seen or your game is over. These scenes are so frustrating, annoying, and kind of pointless, because the AI of the guards is so awful sometimes, and other times you'd think they were superhuman. You use disguises, pressing against the wall, crouching, climbing into rafters, and sometimes you are given weapons with which to render the guards unconscious. If you get spotted, you have an awareness gauge that starts depleting if you manage to hide. When you are spotted again, it fills up. When that gauge runs dry, the guards just magically forget that they even saw you and go back to their merry business of yawning. I spent an hour or two at a time on some stealth scenes which should have lasted five minutes. Though I admit, I still did have fun with them, as frustrating as they were.

However, the reward at the end of the annoying stealth sections was well worth it. When you control Agrippa, you fight in different types of matches, ranging from battle royals to sieges to chariot races. Every single match was incredible and left me hungry for more, cursing when it was time to go back to stealth. In the Arena, everything is based on Salvos, which is a stat that measures how happy the crowd is with you. If you gain a ton of salvos, you win the crowd, and they will toss you many large, ornate weapons to use in your slaughters. Although it still baffles me how the guards will let some random spectator carry this huge battle poleaxe into the Arena. Anyway, there is a myriad of things you can do to get Salvos, and the challenge is to unlock every type of Salvo in the game (for example, Meat Collector Salvos if you sever enough limbs, or Bullseye Salvos if you kill someone by throwing a weapon at them). If you accumulate enough Salvos across battles, you gain armor upgrades for Agrippa that are extremely helpful in later battles.

I have to say that the Arena battles are incredible. This hack-and-slash combat system is by far the best thing I have seen Capcom do, as it is extremely free and easy to control. The weapon selection is huge, and you will never run out. When your current weapon shatters, listen in for a "Use this!" from the crowd, and check the ground. If you fill your Salvo gauge, the game will tell you to cheer. When you do, they will toss you a really nice weapon (a grand halberd, power spiked maul, or a very nice sword) that makes the game almost unfair for your foes. Then the limb-severing, arm-breaking, head-mashing, and body-slicing begins full throttle. You can then use severed limbs and heads as weapons! My favorite weapon was the two-handed sword because you will see limbs flying left and right when you bust out that thing. This game is so bloody that even Mortal Kombat: Deception looks like a kid's game. And that's a good thing-it works. As for battle types, the chariot races are incredible, as you can win simply by killing the other racers, but my favorite types were just the plain old Elimination matches, where it's everyone against you, and your mission is to demolish everyone. The good thing is, once you fight a battle, you can play it again outside of story mode, making it easy to fight your favorite battles whenever you want.

I could go on forever about the battles, and I wish I could, but let's talk about what makes those battles so great in a technical sense. The graphics are just plain gorgeous. The game flows smoothly, there are no lag spikes from too much computing on screen, and the faces look real. The sounds are fantastic; the cheers and chants from the spectators makes you feel as if you are inside the game yourself, hacking away at your foes. Even the stealth scenes display good sounds and graphics, making you really feel scared of being seen, as if you were crouching behind that box in real life. The playability and controllability of this game is the best I've seen in a while for a game of its type. Movement is never awkward. All in all, this game is solid.

I think, even with the horrid stealth scenes, that this game never failed me. I was always interested, I always wanted to know what happened next in the story, and every time a plot twist came into play, I was really excited. I had so much fun in the battles that I expect this game to reach my top ten list of favorite games sometime soon. Even though I despise stealth (have I mentioned that already?), I even had a decent time sneaking around in between bouts of yelling at my TV in frustration. I buy games to be entertained, and what Shadow of Rome did far exceeded entertainment. I can't praise this game enough, and fans of action will more than get their fill.

Mar 18, 2005 | 0 comments
Matt Karam