Shadow of Rome (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

I'm going to come out and say it. I liked this game, but didn't love it. It seems like this game has attained somewhat of a cult status since it's following. I should have trusted the reviews of IGN and Gamespot, though.

Shadow of Rome starts out great. The story is really unimportant, but serves to move the game along. The only thing you need to know is that Caesar has been murdered (big surprise) and you are the son of one of his most trusted advisors.

The first level is sweet because you are in the Colliseum fighting all sorts of gladiators. If the developers had been able to weave a story around the game and make it so you spent the entire game performing fights in the Colliseum it would have been awesome. Unfortunately you have to flip back and forth between Agrippa and some little prick named Octavianus. This really takes away from the fun to be had in the game and serves to make it longer than it really is.

Octavianus' levels are boring. All you do is sneak around and try to find out info to further the story. If I wanted to play a stealth game I would play MGS, Hitman or Splinter Cell. Thanks, but no thanks. And if I wanted to play an RPG where I needed to talk to every effing townsperson to complete my objectives, I would go play Final Fantasy!

Where the game truly shines is in it's combat. When you are fortunate enough to be in the ring fighting, you are given a slew of different weapons to use and the ability to steal weapons out of enemies' hands. If you are doing well, use a command to get the crowd's attention. By doing this they might throw you a new weapon or an item to use to heal yourself.

Killing in the most gruesome way possible is the true name of the game, though. There are things called Salvos, which are similar to the Signature Takedown feature of Burnout 3 and Revenge. Each Salvo has a description of certain things to perform while in battle, such as doing a three hit combo, or impaling a foe with a thrown weapon. This system functions as a way to unlock things later in the game and also as a fun way to learn to do new techniques. To me, systems like this one and those found in the Burnout series may be fun for a while, but they are totally superfluous to the gaming experience and thus don't add much overall. I could do just fine without having the extra chore of trying to get all of the Salvos in the game. It's even more annoying when I can't unlock all of the extra content unless I get all of the Salvos! When a video game turns into work then it's not doing its intended job.

Overall, this is a game that could have been so much more. I am being generous by giving this game a 4/5. I give it this score because of the amount of fun I did have (which was a lot) while I was fighting in the Colliseum. The rest of the levels with the lame character Octavianus served to further a story I really didn't care about. I love history, but this game doesn't even come close to accurately portraying any of the events succeeding Caeser's death and Marc Antony's seizure of Rome. For this reason, I chose not to pay much attention to the story because of its inaccuracies. They just annoyed me. I don't want a fake history lesson. It's just too bad the developers weren't able to make the game strictly about the life of a gladiator and the emotions he has to deal with while killing in order to survive. Now THAT could have been an epic game. Sad to say, Shadow of Rome falls well short of reaching the mark of greatness.

I have a friend who once told me that the game "Colosseum" was really fantastic. It mixed the Roman backgrounds with all of the fantasy of being one of the hallowed 'sports stars' in one of the most bloody "games" in all of history. COOL! Doesn't that sound cool??

Let me just say this about "Colosseum", though: it sucks. My favorite thing about it is how the camera is situated right in front of you the whole time so that you remarkably can't manage to see straight in front of you as people run up to stab you in the face. And not being able to leave the one dingy little forum that the game offers is really thrilling, too. But I digress...

Because of this, I was understandably wary about investing in "Shadow of Rome". But when I ordered it from Amazon, I had just finished watching the extended edition of "Gladiator" and I was in the mood for some more Holy Roman Empire-based fun.

I can honestly say that now, having played this game, I handed my copy to my aforementioned friend and told him, "trash 'Colosseum' and play this instead. But forget to give it back to me, and I'll do such horrible things to you that the gladiators in this game will envy me."

The plot goes like this: Julius Caesar has been murdered! I think I can pretty much safely say that that's not going to be a spoiler for anyone, unless you 1.) skipped all of your English classes in high school, or 2.) are an idiot who knows nothing about anything. But what is different about this approach is the clever retelling of the famous story through the eyes of a gladiator and a simple peasant boy. Agrippa is the son of one of Caesar's most trusted advisers, Vipsanius, and Octavianus is an orphan boy who was raised under Caesar's benevolent care. Despite their entirely different backgrounds, Agrippa and Octavianus have somehow forged a deep friendship (and considering their Roman heritage, I have to wonder if it doesn't go deeper than just friendship). I don't know how historically accurate Caesar adopting some random kid and taking him as a nephew is, but it's still kind of fun, and at least the characterization strives for a level of authenticity that many games wouldn't even bother with.

The peasant boy is named Octavianus, and he will serve as your "story" character. That is, his levels may be slow-paced, but if you have any romantic soul in you whatsoever and wish to know just what the PURPOSE behind this game you're playing is, you will enjoy the levels playing as Octavianus. The main reason he exists in a game that is primarily meant to attract aggressive, hormonal gamers is to explain the story playing behind all of the horrific bloodletting. His dedication to his best friend, Agrippa, is quite admirable, and his ability to extract information will depend on whether or not you can lie your way out of risky situations. That being said, he's a total wuss and will die with only one hit from a shield or sword or any other weapon. He's not exactly the human tank that his pal is, and to that end, he can get kind of aggravating to play (if you're good at talking your way out of things, though, you won't need to worry about this). Nevertheless, he's still an interesting character, and certainly deserves the same amount of respect as your other guy.

The other guy being, of course, Agrippa. Agrippa is your "action" character. He's a musclebound general with mad fighting skills and a chest that probably measures about six feet in diameter. I have to laugh wheneve

great gladiator game very fun a lot of wepion hand to hand combat flat out great game great story lines lots of brutality blood guts galor parents do not let children play this 17 years and up a must have

The "snake game" (it has several names) is one of the simplest game concepts ever, and just like Tetris it's very addictive. There are a lot of variations of this game written in Flash, and this tutorial will explain one way to create it. It's a relatively easy game to code, but many fail to make sure that when keys are pressed in rapid succession they are all registered. This is necessary if you want to have full control of the snake at all times.

A CROWN JEWEL OF A GAME. IF YOU CAN BUY IT I HIGHLY RECOMEND IT. IF YOU LIKE GLADIATOR BATTLES YOU WOULD LOVE THIS GAME, IT HAS A LOT OF VIOLENCE AND ALSO STEALTH WHEN YOU USE OCTAVINUS. SO IF YOU CAN GET IT BUY IT!!! YOU WILL LOVE IT