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[theaffection]

2005 Capcom game for the PS2 that looks pretty great for the time. Story is fine. Gameplay is a mix of 3 elements:


Gladiator fights where you're thrown into an arena with a shit ton of enemies and weapons. The crowd throws you weapons and food. You can beat people up with their severed limbs and some other cool mechanics like stealing weapons. Insanely fun, Capcom at their best.


Linear levels where you walk through corridors and beat up enemies until you reach a boss. Standard action-adventure fare. Carried by the great combat


Stealth levels: Very barebones, but pretty inoffensive. Can range from pretty fun at times to being a drag. Ancient Rome is a cool setting for a stealth game. Plays like Hitman. AI has X-ray vision at times and one-hit kill you if you get caught


Gladiator arenas are 10/10, stealth 6/10 and the corridor levels 7/10. Interesting mix of ideas, the game is a MUST play due to the arenas.


What're your thoughts on this game?

 

[robotrock]

Never heard of it, that's crazy that Capcom got the Gladiator license for this game though.

 

[Nheco]

Never heard of it, that's crazy that Capcom got the Gladiator license for this game though.

what

 

[catilio]

Gladiator arena was the most fun part of the game. The rest was meh.

There should be a gladiator game, with RPG style of progression, without any history.

20 players or NPCs fighting till the last one remains.

Gory as fuck also.

 

[robotrock]

what

Looks like they've got the word and costumes from Gladiator so I'm assuming so, at least.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Some of the combat scenarios were so damn good, cleaving through people with the magnus sword never got old.

Could've done without the stealth stuff but hey you get to crossdress and make guards slip up on honey splatter so maybe it balanced out.

 

[joecanada]

A whole game based on the arena would be great

 

[Elixist]

the arena and combat are indeed sublime op. great weight to the weapons and animations and the gore is fantastic. i'd grab a sequel in a heartbeat

 

[Zuzzissm0]

the game was great back then. capcom did a lot of great games for PS2

 

[Corpsepyre]

One of the best games from Capcom. I binged the gladiatorial arenas like hell back in the day. Never got old cutting the shit out of people. I enjoyed the stealth sections too.

 

[Mobius 1]

Great soundtrack too. It deserved a sequel but if I remember correctly something went sideways and Capcom dropped it.

 

[xviper]

this game is underrated as hell, an awesome game that only a few people know about

 

[heringer]

Gladiator arena was the most fun part of the game. The rest was meh.

There should be a gladiator game, with RPG style of progression, without any history.

20 players or NPCs fighting till the last one remains.

Gory as fuck also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyqX4e7Y_ws

 

[Boy Wander]

Looks like they've got the word and costumes from Gladiator so I'm assuming so, at least.

Gladiators existed before 2000AD and I'm not talking about the game show.

 

[Aztechnology]

I remember playing this on an 10" small TV sitting in the middle of my car on road trips with my brother. My eyes bleed thinking about it. But the game was great.

Looks like they've got the world and costumes from Gladiator so I'm assuming so, at least.

What

 

[giancarlo123x]

Never heard of it, that's crazy that Capcom got the Gladiator license for this game though.

 

[CannonFodder52]

I heard this game has some gameplay/engine similarities to Dead Rising. That always made me want to check it out.

 

[Auroradawn]

I had so much fun with this game, The Combat is Pure fun and I am yet to see a Gladiator arena game that is as fun as this game , The amount of animations for each weapon and each enemy is insane , A shame that it didn't do commercially that great ( In Capcom eyes ) , Ryse Son Of Rome only had a glimpse of that game in one of the boss fights but it is nowhere as fun as it

It is too bad that instead of a Sequel for this game ( Which was hinted based on the ending of it ) , They canceled it and converted it into Dead Rising as its replacement for a "Western-Focused" Series , Another Too bad that we will never see an HD Release for it outside Emulators

 

[Erban1]

Amazing game outside of the stealth sections, i'd buy it as a ps2 classic without hesitation.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I liked the idea of the stealth sections more than actually playing them. The concept of being able to work behind the scenes, doing espionage and political manoeuvring in the Roman Senate makes me giddy but the actual execution was poo doo. Also, was it just me or did the blonde guy look a LOT like Raiden from MGS2?

I heard this game has some gameplay/engine similarities to Dead Rising. That always made me want to check it out.

They feel very similar, Frank even looks a bit like the character from this game.

 

[DPB]

Gladiator arenas are 10/10, stealth 6/10 and the corridor levels 7/10. Interesting mix of ideas, the game is a MUST play due to the arenas.

That's about right, though I'd rate the stealth sections even lower, I found them very frustrating. Unlike the combat, there are nowhere near enough tools at your disposal to be fun.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

I heard this game has some gameplay/engine similarities to Dead Rising. That always made me want to check it out.

The sequel was rejigged to become Dead Rising 1.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Amazing combat, shit stealth. Also very hard. Couldn't beat a fight towards the end and stopped playing.

 

[crookedaxis]

had a blast playing this with my brother and friends when i was 12 or something... the stealth sections were so rough, i remember we couldn't stop laughing every time we had to play them.
ah... the good old days.

and never finished it, there was a stealth section that was impossible for me, or something like that. it was a hard game.

 

[NathanDiego]

I enjoyed quite a while this game,but never finished

 

[chun li's thighs]

I heard this game has some gameplay/engine similarities to Dead Rising. That always made me want to check it out.

The engine in SoR (and Onimusha for that matter) were the first release iterations of what would become MT Framework. By the following console gen, the engine was solidified under that name and used for Dead Rising and Lost Planet. So yes, the engine similarities are there as they are related middleware.

 

[Unspoken90]

Game was fun, but I remember the stealth sections being such a drag.

 

[Strike]

Combat was awesome, stealth not so much. Very basic. Hidden gem worth taking a look at if you're going through PS2's massive catalog of games.

 

[Goron2000]

Looks like they've got the word and costumes from Gladiator so I'm assuming so, at least.

I'm very confused. You know that Gladiator is set in ancient Rome and that the outfits they wore are (Mostly) authentic for the period right?

 

[potatohead]

I think I recently bought this but haven't played it yet I also remember positive reactions even if not super popular when it came out

 

[void666]

The arena was so much fun. Every thing else was meh.
I still have my disc and play on emulator from time to time.

 

[Taelus]

Looks like they've got the word and costumes from Gladiator so I'm assuming so, at least.

Yeah, it's rare we get to see a game set in the Earth universe.

 

[dragonfart28]

Never heard of it, that's crazy that Capcom got the Gladiator license for this game though.

I can't stop laughing.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I was hyped for this pre release but somehow never ended up getting it.

 

[Courage]

I was thinking about this game the other day. Crazy underrated, I might pop in my PS2 copy on my PC and try to emulate it.

 

[theaffection]

I've come to the conclusion that the stealth is pretty awful so I'm just gonna download a 100% save to skip all of it

Fun times ahead

 

[Nocturnowl]

This reminds me, Agrippa's totally not bootleg Gladiator quote in this game was "are you not satisfied?!"

 

[Qwark]

Looks neat, I think I saw this game in stores years ago but ignored it because it just looked so incredibly generic.

Found this interesting from the wiki, source from a now dead 1UP interview.

The sequel was in the early stages of development when the first game was released. However, due to poor sales, particularly in North America, executive producer Keiji Inafune decided to scrap the franchise, and Shadow of Rome 2 ultimately became Dead Rising.

 

[Filthy Casual]

We need more games set in Ancient Rome.

 

[Tsukumo]

"I'm coming for you".
Loved the game to death.
Don't think a sequel/ remake is likely since the gore was absolutely extreme and I can think a good whole bunch of reasons why younger people would find it obscene. I mean the game was apparently already censored in Europe. Or maybe it was just the german version, I can't recall.
The game also had too many look-alikes: Anthony Hopkins, David Bowie. Capcom would get its ass sued in a heartbeat.
The combat design of varying your playstyle to get high scores to get power gear to get higher scores could definitely be recovered though. In pretty much any horde mode game they could come up with.
Love the fictionalized historical characters.
The stealth sections were a nightmare. 1/10.
If none of the Platinum games existed this game would have the greatest fucking bosses of all times: "they like me! they really like me!".
Capcom games on Ps2 were something glorious.

 

[Raijin_Cain]

I loved this game!

Thank you, OP! I had forgotten all about it!

It was so much fun.

The graphics (for a PS2 game) held up well.

Combat was brutal and exciting!

 

[HyperZone<3]

a more polished sequel really would have been something, as it is its still quite a gem though.

The PS2 was chock loaded with quality brawlers (another pretty good one with a Gladiator setting even came out kinda close to this one), so adding some puzzle heavy stealth sections must have seemed like a good idea. I still maintain that it was, and keeping the great combat and de-janking the stealth would have made an instant classic.

Ah well. I do miss that era of Capcom, the risk taking one.

 

[Ronin Ray]

Game was so fun.

 

[il Diavolo]

I remember watching a friend play through this a while back and thinking it looked really cool.

 

[SoilBreak]

Top 10 fav PS2 games for me.I miss that 03-06 era of Capcom games.