Shadow of Rome review:3 stars (LOVE THE KILLING BUT HATE THE SNEAKING AROUND!) - Ok this game could have been AWESOME if they only kept half of it and dumped the rest. The fighting is awesome with huge combat areas, blodd and gore, gruesome death scenes, a huge variety of weapons, and tons of combos to discover. BUT!!!!! Nooooooo, Capcom had to add these stupid stealth/sneaking around missions. 1/2 the game you play as an awesome gladiator but the other half you are this wimpy roman Dewey who tries to sneak into rooms and houses without being seen (this is required over and over for no real purpose). What do you get out of all this stupid sneaking around? Coins!??? That's it? Oh how exciting, I can buy new outfits for my character...BIG DEAL! (Yawn). The sad part about it is that you are forced to play through these tedious levels in order to advance through the story. You also can't skip the long and often stupid cut scenes. I couldn't wait to get to the next big gladiator challenge but kept getting interrupted by these stupid sneaking missions. Do yourself a favor and go online to get a walkthrough for these sections. Don't get me wrong though, this game has some great parts (the fighting!) Even the chariot races are kind of cool, however, if I wanted stealth sneaking I'd buy Metal Gear Solid for goodness sakes. Overall the action/fighting should get 5 stars while the sneaking around missions should get 1 star. It really detracts from an otherwise great game. The story is nice too. 5 stars (Brutally Awesome!!!!!) - It's about time, the gladiator fighting arena has been demonstrated to be brutally awesome on a video game. Yea, sure the game starts out a little slow, and somewhat irritating, but, it's all worth it once you become a gladiator and get to chop of arms, legs, and heads and not to mention cutting bodies completely in half and smashing heads and pleasing the crowds. The more brutal and agressive, the more the crowd will love you and Chant your name and throw you tons of different amputating and smashing weapons to do even more damage. It's just like the bloody arena we've all heard it was. I can go on and on.
The story line is really good as well and gets you into the game more. I don't really care about it anymore though, I just love playing the arena over and over.........4 stars (A challenge and so so funny. ) - I pulled an all nighter playing this game. The graphics were great and I enjoyed the battle scenes. Its the average bad guy wants to conquer Rome, bad guy murders Ceasar, a Innocent man is blamed for it, and a annoying blond guy is searching for the answer. You play two roles, Agrippa and octavious. Agrippa, who becomes a gladiator to find his dad, and Octavious who is searching for the answer to ceasars death. The weapons are temporary and you have to pursuade guards before they kill you. As you progress through the game, at some point things will get annoying but that could be remedied by having octavious slip on a banana peel...or get stung by bees.
In short, it is a fun game and if you have the patience you can beat it.
If you enjoy challenges and pulling an all nighter playing a game, this would be the one.
Shadow of Rome Features:
Video Games
PS2 (PSX2)
Sony Playstation (Play station) 2
Playstation2 (Play station2)
Action
Adventure
Strategy (Strategic)
PlayStation 2
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Strategy/RPG

Shadow of Rome is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 49.99USD.