Shadow of RomePublisher: CapcomDeveloper: CapcomRelease Date: February 8, 2005Buy 'SHADOW OF ROME':Shadow of Rome kind of snuck into existence. Blitzkrieg 3 cheats. It was present at E3, but seriously overshadowed by Capcom’s recent offerings like Resident Evil 4, and came out to a near-total lack of fanfare.That’s kind of weird, honestly, because Shadow of Rome is surprisingly good. It’s not a different historical setting for Onimusha, which is what I half-expected. Instead, it’s a rare thing: a game that divides its time cleanly between two vastly different genres, and does so without bollixing them both up.When Shadow of Rome opens, it’s 44 B.C. On the borders of the expanding Roman Empire, its legions fight a constant battle against invading barbarian tribes, while at home, the corrupt imperial Senate are successfully distracting the people with bloody gladiatorial combat.

This is the time of Julius Caesar, the great general and hero. Caesar’s career is cut short by his assassination on March 15th, throwing the Roman Empire into chaos. A Roman soldier named Vipsanius is framed for Caesar’s murder, but both Caesar’s nephew Octavianus (the future Augustus Caesar) and Vipsanius’s son Agrippa, a young general in the Roman legions, know that Vipsanius is innocent.While Octavianus remains in Rome and tries to solve the mystery of Caesar’s murder, Agrippa gives up his station and becomes a gladiator. A tournament is being held to determine who will have the honor of executing Vipsanius. If Agrippa can win the tournament, he’ll have a chance to rescue his father and reveal Caesar’s true assassins.Shadow of Rome is equally divided between Agrippa’s game, an extraordinarily bloody brawler set on various battlefields and arenas, and Octavianus’s, which is about half stealth and half straightforward adventure game. Both modes use the same engine, which is nothing short of amazing; it’s been my experience that when you try to get one engine to do two wildly dissonant things within the same title, the situation rapidly deteriorates.

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Such is not the case here, and I’d go so far as to say that the engine deserves to be reused. (For example, it’d make a helluva Resident Evil or Dino Crisis game.)Of the two modes in Shadow of Rome, I’m probably more impressed with Octavianus’s game. When you’re running around on the streets of Rome, the gameplay’s sort of pleasantly retro, where you get around obstacles by talking to people or thinking outside the box. If Octavianus is infiltrating a location, you get around by sneaking past people while their backs are turned, stealing somebody’s clothes and bluffing your way through any close encounters, or improvising weapons or distractions out of whatever happens to be handy. There’s one sequence where you can take out an entire group of bandits with a couple of banana peels; it takes a while to set up, but it’s a lot of fun.Agrippa’s levels are more frustrating. Octavianus’s game has a kind of slapsticky, Saturday-afternoon-TV quality to it; Agrippa, on the other hand, is cutting people in half for the amusement of screaming Roman crowds.

This is the kind of action where you can hack off somebody’s arm with a greataxe, then pick that arm up and beat somebody with it. The more elaborate the bloodshed in the arena, the more the crowd loves it. If you play to the crowd by varying your attacks or showing off, they’ll throw you new weapons, which you will need. Whether it’s because of inferior Roman weaponcrafting or the fact that Agrippa appears to be a caveman, weapons break a lot in this game. You’re constantly stealing a new sword to replace the one you just busted over some mook’s head.It’s not a big deal. As a matter of fact, I kind of like it; it keeps combat from devolving into the usual “charge and hammer X” idiocies that characterize a lot of 3D brawlers.

That said, tthe fragility of Roman steel occasionally descends to the level of farce. A high-velocity encounter with a midget’s face should not bust a greatsword, and that’s all there is to it.(Oh yeah. There are kung-fu midgets in Agrippa’s game. I know this is a draw for some of you. No, you can’t play as them.)Shadow of Rome’s actual flaws, as opposed to questionable gameplay quirks, are really more like nitpicks. The camera could stand to be pulled a bit further back during the most intense fight scenes, the graphics are muddy at times, and the NPCs’ AI is roughly comparable to that of radishes.

You can get the same guy to fall for the same trick fifteen times in a row if you really feel like it, and any gladiatorial combat where you’re forced to cooperate with an NPC ally is far more frustrating than it has to be. There’s one arena battle where you have to rescue a guy, and it’s like Capcom deliberately set out to make a new poster child for annoying escort missions everywhere. He’s suicidal; he’ll stand there like a dog that’s being shown a card trick while someone is hacking at him with a poleaxe.I figure in about five years, Shadow of Rome will start showing up in magazine articles about “cult” games, or the best-kept secrets on the PS2. It’s been overshadowed by other recent high-profile releases, but Shadow of Rome is a great action game and an entertaining stealth game.

Shadow of Rome - PS2 Gameplay 1080p (PCSX2) Visit new GodGamesHD channel here: Shadow of Rome (Japanese: シャドウオブローマ Hepburn: Shadouoburōma?) is a 2005.

I recommend it to fans of either.Score: 8.9/10.

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Old School Cool: Shadow of Rome

It seems strange that there haven’t been more video games created that specifically tackle the gladiatorial games. There is 1986’s Gladiator from Taito, a beat em up arcade game starring the Great Gurianos, as he makes his way through a castle full of enemies. Then there’s the epically titled Star Gladiator from Capcom, which actually has nothing to do with gladiators at all, but bears mention solely for its title alone.

2003’s Gladiusbrought a turn-based combat mechanic to the world of gladiators. It was developed by LucasArts at around the same time as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the company’s biggest hit at the time. Gladius is probably the most well-received gladiator game of all time.

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In 2005, Capcom returned to the gladiator arena for the PS2-exclusive Shadow of Rome, which told the story of a famous Roman general named Agrippa, who is forced to participate in the gladiatorial games after the assassination of Julius Caesar. It also followed Octavianus, who was based on Augustus Caesar, the first Emperor of Rome, before he became ruler of the empire.

Shadow of Rome featured hack and slash gameplay that made way for lots of bloody violence in the arena. Weapons at Agrippa’s disposal included swords, scimitars, maces, spears, bows, slingshots and flails. Oh, and if Agrippa severed an opponent’s arm, he could use that as a weapon, too! Octavianus’ gameplay focused on stealth, a stark difference from the gladiator sections that offered its own flavor.

While Shadow of Rome performed modestly with critics, it didn’t do too hot with sales. The game was originally planned to be the first in a series, but exec producer Keiji Inafune (the dude who created Mega Man) canceled the sequel. In fact, that sequel turned into zombie hack and slash game Dead Rising. That might be Shadow of Rome‘s most long-lasting legacy.

Learn more about Shadow of Rome in the video below:

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John Saavedra is an Associate Editor at Den of Geek. He has also been published in The New York Times, Details, and many other publications. He…