PlayStation 2

Shadow of Rome

I've just finished this game and it's a one helluva tricky paradox! It's action is overly gory and repetetive, yet I liked it. It's stealth is glaringly linear, yet I liked it. It's story and writing is very predictable and take a LOT of liberties, yet I immensly enjoyed. It's voice acting and characters are horrifying starting from total miscast of ALL characters ending with overexaggerated movements and gut-twisting face expressions

Yet I liked it all! I cared for characters as I would care for my Dustin Hoffman if I were Tom Cruise. I almost feel ashamed liking this game so much, but I just can't help it.

I recommend it to everyone, try it!

It's an exceptionally well-meaning idiot of a game!

Yeah, it has some of the most ridiculous and cringe-worthy cutscenes I've ever seen, but I wouldn't call it an "idiot of a game". The combat-system is actually somewhat original and deeper than it seems at first. I haven't finished it yet, however. I hate it when it takes up to 15 minutes before you can tell whether you can beat a mission or have to start over.

I did enjoyed those cutscenes, because a huge amount of man/hours went into those and it shows. And I value a well-meaning, hard working idiot much higher than an assholish, lazy genius.




Yes, of course. But that depth is fully exhausted in the midgame (somewhere about nine hours into the game). If it were not for constantly changing objectives and rules of gladiator fights I would've finished playing right there. And the last 2 were full of extremely tough bossfights with absolutely no room for creative approach.




I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean Octavius missions, or the gladiator battles?

The Gladiator Battles. Some have a fairly long time limit and sometimes you realize pretty late that you won't make it. The mission that made me stop playing is particularly nasty. You need to get an item from one enemy that only shows up after you have killed a certain number of enemies. And there is a time limit, of course. The fun part is that isn't mentioned anywhere that you have to kill x amount of enemies before the one with the item shows up, but even if you know this, it's still pretty tough.

Yes, yes. Stupid wooden Rubis sword and an invisible female carrying it!!

I had to read a guide because I couldn't find any women in the arena and didn't really want to waste time killing others. That was a very stupid level, agreed.