While Agrippa fights in the arena, Octavius sneaks around flower gardens.

Interspersed between all of the blood and gore action are Octavius’ stealth missions. These usually involve running around an area talking to people or trying to sneak from one spot to another. The conversations aren’t the least bit exciting as most people will respond with a line of useless text and you must keep talking to people until you randomly speak to the right one. The stealth action is pretty basic and not all that much fun. It’s the standard “press the sneak button while making sure the guards don’t look right at you” style of play that’s been overdone in games lately. Taking most of the challenge out of it is the fact that you have an in0game map that performs like your very own “Marauder’s Map”. It shows you a map of the area with the current location and facing of each enemy and also exactly where you should be going. It’s hard to imagine action gamers enjoying the stealth parts of the game, and stealth fans won’t be attracted to an action heavy game like Shadow of Rome anyway. Thankfully none of these sequences is very long and you can return to the carnage before too long.

The story itself is conveyed through numerous well-produced cutscenes, with stretches of gameplay sandwiched in between. At times the story is definitely the focus of the game and the action almost becomes disjointed as you must make your way through a bevy of animated scenes in order to move from one action sequence to the next. You can appreciate that the developers were probably trying to tie the action closely to the story, but in the end it makes the game feel piecemeal at times.

Graphically the game looks really good, with the screens packed with details and nice special effects. You’ll almost be able to feel the varied weights of the different weapons as you swing them. The animations are smooth and lifelike and when coupled with the gory details it makes for some very dramatic and intense fighting sequences. If you can’t take all of the blood and guts, the game will let you tone it down a bit but this is no game for the feint of heart.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 79%.  Shadow of Rome brings the brutality and excitement of gladiator combat into your living room – you’ll almost be able to smell the sweat and blood. Too bad the stealth side of the game is so weak in comparison.

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