I’m not quite sure why, but of late the Roman Empire has been pretty popular. I think it’s mostly due to aftershocks from the movie “Gladiator,” but I’ve seen an upswing in Roman-themed entertainment being promoted. Mind you, this isn’t to say that more fiction is being made about the days of the Caesars, but that more marketing is put into it. Along those lines, Capcom came along with their own revision of the tumult in old Roma, Shadow of Rome. It’s Capcom’s bold idea to retell history, but instead comes off as something much less.
The game takes place immediately after the Ides of March, 44 BC. As history tells us, this was when several Roman senators, including his protege Marcus Brutus assassinated Julius Caesar. The game follows two of the late Caesar’s most ardent supporters: Julius’ nephew Octavianus (usually just called Octavius in English) and Agrippa, Roman centurion. Agrippa’s father Vipsanius is accused of the murder, and the winner of an upcoming gladiatorial contest gets the right to be his executioner. Octavianus doesn’t believe it and decides to gather proof of Vipsanius’ innocence, while Agrippa decides to become a gladiator to prevent anyone from killing his father.
Now, right off, let me say this: history did not happen like this at all. The various personal feelings are actually based on how the historical versions interacted. Agrippa was a really good friend with Octavianus – in fact, when the latter became Augustus Caesar; he named Agrippa his successor (which didn’t happen because Agrippa died first). However, the actual course of events did not happen at all like this – if anything, this is an alternate history, which could have theoretically took place but didn’t. If anybody actually plays this game to get information about a history report, then you deserve the big fat F that your paper is going to get. This is just a warning.
As for the alternate history we actually get, it’s actually pretty lousy. The characters speak almost completely in cliché, and even if you don’t know your history, you can quickly figure out who precisely is behind the murder of Julius Caesar. Moreover, they play up modern morality way too much. I’m sure that Capcom had to throw in a scene of Agrippa, in the midst of a gladiatorial combat, bemoaning the barbarism of his new profession in order to secure the Mature ESRB rating (trust me, I’ll get into why this should have gotten an Adults Only soon enough). However, that really rings hollow when you don’t have any sense that Agrippa cared about such morality before (when he was a soldier in charge of conquering new lands and securing them for Rome). I’m not saying that an “alternate history” game is inherently bad. But it is inherently bad to speak only in clichés and to make the ending perfectly obvious with each character’s introduction.
Perhaps the most egregious example is when it’s revealed that the jovial gladiator manager Sextus is actually the child of Pompeius, former Roman ruler overthrown by Caesar and out for revenge by destroying all of Rome. Now, I’ll grant you that the historical Sextus really was Pompeius’ child and conspired to take down the Caesarian line. But because there is no historical refresher in the game, you never have any idea who Pompeius is or that his family would want revenge on Rome. Thus, it acts like an incredibly improbable deus ex machina (hey look, actual Latin!) and makes the game feel cheap. I must give Capcom credit – it’s really difficult to make actual history feel like a cheap ploy for plot advancement, but they pulled it off.
Also, just as a side note, Capcom barely even bothers with Latin at all, and what bother they do make is half-hearted at best. Sure, Octavianus is called by his Latin name, but they don’t even try with the Roman general Decius Brutus (that’s Shakespeare’s name; his original name was Decimus Brutus). They also don’t even bother with proper Latin pronunciation in the game – the letter V as we know it is a product of Germanic languages and didn’t exist in Latin. And the only actual Latin uttered in the game is the famous “Et tu, Brute?” from Julius’ death scene. But those are just the minor gripes of an amateur linguist; they really won’t matter to the vast majority of the players out there.
The game’s action consists of two parts. Naturally, Capcom has played up the brutal gladiator combat – you control Agrippa in his battles (mostly gladiatorial, but you get in some non-gladiator combat in the beginning and end of the game) as he slashes through all comers. Actually, he slashes, crushes, smashes, suplexes, aerates, and immolates his opposition through the game; there is no shortage of different ways to hack through your enemies. Your weapon selection is fairly standard – only about a dozen different weapons, mostly just variations of simple slashing or bludgeoning weapons. Everything is in line with what was actually available during the time period in the game, and I’ll give the game full marks for historical accuracy.
However, it might actually be too precise. Anyone who knows about the historical age knows that weapons didn’t have the longest life span – bronze was the material of choice for low classes like gladiators due to the metallurgy advances at the time. (Iron, while certainly effective, was not common.) So yes, the weaponry available to gladiators did have a nasty habit of breaking. However, in this game, you can’t even swing most weapons twenty times before they break. This makes a bit of sense when the weapons are used to block or are smashed against shields. But most flesh and bones aren’t strong enough to cause weapons to snap as quickly as they do in-game. This isn’t so bad when new weapons are constantly thrown into the ring, but there are several levels in which weaponry is scarce and you have enemies constantly bearing down on you.
This is made more problematic by how difficult hand-to-hand combat has been made. Even against unarmed foes, it takes a few dozen punches to take someone out. This process can be slightly expedited by making an opponent groggy and then throwing them backwards, but this is annoying as it takes upwards of 15 seconds, during which you’re pretty vulnerable to attack. I might not be even remotely strong, but I can make a groggy person land painfully on the ground in less time. I think a professional soldier turned gladiator should be able to do the same.
However, the greatest problem lies in dodging. You’d think, like in many games, a timely double-tap would cause Agrippa to hop quickly in a direction to dodge attacks. No; sorry to say, the only way to dodge attacks is to press X at just the right time, and said time is a bit imprecise depending on which attack your foe is currently using. You’ll find yourself getting hit by many attacks simply because your timing isn’t perfect and the controls don’t give you enough freedom to get out of the way in time. I know that the game is all about massive amounts of violence, but I’d really prefer it if the violence weren’t against me.
Speaking of massive amounts of violence, Shadow of Rome certainly is in the running as one of the most violent video games ever. The game encourages you to mangle your opponents in all sorts of ways, giving names to each maneuver that gives you a bonus. I personally specialize in the Juicy Tomato, which involves using a bludgeon to crush a person’s skull into pulpy bits. You can get the Disarmed bonus by amputating an arm, and throw the arm into the stands to earn the Fresh Ham bonus. The most violent is perhaps the Red Volcano, which involves slicing a person in half at the waist. The game even has two different bonuses with Sadist in their name; apparently, dropping a giant press into an opponent begging for their life isn’t considered sadistic enough (the two sadist bonuses are for kicking an enemy about to drop dead, and attacking an enemy writing around in pain from a lost limb). Again, the game gets away with a Mature ESRB rating simply because the main characters vocally moralize repeatedly, which really rings hollow as you see the kind of carnage that you build up in the game. The classic moment is when, after a tournament, Agrippa sneers his contempt at the audience, followed by him raising his arms and yelling, “Damn you!” All I know is that it took twenty years, but I now finally have a joke that replaces “Khan!” in my lexicon.
The game does decide to frustrate you with the violence, though. There are several parts in which you actually have to hit certain point plateaus (with the advisory that repeating the same moves results in point degradation, like in the Tony Hawk games), or kill in a particular manner. If the controls allowed a greater freedom for attacking (such as pressing the left analog to adjust the direction of your blows), these parts would be much easier. However, you can quite easily screw these parts up and be forced to replay these scenes repeatedly, when all you really want to do is advance in the game. If the controls gave you a bit more say in your violent ways, it might be less frustrating to claw your way through the game.
That’s not even to get into some of the more aggravating battles found in the game. I was certainly ready for the team melees, and the obligatory boss fights. The different varieties of free-for-all battles (both “earn a certain point plateau” and “win within a time limit”) also worked well for me. However, some missions will feel a bit off, like when you have to guide a team to destroy statues belonging to a rival team while protecting your own. That doesn’t exactly fit the feel of gladiator combat. While I liked the chariot races offered about halfway through the game, those also might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, I know people will hate the “rescue” missions that the game presents, which are a combination of a fetch quest with an escort mission, with all the attendant aggravations of both. Despite what Capcom may have thought, two lousy clichés combined are even worse, not better, than when separate.
The other half of the game is much less enjoyable. Controlling the young Octavianus, you have to sneak around Rome, trying to find the proof needed to clear Vipsanius’ name and expose the real assassins. Here, your weapons are stealth, and the occasional item broken over someone’s head. This part of the game is entirely stealth-based. Even what little violence you can do in this part is determined by whether or not you successfully sneak up on someone. I hope you practiced well with Solid Snake, because this part of the game is focused purely on whether you are a successful sneak.
Wait; let me amend that, this part is focused on whether you can abuse the game’s AI when you aren’t a successful sneak. While it’s true that one hit will kill Octavianus, you can reset the AI completely by finding a good hiding spot for long enough or by leaving the area and promptly returning. This, honestly, is terribly weak – you’re telling me that after chasing an intruder around for several minutes, then losing him, they’re completely unaware of him ever coming back? Once you know the ways around the guards’ horrendous AI, the stealth portions of the game become much easier.
This is not to say that they become much easier. The timing for these parts is almost painfully precise, and you’ll end up fouling them up repeatedly until you know it precisely. I know we all love repeating the same portion of a game repeatedly. I wish the game forced me to restart the second I fouled up, like in the hardest difficulty level of the Metal Gear Solid games, rather than waiting for me to commit suicide and then force a reload. Anything to speed up the interminable process of controlling Octavianus.
The graphics are decent, but not stellar. The backgrounds are incredible, admittedly, and they do portray the grandiose architectural accomplishments of Rome. I imagine that Rome really did look like that impressive (especially given the technology from two millennia ago). However, I kept feeling that the people in the game moved stiffly outside of the combat scenes. The design for most of the characters looks great – I’ve met Italian guys that look just like Agrippa does in this game. Many of the characters are based on images of the historic figures, so they all look in place in the game. They could be animated much more clearly, but they look like they belong in the game.
Of course, as with everything else, the one huge exception is Octavianus. He doesn’t look much like Augustus Caesar at all. They even fouled up his hair color – not many Italians of the day had blond hair, and historical records certainly would have noted if the ruler of Rome had hair of that color. We’re not talking about someone who was unnoted in history or was never depicted in paintings or engravings – this was a Roman emperor. Capcom could have found a better model for Octavianus.
Also, just to be silly, it’s important to note that Sextus doesn’t dress at all like someone who lived remotely near Caesarian-era Rome. I mean, he has tons of bead jewelry, wears a long embroidered coat (and Rome isn’t noted for its cold snaps), and he even wears pants. Excuse me, but do you see any record of ancient Roman pants in the history books? He’s dressed more like an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean. Although this doesn’t detract from the game in any measurable amount, it does ruin the mood that most of the graphics are trying to portray.
Besides, that’s the job of the voice acting. Much of the game foregoes music, except some forgettable tunes during non-threatening situations. Instead, the game tries for more realism via ambient sounds you’d expect to hear in each environment. People gossip as you pass through the streets of Rome. You hear weapons clash in the background during multi-man arena battles. The crowd chants and cheers in different situations, and will even cry out “Use this!” when they throw something for you in the ring. These all function well. However, the primary voices you hear during the game are Agrippa and Octavianus. Agrippa talks is breathy cliché dialog – for all that I could tell, it was just replacing appropriate names out of dialog from Schwarzenegger and Stallone movies during their 80’s heyday. Octavianus is even worse – he’s voiced by Scott “Robin” Menville, who obviously has not developed any vocal range since his work in Tales of Symphonia. You just end up getting fed up with the main characters.
This is sad to say, because the game has some real voice acting talent outside of the two main characters. Even though he gets one line in the entire game, Michael Bell voices Julius Caesar. This guy did Duke in G.I. Joe, Lance and Sven in Voltron, and Opus in the one animated Bloom County holiday special. You’re telling me we couldn’t find a bigger part for him? Jennifer Hale (easily the best part of Symphonia’s voice acting cast) has another throwaway role in this game, and Pete Renaday (who was Splinter on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon) finds the significant historical role of Cicero de-emphasized. I’m honestly not sure what’s worse – when a game refuses to get solid voice acting talent, or when they find it and refuse to use it well.
One half of Shadow of Rome is a solid, if mildly frustrating, bloodbath that will please anyone looking for a chance to let off some steam. The other half of Shadow of Rome is an annoying slog through a weak knock-off of Metal Gear Solid’s sneaky parts. I think Capcom realized, as they made this, how weak the stealth portions were: they allow you to replay any gladiator combat you’ve cleared, but they don’t give you the same option for the sneaky parts. Not that anyone would want to, of course. If Capcom decided to just make a game about the life of a slave that became a gladiator, with the game play focused on the first half of the game, this game could have been a decent pickup. If this game allowed you to build your own gladiator and run him through this, it would have been a winner. As it stands, you have to deal with too much chaff to get to the tasty wheat. Shadow of Rome is a bait-and-switch. It promises graphic and detailed action and instead only delivers a bloody mess.
