Shadow Of Rome

Julius Caesar is... Dead.

Welcome to Shadow of Rome, Capcom's take on ancient Rome. Capcom are masters of story telling in adventure games, with classics like the Devil May Cry and Resident Evil series. But, have they worked their magic on Shadow of Rome, or has it gone the way of the Roman Empire?

SOR takes place in ancient Rome and revolves around two young men, Agrippa, whose father has been wrongly accused of Caesar's murder and his childhood friend, Octavianus, whom is the nephew of Caesar. Their mission: find the killer and save Agrippa's Father.

There are two main characters in SOR, the son of the accused, Agrippa, and Caesar's nephew, Octavianus. Both characters have their strengths and weaknesses. Agrippa is easily the more entertaining of the two to play as, most of his missions are combat heavy, while, Octavianus, - who bares a striking resemblance to Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2 - has stealth focused missions where sneaking and taking people out quietly are more important than charging at multiple foes with a big sword. As you progress through the game you'll meet various allies such as a young woman named Claudia, whose brother, Sextus, gets you into the gladiatorial games in an effort to save Agrippa's dad.

Missions play out differently depending on whom you are in control of; some missions will have you sneaking around a roman camp, while others have you taking part in gladiatorial games. The missions are divided up by brilliant FMV sequences that link the missions together seamlessly. You may be playing a mission with Octavianus, then run into a boss battle, and because he's a weakling, almost lose until an FMV sequence starts and you switch characters to Agrippa.

Agrippa's missions are combat heavy featuring battles and boss fights, so anyone looking for some solid gameplay will find their fix in these missions. These missions really justify the R16 rating, as limbs will be lost when you attack enemy soldier with a sword, the limbs can then be used to slap soldiers to death. As you use weapons, they slowly decrease in strength, and eventually break.

In Octavianus' missions you must take enemies out silently, by either choking them or smashing a vase over their head while no one else is close enough to hear it. Once you have taken a victim out you have a range of options to do with the body: steal their clothes, wake them up, take a key if they have one, drag their body to a safe location, or wake them up. The last option is not recommended, because if you wake up someone you just knocked out, they will either; call a soldier or kill you depending on whom they are.

Keys are only available when you come to a door that needs to be unlocked. Stealing outfits allows you to get around the levels easily, without raising too much suspicion from the Romans. If you are caught out while sneaking around levels, a visibility bar appears. You must hide somewhere and wait for the visibility bar to go down completely before moving, if a roman catches you while the bar is active, they will kill you.

Visually, SOR doesn't skip on the gore when you kill someone either. When playing as Agrippa, you will use weapons that can hack off various limbs. Then use them as weapons to attack the other enemies. Although the visuals overall are grainy thanks to the anti-aliasing and the environments are bland, all of the Roman models look great and the voice acting is top notch. No FMV to speak of, the cut-scenes are all based on the game engine.

The cut-scenes feature full voice-overs for every major character in the game and the voice acting is generally good, the best part in terms of sound is easily the chanting crowds in the battle arenas. The background music suits the era, although it's only noticeable in stealth missions, because in the action level you are generally too busy hacking people to death to notice.

Overall SOR as a great adventure game with well-balanced characters, varied gameplay, a decent plot with interesting characters and more action than you can throw a head at. However, anyone looking for a retelling of a true story isn't going to find it here, as SOR is an action game at heart.