The year is 44 B.C. The grandeur of the Republic of Rome has been tarnished by political corruption and society has been overrun by unruliness and violence. Julius Caesar advocates for drastic reform but he is met with opposition and murdered. The horrific news finds its way to the ears of one soldier, Agrippa, whose father is accused of the murder. Unfortunately, time is running out for Agrippa as his father is to be publicly executed by the winner of the next gladiatorial event. Venture throughout ancient Rome with the help of Agrippas best friend, Octavius, and a female gladiator named switch between Agrippa and Octavius, each of whom have their own area of expertise, to rescue Agrippas father and uncover the switch between Agrippa and Octavius, each of truth.
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I think about it plenty. Largely thanks to games like this being my bread and butter in my formative years. Was this irresponsible on my parent's part? Probably not, but I'm thankful for that. When I started playing this in 2024, I was worried that it wouldn't have aged well and that I was a spectator in my blissfully biased youth. I'm over the moon that isn't the case.
Narratively, the game is a 2005-era PS2 game, wherein you play as two characters, one with stealth-focused gameplay and the other with heavy combat focus. It has shoddy voice acting and laughably bad dialogue, which adds to the game's charm.
The game stumbles through one of the characters' stealth-focused gameplay. However, thankfully, the game's AI is potato-brained, and you'd have to try hard to find yourself stuck in any area for too long. That said, the different gameplay suits the narrative well and never feels like it drags on.
The Colosseums are where the game truly shines, though, with various modes to keep the player engaged, such as the arenas being littered with traps, different rules to each match, whole-ass chariot races, and even fighting elephants and lions. The game has a reward system wherein you complete feats such as dismembering your opponent to gain crowd praise, like a Devil May Cry-esque Style Meter, where you're rewarded with weapons and health. Through this system, the game actively encourages you to mix up your fighting style to get maximum points. Thanks to this, I was rewarded for thinking out of the box in ways such as slicing an enemy's arm off and beating them to death with it or breaking all the bones in their arms so they can't use any weapons.
Towards the end of the game, it doesn't quite hit the heights of the middle section of the story; however, it finishes strongly with me thinking about future replays.
TL;DR: Game fucks.