Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance Reviews

Very mid game If possible I would suggest buying this on console. Do not play without a controller. I love the backgrounds though the hub world is so good looking.

A very fun, simple game. The boss battles could have been a bit more imaginative, and they can be frustrating at times (you'll see when you play). Minor issue with high screen resolution, giving me a black bar across the upper part of the screen, but never missed anything important. Racking up the kills with a high fight gauge is highly satisfying!

Man this game is a childhood right here. I'd been hoping for years that they would port this game to PC, ad they finally did. Would recommend buying when on sale though. Also the OST for this game is great.

In simple terms this game is a janked up GoW. Now that is understandable because this came out a few years before Santa Monica Studios came out with the first God of War game. Give this game a shot if you would like to know how a drunk Kratos would fight. *5 achievements are broken for the Steam version of this game and it looks like they will never be fixed. Avoid this game if that bothers you.*

I've played this a lot when I was a lot younger. Its aged really well & the controls have too as well (you can play it with a modern controller). Its definitely worth it at full price if you can not wait for a sale. The downside of this game is that sometimes in order to progress, you have to spam the your attack in a few parts. Also it doesn't feel like there is enough of it, so you won't get too much replay value either. Good game 6/10 & +1 for nonstalgia.

Certainly a product of it's time, not perfect. A bit janky and repetitive, quite the odd control scheme even with a controller. Needed work to get it full widescreen without issue, by choosing "public beta" in the boot properties (which also unlocked higher resolutions) That said it was a perfectly fine experience that would have been very fun back in 2003

An amazing call back to when games were just mindlessly fun. I played this game on a low end laptop and still enjoyed the shit out of it. Yes the combat is repetitive and there literally no story. It's just an Eye-Glazing slah fest. Worth it for the price too.

[b]I can't belive this game is on Steam! My first hack and slash game of my childhood. Good story, gore combat, finishers, weapon upgrades, variety of enemies, etc. And not only that, they added trading cards and achievements so it's more enjoyable now[/b] [h1]7 / 10[/h1]

So I played this game loooooong ago when I was a child I'm talking like almost 15yrs ago on the original xbox and it was a just a game of complete art and wonderful voice acting in my opinion. I bought the game again just recently and I'm telling you the game is as great as ever I wish there would be a remaster or a remake or something to keep this game alive. The blood and gore is ofcourse dated but still nice big ups to this game being on steam and gabe knowing what games were worth putting in the steam store and thank you for bringing me back to my childhood I just wish the devs didn't abandon this masterpiece there's still people who endlessly love this game 10/10 story, blood, combat, enemies, levels, executions, art and mechanics.

"Are you not entertained?!" Plot Gladiator Invictus Thrax is murdered by the evil emperor Arruntius. Thrax gets a second chance for getting his revenge, and also saving Rome from Arruntius' corruption. But first, he has to venture into the underworld... Graphics Being a port from a 2003 PS2 title, the textures are pretty low-res. However, the moody lighting, diverse scenery and detailed and bloody finishing moves still look great today. There's also the option for higher resolutions. All in all I'd say it's one of the few "older" titles having managed to age pretty well, actually. Music & Sound The orchestral soundtrack gives the game a Hollywood feel and the sounds are decent, as well as the (corny) voice acting. Controls Oh, the controls... As I don't have a joypad, I went for keyboard and mouse instead. And here's the catch: forget the mouse! The game has fixed camera angels anyways. Instead, reconfigure everything for comfortable keyboard controls. There are two "modes" basically. One has Resident Evil style tank controls, i. e. left and right makes your character spin in that direction, up makes him walk forward. No problem getting used to when you played the older Resident Evil games etc. though. When in combat, the game changes to analogue controls and locks onto the nearest enemy - you press left and he'll walk towards the left side of the screen, regardless of the direction he's facing, which works pretty well for the combat. There's also a key for switching those two modes. And here's the catch: Pressing the designated button, having an enemy appear, hitting an enemy or getting hit by an enemy automatically enters said combat mode. Sometimes the game decides that you have to get past an area by destroying objects while simultaneously being attacked by multiple enemies. Combat mode only targets enemies, not objects. So you'll have to leave combat mode and target the object manually, hoping combat mode won't accidentially be entered again before hitting the object. It's annoying and sometimes outright frustrating. Each mode works pretty well on its own, but as soon as the game forces you to combine them, prepare to curse it for doing so. Those sections are few and far between (luckily!), but when they appear, they manage to instantly make the game frustrating instead of the otherwise fun and entertaining gameplay throughout. Gameplay If you've played God of War or any other similar action adventure, you'll know what to do. Fighting lots and lots of enemies, use a lever or press a button, move into the next area and fight some more enemies. Rinse and repeat. There are also bossfights, but you'll only fight the same two bosses three times each, which isn't only a huge letdown all by itself, but also forces you to destroy objects during the fight, making them annoying and unnecessarily frustrating. It's quite sad that those bossfights are actually the low point of the game... Except the wonky controls and disappointing bossfights, the game is satisfying and rewarding fun throughout, also thanks to some especially bloody and gory finishing moves. It's especially fun when fighting human enemies, but you'll only do so during the prologue and the last two levels im the game. For the most part, you'll fight skeletons, cyclops, snake people and other mythical creatures. It might be a bit of a personal taste, but fighting human gladiators seemed more fun and the monsters were rather random, judging by the title and premise of the game. Still, I enjoyed Gladiator - Sword of Vengeance and if you like Gladiators / Roman setting, lots of blood & gore, and don't mind PS2 era graphics, sometimes frustrating controls and underwhelming boss fights, you should definitely conquer this arena. (If you prefer better graphics & controls and less mythical stuff, try Ryse - Son of Rome instead.)