Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance

"Greatness and mediocrity in one package"

Gladiator could have been a great game, clearly some of it is utterly awesome, but the flaws are far to numerous to overlook. Bearing some, but pretty little, resemblance to the Russell Crowe film, your sole task is to survive. This is hack and slash 101, with nothing else to do, as everything you need is right out in the open. To see what is good and what is bad, just keep on reading.

GRAPHICS: 9/10 An awesome looking game, Rome really comes alive. The Elysian fields are gorgeous. The game is extremely bloody, and the death kills are grand. This is just one fantastic looking game.

MUSIC/SOUND: 8/10 The sound effects really shine. The music is decent but forgettable. The voice acting is pretty good, as well.

CAMERA/CONTROL: 1/10 Suffice it to say that you will never find a worse camera anywhere, as you have absolute zero control over it, which can make knowing where to go next, or even surviving unnecessarily difficult. Then there are the weapons and combos, which pretty much all do the same thing. For an extra round of frustration, there is the auto lock on, which is 10 times more of a hindrance than it could ever be a help.

GAME PLAY: 4/10 At first the game is fun to play, but after a while the repetitiousness of it all becomes very boring. You never really have to look very hard for anything; in fact, it's the camera that will keep you from seeing something, not its being well hidden. There also is a major flaw in the game's construction, as it veers wildly from being impossibly hard to unbelievably easy and back again.

VALUE: 4/10 The game is now $30 or less, and is still no bargain. With only seven levels, and about 15 hours of playing time, and no reason to replay it. The fact is that you will probably quit way before you even come close to finishing. You might want to rent it, after all it does look and sound great, but if you buy it it will be one of those games that just sit on your shelf and you never get around to finishing.

FINAL COMMENTS: If this game were three times longer, and had a more consistent difficulty level; had a decent camera instead of none; had some puzzle solving or at least exploration; and had better controls, I would be highly recommending it, but wait, that would be a totally different game ,wouldn't it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/04