"Are you NOT entertained?"
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a 2003 Hack and Slash action game made by Acclaim for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
In The Roman Empire, after the death of the good Emperor Trajan, the counselor, Arruntius, took over leadership. Besides imposing a strict dictatorship on the entirety of Rome and ruling the kingdom with an iron fist, Arruntius also initiates the largest, bloodiest gladiatorial match in the history of Rome to celebrate the anniversary of his ascension.
Players assume the role of Invictus Thrax, Champion gladiator of the Colosseum who intends to overthrow Arruntius' tyranny, only to be caught and sentenced to fight for his freedom in an all-out death match, against hordes and hordes of rival gladiators. But after fighting through his opponents and confronting Arruntius, Thrax is killed by an ambush the villain deliberately sets up for him.
But death is only the beginning… arriving in the Elaysian Fields, Thrax encounters the twins, Remus and Romulus, and discovers Arruntius' pacts with the dark gods. Striking a deal with the gods to stop Arruntius' plans and prevent the dark gods from returning, in exchange for a second chance to confront Arruntius, Thrax is ready for action.
See also Gladiator Begins. Unrelated to The Gladiator, which is set in a different country altogether.
"And so now I wait for an inevitable fate. But even in death there is freedom and vengeance."
- And This Is for...: The game's ending, after Invictus has defeated all of Counselor Arruntius' minions and is confronting him directly.Arruntius: You can't kill me! I am a god!
Invictus': This is for the gods. [Throws his sword into Arruntius's chest] - Bald of Evil: Counselor Arruntius is completely bald, and a ruthless dictator who took over Rome's leadership and made a pact with the evil gods Deimos and Phobos for more power.
- Battle in the Rain: "The Edge of the World" is set on rain-drenched mountains filled with enemies Invictus needs to fight amidst downpour.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Invictus' default weapon is a pair of blades attached to his shoulders. He gets his BFS (as pictured on the front cover) after getting transported to the Elysian Fields.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon:
- The second enemy introduced in the game, the Hoplomachus gladiators, are much taller and stronger than the default Secutor-class gladiators. Fittingly they all swing heavy axes as weapons.
- Cyclops enemies are among the most muscular mooks, and uses heavy maces to bash Invictus to a pulp.
- Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Invictus has more than one of these, usually when he disposes of enemies with a special move. Either knocking a weakened gladiator off his feet and stab the gladiator repeatedly while sitting on him, or jumping on the backs of enemies larger than him and sending his BFS crashing down. All these scenes accompanied by plenty of glorious red spray.
- Cyclops: Appears as recurring enemies in Isle of Titans. They're one-eyed gorilla-sized brutes who moves around on all fours, who lumbers around trying to rough up Invictus using their maces.
- Dead to Begin With: Your quest for the gods officially starts after your assassination in the hands of Arruntius. Where you then arrive at the Elysian Fields and is granted a second chance to return.
- Dem Bones:
- The Spartoi are recurring skeleton enemies clad in Roman armor, wielding swords and shields. According to Romulus and Remus they're the restless souls of fallen heroes "jealous of the living" as they're condemned to continue fighting even after their deaths.
- Meanwhile, Phobos can summon Cyclops skeletons as the Undead Counterpart of the regular Cyclops enemies.
- Evil Living Flames: Sentient, humanoid flames are another recurring enemy. They're usually armed with flaming swords can even throw bits of themselves at Invictus as a ranged attack.
- Evil Old Folks: Arrantius is far older than the hero, Invictus, and a ruthless tyrant who's the cause of Invictus' problems besides turning Rome into a dictatorship.
- Flunky Boss: Deimos, in all her boss fights, can summon minions to back her up, where she'll keep creating mooks until she's dead.
- Giant Mook: Hoplomachus gladiators, giant cyclops, and Makhai are enemies several times larger than Invictus and can take far more punishment before going down.
- Gladiator Games: The game's opening and closing stages depicts Invictus Thrax, the champion gladiator, fighting through Arruntius' gladiatorial arena against multiple enemies.
- The Goomba: The Secutor-class gladiators are merely enslaved warriors forced into the arena, and dies in just a small handful of hits by Invictus' default arm-blades. Fittingly they're the first enemies introduced and appears throughout the prologue stages.
- Gorn: Invictus spills copious amounts of blood and body parts over the course of the game.
- Heart Container: Isle of Titans has an area where Invictus can collect an enchanted tablet which extends his Life Meter and increase his current health to the new maximum.
- Living Shadow: Deimos can summon animated shadows of slain gladiators as her mooks during her second boss fight. Who wields physical weapons, somehow. Much like the wraiths, they're ghost-like opponents vulnerable to Invictus' weapons.
- Living Statue: In several areas, Invictus can come across statues of Roman Gods, who comes to life to converse with him. However they return back to a statue after the cutscenes.
- Morton's Fork: How the first stage plays out. Invictus Thrax must fight for his freedom in a gladiatorial arena, and if he loses, he dies. If he wins, he gets killed by an ambush while confronting Arruntius. On the plus side, getting killed after winning allows him an entry to the Elysian Fields and a second chance to return to the living.
- Motion-Capture Mecha: Phobos, the God of Fear, has a magic example when he creates a smoke giant around himself with his powers and uses it to attack Invictus as a boss. Said giant follows Phobos' motion for the entire battle.
- Mr. Exposition: Romulus and Remus, who greets Invictus Thrax when he first arrives on the Elaysian Fields, serves to provide exposition through dialogue and tell the hero why the gods chose him as a warrior and what he needs to do to return to Rome. Besides giving out narration in cutscenes.
- Multi-Mook Melee: There are multiple stages where instead of having Invictus proceed through an area while killing everything in his way, instead confines the hero to a single circle, where he gets enemies (skeletons, gladiators, cyclopses, whatever the level's theme is) attacking him from all directions. And must kill a given amount (usually 30 or more) to clear the stage.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Arruntius, despite being the main tyrant who turned Rome into a dictatorship and is behind the deaths of hundreds of gladiators, is hardly a fighter. The moment Invictus defeats his minions and took down the Dual Boss Deimos and Phobos, Arruntius is then killed unceremoniously in a single cutscene.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Invictus Thrax battles wraths in the second half of the game (as the other recurring undead enemy besides the Spartoi), depicted as a humanoid lump of green smoke wielding swords made of green light. They can be hurt by Invictus' weapons, thanks to being blessed by the Elysian Fields, where upon being slain they dissipates to green smoke.
- Power Floats: Phobos and Deimos, two of the bosses, both floats around for the entirety of their battle. And can only be injured when they momentarily drop to the ground after spending most of their energy, allowing Invictus to slash them apart before they recover and floats again.
- Purple Is Powerful: Consular Arruntius wears purple robes with gold lining in all his scenes, and he's a ruthless, powerful tyrant who serves as the Big Bad.
- Recurring Boss: Phobos and Deimos, especially Deimos who appears in two consecutive levels (and in her second battle is a Sequential Boss that must be defeated twice). And then it's revealed Consular Arruntius has made a pact with the two evil gods, summoning both Phobos and Deimos as a Dual Boss.
- Reverse Shrapnel: One of Invictus' power-ups late in the game summons a shield made of Razor Wind around the hero. Which can damage anything it touches.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Invictus gain bonuses by smashing through pots, vases and assorted ornaments he finds throughout the game. There's even areas which contains nothing but porcelain vases.
- Shrine to Self: Consular Arruntius has a fifty-foot tall statue of himself erected in the middle of the gladiatorial arena, that shouts "this is my arena" from a mile away. In one of the cutscenes he even threatens death on anyone who damages his statue.
- Sickening "Crunch!": The game doesn't shy away from depicting the sound of cracking bones whenever Invictus lands a hit on skeleton-based enemies.
- Slashed Throat: In the final battle, after Invictus returns to the plane of living to confront Arruntius again, Arruntius then summons Deimos and Phobos by slitting his daughter Lavinia's throat for a Human Sacrifice ritual to revive the two gods into attacking Invictus.
- Slouch of Villainy: How Deimos is introduced - reclining herself on her throne as Invictus enters her domain, mocking the hero's attempts to challenge her before she battles him.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the final cutscene after Invictus defeats Deimos and Phobos for good, he then confronts Arruntius one last time... and finish off Arruntius by flinging his sword through the villain's chest. In fact, the opening stages seems designed to avert this trope, with Invictus' weapons being blades strapped to his shoulders so he couldn't ambush Arruntius with a flung weapon after completing the first stage.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: The Machai monsters are purple-skinned, Giant Mook-type enemies with elongated necks... and a disproportionally small head, roughly the same size as a human's. Which bobs around weirdly during battle.
- Tornado Move: Deimos summons a tornado made of black energy around herself during her boss fight, and touching it drains Invictus' health.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: In the game's backstory, Consular Arruntius, the Treacherous Advisor to the Roman Emperor Trajan took over Rome's ruling authority in the aftermath of Trajan's death (which the game implies to be arranged by Arruntius himself) before imposing a reign of tyranny on the citizens. And it's up to Invictus Thrax to put an end to Arruntius' reign.
- Unrealistic Black Hole: In the final level, after Invictus defeats Deimos and Phobos for the last time, both of them are immediately sucked into a black hole forming in the middle of the arena. Which somehow doesn't affect Invictus himself.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Like every gladiator, Invictus fights bare-chested.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: The game's first stage has Invictus fighting through a gladiatorial arena, and ends with him slaying all of Arruntius' champions... before getting killed by an unseen ambush. He was then transported to the Elaysian Fields, meet the brothers Remus and Romulus, and continues the game from there.
- Murder breathed her bloody stream;
And here, where buzzing nations chocked the ways.
Here, where the Roman's million's blame or praise
Was life or death the playthings of a crowd...
Then in this magic circle raise the dead;
Heroes have trod this spot'tis on their dust ye tread.
