Video Game / Shadow of Rome

"Are you satisfied? Is it so enjoyable to watch men murder each other like animals? DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!"

—Agrippa

A PlayStation 2 Hack and Slash set in Ancient Rome. Julius Caesar has been assassinated, and the father of Roman General Agrippa has been accused.

This ultra-fun game is split between combat scenes in various arenas (Agrippa becomes a gladiator, since the winner of eventual games will have the honor of executing Agrippa's father) and stealth scenes where you play as Caesar's nephew Octavianus, trying to unravel the mystery.

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This game provides examples of:

• Action Girl:
  • Claudia.
  • The female enemies.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Sextus. With a heavy dose of Redemption Equals Death.
• All Gays Are Pedophiles: Octavianus receives a (mercifully text-only) come-on from a grown man late at night, even if he's in his male clothes.
• Anti-Armor: Blunt weapons cause great damage to armor and shields.
• Armor Is Useless: Played with. The full-body armor of soldiers doesn't have any gameplay effect aside from the helmets, which predictably reduce damage taken. Arm protectors worn by gladiators (which Agrippa can get later), however, do reduce damage taken, prevent amputation of the arm (it can still be broken), and can be destroyed in combat. This make late-game enemies in the arenas much harder to kill.
• Artistic License – History: On the subject of gladiatorial combat in Roman Empire itself. Game makes it seem like you either win on the arena, or die, with dozens of gladiators getting cut to pieces regularily, while in reality most bouts ended up with contestants leaving the arena alive, and not permanently crippled (deaths and crippling injuries of course occured sometimes). The game also plays down the idea of free gladiators; in reality, one didn't have to make themselves a slave in order to participate in games.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Agrippa's battle prowess had him named general by Caesar at a very young age.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: It doesn't matter if you've broken and/or cut both their arms off thus rendering them unable to use weapons; they will probably still be attacking you. They will also occasionally try to fight you with shortswords and maces in hand while you have a Grand Halberd or Magnus seconds away from slicing them apart. They don't even bother staying out of range (save for bosses occasionally).
• Awesomeness Meter: Salvo meter, which you can use to win over the crowd and get better weapons.
• Back Stab:
  • The Stuck Pig Salvo: attack an enemy that has their backs to you while groggy (usually because they took plenty of damage beforehand) with a dagger, and an animation of Agrippa stealth killing them will be triggered.
  • Decius kills Vipsania by throwing a Gladius into her back.
  • In few situations where you play as Agrippa and enemies aren't automatically aware of you, a thrown weapon will kill an unaware opponent in one hit.
• Bald of Evil: Arcanus and Askari Valcross, once you break their helmets.
• Banana Peel: Present in few sneaking stages, in all its slippery glory.
• Batman Gambit/Gambit Pile Up: Maecenas suspects that Vipsanius is not Caesar's murderer, then he learns that Caesar is still alive, and that Decius killed an impostor under Antonius' orders, who had learned that Caesar was passing him over in favour of Octavianus. He proposes the gladiatorial games as a way of revealing the plot to a wide audience, and introducing the people to the true heir of Caesar, Octavianus.
• Beastly Bloodsports: In certain stages you'll have to fight tigers, vultures, and even elephants.
• BFS: Magnus, the Great Sword.
  • Also, the sword that Antonius uses in the final battle.
• Big Bad: Antonius.
• Big Bad Friend: Sextus.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Octavianus' Chameleon suit, which makes you invisible when leaning against a wall, is unlocked once you buy every item from the market. By then you'll probably have finished the game a couple of times already.
• Breakable Weapons: All of them — from the big badass Magnus, to the jugs Octavianus can strike guards with. Justified because there has to be some reason why you can't just plow through every stage with a big awesome two-handed weapon that kills every foe with a single charged hit (or, in the stealth stages, any weapon). Also, if they're throwing that stuff to the gladiators, it must mean they've been used more than enough.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Weakened enemies will occasionally pee when you aim at them. The Urine Trouble Salvo is awarded for when you hit them while they're in that condition.
• Charged Attack: Many attacks can be charged by holding the attack button. They deal more damage this way, obviously, but this also has additional effects like breaking/chopping off limbs, knocking people down, avoiding bouncing-off a block, or the attack being unblockable.
• Clear My Name: Agrippa needs to prove his father is innocent of the murder of Caesar.
• Combat Aestheticist: Naturally, you're a gladiator. The Salvo system encourages this.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Bosses are not suspectible to breaking, or chopping their arms off, or to any Finishing Move.
• Controllable Helplessness: If you lose a wheel in a chariot race, you retain control for several seconds, but, unless you were right at the last lap's finish line when that happened, and you were first and with enough lead to not get overtaken while you are slowed down (very unlikely), you've already lost.
• Coup de Grâce: Can be done to downed enemy; also to you. It's not, however, an instant kill. Notably, if you are armed, and are stomping on a downed opponent, you will automatically perform the Coup De Grace when the enemy would die.
• Critical Existence Failure: Played straight for the player, but subverted for enemies: while their attacks don't become less dangerous, as enemies get low on health, they become easier to stun, sometimes become stunned from tiring themselves out, remain stunned for longer time, take longer to get up, and tend to slowly shuffle around not unlike zombies, instead of pursuing the player normally.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Plenty of them in the arena.
• Cruel Mercy: After defeating Barca in his fortress, Agrippa has him taken prisoner, despite his protesting.
  Barca: What are you waiting for? Kill me! I would sooner die than become a slave of Rome!
• The Cat Came Back: Octavianus' little dog reappears in the final scene.
• Dash Attack: A Shield Bash used in midst of a combo, a stepping-forward mace attack, and a shoulder tackle all move you forward. The last one can also knock weapons out of target's hands.
• Decapitation Presentation: The audience loves it.
• The Dragon: Decius is one to Antonius. Maecenas is another one to the same person, but it's revealed towards the end of the game that Maecenas is The Mole.
• Edge Gravity: With a few random exceptions, you can't simply jump off, or fall from any edge - Octavianus can descend via the Context-Sensitive Button, while Agrippa can descend from higher platforms only by ladders. In addition, the edge will stop people from getting knocked over it, if they aren't knocked over it strongly enough.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Women in Rome seem universally afraid of small animals. Some of the sneaking stages rely on exploiting this.
• Epic Flail: The Morningstar. Can be swung around, hitting everything around (unless it's too close), or whipped forward for a strong, precise, long-ranged strike.
• Escort Mission: A few of the gladiatorial matches involve Agrippa trying to protect non-combatants from other gladiators. They have remarkably low health and can't use anything to defend themselves.
• Et Tu, Brute?: A given, with the assassination of Julius Caesar being the event that sets the plot in motion. Ironically enough, the actual Brute has nothing to do with Caesar's death.
• Face Death with Dignity: Barca, after losing to Agrippa for the second time, only now in the City Arena. Actually, it's the crowd that chants for the kill, and Barca further goads our protagonist into obliging.
• Fartillery: During Askari's boss battle, his elephant may fart on you.
• Finishing Move: Stunned enemies can be instantly killed by a Charged Attack of blunt, or amputating weapons.
• Gameplay Roulette: Not satisfied with the sudden, often criticized switches back and forth between Hack and Slash and Stealth-Based Game styles, the game also has one part when you play a Driving Game with chariots. Granted, it's still far easier to win it by killing all opponents as the player always does, not to mention the player is forced to do that in the race against That One Boss, but it's still different enough from the rest of the game that it warrants a totally different set of controls.
• Giant Mook: You'll get plenty of these to deal with. They are tougher in general, and even their unarmed attacks are more dangerous, but they can't use shields.
• Gladiator Games: But of course.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: You can fight unarmed if you have to. The "Assault & Battery" Salvo is unlocked by defeating a foe without using any weapons.
• Gorn: Saying there's plenty of it in this game is a bit like saying there's plenty of ice in the Arctic.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Despite the mature rating of this game, nobody ever swears, even though they're flung into plenty of situations where you would highly expect them to.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Cleopatra, who is heavily implied to be the mysterious "mistress" that gives orders to Iris and Charmian to hire Sextus as a mercenary and support Antonius' assassination plot against Caesar.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: You'd think they'd know the difference between a senator and a dude in a toga. Also, they never think of looking inside the massive vases unless they see you jumping into them. They also reach It's Probably Nothing mode with hilarious ease.
• Gun Struggle: The melee-weapon variation. Agrippa can initiate those when unarmed, and get the weapon via Button Mashing.
• Guide Dang It!: 100% Completion of the Salvo List will require you to guess some very specific Salvos exist, especially the ones that require you to be holding an exact set of weapons (e.g. Dimacheri, though you're likely to bump into this one accidentally). Also, Rolling Thunders are hard to time, so most players don't bother trying to pull them off, let alone figure out the Rolling Thunder based attacks.
• A Handful for an Eye: You can throw sand into an opponent's eyes when getting up from the ground to gain some valuable seconds; it's called the "Quicksand" Salvo. Certain types of enemies can do this too.
• Hedge Maze: There's one next to the Senate House. Useful for hiding during certain stealth missions.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: It's heavily implied through the game that Iris and Charmian were trying to destabilize Rome on behalf of their mistress by supporting Antonius. The motive behind this plan is left unclear.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: Marcus Brutus. From being one of the assassins behind Caesar's death to not being involved in the assassination at all.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Agrippa versus Decius early in the game before Agrippa becomes a gladiator. To add insult to injury, Decius fights with nothing more than his tiger paw gloves and wins by a mile.
• Human Shield: A stunned enemy can be grabbed from behind and used as a shield for a while. This is also a scoring maneuver for the Awesomeness Meter.
• Hurricane of Puns - The Salvo List. Balls of Steel for scoring a killing blow with an Overhead Bomber from a Morningstar (actually, it's a flail), Big Balls of Steel for scoring a killing blow with an Overhead Bomber from a War Chain, Im-Pressed for crushing an opponent under a press, Second Im-Pression for crushing more than one opponent with a single trigger of a press, Fire-Fighter for attacking a foe while they are on fire, so on forth.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Consuming pieces of bread, cheese, and meat will replenish your health.
• Improbable Weapon User: Sticks, roses, and severed limbs are all usable as weapons, though roses break in one use and cause minimal to no damage, so, there are better ways to use them. The stealth scenes take it a step further; advancing will often require that you knock people out with jugs, ropes, and the dreaded Banana Peel. The final stages will have you breaking oil jugs for the enemies to slip on, flour to create an opportunity to strike an armored soldier with a jug, and rats and frogs to scare the shit out of women (as well as force the silly guards to follow them and try to console them).
• Impromptu Tracheotomy: If Agrippa has a dagger, grabbing a stunned enemy from behind will result in this.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Great Halberd, the Great Maul, and the Apollo Spear.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Magnus.
• It's Personal: Decius kills Agrippa's mother before the aforementioned Hopeless Boss Fight. Also, the gladiator's main motivation for entering the tournament is to save his father's life.
  • Sextus wants to conquer Rome to honor his late father, Pompeius.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Stomping downed enemies is an option, and is liked by the audience.
• Laughing Mad: Antonius, right before his (apparent) demise.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shields are present, and are, indeed, very useful, especially as they can block some of the attacks that aren't blockable by a weapon, let alone bare fists. Using a shield also spares you using weapon's durability for defending yourself.
• Master of Disguise: Octavianus, able to impersonate soldiers, senators, and even maids. And even Ceasar himself.
• Mini Mook: Present in the arena battles. Hard to hit, and very skilled at using daggers, but struggle with normal-sized one-handed weapons, can't use shields or two-handed weapons, and launching attacks knock them ludicriously high and far
• Mugged for Disguise: Octavianus can take clothes of knocked-out enemies. However, he won't disrobe women.
• Mysterious Employer: The person who is employing Iris and Charmian to help Antonius and it's only vaguely referenced as a female. However, it's heavily implied by them to be none other than the ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra.
• Non-Action Guy: Octavianus. He doesn't have any way to directly fight enemies, and gets taken out by one hit if it happens.
• Non-Standard Game Over: A few variations:
  • If Agrippa loses a match in a way other than dying, the Game Over screen won't show him lying dead in the sand.
  • If Octavianus gets spotted in the tavern, the game just resets him to the entrance of tavern's main hall, without the standard "You Failed!" screen.
  • If Octavianus is seen by a character he's supposed to be tailing, or is close enough to any other alerted enemy, that character will recognise Octavianus and call him out, causing the mission to be failed instantly.
• No One Should Survive That!: Some characters will survive for long after you've sliced both of their arms out. Slicing through torsos and necks will always be lethal, though.
• One-Hit Kill: The Whiplash and Fifty-fifty Salvos. To pull them off, you'll need either a Morningstar/War Chain or a Magnus, and some sharp timing.
  • Octavianus can be killed with a single attack during the stealth missions. Not so in the Syracuse Prison, where you play as Agrippa, while he is controlled by the AI.
• Parental Neglect: Marcus Brutus, being Caesar's bastard son, resents his father for ignoring him. Turns out he isn't the murderer, though.
• Playing with Fire: First you get the target soaked with oil (contained in oil slings and in some barrels), then you attack them with a torch or Arrows on Fire. Later on, you gain access to the Epic Flail that can set things on fire (War Chain) and fire traps that burn enemies standing over them when you press a switch.
• Precision F-Strike: The Big Roman Balls Salvo is obtained when you enter the arena willingly unarmed. The Kick Ass Salvo is obtained when you kick Antonius while he has his back to you.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The gatekeeper of the different arenas has rather scary red eyes, as you can see beneath his mask.
• Retired Badass: Pansa. He also serves as Octavianus' mentor.
• Shield Bash: A viable attack option. Also, using it in attack combinations is appreciated by the audience.
• Sins of the Father: Sextus ends up being revealed as a traitor later in the game due to being the son of Pompieus/Pompey the Great who was killed by Caesar before he ruled Rome. As such he took on an assassination job from who is implied to be Cleopatra to garner support to destroy Rome and Caesar's legacy as revenge.
• Sissy Villain: Narclastese, the Valcross charioteer.
• Slippery Skid: In a few sneaking stages, puddles of honey can be utlised to dispatch enemies.
• Smashing Survival: If you get caught by a tiger, or stunned, this is how you regain control faster.
• Smug Snake: Maecenas. It's revealed to be an act.
• So Much for Stealth: During the battle against German tribes in the beginning of the game, at one point, Agrippa can sneak up on a German camp whose men are asleep. One step too close and they're awake — the only way you can score a stealth kill there is by throwing a weapon.
• Stripperiffic: The female gladiators, Arcanus Valcross, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Claudia. In short, every single warrior woman in the game.
• Suplex Finisher: The "Human Catapult" Salvo, which is actually a Release German Suplex and deals massive damage. In addition, it can be used to throw opponents from high places or into a pit of spikes.
• Taking the Bullet: Vipsanius takes an arrow for his son when a not so friendly Sextus returns after the tournament and mayhem ensues. Don't worry; he lives.
  • You can also grab a weakened or dizzy opponent from behind and use him/her to shield yourself from arrows and other attacks.
• Throwing the Distraction: Has to be done occasionally during the stealth stages. When you throw a stone and take cover quickly, the guards will stare at the stone, giving you wide room to sneak around them.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: You can throw most weapons. Maces are particularly effective — throwing them will often cause the victim to drop their weapon, which not only gives you a good opportunity to strike, it's also beautiful when your opponent has a good weapon in hands.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: During Octavianus' parts, you may be forced to restart/die constantly in order to figure out how the guards move and how to sneak past them or knock them out.
• Unblockable Attack: There's a hierachy of those, depending on a weapon (or lack of it) used for the attack, whether the attack is a Charged Attack or not, and if a shield is used to block.
• Unbreakable Weapons: There's a cheat code (aptly named Unbreakable) that makes regular weapons indestructible. And there are a few bosses whose equipment fits this trope too.
• The Unfought: Iris and Charmian, the creepy Egyptian twins who give orders to Sextus on behalf of their mistress.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Agrippa's parents, Vipsanius and Vipsania. Decius even taunts Agrippa about her in the tournament.
  Decius: Speaking of dogs, your mother... she was not too bad. The only regret I have is not having some fun with her before I killed her. Hahahahahahaha!
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The game is very loosely based on the Roman Empire roughly around the rise of Emperor Augustus. Knowledge of the time period gives some hints on just who is and isn't out to take out Octavianus also known as the future Augustus.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The game rewards you for doing terrible things in the arena, so you might as well get it done. Some of the more noteworthy Salvos, in no particular order:
  • No Mercy: Attack an enemy immediately after they begin pleading for their lives.
  • The Fires of Rome: Set an enemy on fire.
  • Stand and Deliver: Pick up a downed enemy and sock him.
  • Heads Up Bonus: Appeal to the crowd while holding an enemies' severed head.
  • Fresh Ham: Throw a severed arm or head into the crowd.
  • Take One For The Team: Force an enemy you are holding to take a hit.
  • Take Some For The Team: As above, but do it several times.
  • Bed of Nails: Throw an enemy into a spike pit.
  • Final Press: Crush an enemy to death in a press while they are pleading for their lives.
  • Fried Chicken: During the fight with Valcross Arcanus, light one of her vultures on fire with oil.
  • Collateral Damage: Run down a slave during a chariot race.
• Villains Want Mercy: Heavily damaged enemies have a tendency to beg for their lives, even if carrying a weapon.
  • Certain bosses will try this as well. As a trick.
• Voice Changeling: At one point, Octavianus somehow imitates a maid's voice almost perfectly. This comes back near the end when he impersonates Caesar in front of a crowd.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Octavianus can disguise himself as a maid without raising the slightest suspicion (not about his gender, anyway).
• You Have Failed Me: Decius kills Narclastese for losing his chariot race against Agrippa.
• Your Head A-Splode: Some attacks will smash enemies' heads into what the game describes as "a bloody pulp".