Story

You play as a young hero that is chosen by the gods to save Rome. The story is told in media res so the game begins at the end. Our hero Marius is protecting the emperor from a final barbarian assault and he takes the emperor to his secret chamber and he begins to tell him his story. You flashback to when marius finally becomes a legionnaire and he goes to visit his father, a former commander, and a well-respected politician. During your visit your family is attacked and slaughtered. Marius is devastated and he swears revenge on the barbarians for what they did. The rest of the game is your journey on the path of revenge.

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Visuals

Right out the gate you notice the games beautiful visuals. Everything looks so good on the xbox one. Things stand out even more because of the awesome look that everything has. You see the beautiful roman architecture and the awesome centurion armor on the soldiers. During fights the brutality of the kills will make you look away as you see someone get their throat slit. Unfortunately, the visuals also become one of the game’s biggest problems. The game is way too focused on looking good and it since the game came out for the xbox one’s launch its obvious their want to show off the system more than make a good game. All the other systems in the game seemed to be second on the priority list.

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Combat

Combat is very similar to assassins creed and batman but with added executions like in god of war. Tons of dudes will come at you in hand to hand combat. You have standard attack to deal damage and when enemies attack you can deflect their moves or you can dodge roll. The last move you have is a shield bash that lets you break an enemies guard. Combat becomes a dance where you have to juggle the 4 moves against multiple opponents. You constantly have to react to multiple incoming attacks.

As you deal damage enemies enter a state where they can be executed. When you execute an enemy you get an awesome close up view of the enemy brutally getting killed. During these segments the game slows down almost like a quick time event and the enemy flashes different colors. You press the button that matched the color and you chop the enemy down till there is nothing left of him.

At this point you might be thinking that the combat sounds pretty cool, but it’s not. The combat is extremely shallow and repetitive. The first few fights will be fun, but once you notice that you’re going to fight the same 4 enemy types for the rest of the game over and over again you realize just how bad the combat is. Every time you go to a new area they just have the same enemies with a new skin. The combat is more focused on looking good than playing good. For example, your able to control the camera during the executions but this has a disadvantage because it makes the camera move around in awkward ways at times.

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Perks

The perks add an extra layer to combat. During fights you can use the d pad to switch between 4 different perks. Each one gives you a different bonus every time you execute an enemy. One gives you more health, another more xp, and another more power. Often times during fights you will be switching between all 4 so that you can manage what you gain. If you’re at full health, then you might switch to xp to level up faster or you might switch to power to end the fight quicker.

Progression

As you fight hundreds of barbarians in the game you will gain more and more xp. You can use the xp to level up your skills and buy new executions. At first the price of the upgrades is nice and cheap but towards the end the prices get insane. The reason why is because this game has micro transactions…the micro transactions let you buy gold which you can then use to upgrade faster. It’s ridiculous and unnecessary. The main problem with the progression system in the game is that it feels like it does not matter. You unlock new skill upgrades, but they don’t really help you. Getting more executions just gives you more brutal kills to look at, but nothing makes you feel like you’re actually improving or getting stronger.

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Bosses

The game has a few bosses and at first I actually like how the boss fight were this sort of 1 on 1 hand to hand intense battles. The issue with the boss fights is that their long and boring. For most of the boss fights you can’t attack the boss directly so you have to wait for an opening to get 1 or 2 hits in. this makes the game slow way down and it makes the fights drag on. The other thing is that bosses have nothing unique to them. They are just beefed up units that fall within one of the 4 main enemy types. In the end this game ends up having some of the worst bosses I have faced in any game.

Commander Mode

The game has one other major element in its gameplay. Since you’re a roman commander you have segments where you command troops and use them strategically. This was actually a really cool idea and if it was taken farther it could make the game better. So sometimes you will enter areas where you have to allocate your troops either to provide archer fire or to fortify the line. Every choice you make affects how the enemies will come at you. One of the best times this is used is when you are defending the wall from a siege attack. You have to decide whether you want your archers to attack the incoming siege weapons of the infantry units. It sucks because like I said this would be a great system if it was taken farther but it ends up being shallow just like the combat.

One thing that commander mode had you do than never got old was get in formation in a phalanx with your men. You would have to advance towards the enemies. Along the way you had to raise your shields to block incoming fire and throw javelins to take out archers. It happened quite a lot in the game but It was so cool it never got old for me.

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Ending (Spoilers)

As the game goes on you learn about a legend of a warrior called domicles. Domicles is the spirit of revenge and he comes back whenever a commander abandons a soldier. Throughout the game you get used by the emperor and his sons. After they use you to take down the barbarians you find out that they had ordered your fathers execution so they would not lose power. Marius dies because of them but a goddess brings him back as domiciles. For the rest of the game you hunt down the emperor and his 2 sons.

The story overall is ok. There is nothing really to interesting about it. It has cool cinematic moments but none of the characters are memorable. The story tries to be this epic tale of a hero but it just falls flat. At the end of the game you realize that there is another god influencing the emperor and the game tries to imply that the gods were just using them and playing a game with them. Even this seemed like it was out of nowhere. The whole game Marius would see this goddess but it never really went anywhere. She just makes him domicles and that’s it. It’s also kind of lame how he’s just the same after he turns into domiciles. Marius does not get any cool powers or gear, he’s just the same human.

Conclusion

Overall I think this game is more flash than anything. It’s really shallow and its more focused on looking good than anything else. The story has really cool epic moments but overall its forgettable. The combat and progression systems in the game are repetitive and simple. The one thing that it has that’s interesting is the commander mode but it never taken far enough. The game is pretty well polished and its fully functional, the moments were the best part and the fact that you get to be a badass roman centurion, but I would have a hard time recommending this game to anyone. I would say play it at your own discretion.

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