Shadow of Rome

Had this game lying around for a while now, finally decided to pick it up. Really liked how the game started out, only to then devolve into a lengthy mixture of ... Metal Gear Solid and Hitman. Did not see that coming. Just reached the point where the beautiful Claudia said I should become a gladiator. Curious to see how the game will proceed from here on out. The combat is pretty fun so far, when I get to do it that is.

Does the game keep swinging back and forth between these two setups? Or does it get more 'actiony' as the game goes on?

Yes to the first question.
And the stealth missions get a little more elaborate. Meaning that when you think man-oh-man that arena lethal brawling sure is gory fun and then the stealth comes up you will cringe hard and try to get trough them with minimal effort.

But hey, things are looking up: every arena combat you can clear will become later available in a kind of mission mode. Alas, for higher difficulty you can only unlock them trough means of the main game. Chances are if you unlock 'em all, you will never play story mode again.

Really starting to like this game more and more, if it goes well, it goes really well. Some of the arena fights like "destroy the statues" and the boss fights are pretty dull so far, but when it's good it's really good imo. It's just so brutal to cut people to shreds for entertainment of a crowd. Like how the crowd plays into the game, a pretty cool 'style system' honestly.

Didn't I recommend this game to you ages ago?

Got a copy of this sat in my collection, not got round to trying it yet though. I don't know much about it but gameplay looks fun, and very brutal. It looks in some ways like a mechanical precursor to Madworld and Dead Rising.

Somebody told me that Dead Rising allegedly began in development as a sequel to Shadow of Rome. Naturally I tried it out, and I feel it doesn't hold a (roman) candle to it. The hunched pose of the reporter guy is the only similarity I will accept. That's an rpg set in a mall. And mechanically waaay underwhelming if you know and come to appreciate the arena brawler. Dawn of Dreams, ok, I can feel that in relation. Both use the same engine.

No. Shadow of Rome is balls-out, anyone-for-tennis? action. Even with the geeky interceptions in hide and seek.

Yeah apparently Dead Rising was a scrapped Shadow of Rome 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20160305000556/http://www.1up.com/news/1up-interviews-keiji-inafune

I started this 2 days ago and it's really damn fun, I love how it's basically Violence: The Video Game.

There are lots of fun and brutal ways to kill enemies and please the crowd (AKA Salvos you can perform), and it's the only game I can think of that does weapon durability right, and it plays well into how fights play for both you and your enemies.

Every weapon and shield on the arena, both yours and your enemies' is breakable which means you can and will swap through lots of weapons in every fight, but can also mean you can break weapons while enemies hold them, which makes them easier to kill.

The bigger weapons in particular are very fun to use, can kill enemies fast and have a high chance of breaking and/or severing their limbs, so they are either only able to hold a one handed weapon, or they are totally uncapable of holding any weapon.

The stealth parts aren't bad, but also aren't great and they do hold the game back and hurt the pacing. I don't mind them personally, they have nice music and dialog interactions can be funny, but overall it's really basic and not interesting in terms of mechanics. At least you can replay every arena fight from the story after finishing it for the first time.