GLADIUM
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Gladium is the project of Eirik Wiklund a one man developer studio and yes, the game reminded me of Domina , a strategy game where you took charge of a Ludus, training and preparing Gladiators in a management approach, where the fights were simulated. Both games enjoy the pixel art style and that’s where the comparison should end.
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Fighting Games.
This is quite a difficult game to review tbh. It is a very unforgiving game, some of the bosses you will fight will kill you many times, the part that some people may dislike the most is it’s grind system to be able to defeat the bosses or even try another go at them (you gain blood points to trade for perks and for another chance at a boss if you fail), meaning that if you lose to a boss you will have to play either normal mode or horde mode to try again, making the game VERY repetitive. You will also earn gold to unlock new equipment, which is necessary to try different strategies as you cannot fight all the bosses in the same manner (at least I advise againts it). Ultimately I’m giving it a thumbs up because I had fun the whole 14 hours I played and I even got a little addicted, the theme helped as I really like gladiator style fighting games, but be warned, if you get frustrated easily this may not be for you.
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game
Shillelagh
Got this game because I love devil daggers. The soundtrack is awesome and the gameplay has a really unique twist.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Arena Shooter Games.
Overall, I feel the potential and the charm of this game are buried too deeply beneath absolutely horrible visual clarity and the frustration of, for a lack of better words, total bullshit deaths completely outside of player control.
Shillelagh is held back by issues that are few in number but quite significant in effect. My biggest frustration currently is that it seems everything in the game has collision and can push you around. The trees popping up, the spirits you launch at enemies, the little floating stone fragments that appear when enemies burst through the rock, and probably more. On the handful of runs I’ve tried, an enemy has killed me only once. Every other run I’ve had end did so due to a tree bursting up beneath me unexpectedly and shoving me off the arena with no chance for me to react, or a single, tiny out of place floating stone bumping me into a pit. I don’t feel like I died because I made a mistake - I died because of something stupid I have absolutely no ability to influence and no possible method of reacting to. It feels like shit and it’s rapidly killing my ability to enjoy the game even this early on.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
The Age of Decadence
–-{Graphics}—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
The game portrays an aesthetic I have a massive soft spot for - Post-apocalyptic colonial Roman Empire. The environment art is well polished and beautiful, and the art style is self-consistent and immersive. I really feel like I’m somewhere in Carthage. The cities feel appropriate for their size – Maadoran feels like a dirty, bustling metropolis down on its luck. The design of the armours and weapons are all era-appropriate, with proper, real-life names (e.g. Lorica Segmentata).
– Real player with 391.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Turn-Based Combat Games.
In brief: AoD ditches many of the genre long established staples to focus on the roleplaying, and this it does amazingly well; there really is nothing quite like it out there. The EA version is very much playable (there are less bugs than in many releases). The combat, which has been much the focus of attention due to its difficulty, is not awesome, but it gets the job done and it is optional.
***Since for some reason Steam has decided to implement a character limit to user reviews (what’s up with that Gabe?), you can read my whole review here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/230070/discussions/0/666827315713399977/ , but below is a very long extract:
– Real player with 214.3 hrs in game
Aggressors: Ancient Rome
This review is actually a Thank you letter to the developer for making this game.
For unbiased reviews skip this one.
I think it was 25 years ago that most of my school holiday time was used to do what I really like. Gaming. But I did not had my first PC yet, so gaming was spending one day in the city to collect all kind of painting materials and paperboards to create the ultimate game myself.
The Civilization boardgame, HeroQuest boardgame and some rare tabletop games I owned served as an example. But mine had a bigger boards, more options, more counters and features, more of everything actually.
– Real player with 562.4 hrs in game
Aggressors - Ancient Rome
This obscure historical game is turn based strategy / tactics to dominate the world starting in 280 BC by default, but adustable from 1000 BC to 500 AD. It is single player and is my personal choice for game of the year. I have played it for over 480 hours in the past 60 days. It is published by Slitherine and available through them, on Steam and GOG.
Where I am coming from
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I am the curator of Strategic Win https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9074928/ and have reviewed 142 games there in the past 2 years. I bought this game from Matrix games.
– Real player with 521.5 hrs in game
Ludus
Bought this game with the bundle, probably only paid about 4 bucks for it. Still not worth it sadly. Really cool idea and foundation, but too damn buggy. I’ve lost progress so many times from the game not saving (or only part will save). For instance, I fully geared out my main Gladitator with top tier gear, finished playing for the night. The next day, both my money and the gear was just gone. If you log out with money invested in the trader, it too will disappear. I’ve gone into a tournament with my main Gladiator, and he just didn’t spawn in the arena. His opponent phased through the door (where my glad was supposed to come out of) and went off screen where he slowly killed my gladiator. I just exited out and loaded back in to keep him alive but of course that means all the money i had in the trader disappeared again. Just so many bugs with this game, which is sad because i actually really like it, but its damn near unplayable. Buy at your own risk, or better yet, just don’t buy it.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
I like the overall concept of the game but this game is broken in so many ways that it kills all desire to play it. A few examples were all my family members died within the first three days of the game. The fishing system is utter crap please dear god take out the random key strokes that are needed to catch a fish. Another issue I ran into was my gladiators got stuck in their shacks and there is absolutely nothing to be done. We will see what the Devs do to patch the product over the next few months but as of now don’t waste you money.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game