Age of Gladiators II: Rome

Review

Aren’t we lucky living in this era! We have so many ways to entertain ourselves. You want to see a new movie, just go to the cinema. Are you a fan of lives performances? If yes, you can go to the theatre or scream your lungs out to your favourite tunes at a live concert. To be honest, we have a huge selection available to us in 2019. But if you were living in 27 BC, what sort of entertainment would you be looking forward to attending? There were not that many. The most popular feature at that time was the Gladiator fights. But, like everything, it must be brought to you by businessmen who know the industry the inside out.  Do you dare to pursue the life of a business owner in the most prestigious industry of the Roman Empire? I guess you are, so good luck in your new venture in Age of Gladiator II: Rome!

Age of Gladiator II: Rome is a management/turn-based strategy game developed and published by Creative Storm Entertainment where you’ll oversee a house of gladiators in the famous Roman Empire. 

After choosing one of three origins available to you (Roman, African or Gaul), as well as where your primary talent lies (merchant, scout, gladiator, or one of a few others), you’ll be welcomed to your new villa. Here you’ll spend most of your time managing your gladiators and your daily affairs. This phase of the game is pretty much setting up your house. Employ scouts to recruit the best gladiators, doctors, trainers and blacksmiths if you can afford them, as you have a bear 100k gold coins at the start of the game. As with any business, you’ll need an influx of cash (or in this case, gold) to add new structures to your house. You’ll be able to build and upgrade three structures when you start a game. Then you’ll be getting new building slots when you move to the next city. However, you’ll have to reach a few specific targets (wins in arenas, fame, as well as money of course) to be rewarded new slots. But before this can happen, you must choose carefully which extension to build.

There are a few ways to gain fame. The first one is to win fights in the arena and the other is to purchase villas throughout the empire. Each villa will give your house additional fame points with each turn. Every now and then an event will occur, and you might receive perks points by completing it. These points can be used to purchase one of many different attributes, including additional fame. You’ll also be able to purchase businesses, but it will require serious money to do so. Maybe you’ll find a few good lenders at the market but be careful with the principal repayment. I’ll tell you what, it would have been a struggle to be a businessman in those days; they truly had the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads at every corner – a tough life!

The second phase is the fights. You can access all the fight schedules through the calendar, which is located in the empire tabs. There you’ll be able to see against whom you’ll be fighting, and how many gladiators you’ll need on each of these fights. It can become tricky if you don’t have many gladiators at your disposal, which may be due to injuries sustained in their previous fights, or the fact that they are just too tired to fight again. Well, if you have slaves, you can send them to battle; don’t expect to win these battles, though!

Most of your opponents will be gladiators, but you’ll come across lions and bears on several occasions. So make sure that you send well-trained fighters with good weapons and armour into the arena.

As you enter the fight, each of your gladiators will have action points attributed to them. Each time you move or use an attack (light, normal or heavy) it will cost a certain number of points. If you can attack your opponent from behind, you are most likely to inflict more damage that way rather than attacking them up front. If you can save action points, they will automatically be used to counter attack an enemy strike and might even produce heavy wounds to your opponents. If your gladiator wears an amulet, he will have access to a special skill. You can buy these amulets at the market if you wish to do so.

I like the nice graphics and the soundtrack. The management interface is easy to use and provides descriptions when necessary. Mind you, I would have liked to have a more in-depth tutorial at the start of the game. I think the fight schedule is too hectic, especially if you have all your fighters injured or needing to rest.