Ancient Rome and, more specifically, Roman gladiators have always made interesting subject matter for various mediums of entertainment. Throughout the years, numerous films, including the Academy Award-winning classics Ben Hur and Gladiator, featured some of the most epic gladiatorial action sequences every created and made heroes out of these enslaved Roman warriors. Strangely enough, however, there haven't been many good action games to feature Roman gladiators in any really serious capacity. Recently, this has all come to change, thanks to Acclaim's Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, an action adventure game rooted deeply in a style that combines Ridley Scott's Gladiator with some of the more mythical aspects of Roman history. Gladiator does have some shortcomings, as its simplistic and frequently flawed gameplay can prove to be problematic. However, some excellent production values and an intriguing plot ultimately make the game most certainly worth checking out.

Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is essentially a simple hack-and-slash action game but with a great story, graphics, and sound.

Sword of Vengeance focuses on the life of one Invictus Thrax, a Roman born into slavery, who eventually rose through the ranks of gladiator battle to become the champion of all gladiators. He was also once favored by the Roman emperor, who promised him his eventual freedom. However, at the beginning of the game, we learn that the emperor was mysteriously killed and replaced by Arruntius, a sinful, vice-driven madman who has plunged Rome into its darkest times. Arruntius has decided to demolish the city of Rome in favor of a new capital city named Arruntium, to further commemorate its unholy leader. To celebrate the demolition, Arruntius stages a grand gladiatorial event, with Thrax at its epicenter. Thrax fights valiantly but is inevitably killed at the hands of an unseen and seemingly inhuman opponent.

Upon his entry into the afterlife, Thrax is accosted by a pair of twin boys dressed in theater masks. They are revealed to be the sons of the Roman god Jupiter: Romulus and Remus. They explain to him that the gods are greatly displeased with Arruntius' ascension to power and reveal that all of this is largely due to assistance from Phobos and Deimos, the gods of fear and terror, respectively, who are also the sons of Mars, the god of war. Thrax is charged with the task of restoring Rome to its past glory and eliminating Arruntius--a task that Thrax is only too happy to accept.

Gladiator is, essentially, a beat-'em-up game with swords. At your disposal, you have two basic attack buttons, which can initially be strung together into some rudimentary combos. You also have a magic button and an all-purpose action button. The action button comes into play in any number of different ways. Some examples include situations where Thrax must jump across a ledge, glide down a rope, use a key in a lock, pull a lever, and so on. Any time one of these actions is performed, it is done through an in-engine cutscene, so the action itself doesn't actually require any skill on your part. The game's basic attacks and magic attacks can be upgraded and earned through challenges. Challenge points are scattered pretty much throughout the game and usually entail slicing up a specific number of enemies or breaking a number of different objects in a set time frame. Through these challenges, you'll earn new magic attacks, like Herculean battle magic, which makes you much stronger and faster. You can also earn the power of Pluto, which brings up spirits from the underworld to assist you in battle. Other items, like new axes, better swords, and the like, can also be earned, in addition to improved combo attacks.

While all of these upgrades are certainly nice, they don't add a whole lot to the overall flow of the action. Most of Gladiator's combat sequences pretty much consist of you mashing the two attack buttons until you've cleared the area of all your foes. While this can be fairly repetitive, the action itself is still not bad, and, periodically, the repetition is broken up by the ability to perform an execution move. After wearing certain opponents' life meters down, the meter will turn red, and by pressing the action button, you'll enact an execution. The game will then switch to a cutscene where Thrax--depending on what weapon he is wielding--will kill his foe in one of several, brutal ways. Executions are contextual, depending on what type of enemy you're up against, and can only be performed on some of the tougher enemies in the game. However, when the opportunity arises, they're most certainly worth pulling off, as the sheer brutality of them, along with the heavy smattering of blood provided, makes them entertaining.

The vengeful, reincarnated Thrax doesn't mind brutally slaying any foe who stands in his way.

Sadly, Gladiator's gameplay is bogged down by some rather significant problems. The first and most irritating of issues comes in the form of the game's enemy targeting system. When surrounded by a group of enemies, Thrax will automatically lock on to the enemy closest to him. You can cycle through the available enemy targets or unlock yourself from an enemy target by pressing the primary target button. If you want to stay locked on one enemy but want to quickly reverse your direction to face another opponent, pressing the secondary lock button will do so. While this is all well and good in theory, trying to switch between locked enemies while being stabbed at repeatedly doesn't go nearly as quickly as you'd like, and often you'll find yourself taking a lot more damage simply because you can't get yourself unlocked from one guy fast enough. As you can imagine, this can become quite frustrating.