Could of been seriously great!
Gameplay- The Game is a decent enough 3D fighter with simple and basic command inputs by fighting game standards, however, it had almost a chess like quality to it in that it was very easy to learn, but I could see it being difficult to master. Also in the back and forth between opponents guards grabs and guard breaks, the fights were always interesting, even though the moves were somewhat limited.
Customizing your gladiators is pretty cool and its also nice that they have different weapon sets i.e Duel Daggers, Sword and Shield, Hammer, Duel Swords and what not. The problem there is that the weapon styles/graphics are pretty piss poor. Most of them just look like copies of each other with a different color for the material its made of, lots of plain greys and seemingly edgeless swords. The shields are all pretty cool and there is a good variety of those to choose from, as well as other helmets and armor for your gladiators.
There is also a Multiplayer aspect but the game was so glitchy even in the single player, I Didn't dare compound that by trying to play online.
This is where my major issue with the game is. I would probably be playing it constantly if it weren't for the lag in the matches. I don't know if its the graphics or the button presses but the game seems to get overwhelmed very often, easily and quickly. On top of that there are a million load screens and the fights are brief, which is understandable and more realistic, but the load times are atrocious. I felt like I spent way more time looking at the load screens then I did playing the game, THEN to make it worse they have ridiculous sayings that are half halfheartedly inspired by the ancient Romans but it mostly reads like a 12yr trying to be clever and who just found out they can swear.
Graphics- Pretty standard although not much detail to anything. The swords look dull uninspired, and well, basically crappy. The character models are decent enough and somewhat varied which is nice, but once you start putting armor and helmets on they all look the same of course. The backgrounds are ok but get old pretty quickly.
Sound Design- The soundtrack is ok, with appropriate music for the action and customizing your stable of fighters but one thing of note I found was that your constantly told you must have the crowd on your side, please them, blah blah blah, and you can perform an execution, the problem is you can barley hear them even when your crowd meter is full!? The sound effects for the swords and shields are pretty standard and at the same time required all the same.
Conclusion- I did have a lot of fun playing this game and I was happy to see there is finally a decent gladiator fighting game out there but I just wish it wasn't so glitchy. Seriously, if they just fixed the amount of load screens/time and lag in the fights I would easily give this game an 8.5.
Lastly it is free so either way its at least worth checking out for awhile.