Still the best gladiator sim to exist, as a kid I was never able to beat this, but I have finally done it! Nearly 20 years in the making! I earned my freedom by the end of day 39, but I continued on as a gladiator to the story's ending on day 50. This game is very fun if albeit largely repetitive. It does what it set out to do gloriously, making an interesting and grounded feeling combat system with no fantasy elements in historical Rome, but it does not do much else. The story is barebones and outside of training and fighting, there is nothing else to the game save a slave market which you will only unlock towards the very final days of a playthrough. There is also an arena mode where you can use unlocked characters and fight whatever bouts you want and even do versus matches against friends with couch co-op.

There is a decent variety of match types and a nice selection of weapon and armor allowing a lot of build variety. I went for lightly armored and dual wielding long sicas. Battle royales and team battles make up the majority of your matches but you will also have duels, animal hunts, and the unique mock battles; ranging from a defend the gates objective to battling elephants to reenacting a naval battle. Training is varied as well, allowing you to spend your off-days by training body parts in timed rhythmic button presses, practicing combat and dodging, as well as throwing weapons. Sadly where the game falls back is on two fronts, one I have mentioned already is lack of variety, this game is just doing the same routine over and over again with little variety day to day. And second, the enemy and especially ally AI is horrible. Running around or standing aimlessly, yet the enemies can prove formidable and a worthy foe often, it really is hit or miss.

Regardless of some of the issues this game has, if you want to be a gladiator and be immersed in that role with no frills beyond the satisfying gameplay, this is the game for you.