- Colosseum: Road to Freedom
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Colosseum: Road to Freedom 
Cover artDeveloper(s) Ertain Publisher(s) Koei Platform(s) PlayStation 2 Release date(s) - JP February 17, 2005
- NA July 20, 2005
- PAL September 9, 2005
Genre(s) Third-person action, Fighting, RPG Mode(s) Single-player Rating(s) ESRB: M (Mature)
BBFC: 18
PEGI: 18+Media/distribution 1 DVD-ROM Colosseum: Road to Freedom (originally Gladiator: Road to Freedom in Japan) is a video game for the PlayStation 2 console. It is a hybrid fighting/RPG game loosely based on the Roman Empire around the time of the Emperor Commodus.
Contents
Gameplay and story
Colosseum: Road to Freedom has the player take on the role of a slave that must partake gladiatorial games in order to earn enough money to purchase his freedom. The majority of the game is spent training the player's character and fighting in arena battles. The story in Colosseum takes a backseat in order to allow a higher degree of open-ended gameplay. Players have the freedom to tailor their game avatar to their liking depending on how they answer questions prior to gameplay.
Depending on the player's performance, it is possible to pay off the character's debts and still remain a freeman gladiator. The game allows for multiple endings depending on the player's performance over its course.
Gladiator weapons
- Swords: Traditionally balanced weapons perfect for first-time players.
- Clubs: Clubs inflict heavy bludgeoning damage, which can often knock armor off of an opponent, or even render them unconscious.
- Axes: Combining the weight of a hammer with the sharpness of a blade to deliver the most damage to an enemy.
- Polearms: Heavy weapons with long reach, but difficult to use in close quarters and low weapon durability making it easy to disarm.
- Hammers: A weapon which relies on its sheer weight to inflict damage. Due to the high weight of the weapons it is very difficult to disarm an enemy with a hammer.
- Chains: A rather uncommon weapon in the arena, they deliver a powerful blow.
- Shields: While not exactly an offensive tool, shields can be used to push away enemies.
- Knuckles: short ranged weapons ranging from fists to bladed knuckles, very fast attack but hampered by lack of reach.
Characters
- Narcissus
- Commodus
- Laetus: An associate of Marcia, whose true colors will be revealed on later in the game.
- Marcia
- Magerius, Gnaeus, Decimus, Celadeus: Magerius is your owner for the majority of the game and he runs a gladiatorial training facility. Gnaeus, Decimus and Celadeus are responsible for your training.
All special fights in the Colosseum pit the player's character against other named gladiators.
Reaction
While reviewers commended Colosseum's open-ended gameplay, the lack of additional scenarios had some impact on its image.
On September 1, 2005, Ertain and Koei released Gladiator: Road to Freedom Remix which contains a few updates to the game.
External links
Categories:- 2005 video games
- PlayStation 2 games
- PlayStation 2-only games
- Fighting games
- Roman Empire video games
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