Intro
Emperor Nero, a rather chubby sixty year old man, is running through an ornate grand Roman building. He is ranting that someone is here, and asking for help. The Barbarians are storming Rome, huge battles are going on in the streets. Fireballs fly through the sky. Marius, the hero, is fighting in the streets, he kills some Barbarians brutally and give a blood soaked bag to another soldier, he tell him to display it prominently and the battle will be theirs. I am give control and a short tutorial on how to fight.
I then have to move along the road towards the palace, fighting as I go. I reach the defenses and meet a commander. I take control of a large emplaced pike launcher and have to keep the horde at bay. There are burning oil drums and explosive barrels to use along with catapults and arrow volleys. Eventually this ends and I have to go inside the palace. I meet Nero and tell him that he must go to a secure location. I now have lead him through the palace to the vault. I meet a bunch of barbarians on the way. There are many attacking at once here and the deflect move needs to be learned fast here. I come to a boss battle of sorts, a larger barbarian with a flaming torch weapon. Once he is defeated Nero opens the secret passage to the vault and Marius and he go inside. Nero tells Marius that Damocles has risen from the dead. Marius tells him that the Gods don't interfere in the affairs of men. Marius tells his story to Nero.
Mission 2
Marius as a young man, ten years in the past, just joined the army, comes home to his family on leave. His mother and father greet him eagerly. His father talks of all enemies not being on the battlefield. I have to spar with him and learn some techniques. Like breaking guards and deflecting. There is unrest in Rome surrounding an election. Marius's father gives him a dagger. He tells of the legend of Damocles. A leader who went into battle and was left to die by cowardly commanders. He was returned by the Goddess of revenge to the world as a spirit to take revenge on his enemies. A noise signals and attack, we rush to the courtyard and find barbarians. I have to kill them then go to the next area and find that Marius' mother and sister have been killed. There isn't time to mourn as more barbarians arrive. I move into the streets and have to move on fighting all the way. Marius sees a vision of a woman in a yellow dress. She tells him to go in one direction and prevents him from running into a huge group of barbarians. She vanishes before his eyes.
I move on, fight some more and am told to find a man at the forum. I have to climb over some boxes and over some scaffolds here. Blue cloths give hints as to the direction of travel.
I get to the forum and see that man I have been sent to save shot with an arrow. I have to use spears to kill the archers. I then go down into the forum and kill many barbarians. I meet up with father again and move on. I am blocked by a bridge that is raised. I must shoot a spear at a red object to release it. Then push a cart to open the way. I reach a large stepped area and then fight lots of enemies. I am told to help my father, only to be just in time to see him get gutted. He dies in Marius' arms. Commander Vitallion tells Marius that he is now in his unit, the 14th.
Back with Nero in the vault, Marius tells Nero that he was sent to Britain to crush the barbarian rebellion.
Mission 3
On ships bound for the white cliffs of Dover Marius prepares to go into battle. Huge chains are raised causing the ships to be trapped and then bombarded with flaming catapult fire. Things aren't looking good, Marius is knocked into the sea. He sees another vision of the Gods. Washed onto the beach the objective is to lower the chains and let the ships land. I have to fight my way across the beach towards the tower. At the tower door there are many archers. I have to from a turtle with shields and advance. Closing the shields when the archers fire and advancing as they reload. Inside the tower I must release two switches. Then fight off many enemies. The machine is broken and the chains fall into the water. This allows the ships to dock safely. In cut scene Marius boards a ship, gives a rousing speech and then leads the men onto the beach. I must advance, a cut scene here is very saving private Ryan. I then have to use a turtle and also throw spears at archers. I then have to hit archers with spears before they take out men who are below them. I then have to choose between having archer support which will mean I don't have to fight and deal with enemy archers. or have less enemies but have to dodge archers. I now have to take out a catapult. I have to shoot out a block that is holding a drawbridge up. I come up onto the catapult tower. I kill the guards and send men inside to man it. They begin using the enemies own catapult against them. I have to shoot archers using an emplaced spear gun. Then defend against barbarians who try and flood the area. A boss battle with a barbarian leader and about five other larger enemies sees the end of this level. The main tower is hit with a catapult bringing down the enemies biggest weapon.
Marius again sees his golden goddess in the distance. Vitallion appears and gives him promotion to centurion. Another rousing speech from Vitallion ends the mission. Word comes from a battle at York, it seems that the Romans may have lost. We are now heading for York to provide reinforcements.
Mission 4
Marius wants to go toe to toe with the barbarian army at York. Vitallion has another plan. He wants to capture the leader, Oswald and his daughter Boudica. He sends Marius on the mission to capture them. I start near a river and am heading for an aqueduct. There is a new enemy here with two swords. I have to find a way to cross a large fast flowing river. There is a big open area with many small camps filled with enemies. I find a log that crosses the river and make my way across. I am now at the aqueduct, where enemy archers are positioned. I must take them out. I climb up onto the aqueduct and use a lift to reach the top. I then fight groups of enemies on top. I come to an area where I can see archers firing on Romans down below. I have to clear there positions also. Then move on and kill some more enemies who come to stop me. I then climb up onto a long section of wooden defense towers. Here I meet Boudica, who takes me on one on one. She is a hard fight, you have to defend until there is an opening, then hit her. It takes a while to wear her down. When you beat her she retreats and sends in five men to fight. If you die on these men you have to fight her again. Which is fairly cheap. On beating them she brings a huge stone down on the area you are on causing it to collapse. She makes her escape. The army are clear to advance now that there is no death from above. The barbarians have retreated into a hill, which I must now attack. I lead a turtle formation into the caves. I then have to find a way to flank archers that have us at a disadvantage.
I come to the final cavern of the cave and find the king. I have to fight many enemies who flood forward in waves. At the end two soldiers with twin flaming swords form the boss battle. In cut scene we accept the surrender of the king in return for sparing Boudica.
The captured are taken back to the city and we meet a corrupt Roman leader.
Mission 5
Marius is now in Scotland. We are looking for a captured Roman general. We are to head to a wicker man, which Vitallion believes is where Commodus will be held. Rumors of the vicious fighters and demons have the men spooked. Men with stag antler helmets are hiding in the distance spooking them out. We come to a rope bridge and Marius decides to scout ahead. The bridge is a good choke point for an ambush and that is what happens. A flaming ball of wood is hurled at the bridge, knocking many men down the gorge. Men with animal style helmets emerge and attack. I have to fight, they are no different than any other enemies so far. When I win the fight a cut scene shows Vitallion being knocked down and captured. A boss character with bones decorating his body appears and takes Vitallion away. He knocks Marius over the edge of the gorge. The female god appears to him and gets him back on his feet. I now have to find survivors of the attack. I progress through the forest, encountering small pockets of enemies. There are a new type here, large heavy attackers who only have an axe. They take a lot of damage to put down. I find some Roman soldiers in a cage and let them out. I come to a larger open area and clear the enemies. I have to order the soldiers to release more prisoners. I then have to choose where to put archers to defend against a counter attack. I can use an emplaced spear gun as well. After clearing the counter attack I have to lead a turtle formation through a ravine. We come to a larger swamp like area. Here the Romans in the cages can be set alight by torch bearing enemies if we don't stop them in time. One of the freed men tells Marius that Vitallion has been taken to the wicker man. I come to the wicker man and find the bone decorated boss. He throws a torch into the wicker man, which is full of Romans and Vitallion. I fight the minotaur boss. His patterns are fairly easy to dodge. Roll twice attack, repeat. Once he is downed Vitallion is freed. The general Commodus is still alive, he isn't happy.
In cut scene King Oswald is brought before Commodus. Commodus talks of a peace treaty between Rome and Britain. He draws a dagger from the box instead and kills Oswald. The people go nuts and Commodus orders Vitallion to kill them all. Things turn very sour very quickly and the castle is soon under siege. Boudica tries to grab the dagger that Commodus used to kill her father. She is stopped by a roman politician and told this is not the time. The man isn’t what he seems, possibly another God. Marius is sent to shore up the wall defenses to give them time to evacuate.
Mission 6
I go up onto the ramparts and find that an entire army is about to break down the doors. I am given a choice of taking out the siege towers as a priority or taking out the catapults that are bombarding the castle. I choose the towers, which means less fighting. Pretty soon the enemies are using ladders to get up the walls. I can order archers to cover me using Kinect voice commands. Enemies ladders can be kicked down off the walls. Once this is done we retreat inside, heading for the docks. I have to go through slums to get there. Of course the barbarians have got in and I have to fight my way through. I come to a barge filled with civilians that I must help escape. I have to make my way through a burning building and push a cart to make an exit. Then use the same cart to reach up to a rooftop. I then fight my way along the bank stopping barbarians from shooting arrows at the barges. I come to a bridge across a canal and have to use a turtle to cross it and kill all the archers. I am then heading to a courthouse to meet up with Vitallion. I have to fight a lot of enemies on the way. When I get there I meet Vittalion and follow him into the courthouse. Commodus has left with his guard in a warship, leaving most of the soldiers to find alternate arrangements. We must hold the bridges as long as we can to allow time for more people to escape. I fire a Scorpio emplaced gun at hordes of barbarians until catapult fire drives me off the gun. I then have to run back through the building, fighting as I go. I meet up with Vittalion who wants to hold them off and let the ships get away. Marius tells him that he must go as the senate will listen to him about Commodus's cruelty. Vittalion leaves and Marius runs towards the horde. I have to fight wave after wave of ever increasingly difficult enemies. I eventually died and found that this was the way forward. A cut scene starts showing Marius knocked off the bridge into the water. The goddess appears, along with the other one, who appeared as a politician earlier. She drops the dagger of Damocles into the water and it lands on the hand of Marius lying lifeless at the bottom of the sea. He wakes and swims up, ready to take his revenge on the commanders that have wronged him. Back in the vault with Nero, he has caught on that Marius isn't there to save him. There is still more story to tell. Marius has returned to Rome to find it in disarray.
Mission 7
I must return to my family villa. Things are not going well at all in Rome. These are the same streets of ten years past, though now they are dark and dirty and filled with crucified bodies. I move along until I come to the forum where I fought earlier in the game. This time I fight Roman soldiers, Praetorian guards. I progress through different areas of the city fighting as I go. I find Praetorians dumping bodies, they have killed an entire street worth of people for some transgression. I eventually find my way to Marius' family house. He remembers his sister and mothers death. The goddess appears and Marius asks her why. She tells him that Nero had his father murdered due to his political opposition of Nero. The Goddess is using Marius as the instrument of Nero's destruction. She hands him the dagger of Damocles and asks him to kill Nero. A cut scene shows Marius forging a weapon while the emperor's friends attend an orgy. Marius has created armor in the image of Damocles. He gives Nero's son quite a fright when he appears at the orgy dressed in it. Marius asks to enter the arena as a gladiator. I fight a group of fairly easy enemies. I must get three executions out of the group of five or so to please the crowd. I then have to fight the champion of Batvia and two other enemies. The champion must be executed otherwise you have to start again. I then meet the champions of Carthage, and they are very hard to hit. Their defense needs two shield bashes to break. Their attacks need to be blocked thrice and their last heavy attack rolled away from. In other words harder than anything else so far. I am then told to meet the emperors son Basilus in his private room after I kill them. He gives us a scroll of entry to the Coliseum. He is working on a bust of Nero, which he claims will cry tears of white wine for him. Marius kills Basilus and uses a bowl to collect his blood. It seems Marius has something else in mind for it to cry. A slave girl, painted in white is tied up in the room. She tells Damocles his future, that he will be killed by General Marius. Marius lets her go free. I now have to head into the coliseum and fight my way to Commodus. I go in through the preparation areas, with a bunch of other gladiators and come out into the arena. The floor shifts and rearranges into a makeshift castle settlement. This is to be a recreation of the beach landing at Dover. I have to fight my way on a small beach. Then use a Scorpio to burn down a gate and move into the fortified area. Here I fight a group of four heavy enemies and then have to light a victory brazier. I now have to recreate the fight to capture Oswald. Only it is Commodious that is being painted as the hero who did this, not Marius. I have to fight through many opponents and then have to set fire to the fake aqueduct. I get to fight Commodus as last. He is quite easy as long as you time your deflects to open his guard. When you beat him a cut scene shows him throwing sand in Marius' eyes and getting away. Then a group of identically armored men appear, about five of them. It seems I have to fight them all. I do and then take on Commodus as the last one again. When he goes down this time gas is thrown which makes Marius stagger. I have to fight in a kind of QuickTime to take out yet more Commodus'. I then get one more fight with him and he goes down this time. Marius holds up his son's head to his father and tells him he's next. Nero tells the praetorians to kill Marius. Marius fights in cut scene and escapes. We see him sneaking about in the dark at night. Vittalion finds him and tells him that he needs to save Rome from the Barbarians first before getting rid of Nero. Marius accepts and Vittalion gives him his fathers old armor.
Mission 8
The barbarians led by Boudica are marching on masse to Rome. Marius and Vitallion have found a good choke point which they must get through in the city and have set up heavy ambush. I must take a Scorpio during this scene and shoot archers, heavy enemies and war elephants to keep the fight manageable for the archers and turtle formation soldiers. Once this scene is completed a cut scene shows Vitallion leading a charge into the horde. Boudica appears on the back of an elephant and Vittalion throws a spear into its eye. He then fights Boudica one on one. I must now gather reinforcements to aid Vitallion. I move into an area and find some men to help. They follow me to a barricade. I have to move it to get into the area where Vitallion is. I set men to move it and am counter attacked from the rear. I have to set up positions and archers then defend the workers while they clear the barricade. Once done we move on to help Vitallion. I fight some enemies and when they are nearly clear a cut scene starts. I watch as Vitallion is killed by Boudica. A flaming catapult bolt hits near Marius knocking him out. when he is unconscious the Goddess appears and tells him to cut off the head of Boudica. When he wakes Marius has been taken by retreating centurions to a makeshift hospital camp. He tells the men that they must fight and he gives orders. I am now after Boudica. I fight some men and then have to use a Scorpio to defend men on the other bank of the river. I then have to repeat this. Then I have to avoid a rampage of war elephants on a bridge. I then shoot Boudica's war elephant in cut scene. I must now fight her. This is a hard fight, in two stages. Both times you must wear her health bar down. She can only really be attacked after deflecting or rolling away from her heavy attacks. In that second case only for one hit. You can get three in if you manage to time the deflection right. Which isn't easy. Once she is down Marius lops off her head. In cut scene we are back where the game started, then down with Nero, who now knows everything. He distracts Marius and manages to run into an escape passage. The Grey God appears and it seems he wishes ill on Marius. He distracts Marius letting Nero sneak up and stab him. The Golden Goddess appears and shoos away the grey god. Marius must now go after Nero wounded. There is a long QuickTime scene here, where Marius stabs lots of praetorians. He is also mortally wounded himself. At the end he goes over a balcony with Nero, who ends up impaled on the massive sword of his own statue. Marius lies dying as the two Gods acknowledge that the Golden Goddess won their game. The credits roll.
650 Achievement points for one play through on normal difficulty.
Not sure about timing, guessing at around 12 hours.
Controls
Left stick Move character.
Clicking left stick Sprint.
Right stick Move camera.
Right trigger Trigger execution when dazed opponent.
Left trigger Aim spear.
Left bumper fire archer/spear volley.
Right bumper focus mode.
A To deflect attacks.
Y To push enemies.
X Attack enemies
B Dodge/roll.
Dpad up Select damage multiplier.
Dpad Down Select health multiplier.
Dpad left select focus Multiplier.
Dpad right Select XP multiplier.
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