[has] enough detail to make them something to want to dig into." He concluded, "put both these elements of the game together and the result is the equivalent of a summer action flick with a decent plot." GameSpot's Greg Kasavin scored the game 8.2 out of 10, praising the "intriguing storyline and great-looking cinematic cutscenes." He felt it "successfully combines two distinctly different types of gameplay [...] Feature for feature, there's nothing hugely original about Shadow of Rome, but its combination of different elements is definitely unique, its characters are expressive and fun to watch, and the quality of its presentation is right up there with the best of what the PlayStation 2 has to offer." He concluded "Shadow of Rome offers some of the best hack-and-slash combat out there and wraps it up in an interesting story that puts an original spin on the whole Julius Caesar-getting-murdered thing. It's also got plenty of gameplay variety to keep you motivated from start to finish, and it's always pretty to look at." Cancelled sequels Although originally conceived as the first part of a franchise aimed specifically at Western markets, Shadow of Rome did not sell well in either North America or Europe (entering the UK PlayStation 2 charts at #5), and ultimately, Capcom considered it a failure. Shadow of Rome 2 was already in early development prior to the release of the first game, but after the poor sales, executive producer Keiji Inafune chose to abandon the project, and Shadow of Rome 2 ultimately became Dead Rising. Notes References External links 2005 video games Action-adventure games Capcom games Cultural depictions of Augustus Depictions of Julius Caesar in video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games Single-player video games Video games about gladiatorial combat Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Yoshino Aoki Video games set in antiquity Video games set in the Roman Empire