Gladiators of the Arena Demo

The Romans liked to be entertained on a regular basis, which is why they had so many strange methods of having fun. Beside harmless things like theater and huge dinner parties, bloody confrontations between warriors were also considered entertaining back then. As everyone is probably aware, the most famous of them were the gladiators, who earned their fame by fighting in the Colosseum.

Gladiators of the Arena is a pretty unique attempt in the video games industry, given the fact that not many titles of this kind have been released over the years. As such, this is basically an arena brawler featuring gladiators, in which every player is out for himself and the goal is to be the last man standing. Obviously, a variety of weapons and armors are allowed.

This may be just a demo, but the concept is mighty interesting and it is quite the shame to see all this potential wasted, given the deplorable state of the game as of right now. Starting from the interface and the player controls, all the way to the ragdoll physics and the hitbox detection system. To make matters worse, even the AI is terrible, and since you cannot yet enjoy the game with other people, you are stuck with it.

The game also comes with a few RPG elements, in the sense that you have an inventory and you have to equip your character at the beginning of the match. Mind you, the selection of weapons and armors is still very much absent as of yet, but it’s nice to see the foundation for a nice idea. Not only that, but there are multiple classes as well, ranging from archer, to dual-wielding specializations.

As previously mentioned, everything is more or less a mess when it comes to the technical aspects. Hence, while the physics engine is definitely nice, it is not properly calibrated and the characters feel like they are made of rubber. Thankfully, at least the graphics are nice, although you can find plenty of glitches in this regard as well if you look close enough.

In the end, Gladiators of the Arena is by no means a bad idea, and there are some awesome things just waiting to be polished and integrated properly. However, that seems to be a long way ahead, so unless you are prepared to deal with some major inconveniences, you’d better come back at a later time.