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."