Gladiatus - Hero of Rome is a browser game of the Gameforge Company in which you take the role of a gladiator in roman times. There is an arena in which you can beat the other players to pulp as well as the obligatory missions in the wilderness to get more experience and gold. You start out with a small pile of gold to buy your first weapons and level up some skills. In the arena you can challenge players of the same level for free or any fighter you choose for 10 gold.

The quest system is a bit confusing in the beginning since you can choose from 3 different types of quests which consist of several steps to complete. The easy quests require 2 steps, the medium ones 4 and the hard quests 6. You can also venture out on expeditions that take either 10, 20 or 30 minutes to accomplish. At the end of each such expedition you fight an NPC and get experience and gold if victorious. And that is pretty much it: You fight to get better equipment and better stats to outshine all other gladiators in the arena.

As a final conclusion one could say that this is a solid adventure RPG browser game with a bit of Roman flair. The graphics are neat but somewhat uninspired, although it gets the idea conveyed. The problem is that you cannot really loose in this game which is why the pure grinding can become a bit monotonous and boring after a while. It is entertaining at first since you are a glorious gladiator after all - what's not to like? But then you realize that there is not really any purpose, no higher goals to reach in the game. That is why it is highly doubtful that a lot of people will make extensive use of the premium currency of the game, the rubies, to get more out of the game. A background story like "Free the other slaves" Spartacus-style or "Survive the arena to defeat the evil emperor, who killed your family" would have been nice.