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The product
The game is sold as a 58-page PDF download, consisting of a GM's section and 40 pages of character sheets. The GM's section includes a cast-list, players and GM's introductions, some notes on costumes and props, and staging tips. The character sheets, typically a page each, have a stat block and character background information. The file is illustrated with a combination of historic art on the theme of Antony and Cleopatra, and photos of poorly-costumed larpers. The latter are intrusive and an annoyance and just end up looking sad; if you're going to use photos of an actual game to illustrate your larp, you should at least pick those showing it in the best light.
Other than the photos, the layout is clean and functional. It looks basic, but its readable.
Failed expectations
I expect three things from an off-the-shelf larp product like this: I expect it to provide the players with enough to do for the expected length of play (in this case, three hours), I expect it to provide for female as well as male players with a credible gender ratio and distribution of plot, and I expect it to provide the GM with enough information on staging to actually run the game. This game fails on all three counts.
Firstly, the game is underplotted, with a mere nine plots for 35 characters. Some characters have no discernable plot, which raises the question of why they are present at all. Most are involved in only one plot - the main plotline of which side to support in the civil war. Some lucky characters have a secondary plot, but these are quite rare. In play, this lack of plot is likely to result either in people standing around wondering what to do, or in them making their own fun to avert boredom. Neither provides a reason to pay a gaming company money.
Related to this is the fact that a quarter of the characters are slaves, with no decision-making power. Perhaps in an effort to compensate, these characters know a lot of things - but the total absence of other, personal plotlines means that their sole role in the game is as an information source. Another quarter of the parts are soldiers, again with little in the way of either plot or power to act. The result is that fully half the characters are effectively "meat props", who might as well not be there. These characters are unlikely to be enjoyable to play.
Only nine of the 35 parts are for women. This is a common problem that I have targetted in these reviews, but it needs to be said again: women made up 50% of the population in ancient Rome. They make up 50% of the population now. They make up 50% of my local larp community. By not providing for that 50%, this product sidelines and marginalises them, and sends a clear message they are not welcome as larpers. On a more practical level, it also reduces the product's usability, in that GM's can't run a game which excludes a significant portion of their local playerbase. It is not hard to write larps with a realistic gender ratio, and professional gaming companies should.
Finally, while the game includes staging notes, they do not provide quite enough information to run the scenario. The notes list using the superweapon as a possible outcome; you would therefore expect some details on what to do if this happens (in this case, some idea of how it is used, some specific staging notes, and monster stats - Cthulhu superweapons being all about summoning something unspeakable and likely uncontrollable). Unfotunately, all we get is a sentence on possible costuming. While most GMs / larp producers could wing it, if they're paying for a professional product, they shouldn't have to.
There are a variety of other irritating features. Characters whose names are the Roman equivalent of "Abraham Washington" and "George Lincoln". A poorly written player's briefing, and the absence of faction-specific background sheets. Poor costume information (the basic piece of Roman garb is not the toga, but the tunic). Minor characters which are identical in every respect save the name. Overall, the impression is of a shoddy, lazy product.
Overall
Shoddy, lazy, and lightweight. As noted above, the basic premise is good, and a GM could use it as the core for a decent larp - but only if they effectively rewrote the entire thing from scratch. In which case, why pay for it?
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