Buy Ludus: A Gladiator Story PC key

Ludus: A Gladiator Story is a branching narrative RPG set amid the blood and politics of the Roman arena. Across 12 chapters, you arrive at a ludus with an origin and a will, then shape your life through choices the story remembers. The game follows the costs of fighting and the people left standing when the crowd stops chanting your name.

Choose your origin

You begin as one of four men, each with a different reason to take up a sword:

• The Slave: born in chains, he sees the arena as another cage.
• The Conquered: a warrior brought low by Roman iron.
• The Debtor: sold by the courts, he treats survival as a transaction.
• The Volunteer: he chose this life, and the crowd will remember.

Shape your character

Ludus tracks who you are as well as what you can do. Choices, rather than grinding, develop three groups of stats:

• Body and mind: Body, Nerve, Discipline, Cunning, Mind and Perception.
• Standing in Rome: Fame, Crowd Favor, Roman Approval and Solidarity.
• Soul: Defiance, Mercy, Rage, Humanity, Faith, Spirit, Cruelty, Despair, Obedience and Pride.

Soul stats are the hardest to master and have the greatest effect on which story paths open or close. Two players can make their way through the same chapter and see different stories. The game includes 577 historically grounded events and over 1,800 choices, following your character from their first morning in the training yard to the question of what remains after the games.

Reach an ending

There are 19 endings across eight major paths, including triumph, tragedy, exile, martyrdom, escape, rebellion, political compromise and quiet freedom. Outcomes include the Champion, the Martyr, the Rebel King, the Honored Exile, the Freedman, the Escaped, the Senator's Hand and the Survivor. Each ending follows from the choices you made along the way.

Illustrations and sound

Over 2,500 bespoke pen-and-ink illustrations, engraved in the style of Roman antiquity, accompany the events and choices. Each chapter has its own musical composition and environmental audio, moving from the dusty training ground to the roar of fifty thousand Romans and the quiet of a cell on the night before everything changes.

Save and revisit

The game has three manual save slots and autosave. Chapter select lets you return to any chapter you have completed, so you can explore different origins and paths without losing your progress.