Collectibles in this level: 8
Objective: Break Leontius guard 3 times
You're back even further in time to when Marius was a newly minted legionnaire. Now it's your job to show your father the fruit of all that (off screen) training. Use the push (shield bash) attack to break his guard three times.
Objective: Break Leontius guard and land 3 hits twice
Now if you only do the basic combo (Y + X + X + X) Leontius will block you before the third hit can land. An easy way to get around this is to either use a double bash (Y + Y + X + X) or to alternate (Y + X + Y + X) to reach the three hits successfully.
Objective: Perform three perfectly timed deflects
For a perfectly timed deflect you will only have a very small window of time before he hits you. Fortunately those are wooden swords so you can just keep trying until you succeed. If you are having trouble, look for the green aura on Leontius that denotes when to deflect.
Objective: Perform a perfectly chained combo
Watch for the coloured glow on your father and chain a three hit combo off him. Time your swings so that when the previous hit connects you swing for the next and you will get a perfectly chained combo.
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Clear enemies from the villa
Four barbarians will burst through the doors of your home, interrupting your sparring session. You and your father will race to enter the fray and to protect your family. Multiple enemies can engage you at once here so try to play it more defensively until you can set up an execution. Also remember to set your execution mode to the desired effect before you start killing enemies (healing isn't a benefit if you already have full life). Another execution style will be unlocked as well: increased damage. This can speed up the fights a bit as each enemy requires less hits to kill and can be invaluable on higher difficulties to thin the enemies out quickly. Slash your way through the barbarians to begin looking for the rest of your family.
Objective: Find your family
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Clear the family courtyard
A large group (seven) enemies will sprint in and begin attacking both you and Leontius. Due to his grief and charging attacks, Leontius will draw much of their ire. This lets you hound the stragglers and weaken the group from the outside until the room is cleared. Don't forget to keep an eye on the bar in the upper right of the screen, this represents the health of Leontius.
Objective: Avenge your family's murder
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Clear the area outside your villa
As soon as the doors are opened you will once again be hit by a small barrage of enemies. This is a very similar fight to the one you just had so repeat the same tactics and they should hit the ground easily.
Objective: Kill the shield barbarian
A new enemy type is presented to you here. He doesn't have much more in the way of health than a regular barbarian but he can perform a shield bash and can deflect attacks if you let him. An effective combo against him is (A + X + X + Y + X + X), this essentially keeps him reeling by including the shield bash. One or two of these combos should be enough to take him down to execution state.
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Find Leontius in the city
Kick open the door and look to the left as you cross the garden to find [Vista 03/21] and at the exit to find a body glowing green [Scroll 02/27]. After picking up the scroll, head right to find a [Chronicle 04/42]. Head down the stairs to the left and along the small alley. Be aware that you can break objects (such as the pots here) to give you beneficial effects. Such as health, focus and even bonus XP. Continue down the street to regroup with Leontius and on your left you will spot a glowing green shield [Vista 04/21]. Hop over the upturned cart at the end of the street to engage more barbarians in combat. Three more regular barbarian wait to meet your blade so oblige them. For those trying to milk every drop of experience out of encounters, keep in mind that if you do not get hit (block any attacks on you) you will receive bonus XP. Also if all your hit types are above recruit you will also gain additional XP. Combine this with the XP execution and you can rise up the levels fairly quickly. Skill upgrades will also appear as available once you raised in rank enough. For example after unlocking my first point of the XP+ skill the second did not appear. Once I had raised to the next rank it became visible. So don't panic if skills don't seem to appear until later.
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Gather Leontius' allies in the city
Continue following Leontius down the streets until you stumble upon another group of barbarians. Basically the same encounter as last time so use it to your advantage by getting as much XP out of it as you can.
Objective: Meet Platius
Before exiting the square grab the [Scroll 03/27] off the body in the corner. This is the first point most people realize you can actually climb. Follow the objective marker and clamber up the crates and scaffolding until you reach the roof. Continue across the rooftop.
CHECKPOINT
The blue glowing timbers you encounter can be smashed out of the way and the small bridge can be lowered immediately afterwards the same way. Keep trekking along the rooftop until you drop down on the far side.
CHECKPOINT
Head right as you exit the first doorway and right again to find a glowing green bucket [Chronicle 05/42]. Head back the other way to find out you can sprint by pressing in the left stick. Follow the path until you reach the glowing green racks of Pila and a cut scene takes over.
Objective: Kill the archers with Pila
Once it is finished, grab the glowing green weapon and follow the on screen instructions (LB to target and pull RT when the arrows turn red to fire) to take out the two archers across the street. Three more pairs of archers will appear in the same spot and a final barbarian will be standing where the orator was speaking before he took an arrow to the throat. Use the pila to take care of all of these before descending the stairs.
Objective: Kill the barbarians
After dropping down you will be introduced to focus mode. This slows down enemies and means you can get many hits on enemies really quickly. You also unlock the final execution style which provides you more focus when executing an enemy. After the initial four barbarians hit the pavement, five more reinforcements will arrive and one of them is a shield wielder so make sure to keep an eye on him. Keep deflecting and performing executions when you can, topping up your health when need be until the amphitheater is clear. Kick open the door to rejoin Leontius. More breakable containers line the alley so smash them before dropping down the scaffolding.
CHECKPOINT
The Quick throw mechanic will be introduced here (press LT and RT in combat), this can come in handy if you don't care about saving Pila and if you want to keep enemies at a distance. New helmeted enemies will be amongst the knot of barbarians fighting here. They fight the same way as the fire wielding warlord from the last act. Remember about the dodge button as this is much more
effective than trying to deflect their attacks. Regular barbarians will also surround you so deal with the lone helmeted nuisance first to keep your combo high.
Objective: Clear a route for Leontius to progress
CHECKPOINT
Objective: Drop the bridge to let Leontius progress
After climbing to the upper area, look to your right behind a large keg shaped cart to find [Chronicle 06/42]. Keep traveling until you reach racks of Pila just waiting to be thrown. Line up the pulley on the other side of the raised bridge and let fly. This will drop the bridge allowing Leontius to pass.
Objective: Get to the Forum
The cart nearby will begin glowing yellow, meaning you can now push it out of the way and get past it. Roman citizens will flee as more barbarians arrive on the scene. Two waves of three barbarians (two regular and a shield in each) will close the distance fast. Deflect is your biggest friend here, just keep an eye on the enemies movements and press A when they get near to you and this fight shouldn't be a problem. After they have bitten the dust resume your interrupted trek after your father. After kicking down the door the game will remind you to upgrade if you haven't already. There is a [Vista 05/21] on your left as you follow him into the light.
When you arrive you will see a fracas is already well underway. This can be rather dangerous as you can be attacked by two shielded enemies at once and if you lose concentration they can dissect you pretty easily. Try to take one out as quickly as you can if possible. The other enemies in the area are regular barbarians so nothing to worry about there except their numbers. Deal with the shield bearers and the rest of the fight is simple. There are a lot of enemies here so if you are having trouble, spend those points on a few health upgrades and you should be fine. If you are playing on a higher difficulty you may need to swap to the health regeneration execution every now and then to regain some of that valuable health. Because there in nothing more annoying than getting through ninety percent of the enemies and then dying to a sneaky axe to the back.
Objective: Kill your father's attackers
After killing enough barbarians (around fifteen or so) you must race over to your father to end the level.