Recommended with reservations. There's good fun to be had, and it comes close to doing gladiator roguelike combat quite well, but it has issues (and there's a sequel so you might be better served with that instead). 7/10

Most battles are about one- or two- shotting things and drawing out your opponents so they don't have support. As such, there's not a huge amount of depth to the fights and higher difficulties are more about who can take down the other team quickest. There are "challenges" for finishing fights in under six rounds and I don't know that I've ever had one go more than five and many are one or two round affairs. Likewise, building stats looks pretty much the same for "best" gladiators and runs tend to go the same way: stack damage (either physical or magic) and defense and a few choice "cheese" skills (like rush). The events in between are very few and not really all that interesting.

It also commits the sin of having several achievements be absurdly grindy and punishing, so don't think about 100%ing it. All that said, I'm looking forward to trying out MG2 and seeing how things are different (although it looks like combat is mostly the same). I did enjoy the game and do recommend it, especially on sale, but know it's probably not going to be something you keep coming back to.