Circus Maximus: Chariot Wars

"Some critics need to throw themselves on their swords"

This game has been getting bad press from some professional critics. But after being brave enough or foolish enough not to listen, I just don't agree. I decided to buy it after reading player opinions which have been pretty much thumbs up. Reading a large cross section of players reviews ( not the ones written before release dates, or stating PS2 bites or Xbox Rules) is a good indicator. So as far as this game goes, theres a lesson here in not letting the professionals judge things for you.

GRAPHICS:

This is not DOA3. It doesn't use everything within the XBOX's power....(and time will prove that DOA3 didn't either). But this is by no mean a bad looking game. It's quite pleasing to the eye. Some could debate that N64 could do it or PS2 could do it...who knows. But I personally don't think a N64 could pull this off. But you did by an XBOX with the promise of graphics that blow you away, and honestly these won't.

Heres some of the problems graphically.
1. Textures are not as crisp as they could be. They are there but look alittle smoothed out.

2. Draw in, although slight on some tracks.

3. Trees and bushes in places are flat polygons. Not fully modeled. Kind of folding screens with trees printed on them. You see this more on distant trees. Not really distracting, but thats how the PS1 handles trees.

4. Falling objects on tracks don't animate smoothly. The
chariots move along and animate smoothly, the falling trees rolling stones don't.

5. Flashing Chariots. When you wipe out chariots flash while they reset...just feel like a cheap solution.

6. More dramatic lighting, shadows and plumes of dust clouds off the wheels, would have added alot.

As you can see theres no game killer here, because again, this game looks pretty good overall. But to change the subject a little here...I think the XBOX has to put it's foot down, and start getting these game developers, especially the XBOX only games, to use the full graphical power it has to offer. Encore did a good very job here, but it could have been much better with some more tender loving care.

GAMEPLAY:
A lot has been said about needing seven fingers, or needing to use too many buttons. Personally I'm tired of game that use too few buttons, or that take control away from me to fail or succeed. I welcome more buttons because they put more of the game in your hands. But honestly this isn't that hard. Within 10 minutes I got it. Even one of my friends who doen't like to worry about too many controls was playing it within minutes. If you stick with this long enough you'll get them too.
But the question is do you want to stick around long enough to play this game. I did and I'm finding it to be a beer and pretzel ''fun'' kind of game. It may not be super deep, but it's amusing to play. The track are long, the idea is cool, even though it may be kind of like other games it still feels unique.

But hear are a few beefs I have here with it....

1. Death match. I really like the death matches however they feel alittle more dependant on luck. Because the computer is so agressive with attacking itself, it often wins with its five kills before I can even keep pace with the action. Also even though I whack someone ten time, I'm left in a bloody heep after two blows. I think if things were set up so that if you crash or are forced to crash, that you would loose one of your kills, and if there were health power ups, then things would have been alittle more strategic. If some opponent where running away with the match then I could try to run them off the road and wittle them down long enough to give me chance of stealing the victory. As it stands now some champions just run away with the match.

2. Your driver is an idiot. When you don't control the driver they don't really know how to keep pace. This is a big factor in death matches because you're always too slow or too fast. This forces your switch around on the controls, which isn't a really bad thing when your not pressed for time like you are in death matches.

FINAL WORDS:
You should rent this game at least, especially if you where interested in it before all the bad press. Critics too often just want to jump on the same bandwagon. I can't say this game will have really long legs. It has some novilty to it, and that may wear off pretty quickly for some. But the fact in my house is that my daughter, friend who is intimidated by racing games and son, all play this along with me. I hope there will be more fresh blood, like this, in the works for the XBOX, PS2 etc, etc

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/02, Updated 03/02/02