Circus Maximus: Chariot Wars

"Definitely better than it's cracked up to be, but it's certainly not as good as it could be."

I bought Circus Maximus basically because it simply looked cool to me. When i got home and read the reviews from IGN and Gamespot I thought i was a moron and made a very bad decision. Alas when i actually did play the game, i found that it was a bit of a surprise, and a hell of a lot better than it was cracked up to be.

Graphically this game is nothing compared to the likes of Halo or DOA3. The textures are rather bland and not very detailed. The chariots themselves look a little fuzzy and aren't as detailed as you would expect them to be. The warrior and chariot driver look ok, but it's nothing that couldn't have been done on the Dreamcast, and that's bad for an Xbox game. The environments aren't half bad, but they're nothing amazing either. Some are rather generic and there is really nothing impressive to look at. This is probably the games low point.

The Audio in Circus Maximus is one of it's better features. Circus Maximus does an awesome job of bringing you back into the times of horse chariots and gladiator like battles. The sounds of the audience cheering, the sounds of the horses storming down the trail, the sound of the warrior taunting his unworthy opponent, it all forces you to be totally immersed in the game and sets a nice atmosphere.

Circus Maximus is basically a horse chariot racing fighting game. I know that sounds akward but that's the best way to describe it. It's like Road Rash meets ancient Rome. The whole concept is pretty cool, and it's very innovative. This is what makes Circus Maximus fun. You've most likely never in your life played anything similar to this game. It's a 1 of a kind, and that's the good thing. The only problem is that the gameplay can be a little shallow at times and could have used a little more combat maneuvers.

Basically this is chariot racing with combat. Before the race you can pick and customize your ''team.'' I call it a team because you can customize your chariot, your driver, your horse, and your warrior. Each option not only looks different but has different stats such as speed, maneuverability, and how good your drivers and warriors are. What exactly do i mean when i say Drivers and Warriors? Well, the driver is just that, the driver of the chariot. The warrior is the guy (or gal) that sits at the back of the chariot and literally hammers away at any chariot that comes within range. You use L and R to make sharp turns with the chariot, and the control stick to move the chariot. In this set up mode you use the face buttons to control the warrior. The warrior will automatically turn to face the nearest chariot driver to you, so you don't have to worry about that. One button is for blocking, one button makes you jab with your weapon, another button makes you do an overhead slash and the 2 black and white buttons make you do a special attack. Black is kind of like a sweep, and white is kind of like a super charge attack. When you press it, your warrior draws his or her weapon back and begins to swing it around and ''charge'' up for a devastating attack that will most likely dismantle your opponents chariot if it lands. The downside to this attack is that while it's ''charging'' it leaves you wide open for attack.

The whole battle premise is a really cool idea and is what saves Circus Maximus from being a boring racer. Each of your opponents chariots have a life bar for the warrior and driver, when it's depleted the chariot falls apart and the horses run amuck. The ultimate goal however is to win the race, not to kill all the other chariots, just keep that in mind. You can also have the computer drive while you take total control of the warrior, however, this usually is a bad idea because the computer's driving skills are equivalent to a todler's.

There are a lot of different modes, ranging from the main single player tournament mode to a multiplayer deathmatch and even a training mode that is very deep and is almost a game within itself. The multiplayer in Circus Maximus is very fun. You can set it up where you are versus your friend in an all out deathmatch, or you can choose to race together! Yes, you can have one player be the driver and the other player be the warrior. This is loads of fun and is probably the best aspect of Circus Maximus. The main mode of the game is Tournament Mode.

There is a small system of power ups in the game, but again, just like the rest of the game, is not very deep. There are only like 4 types of power ups which are gained by running through a cross like sphere thingy that will grant you one power up. The most common type are life power ups. There are also ones that will allow you to have one devastating blow, and one that will allow you to fly at insane speed for a short time. This is not a very well developed and strong system of power ups, but it helps keep the action less repetitive.

While this sounds like a whole lot of fun (and it is for a short time), the game just isn't deep enough to keep you playing for a long time. There's really nothing much else too it besides the simplicity of racing and the repeated hacking. If there were some kind of special attack system, or a stronger kind of in-race power up system, or some kind of checkpoint system, anything at all that could have made this game deeper would have been nice. If it wasn't even for the combat system, this would have been declared one of the worst racing games to ever have been released in history.

Overall, i think this game is deserving of a 7. It's definitely not spectacular, but it's also definitely not horrible. It seems the pro reviewers out there failed to take into consideration the ingenuity of this title and the fun that can be found in it for a short while. If you buy this game not expecting a deep and extravagant racer with a deep combat system, you should enjoy it. It's certainly entertaining while it lasts. Circus Maximus is an interesting game with some nice innovations, but it could have used a few gameplay and graphical tweaks to
make it outstanding.

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