The black hole… what IS this strange
phenomenon that won’t allow even LIGHT to escape its grasp?
If you believe the scientists, you’ll
claim it’s concentrated mass from a collapsed star, with a gravitational
pull so strong it would rip a person to shreds mere seconds after event
horizon. But the rest of us know the scientists have no proof, and we
want to know for SURE!!
Fortunately, a small French team
called Eugen Systems have brought us their own unique, daring vision of
black holes, and what’s on the “other side”…. it’s a really corny,
comic book, sci-fi gladiator deathmatch!! Woo hoo!!! Now we’re
TALKIN’!!!
Yes, I’m referring to an unheralded,
but extremely quirky little game called The Gladiators: Galactic Circus
Games. Brought to us by Arxel Tribes, a publisher known better for its
lineup of successful adventure games, Gladiators is a tactical combat game
that’s equal parts RTS (real time strategy) and arcade mayhem. At no
point does the game take itself too seriously, which is always a
refreshing change from the sombre offerings in many RTS titles. Instead,
Eugen has single-mindedly opted for intense action and B-movie fun. It
may not be everyone’s cup of Jolt, but it deserves to be
taste-tested at the very least.
The game opens with an outrageously
campy backstory presented in hand drawn stills that would do Marvel
proud. The dialogue is a patchwork of every genre cliché imaginable, the
voice acting is completely over the top, and the story itself is so cheesy
it should be served on crackers. In other words, it’s a hoot!!
Former Marine Greg Callahan, a loose
cannon, is called upon to pilot a shuttle into a black hole on a top
secret (even from us) mission. Predictably, everything goes haywire for
Callahan and his crew, and before long he is captured by a hulking robotic
General Maximix (no relation to Maximus, presumably), imprisoned, and
sentenced to death on planet Myridia. Purely by fortunate coincidence,
Myridia is in need of a new (don’t say Roman) Emperor, and the former
Emperor’s daughter (Princess Lydia of Myridia) just happens to be a
blue-skinned knockout that enlists Callahan to be her “champion” in a
gladiatorial Deathbowl challenge to determine the new ruler. Yep, I
realize the complexities of this drama are little overwhelming, but
hopefully you were able to keep up.
As you first take control, you are
thrust in the role of Callahan, and dropped into a giant stadium for a
series of “to the death” scenarios against Maximix and a demonic figure
named Fargass. This is serious business for you, but the source of wild
and bloody entertainment for thousands of local citizens in attendance at
these “Circus Games”. Your events are announced by the Deathbowl host and
greeted with loud cheers whenever significant deeds are performed.
These gladiator matches are not
one-on-one encounters, but a series of squad battles. Each side has a
limited sized force comprised of a small number of different unit types,
so gameplay is all about best utilizing your troops as a team. Although
called an RTS game, there is very little of Gladiators that resembles a
conventional RTS, so it’s misleading to call it one. There is no base
building, no tech tree, no standard resource-gathering, and a largely
linear path to success. Really this is a game about tactics over
strategy; closer in design to Commandos than Command and Conquer.
The mission objectives can vary,
although really all of them come down to one thing – survival. Some goals
will include defending a position for a defined period, while others
require you to advance and capture defended outposts. Many missions will
expect you to do some of both, as objectives change periodically.
The feature that sets Gladiators apart
from other games of this type (not that there are many), is the use of
power-ups scattered throughout the maps (at pre-determined points, not
randomly). Power-up bonuses consist of such things as health, speed, or
attack boosts, or can even provide instant “reinforcements”. In addition
to the bonuses, however, are Joker Cards that can either be spent on
creating new troops at centralized spawn points (once captured), or be
allotted to any power-ups you’ve accumulated during the mission. This
element doesn’t add a heavy layer of strategic complexity to the game, but
it does require some decision making, which is always welcome. For the
most part, the periodic spawn points work well, because it keeps the troop
sizes manageable. Weighing acceptable losses when you’re nowhere near a
spawn point is one of the factors any player must take into
consideration.
The maps are quite large, and each
mission takes a great while to complete, even without replaying sections,
which will occur a LOT. There are no difficulty options, and let the
record show – this game can be HARD! On more than one occasion, even I
felt ready to throw in the towel. To the game’s credit, however, despite
the difficulty, each battle felt possible, so even after quitting
in disgust, I felt that intangible desire to try it “one more time!!” And
in fact, with a little perseverance and experimenting, I was eventually
able to overcome.
There are three separate campaigns in
Gladiators. You must begin with Callahan’s campaign, but in time you will
unlock campaigns for Maximix and Fargass as well, so there is equal
opportunity to play each. It’s not required to FINISH each campaign
before proceeding to the next, but you must complete the first several
missions before unlocking the next. I’ve never been a fan of “locked”
features in games, but it’s so common it’s almost not worth complaining
about it anymore. Still, I’d have preferred the complete option from the
beginning, or at least have the choice to play Maximix or Fargass after
Callahan’s early missions.
Troop types are limited, but well
balanced. The human army contains rifle troops, artillery, stealth
scouts, tanks, and attack helicopters, which match nicely against
Maximix’s laser-firing robots and the magic-wielding melee creatures
belonging to Fargass.
Several important keys to success in
Gladiators are line-of-sight and elevation. Unlike most strategy games,
there is no fog of war covering the unexplored map. In Gladiators, you
can scroll the entire map to see layout, and even the available
power-ups. The only thing you can’t see is the enemy, and that is where
line-of-sight factors in. As the player, you won’t be able to see enemy
units until your troops do. Unfortunately, not only did it seem unnatural
to have enemy troops suddenly appear out of nowhere, but some of my guys
must have been darn near blind, so this didn’t always work as it should.
On many occasions, I found myself getting pelted by “hidden” enemy fire,
even though my troops were standing WELL within what should have been an
appropriate distance. The game’s flora also factors into line-of-sight,
as it’s possible to hide in ambush until the enemy is practically upon
you. Once again, though, not only were my troops pathetic at “seeing”
concealed units no matter how close, it was hard even for ME to see them,
and therefore target them for attack. I learned to really HATE long
grass.
Something that improves both
line-of-sight and fighting ability is having an elevation advantage.
Whether from natural sources like hills, to the many towers, buildings and
bunkers, troops gain a significant boost from higher ground, so it’s
important to use this to your advantage. Needless to say, the opposing
sides are familiar with this, as well, so you’re guaranteed to find any
structures you encounter already occupied and shooting first.
Regrettably, many times my troops
would inexplicably LEAVE an elevated area, presumably to chase an enemy
who had left its range. As this often required descending long
staircases, the pursuit made for a fun little duck shoot for the enemies.
Although overall the game’s AI was solid, it really failed in these
instances, and made me prefer to defend from the ground whenever possible
to avoid this frustration. Occasionally, however, even on the ground,
some of my troops with distance weapons would prefer to walk right up to
the enemy before engaging. Since there really is little else to Gladiators
besides these skirmishes, these failings should have been addressed before
release.
The graphics in Gladiators are
excellent. The terrain ranges from desert to ice to tropical, and
everything is colourful and vivid, of which we don’t see nearly enough in
games. Units and buildings were modeled nicely, animations were smooth,
battle effects were impressive, and everything maintained its “comic book”
feel throughout, which helped counter the intense action with a certain
playfulness. I appreciated the contrast.
Unfortunately, the cutscenes between
each mission are fairly poor. They frequently stuttered although my
system easily exceeded even the recommended specs. Unlike the opening,
which used still drawings, the cutscenes are animated, but the characters’
mouths don’t move, which I found distracting. I’d have preferred one
artistic style or the other, rather than an awkward mishmash of both.
Sounds in the game are well done,
again from the perspective of B-movie quality, of course. In a serious
game, I’d be criticizing the voice acting for being completely
unconvincing. In Gladiators, that’s the point. During gameplay, units
provide different vocal acknowledgements that are quite humourous – from
the dorky “Yippeekayay” of the human infantry to the gloating “Too easy”
of Maximix himself, you can’t help but get a kick out of hearing from your
troops. I only wish there were more selection, since they did get
repetitive after a while, but I’ve yet to play an RTS with enough variety
of unit response.
Music in the game is a nicely varied
soundtrack, from subtle tunes during periods of exploration to a harder
driving upbeat score in the heat of battle. It added to the overall game
atmosphere without being intrusive, which I appreciated. Other sound
effects were solid, though unspectacular.
Perhaps my biggest complaints about
Gladiators relate to the interface, and the camera angle in particular.
As a 3D game, the camera can be scrolled all over the map, rotated, and
zoomed in and out. The camera movement was silky smooth, and everything
looked terrific. However the zoom in feature, while nice on the rare
occasion, was next to useless on a practical level, and even worse, the
camera never zoomed OUT far enough to be comfortable. There simply was
never enough of the map showing for adequate strategic maneuvering,
particularly when trying to control airborne units. This was an endless
source of annoyance, as it was constantly necessary to scroll around the
map. The game’s mini-map was functional, but given the linear nature of
the game and line-of-sight limitations, it served little purpose.
A further complication was unit
selection. Although friendly units are selected and grouped by
traditional RTS methods, it is difficult to focus on smaller groups or
individuals, as units tend to bunch together. It is also impossible to
select enemy units to check on health status. Instead, hovering the
cursor over an enemy unit momentarily will bring up the unit stats, but in
frenetic battles, this simply couldn’t be done. The biggest drawback,
however, is that although units do a good job of engaging the enemy
without being micro-managed (outside of the failures mentioned
previously), they showed no ability to target common enemies, so you’ll
want to quickly jump in and cause your troops to collectively focus on one
unit at a time, and be unable to do so effectively. Indeed, once battles
begin, there is really very little to do but sit and watch (they’re over
quickly), and hope for a favourable outcome. I realize this is an
inevitable tradeoff for the faster paced action sequences, but the fact
that it was necessary doesn’t make it enjoyable.
For some reason, the game keeps
“score” for you with a running tally onscreen, and at the end of each
mission, you’re provided with an overall grade. Obviously this was an
attempt to encourage replay, but to me it seemed silly. The goal of
gladiatorial combat is to be the last one standing, plain and simple, and
players should feel rewarded for particularly hard-fought wins, not
criticized with a (potentially) poor “mark”.
One of the factors that affects the
grade is the elapsed time of each mission. Yes, there is a continually
running clock visible, as well. As units all heal themselves gradually
over time, it’s occasionally prudent to take time before initiating the
next battle. Of course, this will lower your score, and could ultimately
cost you the mission, since apparently each scenario has an overall time
limit (not being the patient sort, I didn’t encounter this feature,
myself).
Thankfully, Gladiators allows for
saving anywhere, and a quicksave feature makes things even easier. A word
of caution, however, is to NOT rely solely on the quicksave, as you could
inadvertently do so just prior to an overwhelming attack. The load and
save times are a little longer than I’d prefer, but nothing that had me
howling in protest.
I experienced only (only??) two
crashes with Gladiators, both of which came as I attempted to save. While
annoying, I was pleased to find out that my data HAD been captured in a
“panic” save slot. I’m not sure why or how that feature was implemented,
but it sure came in handy on those occasions. During gameplay, the only
other problem I encountered besides the AI inconsistencies was the
occasional scripted event which did not trigger properly. In one
instance, I was to defend my position against an onslaught that never
came. Only when I ventured out to initiate contact did the enemy engage
me. It’s no problem in the long run, but it was a short-term waste of
time for me (never a good thing).
Gladiators’ multiplayer component
include eight maps available for Assault, Capture the Flag, Deathbowl and
Gladiator modes, by LAN or internet. It is also possible for up to four
players to cooperatively play the single player missions. While these
might be fun, it once again seems like too little to entice players to
stick to it for long.
There’s no denying that The
Gladiators: Galactic Circus Games is a worthy addition to the sub-genre I
would call RTT (real time tactical) games. Its fast action, arcade
influence, and campy fun make for a nice change of pace from other
offerings, and that alone makes it deserving of attention, so I commend
Arxel and Eugen for their innovative approach. Ultimately, however, I
found the game couldn’t sustain its own pace. There simply was not enough
variety in map design, objectives, combat strategy, or even unit types to
hold the early momentum. The more the game wore on, the more repetitive
it became, which is really a shame because it originally promised so much.
I’m afraid I can’t recommend this game
for newbies to the genre because of its uncompromising difficulty at
times. However, if you are (or know) someone who thinks the tried, true,
and overdone RTS formula is too complicated and slow, and wished that
strategy games had more of a shooter mentality, you’ll find Gladiators to
be just the ticket. If you’re a strategy fan open to trying something new
just for a breath of fresh air, by all means give this game a look – just
expect it to reinforce your love of the deeper RTS games before all is
said and done. I suspect that Gladiators would have fared better as a
budget title than a full-priced offering, but if you can find it for a
reasonable price, you just might want to take the chance.
Final score: 71%
Played on:
Win XP
P4, 2 Ghz
512 MB RAM
GeForce 4
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