Thank you Zen Studios for the review code! Circus Electrique is easily one of the most unique games I’ve played in recent memory, and as such it defies easy description in nearly every aspect. Is it a resource management game? Yes. Is it a turn-based combat RPG? Yes. Is it a board game? Also yes. Is it a blast to play? Yes. Does it bite off a bit more than it can chew? Again, yes. Circus Electrique takes place in an alternate-history Victorian-era England, where technology is a bit more advanced than that of the actual late-1800s London, though the overall style of that era remains intact. Bobbies (that’s cops, for those of you not up with your London vernacular) run around on steam-powered scooters, many individuals have steam-enhanced appendages, and there’s robot bears that express themselves in the third person (because why not?). It's this unique place that draws one into the game, and the story itself is quite well-written, mostly being told through either slideshow-style cutscenes or spoken/written dialogue between illustrations of the various characters. (The voice acting is very professionally done, and I appreciate that there is no dialogue that is not voiced; there are some emotional moments that really needed that extra touch.) On the Circus Electrique’s (re)opening day, suddenly a good portion of the London populace starts to go mad, attacking innocent bystanders. You play the part of Amelia, a newspaper reporter and the niece of the ringmaster of the Circus, and are caught up in a city-wide crisis that is referred to as “The Maddening”. Over the course of the story you unravel exactly what conspiracy is behind the Maddening and how to stop it, with many of the revelations becoming personal. The story is quite interesting, with some great twists and turns. Unfortunately, the game sabotages its own story by telegraphing the twists waaay too far in advance. They leave you so many obvious hints and tidbits that by the time I was halfway done, I had already figured out 90% of the plot, and the remaining 10% I figured out well before it was revealed, too. As for the ending, I certainly won’t spoil it, but I hate when games forego a satisfying ending to instead tease for a sequel that may never come. It’s a real shame, since it’s one unique, memorable story; if they had just let the twists and turns come naturally I would consider it at the very least solid A material, if not quite A+. The game takes place over a number of days (about 100 by the time the end, though this can vary depending on your choices). At the beginning of each day, you enter the management portion. Even though there’s a crisis in London, the show must go on. You have a myriad of circus performers of different classes you can hire. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, but each individual within each class varies quite a bit as well. Each individual character has four main numerical characteristics, as it relates to circus performance; Fun, Amazement, Thrill, and Laugh. You need to keep a balance of all these skills as you select a circus show to perform for the day. There are several different show “templates” you can select from, each giving you different rewards and resources for a successful show. In order to make a successful show, beyond the four characteristics I’ve already described certain people like and dislike being partnered with certain classes; prefer to perform certain roles in the show; and also need to be used every so often or they will become bored, lowering their devotion to you. If their devotion becomes zero, you only have a few days to somehow get their spirits up or they’ll skedaddle entirely. Putting on a show is essentially a big puzzle where you try to maximize your output by putting everyone in the most efficient slot. I do wish you could actually view some kind of simple flash animation of the different circus shows with your performers, but alas, it’s just really used for income purposes. Beyond simply coming up with a show, you’ll also unlock various buildings that allow you to accomplish various objectives. In the Training Arena, you can train circus performers for combat who aren’t in the show. In the "Oracle" building, have some stay on the lookout and reveal what’s coming up for your main party for this day combat-wise. In other buildings, you can have certain performers rest and heal; craft items from components to help your various party members; research new special attacks; or practice combat without actually engaging in it. Once you’re done with creating your show for the day and managing your various circus members, you take up to four of them specifically and venture out into the world. Herein lies the “board game” part of the day. Throughout the course of the story your team of four performers ventures through a total of six districts, each district growing exponentially larger than the last. Each starting path will branch off into various other paths. Some spots will lead you to interviews and dialogue that furthers the story, while some spots are various minigames. Practice sliding coins to win circus fame or special items; use a reaction game to feed the poor; or do a simple “pick a choice” scenario and come up with a good or bad outcome, depending upon your selection. There are many other types of spots on the board, too numerous to name here.

The end of the day comes when you hit a battle space. Then you enter the turn-based combat phase. Your four circus performers in the party take turns striking back against four other crazed steam-enhanced Londoners, and occasionally other hostile circus performers as well. There are the usual myriad choices of attacks—some are direct and cause damage, others buff your own performancers or de-buff the enemy, and the like. Different classes have different kinds of attacks, and different individuals within those classes have their own pre-selected cadre of those available attacks, along with their own unique positives and negatives. Each character has two main bars in combat: their hit points, and their devotion level. You can kill a person by lowering their HP to zero, or you can demoralize them to the point where their devotion hits zero and they flee. It’s worth noting that if one of your performancers dies, they’re dead for good; there are no “revives” here. If their devotion hits zero, as mentioned earlier you do have a limited window of a few days in which to lighten their spirits.

Of paramount importance in combat is one’s position out of the four spaces—does someone prefer to be in the first space or two, or near the back of the party? Certain attacks will only be able to be performed in certain positions, and as their devotion varies so will their attack effectiveness as well. Attacks that juggle your performers’ positions can really mess up your strategy, as you have to take an entire turn just to move someone a position forward or back in the line. There are also lots of other things to consider in the battle, such as the weather conditions, which can affect attacks in various ways (don’t let the battle go on too long at night or the bobby patrol will arrive!). There's the dozen or so various stats each circus member has. You also have to consider what items you bring along to help, turn order, Amaze-O-Meter-driven special attacks, and the like. Once the battle is done, you get a summary “newspaper” for the day detailing how your circus show and battle went, how the story’s progressed, and various other tidbits like if certain characters have leveled up. (Leveled-up characters get points that you can spend among their various attributes, and stronger attacks.) Then the day is over and the cycle begins again. If this all sounds a bit overwhelming that’s because… well, it is. There are a LOT of details to keep track of, to the point where some things seem to be complex just for complexity’s sake. To be fair, most mechanics are introduced to you piecemeal and over the course of your progress through the first district or so, but there’s just too many details for me to remember—and I’m still leaving a LOT out of this review, trust me. For example, you get random components at the end of the day, and you use these components to craft items or level up characters—but especially since they’re mostly given out randomly, do we really need dozens of different types of components? I can’t memorize the requirements for every item I need to craft to the point where I can remember them all when picking what circus show to put on for the day or how I want to use them to level up characters. In a similar vein, does each character really need as many unique stats as they have? Since every person is different, even within a class, it’s very difficult to keep track of them all when keeping in mind who to put in a show, who to put in battle, etc.

Therein lies the chief rub I have with this game. It’s a lot of fun, but there’s also a lot of things to keep in mind—this is most definitely NOT something you can put on mental autopilot. I played through on Easy, but on harder difficulties, you get fewer resources and rewards for battles, your characters don’t regenerate some health at the end of the day, enemies are stronger, and negative effects trigger more often. In other words, the higher you go in difficulty, the tougher decisions you have to make and the more you have to pay attention and weigh which sacrifices matter more to you. You can fail a battle or fail a show for the day, but as your resources and characters dwindle, if you fail too many times you can enter a permanent game over.

The graphics are very crisp, and the UI is very well-balanced; all of the myriad details you need to see are either on-screen or a click away. The models for the characters are quite well-detailed in combat, though they don’t interact directly with each other; one will simply “pound on” or throw something at the other person, but these objects pass through the character models without causing injuries or blood or anything. The controls are simply point-and-click, at least on the PC—I was surprised to see that this is available on consoles, as everything is centered around the mouse. Playing on a console is not recommended, if you have a choice, since I don’t see how using a joystick would possibly be more efficient. The game is also very stable; I never had a single glitch, crash, or even framerate drop on my PC. The music is pretty decent and fits the environment well, though for the most part outside of combat it isn’t particularly memorable. That said, what really takes the sounds and visuals up another notch, in my opinion, are the “old-timey” effects that are applied. The music sounds like it’s coming through an old phonograph, and the combat screen has an early 1900s’ movie feel to it, with some irregularities in the picture frame (albeit fully in-color). If these effects bother you, you can turn them off, but they really lent the game an atmosphere; I loved them. Morally, there are some concerns worth noting. Most prevalent is violence—no, you don’t see the characters literally stab and bludgeon each other to death, as there are no wounds shown on the models, but by the motions it is of course strongly implied that that’s what’s going on. The models disappear if they are defeated, but the descriptions don't hold back in terms of wording; someone isn’t “knocked out” if they lose in combat, they’re dead. If a person is severely injured or killed in combat, blood spatters and smears appear on the card representing them in the UI. Some descriptive events are of fairly awful things—for example, I chose wrongly in one textual scenario and a depressed individual was described to have committed suicide. Of course, with the Maddening going on for weeks, it’s also strongly implied that a massacre is happening city-wide. It should be noted, though, that violence by your party is only ever done in self-defense. There is some language used that fits into the “Teen” rating—“d*mn”, “cr*p” and “h*ll” are used periodically (though cursing is certainly not omnipresent); “Oh L*rd!” as an exclamation or some minor variation thereof is used a few times; and some light jokes are made about a Fakir (a circus actor who can sword-swallow, lie on a bed of nails, etc.) and someone being a “son of a…”, though the actual curses in question are never said. Some of the female circus individuals wear somewhat low-cut or skimpy clothing, though the character models aren’t TOO revealing. There are some things that seem like they’re “magic”, but the game goes to lengths to assure us they’re not—for example, one class isn’t called a “Magician”, but rather an “Illusionist”; and when he’s depressed, one of the things he can say is “I could use some real magic right about now”. The Fakir appears to be meditating in mid-air by magic— that is, until you see the machine below him blowing him into the air. Overall, I would definitely recommend Circus Electrique to anyone who’s a fan of management games and/or turn-based RPGs, especially if you’re a very detail-oriented person who wants to weigh a lot of options and stats while you’re playing. On Easy, if you go straight through without replaying anything you may get through in ~20 hours; however, you have the ability to create time capsules and replay districts to get all of the collectibles scattered throughout the boards, and some extra battles are available if you craft the right special items. Add all that onto the fact that harder difficulties will of course take more time, and I think Circus Electrique is more than justified with its $20 price point. It’s not perfect, but it’s still a solid, fun experience—as long as you know what you’re getting into and are prepared to spend the brainpower on it. -Brad Weckman