Circus Electrique | PS4 Review

Travel back to Victorian London and bear witness to the Circus Electrique! Zen Studios is known largely for its insane commitment to all things pinball, but they’ve branched out into other genres before. Operencia: The Stolen Sun, in particular, was a brilliantly written little RPG. So how fares their latest venture into non-pinball action?

They’ve All Gone Mad

You play as Amelia, who has questions she needs answered about the Circus Electrique. It’s handy, then, that her Uncle is in charge of the traveling show. They have a difficult past involving Amelia’s mother, a former performer, but I won’t say much here. Unfortunately, the citizens of this steampunk London all start going stark raving mad! It’s up to this circus to help whip things into shape.

The base storyline itself is rather straightforward, but much like Operencia: The Stolen Sun, it’s the character writing that shines. Rare is the game dialogue that actually feels like human beings having a real conversation, but this is where Circus Electrique shines the brightest. Between the writing and the acting, it’s clear a lot of care went into making these people sound authentically human.

Lookin’ Good, London

The visual design and aesthetic of this game sings, even in screenshots. The look and feel of everything in this game has an infectious charm to it. Real old-timey vibes that are great on the screen. Each and every character class has a look to them that feels classic, even if you’ve never seen anything like it before. It makes it a lot of fun to get into this world.

Boom! Pow!

Circus Electrique is primarily a tough, turn-based RPG. Death is permanent for characters, so you need to make sure to plan accordingly. The opening hours are simple enough as the game unravels its many, many mechanics (more on that later), but things start to get hard pretty quickly.

You need to keep track of positioning, as there are four locations on each side of the battlefield, because each location restricts different attacks or abilities for your characters. You have to be constantly mindful of position and what can happen where. There are also tons of meters to keep track of, not just including health. So the game demands a lot of the player, to its detriment.

I don’t mind challenging games. In fact, listeners of our podcast know full well I actually love a good challenge. But the challenge in Circus Electrique during combat came not from difficult encounters, though there are plenty, but from tedium. It’s just sort of annoying keeping track of all these things. You need only look at a screenshot of the game’s combat UI to see what I mean. I’m sure there are going to be players that love getting into all of this minutiae, but take it from a player that normally loves these things: it’s just not that engaging. It felt more like a problem of a game that’s been overly designed and in need of refinement, rather than an intentional challenge.

The Show Must Go On

That’s only half of the gameplay loop. You gotta put on a show, of course! It wouldn’t be a circus otherwise. Each night, you can assemble a different sort of show to distract the populace from the obvious destruction of their city. These shows require certain performers (character classes) to be pulled off effectively, and that can lead to interesting decision-making from the player.

Your party members in combat are also your performers, so you constantly have to rotate people in and out. You have to make sure to keep things fresh, after all, or your adoring audience will be less interested. Giving your circus members a break from combat can also help their morale or health in combat, so it really pays dividends to keep a constant rotation. It makes combat a little more interesting because you can’t have a standard reliable four. Eventually, you’re going to have to use them in the circus show, meaning they can’t explore the city at night. I always respect when a game refuses to let me rest on my laurels.

Shopping Makes the World Go Round

At your base camp of the circus, there’s a lot more than just the main event. There are a ton of other things going on: crafting materials, healing tents, shops, etc. Again, the game feels overly designed in this regard. There’s just so much going on in every direction, and every angle of gameplay feels like it goes three or four layers too deep. You might think me a filthy casual, but I know I’m not. Circus Electrique simply didn’t know when to refine rather than add. Because while there is indeed a lot going on in most avenues of the game, none of them feel fulfilling to engage with. So much of what happens at the circus, beyond setting up the shows, feels like mindless busywork.

All in all, Circus Electrique isn’t as good as other Zen Studios titles. The writing, artistic visuals, and general vibe are all top-notch, no doubt. So much of the gameplay, however, is underwhelming in execution and overwhelming in presentation. The core combat starts out strong, but I’d be surprised if most people don’t get annoyed as things get needlessly more complex and the difficulty walls start showing up. There are things to like in the game, but nobody needs to rush to play it.

To hear me talk more about Circus Electrique, be sure to listen to Episode 414 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 52:50 time stamp.

 

This review is based on a PS4 copy of Circus Electrique provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.