Step right up…and die

I got into Darkest Dungeon for a season. It was a punishing but rewarding time. I enjoyed the nail-biting battles where my best squad was always on the line. Sure, did the game best me? Absolutely, but I had a fun time with it both with the mechanics and the strategy. Now, take Darkest Dungeon, add a few more mechanics, and slap a nice coat of early 1900’s London paint on it with a circus theme and you have yourself Circus Electrique.

After a mysterious electrical device is turned on at the local circus, a mind-altering wave known as The Maddening has taken over the locals in London turning them into murderous drones that are attacking the streets of London. Now, the niece of the Ringmaster of the circus along with the circus performers traverse the streets trying to figure out what is going on while trying to survive attacks from robotic Bobbies, posh ladies, mimes, and many others.

MSRP: $19.99
Price I’d pay: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox, PC, Switch, PlayStation

Anyone who has played Darkest Dungeon will be in familiar territory here. Players will maintain their circus by recruiting new members to the circus ranks, upgrading tents to do more things like heal party members and create useful items, and a special event, hold performances. All things take place in a full day. So, players will set up things in their base then venture out into the streets for a fight.

The battles take place via a turn-based, positioning system. Players will take turns attacking, buffing, debuffing, and moving their squads while trying to keep their team’s health and devotion up. Devotion is a lot like morale. If it gets too low, they will flee from battle. It’s not just that, it can affect how effective they are in battle as well like missing attacks more. The same could be said for the enemy team. Lowering their devotion could sweep a battle early as well. Certain attacks are based on positioning. Some attacks only work if the characters are in the first two slots or only in the last slot. Also, which enemies are hit depends on the attack. Each party member has access to six abilities which are randomly selected when recruited. Another thing to note, just like in Darkest Dungeon, if a character dies in battle, they are dead forever. Fire Emblem says “Hi.” Luckily, there is the option to have a gravely wounded character run from the battle to spare them death, but sometimes, it happens. In fact, it’s most certainly going to happen, and when it does, it sucks. Especially if the character was a higher-level party member.

Keeping the devotion up is a must. How can players do this? Letting them perform for the masses. Before going out to the streets of London, players will have the option to host a performance. They will choose which circus performers to use and there is a rather complex system for setting this up. Looking at who likes being a main performer or a side performer, which acts they like working with, and how well they interact with each other will offer more audience members which leads to more income, more crafting materials, and higher devotion increases. Keep in mind, whoever players choose to perform means they are not going to be in the battle party when exploring London. It’s a nice give and take mechanic that keeps things interesting and obviously more tense when players are going out with lower-level characters.

The story is played out at certain points via simple talking heads, but all of it is fully voice acted with some really good performances that offer up some more lore and fun interactions. It’s well done, and I never skipped any extra story while playing.

While it is explained very well, there are a few things that hold the game back. First, there are a lot of mechanics here. Leveling up the circus, upgrading buildings, maintaining the devotion of characters, recruiting new characters, Knowing the ins and outs of battles, making sure I get a good performance with the right blend of performers, it can be a lot to keep up with. While I’m all for challenging gameplay, it seemed like there were a few times battles not only took overly long, but also felt a bit lopsided in the enemy’s favor. Three misses in a row and my character wasn’t even below half devotion? That’s some XCOM levels of probability. Then, when going to the train to see my possible new recruits, they are either carbon copies of what I already have or have numerous skills I just really didn’t need. There are a lot of times I ended up recruiting lackluster characters just to fill my team.

At the end of the day, Circus Electrique is still a fun time. The RPG blend of character maintenance, challenging battles, and circus management has a lot here and it can sometimes be overwhelming, but if players take their time and keep up the performers’ devotion, they can explore the mean streets of London by the skin of their teeth. It’s not an easy game, but much like Darkest Dungeon, it can be rather rewarding.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Fun mechanics
  • Interesting story
  • Great voice acting
  • Nice style
Bad
  • Sometimes a bit too complex
  • Recruiting woes
  • Some probability leads to long battles
8
Great
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.