The Gladiators: The Galactic Circus Games Preview

Arxel Tribe's upcoming game The Gladiators: The Galactic Circus Games seems like it might be one part Myth, one part Starcraft, and one part Saturday-morning cartoon. The Gladiators will throw strange combatants into futuristic arenas where bloody battle is a spectator sport enjoyed by millions. This fast-paced real-time strategy game will offer a simple interface and streamlined gameplay. It should put the emphasis squarely on action instead of the thumb-twiddling boredom that base building and unit construction can sometimes induce in real-time strategy games. An unusual visual style that calls to mind Japanese anime and console games will bring the strange world of The Gladiators to life.

The story of The Gladiators hearkens back to the days of 1930s sci-fi cliff-hangers like Flash Gordon (and the over-the-top 1980 Flash Gordon movie, for that matter). During the 1970s, the US military begins work on a secret space shuttle designed to investigate a newly discovered black hole. Leading the mission is ex-Marine major Greg D. Callahan. When his shuttle is launched toward an asteroid belt to gather data on the black hole, all contact with the vessel is mysteriously lost. A strange magnetic field knocks the crew unconscious, and when they awake, they find themselves in a distant, uncharted part of the galaxy.

Just as the crew figuratively gets its bearings, it's attacked by the flagship of the villainous Commander Maximix. Callahan manages to dispatch most of the boarding party but is eventually taken captive despite his valiant efforts to preserve his crew. As a prisoner held at the imperial seat of Myridion, Callahan is visited by the young Princess Lydia, whose father, the emperor, recently died under mysterious circumstances. A struggle for the throne has ensued, and Lydia is too young to strongly assert her rightful claim to rule. Meanwhile, the imperial regent and grand chamberlain have used their power, cunning, and treachery to keep Lydia out of the picture and vie for the throne.

Fortunately for Princess Lydia, the public has grown tired of the endless internecine squabbling. They want the question of the ascension settled once and for all, and they want it settled in an entertaining way. They clamor for the new ruler to be chosen through their culture's hugely popular gladiatorial games known as the Deathbowl. Each pretender to the throne will choose a champion to fight for his or her claim. Callahan will, of course, fight for young Lydia.

These gladiatorial games won't be like those you've seen Russell Crowe fight through. They'll take place in big arenas before screaming fans, to be sure, but these will be some truly huge arenas, filled with islands surrounded by gleaming water and covered with large dunes, verdant jungle foliage, and more. Instead of just a couple of warriors going toe-to-toe, you'll see small armies of heavily armed futuristic troops fighting to the death.

All the while, the crowd will be cheering you on or booing your performance. Spend too much time wandering about or playing it safe, and you may incur the dreaded thumbs-down. In The Gladiators, you're not just expected to win; you're expected to win with style.

The forces fighting for survival and fame in The Gladiators will, in obligatory post-Starcraft fashion, consist of three factions. The intrepid Callahan will lead human soldiers consisting of standard troopers, commandos, and bazooka soldiers. However, his forces won't be relegated to fighting on foot, since he'll have various vehicular units to aid him, including a Huey helicopter, an M113 armored personnel carrier, and an M1 tank. The insectile Magic forces will be led by the menacing Fargass, who can fire off some brutal fireballs. Fighting alongside him will be a menagerie of strange-looking and strangely named beasts, like the dorkin and burp. More-familiar creatures like dragons will enter the fray on Fargass' side, too. Finally, the robotic Galactic forces will be led by Callahan's old nemesis, Maximix. Maximix will command cyborgs, snipers, arachnidlike tarantula robots, robed guards brandishing menacing pikes, and more.

The individual heroes who lead these forces will earn special abilities as they gain or lose fame through their combat exploits or failures. Arxel Tribe says that you'll see and hear the massive alien crowd rooting for you or voicing its displeasure as each match progresses. Together, these features should provide strong incentives to fight fast and hard. The developer says it generally wants to emphasize fast and relatively simple arcadelike action in the game. In fact, this will be one of those rare PC games, like Serious Sam, that actually keeps score as you play, just like the arcade games of yore.

One of the key points of interest in The Gladiators should be your ability to choose between two basic strategic styles. Your main gladiator, such as Callahan, will have a store of energy or mana that can be built up by collecting cardlike "joker" power-ups scattered across the battlefield. You can spend this in different ways, emphasizing rushing tactics by investing the energy in the creation of lots of new units or instead reserving it to heal the ones you already have. You'll have to make some tough choices about precisely when and where to spend your energy since new units can be created only if you've located and captured discrete spawn zones.

When you do decide to create more units, you'll find, in keeping with The Gladiators' emphasis on straightforward action, that it's an easy process. At a spawn zone, which looks a bit like a futuristic Stonehenge monument, you'll cause new units to materialize almost as fast as you can hit the appropriate button. The Gladiators is a game that won't make you wait. Once you've gathered your units together, you'll be able to issue standard RTS-style commands, putting troops into formations or ordering them to stand ground.

If you should choose to focus on a small cadre of troops, you'll likely get to deal with small-scale tactical decisions. You'll get to use terrain to your advantage, for instance. Ridges will prevent enemies from spotting or firing directly at you. Guard towers will provide relatively safe vantage points above charging enemies, and stout bunkers will likewise afford extra protection. When using a smaller number of troops and carefully taking advantage of these terrain features, The Gladiators should remind you a little of the Myth series or perhaps Ground Control.

Much of the combat environment itself will be destructible. Fallen tree in your path? Just blow it up. Or you can leave it as it lies and use it as a natural barrier to protect your troops. Environmental hazards like land mines will keep you on your toes--when they're not blowing them off. And, in a time-honored and fun gaming cliché, you'll get to blast explosive barrels near enemies, obliterating barrel and foe alike with just one shot.

The Gladiators is still in a very early stage of development, so we haven't been able to see and hear many of the game's sounds and other features yet. The few sounds that were present suggest that combat will be an aural assault, with machine guns really roaring. Visually, the game will sport a bright, cheery look with an unusual anime-like style, at least in the scenes that frame the actual battles. Much of the game's look will likely call to mind traditional console games more readily than it will call to mind your average PC real-time strategy game. Callahan, for example, looks a bit like a white-haired Solid Snake in his unit icon portrait. The battlefields themselves will sport colorful foliage and sparkling water to contrast with the black scorch marks left by explosions. The unit models look fairly well detailed at this stage, and weapon fire produces a real riot of color.

With its vibrant graphics, unusual cast of characters, and emphasis on quick action, The Gladiators should hopefully provide an interesting alternative to more traditional real-time strategy games when it's released this fall.