Buy Qvadriga

NOTE: I've played it at least 15 hours or so despite what Steam's saying (mostly played in Offline mode).
NOTE 2: There's a Demo on their website.

It wouldn't be fair to call this game incomplete, but you'll probably love it so much that it'll be impossible not to want more after a few hours - even if you're not finished with the campaign. The turn-based chariot racing is lots and lots of fun. When you're racing alongside an opposing auriga with lots of wins (called a Leader) and you watch two other opponents sandwich him with the "crash left/right" attack in accidental unison, and his chariot explodes and then he gets run over trying to escape. Or you manage to pass an oppenent by getting to the inside lane right before barely pulling off a turn without rolling your chariot.

There are lots of situations that make this game worth it. The GUI doesn't follow the conventions you might be used to, and you'll probably click around a lot at first to make sure you're not missing anything. It took a few races before I noticed the little dial on the betting feature before each race because there's nothing make it obviously clickable, and not much is done anywhere else to make things intuitive or what most of us are used to. The graphics are ugly - you can tell a game is Russian when a lot of things look like bad paintings of wheat. I don't know why. I give kudos to these guys for making such a fun game, but if there was such a thing as "Russian clipart" the wikipedia article would mention this game.

There isn't much customization. You choose a faction (which determines skills of defaul racers/chariots/horses, and I think that's it), you choose a starting location, you name your 3 default aurigas/racers, and you name your team. You can also buy aurigas, chariots and horses that already have certain skills, but again, there's only a couple skills per each of those.

This game is a powderkeg of awesome, though, and it's a tragedy that there doesn't seem to be much followup to it. No DLC? How about modding/Steam Workshop? How about, dare I say, adding some content for free and giving more people a reason to buy it?

But whatever, as it is now, I'm happy I bought it and I plan on playing it more. I just hope they do something else with it because they have a great base game with fun turn-based racing that can inspire some insane moments - everything else would just make that better.

If you were a fan of Circus Maximus by Avalon Hill, this is the game you want. Played in Dynamic mode, its plays like a real time chariot race, and it is brutal. Very little quarter is given, and in the campaign game you will very soon develop a champion driver that lives on the edge of disaster each race. When played on Epic mode, this is old school, with no saves, no going back for your body, no fluff. Like in real life, your champion gets all your best gear to give him that edge, and in flash of hooves and blood, it could all be gone. If you ever wanted to manage a team of chariots for a faction and race them with the final hope of getting them to Rome and the Maximus, this is the game for you. The graphics aren't stunning. The sounds are adequate, but nothing more. This is a simulation and racing strategy game. Crash your opponents? Lash them with your whip into submission? Go for speed and try to out run the mayhem? It's up to you. Well done Turnopia, I look forward to your next release.

I'm having a blast! Checkout my experiences so far... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0FsVVrwRrg

A very interesting strategy/simulation game. Graphics are minimalistic, but the gameplay is fun and surprisingly tactical.

I've put a few tens of hours in on this before I moved it to Steam, on both the pc version and the iPad. This is one of my "Game of the Year" picks.

Qvadriga is a single-player chariot racing set in the Roman Mediterranean. You choose one of seven factions to race for, and your "stable" is one of several your faction may operate in each city. There are many cities to race in across the various provinces. Each city offers it's own special bonus, like half-price drivers, or cheap chariot repair.

Each city has it's own racing stadium, varying from 8 lanes wide to 4 lanes wide, and generally either an oval or a U shape. Your tactics have to change to reflect the number of teams racing and the width of the track - a six-team race on four lanes is very different from 8 teams on 6 lanes, and so forth.

You can have up to four teams in your stable; you start with three. Drivers, chariots and horses each have two skills to be gained, at up to two points for each skill. For drivers, it's constitution and driving skill; for horses, speed and endurance; and for chariots, acceleration and durability. So there are 9 combinations for each skill, and three sets of skills, for 729 different driver/horse/chariot combinations.

Each race has a special condition, given before the start, which mixes things up. You might have corrupt Praetors drinking up some of the prize money, or fog making everyone more cautious, or two teams fighting at the start line, or even a track littered with previous race debris for the crowd's amusement. Add to that the various chariot/driver/horse combinations and the width of the track, and each race is different and unique.

Your faction gives you a set of skills to begin with. For example, the military faction favors skillful drivers and horses with good endurance, along with heavy chariots. Other factions have different mixes. This provides the initial differences between teams in a race. You must learn to adapt to your equipment and drivers - is your team going to win based on fighting other teams, or getting ahead early and holding the lead, or coming from behind in the final lap? And bear in mind, as your gear and horses and drivers change, your tactics will have to adapt as well.

Once you are in a race, you have a number of actions you can take each turn. You can slow or speed your horses, or really goose them by whipping. You can change lanes (subject to someone being in the way, or your momentum in a turn) and you can crash into other teams or try to whip their driver. Most actions, including cornering and even just driving, carry a risk of damage, which increases as you take damage through the race. So you really have to consider every turn carefully; even if you are far in the lead coming into the last turn, one mistake can see you with a destroyed chariot being pulled along the track by your runaway horses. Each race has it's tense moments and you can go from being on top to crashing out in an instant.

Once the race is over, you get money if you finished; more if you placed in the top three, and then if you win, you can collect your private bet if you placed one. Your teams will need repair, rest and healing, which cost money; this is why you start with three, to let them come back to full strength over several races. Your drivers will be ranked by victories, and as your fame climbs, you'll gain access to other cities and regions, and can compete across the empire. Eventually, the goal is to become the leader of your faction empire-wide, and in Epic game mode, to become the most successful rider in the empire.

In short, this is a great racing game with a good deal of bloodshed and heartbreak, and more than a little historical accuracy. It's well worth it if you like racing games and history at all. There is nothing else like it out there. Highly recommended.

I very quickly fell in love with the simplicity and awesomeness of this game, and just as quicly fell out of love. I beat the game and it deleated my save. I tried to start a new game but the magic was gone. Buy it on sale, but don't bother with full price. You'll get about 10 hours of gameplay.

Стоит ли покупать Qvadriga? | Как я был рабом и рабовладельцем.
Я настоятельно рекомендую игру всем тем, кому нравится представленная в игре эпоха, кто не обращает внимание на графическое несовершенство в угоду интересному, занимательному, азартному геймплею. Я провел около 20 часов в игре и, наверное, проведу еще некоторое время, стараясь достигнуть совершенства в динамической кампании с эпическим уровнем сложности. Меня шутя проклинают те, кого уже удалось подсадить на игру, за потраченное на нее время, пропущенные пленумы и перерывы на обед, ведь она доступна для покупки не только на ПК, но и для планшетов (iPad, Android), а значит прощай время, здравствуй кровавый спорт.

This game is simple, entertaining, and yes a little dificult/frusterating when things don't go your way.

When you actually manage to win a race though, it's awesome.

The game really does have the best turn-based racing mechanics in a computer game (and no, it's not the only one). And, what's just as important, there's a clean interface that helps avoid struggling with them. You learn the basics and you're off, and then you have quite a gentle learning curve until becoming a master charioteer.

Once you're a bit more accustomed to the game, there's a pleasant semi-trance state that you can fall into during the races. It's good and bad at the same time. While there still are decisions to make, you've probably encountered similar situations before and know a good way out of them. After you've reached this point it is nice to zoom out and see the chariots go, and admire how believable their movements seem.

Unfortunately there's not much else to do outside of that. The campaign is very welcome if a bit barebones, but in the end it becomes a comfort game that you can Alt+Tab to and run a race or two to before getting back to work.

I do hope the developers use the great design in place for a more ambitious game, be it historical, fantasy or any other kind of racing. It simply needs more content and variety to mix things up a bit.

What is there is very well balanced and thought-out, though, and is definitely preferable to a chaotic mixture of bits and pieces that don't really gel together or a feature creep that tends to plague other games. Nevertheless, in the end you are left wanting more.

This is the most addictive, fun racing/strategy game in existence. If you are even remotely interested in this game BUY IT! You'll have hours and hours of enjoyment. Don't be put off by the screen shots, when you zoom in on the action the animation is more than adequate, the mechanics are near perfect, the thrill of victory is extremely satisfying. The price is on the high side but the pure enjoyment is worth every cent.

Very unusual and interesting game mechanics.(there maybe something else similar out there but if there is I don't know about it.)

It really is like the old Avalon Hill game 'Circus Maximus' computerized. Looks better than the screenshots when playing it because for some reason the screenshots have all been taken at maximum zoomed out view where the game looks the least appealing.

It is expensive as is but if they add the multiplayer element as the developers promise, then its quite a unique little game and would be a lot of fun against human opponents, until that point though.....
Good little game but too expensive unless you are really fanatical about Roman chariot racing.

(I recommended it because what there is is well done, but I wish that there was an option to not judge something in such absolute terms....)

This is a great little game! There is a lot of strategy involved. The learning curve is pretty steep, but as you get the hang of it, you really get sucked in. Usually set backs are not game breaking. On my first play through, I lost my drivers and chariots quickly, and could not recover, but only because I didn't know what I was doing. I went back, looked over the tutorial, started a new game, was more careful this time, and I've been having a great campaign. I've had my set backs still, but always have recovered from them and surged to new levels despite them. A word to the wise: don't imagine this is a game you can easily win on your first race. You will have to work hard for each victory. But they are all the more rewarding when they come.

You will also quickly develop rivalries with other teams' charioteers (called auriga in the game). Currently, I've got a very heated rivalry going with a fellow named Alpheaus. After he took out two of my horses and almost killed an auriga at the very start of a race, I've had it out for him ever since. And he likes gunning for me, too. Makes the races very interesting when he's around.

In response to critics who say there are only two types of track: first of all, each type has many variations within. Some are longer, some are shorter, some are wider, some are thinner. No two tracks are exactly the same, and each one has unique strategies required to be successful. Second, in ancient Rome this is exactly how it was. Two types of track (Greek style and Roman style), but with variations all over the place. Each race also will have a random event at the start, sometimes good, sometimes bad, to add to the variation. There's also different combinations of auriga skills, chariot types, and horse quality.

In total, this is a great game. I think it is worth $20. But if you can pick it up on sale, that's always good, too. I give it a 9/10.

A fantastic little turn-based (or real time) tactical game complete with dead horses, loose horses, rolled chariots, and aurigas running for their life to avoid being run over.

With it's combination of real time and turn based control, Qvadriga is a racing game that's both tense and tactical.

TL:DR - Its too expensive for what you get. Its not terrible, in fact the first hour or so is fun, but definitely not worth the price. Especially once you realize that when you've seen the two types of track youve pretty much seen everything the game has to offer.

So I love ancient Rome. An ancient Rome chariot racing game is an awesome idea. It reminds me of the chariot race missions in Shadow of Rome. (A really really fun PS2 game. If you are a fan of gladiator games, get it! And enjoy cutting people's arms off, beating them with it, then tossing it into the crowd..) But this review isnt about Shadow of Rome. Its about Qvadriga. Which unfortunately, is no where near as cool as the concept could be.

Now, I wouldnt have as much of a problem with it if it wasn't 20 freakin' dollars. So what do you get for 20 dollars? A tiny-graphic boring game. I normally dont really care about graphics if the gameplay is engrossing, but this game unfortunately lacks that quality, so all you keep on thinking were damn, this would be cool if it actually had decent images of the action.

So a basic rundown. You start, and pick your faction. Different factions have different abilities that are explained in tooltips. Some are stronger, faster, can handle their chariots better. Then a map appears with different regions. There are many different regions, each with different tracks in them. Lots of tracks to run on with many random events is a giant plus, except for one issue which shall be explained later.

When you start, you can pick one region, and each region has 1 track unlocked. Then a screen where you can look at your charioteers, get vet services, repairs and healing, and upgrade your horses and chariots. Heres the kicker. Once you pick your first track, you cannot leave it until you get your "fame" up enough from racing. So if you pick a hard as hell track (as I did my first try), youre pretty much stuck. Pick which charioteer you want to race with, and you are off.

The graphics are really simple, a top down view of chariots on a track. Looks like tiny mobile game graphics. There are two modes, one where the action stops every 10 seconds to give a command, one where it doesnt but you still only are give a command every so often. The commands are accelerate (to a certain level, then you can't), brake, crash right/left (slam your chariot into an opponent a la ben hur), lacerate (whip an opponent), small/medium/large move left or right (each one moves you farther across the lanes), watch for attacks (basically a block) and control (basically do nothing, but it makes your control go up), and finally whip (allows your horses to get a burst of speed, but you can hurt them).

There are many different tracks to race on, some narrow, some larger. Each track has a brief paragraph about its history. Every time you race there are slighty different variables on the track, described in a simple sentence before the race. Theres lots of these, both bad and good and they provide some variety.

Youre going to need it. This game is grindy as hell.

See, you get money for racing, more if you win. You use this money to buy better guys, horses and chariots. You also need to pay for vet and repairs from racing damage. Each wheel, horse, and charioteer has a life bar. Take too much damage, and a horse dies, leaving you to pull with 3. Go too fast, and your wheel gets damaged. Go too fast around a corner and you can topple your chariot, leaving your guy to be dragged by his horses. You then have the option of running (and the other guys can hit you, or hanging on till youre in a safe spot to run.

There are stats, represented by icons. The different stats ccombine to make the upgrades (say a horse with two speed icons vs a horse with 1 speed and 1 endurance - which one do you want.. The two speed will be faster but weaker than the 1 speed 1 endurance)

But theres only 6 guy types (stats: skill - how good of a driver you are, and constitution - how much damage you can take) and 9 horse types (stats: speed - top speed, and endurance - same as con but for the horse) and 9 chariot types( stats: acceleration and size, again same as con but for the chariot). And they are expensive as hell.

It also costs money to travel from track to track, and you can't race certain tracks till you get more famous. So you will probably doing the same race over and over just to get enough cash to go somewhere else.

Theres two types of track, a tight oval type and a longer wider type. Except for this, there is absolutely nothing to differentiate them.

A $20 game this is not. It can be fun for a little bit, and if it had some kind of multiplayer it'd be pretty fun. But as it is, its just boring after the first hour or so.

♥♥♥♥ almighty is this a strange and glorious game. “Qvadriga” is a... it's a racing sim? But unlike the brutal and savage blood-sport of NASCAR, Qvadriga takes place in a serene, peaceful, Roman setting. And it is worth your valuable time.

You're a charioteer livin' it up when Augustus was a highly sought title and not a fat, spoiled brat drowning in a chocolate river. You start with a standard charioteer team, upgrading as you find success in a variety of circuses throughout the Roman world. The races are spectacular monuments to white-knuckle stress... it's like ancient Mario Kart. The AI is smart and will do everything to sabotage you. You'll develop rivalries with other teams so, y'know, they'll just get progressively more devious, twirling their evil jockey mustaches in vomitoriums surrounded by eunuchs and other Game of Thrones ♥♥♥♥.

I recommend this. I think the price tag is a little steep and it might be worth it to wait till it's on sale or in a bundle... but it's a blast to play. VERY challenging, it's fun to micromanage your team, and it feels good to hear that crowd cheer and chant your name.

Now win glory for Caesar.

A fun game with an interesting concept. It plays like an old tabletop board game, or perhaps something from the earliest days of pc gaming. It's very well designed in terms of balance and mechanics. The problem is the price for the extremely limited amount of content this game represents. Qvadriga is an excellent $3 to $5 cell phone game, not a $20 pc game. *If* you can get it on sale, for an accurate price, then I highly recommend it, but in a world where indy games with staggering levels of content like Xenonauts and FTL are $25 and $10 respectively, charging $20 for this anemic little game is both insulting and insane.

Qvadriga is a very fun little game and can even prove to be a bit challenging. However the game play does get a bit repetitive as the racing part of it is really all there is.
The price is a bit of a factor, I feel it is quite overpriced for what it is, at best this is a $10 game but realistically a $5 one.
The addition of multiplayer with leader boards would have made this game epic fun and more worth the price tag.
A bit more depth in the gameplay would have also been helpful too, such as having actual stables to train horses, riders etc. Really any game content outside of the racetrack would have been nice like using money to build your own mansion adding to your prestige level that would in turn attract more skillful riders, chariot builders things of that nature.
In the end it is pretty clear this is a tablet game converted to be played on pc, and the tablet version is exactly the same at a lower price so this gets a thumbs down.

I... am Judah Ben Hur.

Be wary, gamers. Qvadriga will suck you in. Once you start understanding the race mechanics and micromanaging of your teams, you'll find yourself looking up at the clock and realizing that you've played into the wee hours of the night.

Bed soon, but first, I have to deal with you, Masalla. You may conquer the land, you may slaughter the people. But this is not the end. We will rise again.

I bought this game direct from the publisher before it was made available on Steam and lately I have transferred my license to Steam. This game is based very much on an old Roman chariot racing boardgame called Circus Maximus where you have to design your team and you then do a single race or a series of races. But this game adds more to that premise.

For one thing the game introduces factions which all have their own concentrations, some build quality chariots, some have the best drivers other have tha fastest horses, there are quite a few of these traits that are introduced in the game which makes choosing your faction quite intriguing.

Another thing the game adds is random events at the start of each race which might affect just you/someone else or everyone equally. For example you miught be prevented from whipping for the whole race which will penalise horse teams where endurance is high but speed is not. Also you might ahve a race where all the old wreackage is still on the track from the previous race making it far more deadly. Or you can be forced to start from a certain lane or have a rival in a race. These add loads of variety to each race.

It also introduces faction leaders and leaderboards where each faction leader is ranked. You may make it you strategy to assassinate your faction leader in order to get your own best driver on the leaderboard adding extra strategy to the already packed with excitement races.

You get many different authentic Roman and non-Roman race circuits from basic ones where you start off, up to the Circus Maximus, where you have to win three times to complete the game.

As for the races themselves these follow the boardgame quite closely in that you can whip horses to make them go faster for a short time but this can damage them, you can try to whip other adjacent drivers or ram them or their horses, you can get damaged travelling over wreckage, you can be dragged and trampled to death etc etc. Its all very very Ben Hur in the most ruthless way possible. Of course though there is also a racing game in here and you can just try to win races through skill and speed.

There is loads to enjoy in this game, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised when I played it as to how much variety, strategy, and fun there is in here. Its probably one of my top twenty most favourite games of all time actually, and definitely one of the best purchases I have made over the last few years of gaming.

Definitely recommended.