Ben-Hur Review

Ben-Hur is a free chariot racing game based on the movie of the same name.



In Ben-Hur, you play as Charlton Heston, a man who has a need for speed on the chariot track but doesn't want any stinking paws on him. This game is simple enough, be the first to cross the finish line. You can do that by beating your opponents around the track or by beating them with your chariot. You also have a whip that you can use on your opponents horses when they get close to you, the whip also has a great sound when you crack it.

The game is very easy, I earned a third of the available achievements in my very first race and was able to win the season on my first try. I had a bit of trouble getting the achievement for destroying all your opponents in each race in a season. You need to make sure that it's you that destroyed the opponent and not someone else. When someone is taken out a small screen will show the crash and you need to make sure the yellow arrow, that indicates who took out the chariot, is pointing at you. If you don't have the yellow arrow pointing to you then you'll have to kill yourself and try the race again. Total time to get all of the achievements took me between one and two hours.

The only mode available in the game is season which consists of three races; the first being two laps, the second three laps and the third race consists of four laps. You'll be up against five racers who are all generic, no names or numbers to tell them apart.

You have two bars on the top left of the screen. The one on the top is your chariots health and when it's all gone it's game over and you go flying. As you race you'll see green health orbs that can refill your health. The second bar is for your boost, hitting it makes your horses run faster when the bar is empty it will start to refill on its own. There is no leveling up or upgrades.

The graphics are just OK, looking like an early to mid released Xbox 360 game, less Skyrim and more Oblivion. The sound effects are pretty good, especially the whip. The music is also fine, I liked the music that played when you are killed. Probably the best thing about this game is when you crash, the chariot flies into a million pieces, your horses scatter and you go flying.

Two things about this game surprised me. First being that this is a free game and has no in-game purchases. The second is that there is no multiplayer either online or split screen.

The racing in this game is nothing to write home about. You'll either take the ten minutes to beat the "season" and call it a day or continue on to get all the achievements. Overall this is a boring racing game based upon a bad movie but as they say, you get what you pay for. I give Ben-Hur a 4 out of 10.

but lost the war.