Ben Hur - Blood of Braves
Ben Hur - Blood of Braves is a PlayStation 2 racing game released in 2003 developed by Microids. It centers on driving and route control, vehicle control, and route judgment, with controls and information arranged around the DualShock 2 twin analog sticks, directional pad, shoulder and face buttons, with a dedicated peripheral only where explicitly required.
- AI score · out of 10
- 6.7 / 10
About this game
Ben Hur - Blood of Braves is a PlayStation 2 racing game centered on driving and route control, vehicle control, and route judgment. Tracks raise pressure through corners, rivals, and time targets, with progress divided into stages, tasks, matches, or growth milestones that make immediate goals understandable. Its value depends on whether these rules continue to create judgment and room for mastery rather than on length, sales, or series recognition. Short campaigns are judged by repeat-challenge value, while longer ones are judged by variety, pacing, and recovery after failure. Speed, track boundaries, and vehicle feedback determine driving readability, while 3D scenes, streamed data, cinematics, surround audio, and interlaced television output need to preserve action and state readability together. The genre-specific limitation is that visibility, collisions, steering precision, wheel support, or loading can limit consistency. Platform conditions also include DVD loading, the 8MB Memory Card, analog sticks and pressure-sensitive buttons, Multitap, Network Adapter, dedicated peripherals, and retired online services affect present-day use. This description covers only this platform release and does not import features or conveniences from remasters, emulators, or other console editions.
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PlayStation 2
AI review
AI reviews are subjective assessments, not player ratings. See each review for its evidence and limitations.Published date:
Chariot-racing spectacle held back by awkward fighting.
Ben-Hur: Blood of Braves has a strong hook: ancient chariot racing punctuated by weapons and spells. Its PlayStation 2 steering is easy to understand, and races through settings inspired by Greece, Rome and Egypt benefit from lighting, weather and suitably period-flavored music. Career mode lets players configure a chariot, choose arms and buy spells associated with a chosen god. Training, Arcade, Time Attack, Death Match and multiplayer expand the ways to use that equipment, so the package is not short of modes. Its crucial weakness is the close combat. A contemporary PS2 review describes weapon attacks as clumsy and limited, and selecting spells while moving quickly can be fiddly. That gap between grand presentation and awkward contact play persists across the modes. The same review reports smooth running on its tested PS2 version, a historical observation rather than a claim about every modern setup. Players fascinated by chariot games may enjoy the spectacle, but this is not finely tuned racing combat.
Strengths
- Ancient locations, weather and music create atmosphere.
- Several modes and Career equipment provide options.
Weaknesses
- Close-range attacks are clumsy and limited.
- Spell selection distracts from racing at speed.
Who it is for: Players intrigued by ancient chariots and tolerant of rough combat.
Play notes: This is the original PS2 release; smoothness is reported by a period review, not newly tested.
View scoring basis
| Dimension | Review state | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimension Training, Career, Time Attack and multiplayer add longevity, with equipment choices, but weak combat follows every mode. | Reviewed | 6.8 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Chariot racing and spells make a distinctive premise, but clumsy close-range attacks blunt the action. | Reviewed | 5.9 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Greek, Roman and Egyptian venues, weather effects and period-flavored music sell the spectacle. | Reviewed | 8.0 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Analog steering is straightforward and the contemporary PS2 review reports smooth play, though spell selection at speed is fiddly. | Reviewed | 6.8 / 10 | Not provided |
Review sources
Not provided
Core information
- Developer
- Microids
- Publisher
- Microids
- Release date
- 2003
- Platforms
- PlayStation 2
- Content kind
- Game
- Release state
- Released
- Region
- Worldwide
- Official website
- Not provided
- Offline minimum players
- Not provided
- Offline maximum players
- Not provided
- Online minimum players
- Not provided
- Online maximum players
- Not provided
- Categories
- Racing · Primary genre
- Tags
- Fast-pacedDriving and RacingThird PersonPick-up and PlayReplayablePlayer versus PlayerMain Story Under 10 HoursSolo-friendlyDodgeFantasyShort Sessions
- Supported game languages
- Not provided
- Requires base game
- Not provided
- Standalone
- Not provided
- Age ratings
- Not provided
- Play modes
- MultiplayerSingle player
- Perspectives
- Third person
Release editions
- PlayStation 2Worldwide2003
Game gallery
Sources
Not provided