Following the track record of the these types of titles thus far, more times than not, games that are released based on movies, comics, bands - basically any other form of entertainment - do not turn out well in game form. As it would seem, however, despite efforts to avoid such a fate, it seems that KISS Psycho Circus has unfortunately fallen prey to this myth of the gaming industry, though not quite to the extent that others have.

Third Law Interactive actually came up with a rather cool way to incorporate the band by using the basic plot and settings of the KISS Psycho Circus comic book. The four members of the band Wicked Jester arrive at the beaten down location dubbed The Coventry, only to discover that for some reason there are no crowds, lights, posters - in fact, the place is entirely deserted. Confused, a mysterious woman by the name of Madame Raven approaches the band. She explains that everyone is at the circus, and offers them tickets. Reluctantly, the four agree, but the moment they touch the tickets they're whisked away to an eerie world where Madame Raven states that the not only the fate of themselves, but the fate of the world, rests upon the choices they make.

When the first screen shots of KISS Psycho Circus were released, there was one idea that was obvious: Third Law was designing the title to be fast paced with a flurry of enemies flying at the player in enormous numbers all at once. It seemed that having so many characters on-screen without the frame rate dropping immensely would be an impossible task, but Third Law has been able to modify the LithTech engine to do exactly what they have wanted. This has resulted in times when there are ten plus enemies all shooting projectiles and scratching at you at once. It can actually be quite a rush; it can easily become extremely hectic at times. To my disappointment, however, I found that despite my efforts to round up as many enemies on-screen as possible, I was never able to achieve the same number that I had seen in screen shots. Don't let that dull the effect, though; the amount is still staggering when compared to other first person shooters.

As was already mentioned, it is obvious that much time was spent making sure that the game is fast paced and frantic. The problem, however, is that the game simply doesn't have that "fun factor" that the more popular games in the genre have. It's hard to put a finger on what the actual problem is; no matter how much I played the game - via single player or deathmatch - I was not having that much fun. Maybe it is because KISS Psycho Circus strives to emulate the DOOM style of gameplay - except that the genre has moved past that. First person shooters have evolved to allow for more complexity, and while no-brainer quick shooting can be fun, it was shown through Ion Storm's Daikatana (which attempted to the same thing) that we have mostly moved past that shallow style of gameplay; it simply is not that entertaining anymore.

In order to get the number of character on-screen at once to such a high point, it seems that sacrifices had to then be made in the environmental and architectural departments; KISS Psycho Circus fails to impress in either of those areas. Most of the game seems way to drab, dark and there were no real moments where I felt inspired to sit and look at the scenery and take in the visual awe of it. As fast of a frame rate as the LithTech engine from Monolith might be able to pump out, if this is an indication of its overall power, it certainly will not be able to stand up to Epic Games and id Software's ultimately more popular Unreal Tournament and Quake III: Arena engines. And while gameplay can make up for visual shortcomings many times, KISS Psycho Circus is unable to stack up in both areas and does much to hurt the overall quality of the product.

Examining the other pieces of KISS Psycho Circus, it all comes out as fairly average. The weapons are basically the same arsenal that we have seen before (though there are some exceptions; Third Law did incorporate a couple interesting pieces) except with a new coat of paint. All things considered, for a first outing from Third Law, KISS Psycho Circus isn't terrible. With time, the developer should be able to refine their talents and their second offering should be much better. As it stands, however, all we have is a decently average first person shooter amidst an entire crowd of decently average first person shooters.