 Overview
Crusader: No Remorse, from Origin, is a
"one-man-against-the-world" action-adventure game. You, the story's main
character (naturally), are an agent of the Resistance -- the group vowing to bring to
its knees the WEC, or World Economic Consortium. You'll do this the old-fashioned
way -- you'll run around, kill whoever crosses your path, and blow up a bunch of stuff.
Along the way, you must further the cause of the Resistance not only by demolishing WEC
facilities, but by rescuing fallen comrades and gathering confidential information. There
is also a Resistance traitor in your midst that must be found. But don't worry, you don't
have to pay attention to the story to win. The story, conveyed via mission objectives,
character interaction and video clips, is really only a backdrop to the action. In Crusader,
therefore, to kill is to win.
Graphics
Crusader has a great look. The isometric overhead view
is a nice break from the first-person Doom-like interface that is so popular
nowadays, but it did take a little getting used to, especially the first time you tried
moving your guy around obstacles. There are several nice graphical touches in the game ...
spinning fans, lights and cameras that you can shoot out, rolling barrels, pipes that
spray toxic steam, etc. Bad guys realistically scream like the pigs they are and fall over
when they die. The colors are well chosen, with the Silencer (that's you) showcased in an
easy-to-see shade of red, while most of the backdrop is in earth tones.
The video clips carry the lion's share of the plot work, and
though they are sometimes distracting when you just feel like wasting some dudes, they
often provide information that is critical to your mission. You could ignore them, but
your success would be much harder to come by. The best video of them all is the opening
scene to the game, where from a rat's view, you get to see some Resistance troops getting
wasted by a robot, which in turn gets blown up by a grenade one of the soldiers was
carrying ... nice.
 Audio
The music in Crusader is quite well
done. On each mission, a new type of music prevails (for instance, on the second mission,
a surprising solo guitar accompanies much of the action). This music contrasted well with
the backbeat used in the first mission. The sound effects are also effective (pun
intended); especially memorable among them are the screams of dying WEC troops, the
indignant engineers' "Hey, you're not supposed to be in here," and the numerous
and varying explosions in the game. The audio portion of the videos often was poorly
synchronized with the video, but I'm not sure if that was a glitch with my system or a
defect in the game.
Setup/Documentation/Interface
Game setup for Crusader is a snap. It only took about 5
minutes to get through the installation process. There were two related issues that were
somewhat questionable, though. The minimum installation required 30 MB of hard drive
space. Also, the swap file creation upon loading the game takes about 5 minutes, a
frustrating period to wait when you've got an itchy trigger finger.
I was very impressed with Crusader's documentation.
There were three manuals included, one being the player's reference and the other two
literature on the story background. The latter two were nice to read through once, just to
get a feel for the storyline. The player's reference often came in handy, with detailed
descriptions and color pictures of all game objects, along with helpful suggestions on how
to manipulate them.
The interface itself is fairly well designed. The keyboard
controls were a bit tough to get used to, though play with the mouse is also possible. As
I mentioned, the viewpoint is refreshing, and it helps to single out Crusader as
a unique gaming experience. One of the most interesting and useful features is the
"Weasel," a fellow Resistance officer from whom you can buy weapons and such,
using credits taken from the corpses of vanquished foes (all right!). This makes killing
more profitable, and is a more realistic and fun way to get weapons than the old Doom
tactic of stumbling upon them.
System Requirements
486 DX/66, 8 MB RAM, SVGA video card, 2X CD-ROM drive, DOS 5.0 or higher
 Bottom
Line
Crusader: No Remorse provided many hours of enjoyable
gaming, especially once you got used to the controls and the overhead viewpoint. Overall,
I would recommend it for action gamers who want a break from the Doom look-alikes
that dominate the market. Unfortunately, Crusader doesn't support head-to-head
play; that could be a consideration for some of you, and it does affect my rating
slightly. Still, Crusader: No Remorse has earned a score of 80 from this reviewer
as one of the better action games of the year. Watch for the sequel, coming soon from
Origin, called Crusader: No Regret.
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