Crusader: No Remorse

User Rating: 7 | Crusader: No Remorse PC

I must admit that when I first saw it, I was a bit troubled. While the game looked great and the gameplay seemed solid, the controls were as complicated as a flight sim. It turned out that the graphics are indeed top-notch, the game does play well and you don't use half of the controls.In the game you control a renegade Silencer, an elite enforcer of the World Economic Consortium, who realizes that he works for a bunch of sleaze-balls. After this epiphane, you join "the resistance" in order to strike back at your former employers.

The gameplay is simple: explore an isometric environment while killing gaurds and collecting ammo to kill more guards. Just about everything in the game explodes, so the temptation is to waste time blowing things up. Each level has an objective, such as blowing up a generator or getting top secret info, but no special measures need to be taken in order to achive these goals. Just by wandering around and destroying everything you end up finishing the level.

Control is, at first, ludicrous. Because the game was ported from the PC, each button does four different things depending on which way you press the D-pad. Up and X is jump, left and square is roll left, right and triangle is strafe right. If you had to remember all of the things, the game would suck. Luckily you don't, and it doesn't.

On-screen control is a bit troublesome as well. You can't run and shoot at the same time. Come on! I find it hard to believe that the elite warriors of the future can't walk and pull a trigger simultaneously. It is also easy to lose yourself in the isometric environment or get lodged into a corner or just run into something, like a civilian, and find yourself stuck. In most instances (including the civilian) the best course of action is to blow up the offending obstacle and continue.

Overall, though, the game is a winner. There's enough exploration/strategy to make the game interesting and enough stuff to destroy to make it entertaining.