Hard Boiled Cop
03-02-2004, 01:47 PM
At first glance, the action is reminiscent of Koei's Dynasty Warriors: You pick one of four heroes, two on each side of the war between light and dark, and proceed to hack and slash your way through a crowded fantasy melee. That's only the first level, though. Underneath the hand-to-hand combat are layers of strategy as you build an army with different talents and direct its movements around the expansive battlefields. On that level, Crusaders resembles another Koei production, Kessen, with streamlined army management off the battlefield and fast-moving real-time strategy during combat.
Outside combat, the logistics and command interface are presented as a 3D castle town. You can move around town or head to another one, building up the powers of the hero and his army, buying new combos and special attacks for heroes, and hiring new troops to broaden the army's strengths. More than 30 units are available in total, including infantry, siege weapons, and flying units such as griffons and blimps. You can buy units with an eye toward enhancing particular areas of the army's capabilities and develop them with the same intentions in mind. As units gain experience, their abilities increase, and some can move forward along different paths. A unit of infantry can evolve into a fast and mobile cavalry squad or specialize as a slow and powerful mortar team.
Once you join a battle, you act on two levels. On the immediate level of your hero's engagement, it's straight-up action between the unit and whatever foes it's facing. There's not a lot to control here besides the individual hero and the two supporting heroes, who can deliver a special attack when their power meters fill. At any time, however, you can swap to a map showing the entire battlefield, adding a more traditional RTS overlay to the 3D action. On the field map, you command subordinate units with which the hero isn't directly involved, sending them into engagements with other enemy units or using them to launch supporting attacks.
Artillery and other ranged troops are useful in this kind of role. You can keep them back from the fray, where opposing infantry would take them apart, and bring them in to destroy vulnerable enemy units or for specialized purposes--say, for when archers are needed to kill aerial units. Shifting terrain can affect this kind of strategy, though; it's a good idea to protect a unit of archers under cover, perhaps hidden in a forest. (This could prove difficult, however, if the opposition sends in fire arrows or mortar barrages to burn down the trees.) Other features of the environment can have different effects, including weather and the day/night cycle (some troops might fight more effectively at night).
Crusaders holds more strategy than the average action game, and the action that a slow-paced strategy game needs in order to mix things up. Its action and strategy components mesh well, though controlling the army on the macro level necessarily requires abandoning the micro level. The A.I. is strong enough to handle things in the absence of direct involvement and to protect a hero in the midst of micromanagement. In theory, it seems all the unit management would jarringly interrupt the action, but in practice, it offers a pleasantly cerebral leavening to what could otherwise be a monotonous hack-fest. The large-scale unit control handily compresses the dead time between engagements that bogs down Dynasty Warriors.
Crusaders still has a way to go in some areas, such as sprucing up its background graphics (although the clashes between armies already look suitably impressive) and solidifying the structure of its army management system. It's made a very promising beginning so far, however, and the rest of 2003 should provide ample time to ready it for the war-torn holiday gaming season.
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen001.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen006.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen013.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen015.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen016.jpg
Outside combat, the logistics and command interface are presented as a 3D castle town. You can move around town or head to another one, building up the powers of the hero and his army, buying new combos and special attacks for heroes, and hiring new troops to broaden the army's strengths. More than 30 units are available in total, including infantry, siege weapons, and flying units such as griffons and blimps. You can buy units with an eye toward enhancing particular areas of the army's capabilities and develop them with the same intentions in mind. As units gain experience, their abilities increase, and some can move forward along different paths. A unit of infantry can evolve into a fast and mobile cavalry squad or specialize as a slow and powerful mortar team.
Once you join a battle, you act on two levels. On the immediate level of your hero's engagement, it's straight-up action between the unit and whatever foes it's facing. There's not a lot to control here besides the individual hero and the two supporting heroes, who can deliver a special attack when their power meters fill. At any time, however, you can swap to a map showing the entire battlefield, adding a more traditional RTS overlay to the 3D action. On the field map, you command subordinate units with which the hero isn't directly involved, sending them into engagements with other enemy units or using them to launch supporting attacks.
Artillery and other ranged troops are useful in this kind of role. You can keep them back from the fray, where opposing infantry would take them apart, and bring them in to destroy vulnerable enemy units or for specialized purposes--say, for when archers are needed to kill aerial units. Shifting terrain can affect this kind of strategy, though; it's a good idea to protect a unit of archers under cover, perhaps hidden in a forest. (This could prove difficult, however, if the opposition sends in fire arrows or mortar barrages to burn down the trees.) Other features of the environment can have different effects, including weather and the day/night cycle (some troops might fight more effectively at night).
Crusaders holds more strategy than the average action game, and the action that a slow-paced strategy game needs in order to mix things up. Its action and strategy components mesh well, though controlling the army on the macro level necessarily requires abandoning the micro level. The A.I. is strong enough to handle things in the absence of direct involvement and to protect a hero in the midst of micromanagement. In theory, it seems all the unit management would jarringly interrupt the action, but in practice, it offers a pleasantly cerebral leavening to what could otherwise be a monotonous hack-fest. The large-scale unit control handily compresses the dead time between engagements that bogs down Dynasty Warriors.
Crusaders still has a way to go in some areas, such as sprucing up its background graphics (although the clashes between armies already look suitably impressive) and solidifying the structure of its army management system. It's made a very promising beginning so far, however, and the rest of 2003 should provide ample time to ready it for the war-torn holiday gaming season.
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen001.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen006.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen013.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen015.jpg
http://www.kuftc.com/images/screenshots/screen016.jpg