Crusader: No Remorse™

Finished the game for the FIRST time in my life just a couple of minutes ago. The game aged pretty good for my liking - it is still a great isometric mission-based sandbox about professional killer, doing his job against some bad guys somewhere in the future. The worst things in the game: camera positioning and controls will take some time to get used to (like 20-30 minutes). If you can get through this you are going to play one hell of a game! btw - Loved the final boss - real smart, just like the rest of the game!

Seems fun and I like the music and style. The graphics are still good and the cheesy movies are great. However....the gameplay isn't worth bothering with. These are some clunky controls. Overly complex, obtuse, and just downright bad. It makes a Resident Evil 1 character look like a graceful ballerina or springy kungfu master. Terrible! I tried so hard to like this game. I changed DOSBOX, I set up an xpadder profile, I tried everything. Sadly I just can't be bothered because better games await! Though I'd love a remake in a better engine. And yes. This review is exactly the same for both games in the series.

Crusader is both infuriating and satisifying at the same time. Running around and creativly killing everything that moves never seems to get old, and the missions/levels are nicely varied in both challenge and pace. Considering the wall to wall violence, the story isnt half bad either, and the little FMV cutscenes both in mission and at the hub world add a nice bit of atmosphere. Visually, the game suprisingly holds up really well, and the Pagan engine (whilst dated) does the job excedingly well. There are however a few negatives, firstly the controls. The game can be played with keyboard, or a keyboard/mouse combo, and I feel both are clunky and make things a lot more difficult than they need to be. I would recommend using a program that binds the keys to a joypad, doing this may the whole thing far easier to control. Secondly, jumping puzzles. Whilst few and far between the jumping mechanics (just like in Ultima 8) can end up in some stupid deaths. Overall, a solid game that I would easily recommend.

This is a review by someone who played this game for the first time in 2020. Crusader: No Remorse establishes its setting extremely well, both with its in-game art and movie sequences (which feature really memorable actors, in my opinion), as well as the supplemental reading that comes with the game (the resistance manual, newspaper, etc). In one word, the setting and the story is COOL, even if it isn't groundbreaking in any way. You play as a COOL character, you fight against COOL enemies, and you work with COOL characters. It's just... Cool. The gameplay does not fare so badly either. The best method of control for me was the numpad, and it was smooth sailing once I got used to the controls. At first, the game will be very exciting to play, but there just isn't enough meat on the bones to keep it exciting for long. Every mission works the same way: Shoot everything, find keycards, progress. If it wasn't for the story sequences you would have no motivation to keep going. As such, I wasn't able to stomach more than one, maybe two missions at a time - I just needed a break from the monotonous gameplay. Still, each mission feels like it has a purpose, so you keep playing to see what happens next. I beat the game on the Weekend Warrior difficulty which was mostly easy until the very end. It took me almost 13 hours to beat the game, so you're looking at a lot of bang for your buck if you decide to play the game. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good computer game that focuses primarily on sucking you into its world, even if that means that the gameplay, while completely adequate, becomes monotonous pretty quickly.

Crusader: No Remorse is a spectacular game in the literal sense of the word. As you hose down a room with your PG-22 assault rifle computers will explode, crates will become punctured and, of course, everyone in the room will be turned to mince meat. If you enjoy action games you will find something to like, or love, in No Remorse. For those who wish to have a more tactical experience I would recommend playing on the higher difficulties. They are such that you will have to carefully think about how to clear each room and take the least amount of damage. Here's a bonus tip for you - if you drop a gun (CTRL + D) then pick it up again the magazine will magically be refilled :) All in all, this is a 90s action classic that you don't need nostalgia-goggles to enjoy. If you've never played it before today it the perfect day to change that.