27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fun game with some minor flaws, December 20, 1999
This review is from: Crusaders of Might and Magic (CD-ROM)
Crusaders of Might and Magic is an action oriented role-playinggame (or is it a role-playing oriented action game? - I never cantell). In Crusaders you command Drake, a mercenary of sorts who gets caught up in a battle to save the world of Ardon from a horde of undead called the Legion of the Fallen. If you were expecting a deep story line, look somewhere else. What you will find in Crusaders, aside from some design and technical problems is a pretty fun game that is really enjoyable.
Lets start with the bad because thats the easiest. The graphics are pretty good, but nothing to write home about. The 3D engine is fairly decent but feels a little clunky sometimes (especially in the out-door areas).
There should have been more attention paid to design issues such as continuity and NPC interaction. NPCs are basically worthless in this game. You can kill them and they just come back later. NPCs that are critical to the story can't be killed at all but you can beat them until your heart is content. I even found that you can push some of them over the edge of a cliff and they just come right back because if they didn't you couldn't advance in the game.
Speaking of NPCs, the voice acting for this game is terrible. But since you'll most likely be killing the NPC for their gold, it really doesn't matter what they say.
The game play is fairly linear in that quests must be completed in a certain order. You judge whether this is a good or bad thing.
The back of the box mentions "large game level are joined by nine huge environments". While this is true, the extent of many of the environments (with the exception of the dungeon type) basically entail you running in one direction hacking everything in sight. While thats not so bad, the environments and the fights can get a little boring after a while and I found myself simply outrunning monsters just to get to my goal.
Now for the good. The graphics really aren't that bad, there just should have been more diversity in the environments (I got lost in the woods). As Drake, you get to wear many different types of armor and wield many different weapons. Each one of these changes you characters appearance which is pretty cool.
Although there aren't a whole lot of monsters, they all look pretty darn neat. Its just plain fun to bash some skeletons and see all their bones flying all over the place.
Speaking of bashing, this game has a lot of combat. Let me say that again... this game has A LOT OF COMBAT. Maybe thats why they call it Might and Magic. Combat is not too hard to master but its not as mindless as bashing your enemy until he drops. You've got to use your sheild to defend yourself. When thats not enough, you can seak out advantageous spots in the terrain from which you can dispatch your enemies.
Spells, yes, there are spells. Most of them are pretty cool and they are easy to pull off, which makes this game all the more fun. Its a blast to see a group of baddies off in the distance and hurl fireballs at them. However, judging by Drake's character, it doesn't seem like he should be using spells all that often.
To sum it all up, Crusaders isn't a ground-breaking game. Its doesn't really offer anything new in the way of role-playing or action. What it does offer is a pretty good time bashing bad guys and saving the world. Aside from the minor flaws I mentioned, Crusaders is a worth while game. It will be interesting to see what 3DO does with this series in the future.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A mediocre adventure/RPG, January 14, 2000
This review is from: Crusaders of Might and Magic (CD-ROM)
Being a big fan of the Might and Magic universe, I bought this game immediately. I must admit to being impressed initially, but the more I played the less I liked it.
The pros: Combat and movement controls are superb, inventory system is simple, spell effects are neat, graphics are fairly nice, very stable.
The bad: Running, running, running, running... restrictive environments (canyons, dungeons, etc), limited number of items/spells/monsters, terrible voice acting, some glitches in the graphics engine, short (20-30 hours of total gameplay), no replay value.
Bottom line: Unless you're a die-hard adventure gamer, wait until this one hits the bargain bin.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun But Uncomplete, July 9, 2000
This review is from: Crusaders of Might and Magic (CD-ROM)
If your experience with 3D games such as Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Quake 3, etc. you'll find gameplay fairly easy to master. Use the mouse to look around and the keyboard to move. The look of the game is very similar to Tomb Raider (your character even does backflips and sideflips, which is retarded because no one could do backflips while wearing heavy plate male).
The main problem about the game is the finale. At the begginning of the game you get a nice 3D video. Throughout the game the characters you encounter have audio speech. At the very end of the game you get an animated sequence with text (no audio). Plus the game really has no plot, it hardly ties in with the Might and Magic series except that it mentions the Mandate of Heaven. This can be explained because the game was created by 3DO (not thier sub company New World Computer) and the creator of the Might and Magic series (Jon Van Caneghem) did not help with the development of this title.
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