Cursed Crusade is a 3rd person hack and slash taking place during the Fourth Crusade in history and follows a story of Denz, a templar who set out to find his father who hasn't returned from a previous crusade, and Esteban, a mercenary who is always after gold but gets mixed up in the crusades and becomes Denz' best friend.
The game spans a few dozen of missions in various locations ofCursed Crusade is a 3rd person hack and slash taking place during the Fourth Crusade in history and follows a story of Denz, a templar who set out to find his father who hasn't returned from a previous crusade, and Esteban, a mercenary who is always after gold but gets mixed up in the crusades and becomes Denz' best friend.
The game spans a few dozen of missions in various locations of the world. The missions for the most part just require you to participate in sieges and battles, and are mostly combat-oriented. Some of the battle scenes are executed really well and feel epic in my opinion. A few of the missions here and there do something different, like have a boss fight or find yourself in a nightmare where you learn new powers.
To me the best part of the game is the combat. It's fun, rich, and visceral. You can choose to use any weapon combination ranging from maces, to axes, swords, and even spears. You can use a weapon as stand alone, or you can dual wield, or wield it with a shield. There are some two-handed weapons too. Each weapon stance has its own unique moves and unique executions. In addition, weapons can break during combat, so you often have to change what you use as you pick up new stuff from fallen enemies. Sometimes this mechanic can be a tad annoying, but it makes sense in the context of the game and at least encourages you to try out new weapon combinations.
You learn new moves and improve your attributes after completing missions. At the end of each mission you earn Victory Points. There's a default amount for each mission, but many also can grant you bonus points if you've done secondary objectives such as found all the coffers or purified a crucifix.
The combat also features a curse mode. When the player enters curse mode, the environment around them turns all fiery akin to hell, they become stronger and fight more effectively, they can use fire spells, and they also find weakspots in walls and other structures, which they can smash to make a new doorway.
Admittedly the game is heavily combat-focused. So if you're expecting platforming or other types of gameplay, you won't find them here, aside from occasional first person shooting with a crossbow. I don't personally mind this too much, as platforming wouldn't make sense in this game. Another thing worth mentioning is that the game is very heavy on cutscenes, some of which can be lengthy.
The story felt so-so. It starts off on a promising note with some good chemistry between the two main protagonists who quickly become best friends, and the antagonist seeming very charismatic and perhaps even noble to a degree, but in the second half the story starts going vastly downhill. The plot feels very unfocused, with no build up to climax. Just very random events happening. The antagonist becomes a 2-dimensional cartoon villain who wants evil for the sake of evil. And the ending does not resolve anything at all and feels very abrupt, as though the story was cut at a midpoint.
Overall the game is definitely worth trying out. I think most of the critic reviews are way too harsh on it and the game is not as bad as most of them make it out to be. Sure, it has some strange hiccups here and there, like the annoying quick-time event in the very first mission where you have to escape Death (honestly, don't give up on the game at this point; this part is the hardest part of the game if I am honest). But in general I can't deny that I've had fun playing it and I think anyone who is up for a nice story-driven hack and slash should enjoy it.
A couple of last notes:
1) The game can also be played co-op with a friend. I've not tried it myself, but since the two main protagonists are always together, I believe the game was made with co-op aspect in mind from the very start.
2) I would highly advise to play with a gamepad, as the controls for it seem much better and more intuitive than with M&K.… Expand
The Cursed CrusadeYour Score0 out of 10User Score
