Point of the situation
A brief sum of what was said in the previous episode: Crusaders is a rather classic RTS, which is more reminiscent of Ground Control mechanics than those of the good old Age of Empires, seasoned with interesting role-playing elements.
Your game will begin with having to choose which leader to play, between a pool that goes from a fictional Roger of Hastings, up to Roberto of Naples, passing through the various Lothar, Goffredo, Pietro Luigi and Pierpaolo di Terni (no, this does not exist for fortune).
your game will begin with having to choose which leader to impersonate, between a pool that goes from a fictional Ruggero of Hastings, up to Roberto of Naples, passing through the various Lothar, Goffredo, Pietro Luigi and Pierpaolo di Terni
Point of the situation
The choice will not be an end in itself, but it will bring precise bonuses and penalties that will follow you for the entire campaign: by opting for a Hero you can obtain significant advantages from a military point of view, perhaps being able to deploy heavy troops from the beginning of the game or you can count on fast riders, but you will have to deal with the disadvantages that this choice could bring from an economic or religious point of view.
The game mechanics are not limited to mere fighting, they will also require a lot of micro-management work when you and your soldiers return to the camp.
Strategia
The management aspect of Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come it will take place between one battle and another: you will have the task of administering not only which troops to recruit, but also their training, skill points acquired and any appointments of captains.
All of this, of course, will require the investment of a lot of hard cash: coin that you can acquire by successfully completing the primary objective of your missions, but also by carrying out a whole series of secondary quests assigned by the other factions participating in the great crusade (we refer you to in the box on the side for more information).
The reward will not only be vile money, but also reputation points, which you can use to get favors from allied factions and tasty bonuses, and faith points, a real innovation of this new Hungarian game.
Faith, used many, too many times to justify bloody massacres, in this innocent title will have the function of guaranteeing your troops indispensable bonuses to face the angry Turks and to guarantee your troops the indispensable resistance to the fatigue that crossing a fiery desert brings. : it will be only the religious fury to give the soldiers the vigor (another parameter to consider) necessary to avoid succumbing to the first assault. As the most experienced players will know, it is tremendously risky to tire your troops by making them run from one side of the map to the other: if the value of vigor (identified by a colored dot) becomes a shade tending to red, be prepared to suffer large losses. , even against opponents much weaker than your units.
Tactics
Comment
We must not fall into the error of considering Crusaders as a clone of Medieval 2; it is, in reality, a title that boasts excellent graphics and very valid game mechanics, especially because the classic mission structure is lightened and enriched by the possibility of dedicating oneself to the management of one's troops.
However, the game is plagued by some problems: the first is given by the heaviness of the engine, which while offering truly exceptional views and battles, limits itself to generating a maximum of 30 frames per second, leaving you dangerously at the mercy of collapses in fluidity.
Another criticism is given by the repetition: the alternation between missions and management is very fun, the variety of objectives and situations too, but in the long run it can lead to boredom, despite the over 40 missions available.
For the rest, Crusaders is an extremely enjoyable game, which will cheer this March not too rich in RTS also thanks to its reduced selling price.
For
- Outstanding graphics
- Different from the usual RTS
- Varied in gameplay
- Heavy even on high-performance PCs
- All aesthetically identical units
- In the long run it can be boring
The Quests
If you think that the objectives are simple "destroy the enemy", "defeat all enemy units" you are wrong: you will often have to defend villages, exploit the darkness for stealth operations, free prisoners, assassinate enemies and, of course, conquer cities.
In short, a fairly faithful reconstruction of the First Crusade, despite being in front of some welcome license: the plate armor was invented many years later, for example.
Poetic licenses, but which make their appearance dirty thanks to the splendid graphics.
Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come is available for PC.
System requirements
Minimum requirements
- Processore: Pentium 4 2.5 GHz o AMD 2800+
- RAM: 1 GB
- Video Card: Direct 3D compatible with 128 MB and PS 2.0
- Disk space: 6 GB
- Processore: Intel Dual Core o AMD Phenomen
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video Card: Direct 3D compatible with 256 MB and PS 3.0
- Processor: Intel Core Duo E6700 at 2.7 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video Card: NVIDIA 8800 GTX
- Sistema Operativo: Windows Vista Ultimate
Last month we left you with a substantial excursus on this title developed by the newborn Neocore Games and their first title Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come. The watering, made us rise in the mouth by the good Santicchia with its preview, accompanied us until the end of March, when we had the opportunity to try the final version of the interesting RTS.
Will the promises of press releases be kept?
