Back in the day, when I was around 14 we had a family pc. Among the games we had were Carmageddon and Crusader. As I am a girl (and therefore, a dodgy driver) I left Carmageddon to my bro's and went straight for Crusader. From the first time I played it I was hooked. Apart from the amazing tune in the save/load screen, the graphics were pretty awesome and the plot was interesting. I enjoyed the fact that you could destroy pretty much anything and the fact that you could receive advanced weapons early on by finding hidden rooms in certain levels, I found it particularly absorbing as you could tap into news reports and speak to the rebels to get a complete overview of the way the WEC would mangle information to their own ends.
Back in the day, when I was around 14 we had a family pc. Among the games we had were Carmageddon and Crusader. As I am a girl (and therefore, a dodgy driver) I left Carmageddon to my bro's and went straight for Crusader. From the first time I played it I was hooked. Apart from the amazing tune in the save/load screen, the graphics were pretty awesome and the plot was interesting. I enjoyed the fact that you could destroy pretty much anything and the fact that you could receive advanced weapons early on by finding hidden rooms in certain levels, I found it particularly absorbing as you could tap into news reports and speak to the rebels to get a complete overview
of the way the WEC would mangle information to their own ends.
On the office levels you could have a great time just smashing all the windows to hear the very realistic sound of breaking glass and view your path of destruction as you then retraced your steps. You pretty much got to kill anyone that crossed your path and teleporters were a go-go. The traps could be quite hard to spot ‘cause some were just tiny little blinks on the screen that you had to destroy before you walked through them and some of the robots were pretty savage but you could always beat them if you had enough ammo. You were also able to pick up shields and, as previously mentioned, the weapons got progressively more destructive along the way.
The controls too were pretty handy. You basically used the arrow keys and some of the letters to get along, and one of the most fun things to do when stuck was to have the crusader jump into a pool of, well if it was lava it was a bit mouldy let’s say. Always making sure you'd just saved. Otherwise it wasn't fun but just merely annoying.
You'd get around with the use of keycards which would open doors and allow you to gain access to other levels, and also by using computers and pushpads. But beware. Certain pushpads would then block you from you're previous position and it was quite frustrating to be walking around a level trying to work out how to get through, whilst making sure you had what you needed and hadn't blocked off your actual exit. Looking back I suppose it was a good exercise for your brain.
All in all, I'd thoroughly recommend Crusader as a game as it is an in-depth, well plotted classic arcade game, with superior graphics for its time. And let's not forget the kick-ass tune in the save/load screen!
