My Recent Hit List #1

I thought it'd be fun to do a series of little short reviews that have some kind of criteria. So let's take a quick look at the games that I had beaten most recently:


I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - a DOS adventure game by Cyberdreams, and a pretty damn good one. It's based on the famous short story by Harlan Ellison and revolves around five last survivors of the Apocalypse ignited by the powerful computer named AM. He constantly tortures and abuses them for 109 years, and then, out of boredom, creates a personal twisted adventure for each, unwillingly giving them a chance to... Despite some technical issues and the non-linear approach not being clever enough at times, it still interesting, playable, has excellent story, great characters and top-notch production value. Check it out, it's great! Of all the four endings, I've managed to unlock the absolute worst, absolute meh and the absolute best ones (only the one between the 'absolute worst' and 'absolute meh' I didn't encounter).


Contra: Hard Corps - a Genesis classic by Konami. What can I say about this game that hasn't been said? Four completely different characters, six (SIX!!!) endings, brutal gameplay, excellent graphics, the beyond memorable stages and bosses, and I just can't overfaint at Michiru Yamane's mind-blowing soundtrack. Beaten with all six ending, using all of the cast at one point or another. Counting the nostalgia value, it may be my most favorite games on the Genny (excluding the nostalgia, it would be second to Gunstar Heroes - not bad either way!).


Tyrian - a formerly DOS shmup by Eclipse and Epic Games. This was a funny one to beat. I've started on OpenTyrian for PSP, then the battery got discharged, so I transferred the savegame to the Linux version, reaching the end of Episode 4. And then I used the same save on the DOS version of Tyrian 2000 to beat the fifth episode! It's easily the best PC 2D shooter with surprisingly elaborate storyline, nice humor here and there, incredible pixel art and the music done by none other than Alexander Brandon. Plus, you can legally download it for free and play on your favorite system!


Crusader: No Remorse - a DOS action-adventure by Origin Systems, though I've beaten the PS1 version. Here's my detailed review: Click here.


Alert Terrorist - an Android shooter by CWA. This is a very simple and repetitive game - just tap the living fuck out of everyone on the screen - but surprisingly it gets real challenging at times, even sometimes making you think about what you're doing and tap your way to victory the right way. If you have 10-20 minutes to waste at some point of time, it's a decent time killer worth checking out.

The Cyberpunk Week, Day 1: Nemesis [1992] (sci-fi, action, thriller, obviously cyberpunk)

Studio: Imperial Entertainment,
Director: Albert Pyun,
Screenplay: Rebecca Charles,
Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Thriller, Cyberpunk,
Starring: Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Merle Kennedy, Yuji Okumoto

Let's start the Cyberpunk Week with something obscure, but good. I've learned about Nemesis in the infamous 'Video-ASU' magazine (no, I won't call it 'Video-ASS', no matter how hard you ask) circa 1993, maybe. There was an article about Olivier Gruner, just back in the times when he was a promising action star. Just like the review you're reading now, there was a poster above the text that instantly reminded me of good old Deus Ex. Besides, I'm a real cyberpunk diehard, so I knew I had to see this. Thank God, it looked like someone employed at our local TV has heard my pleadings, so I checked this movie out and rightfully filed it under the 'most badass action B-movies' category.


Welcome to the Uncanny Valley, sucker!
While on one of my regular nostalgic surges, I watched it again a few months ago, well after seeing all the other genre classics such as Blade Runner, 13th Floor, Tron, etc., and fancy that, it still was as watchable and fun as those few millions of years ago when I was a little kid! Usually, the sci-fi B-movie directors (including A. Pyun himself, who was responsible for other cybertrashy classics such as Cyborg featuring J.C. Van Damme) don't pay much attention to the ideas and ideology of their movies, mostly focusing on violence, visuals and tits, even if the movie is supposed to be taken as true hardcore cyberpunk. Well, Nemesis does have enough violence and tits, but at the same time it manages to follow all the necessary canons to not be classified as simple sci-fi.


Oh, hi Molly!
The plot revolves around a cop named Alex, whose primary job is tracking and assassination of cyber-terrorists (oh, hi Blade Runner!), meanwhile turning into a cyborg himself due to the prosthetic implants in his body. During one of the regular assignments, he suddenly gets his augmented ass handed to him by a gang of rebellious cyborgs fighting against the government. The mission proves to be such a disaster that Alex gets retired and settles down in some random shithole village. Then, one day he's visited by his ex-girlfriend from the police who is asking him to come back to the force for some urgent stuff to accomplish. He refuses. Some flashy special effects later, the cops finally manage to convince him to work for them, so they send Alex to his presumably last mission - to recover a microchip that unlocks some very sensitive classified data maintained by the government, from a terrorist group. But once he arrives there, his sailing quickly stops being smooth.


Really quickly.
Despite sounding as corny as it all sounds so far, the movie still offers a series of classic cyberpunk questions: what's the difference between human(e) and machine? How different are the rights of 'real' humans as opposed to the ones who are cybernetically altered? Can a machine be able to fully replicate a human personality, and how can this can be used? None of these questions are answered directly, nor the movie follows the 'machines are evil' motto - after all, the main character himself is a partially automatic killer...


...who has a stupid mullet in this shot.
Olivier Gruner is actually pretty good in his role - he's a classic badass hero who doesn't speak much, but manages to say many things - it's all in the emotions, the suspicious look in his eyes, animal agility and grace; the traits that make the French actor a perfect candidate for his role of neo-Messiah. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is also great, as usual - he plays a sort of Yakuza Godfather, whose business decisions are always brutally calculative. All the female characters (and this movie has a lot of them) are consistently ranging from cute to hot, and the villains are just as ferocious beasts as the main guy, making them the perfect rivals.


Yay, they even rip off Johnny Mnemonic's melancholic virtual cocktease!
The action scenes - I'm not gonna lie here - are some of the best I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of action movies, you can be sure about that. The special effects are really neat too, for 1992 at least. My most favorite scenes are the opening shootout and the construction yard battle - when our hero is shooting the crap out of the bad guys with akimbo guns, there's even some kind of the 80-s John Woo flavour strongly felt throughout the entire flick, and that's no way a bad thing. The animatronic cyborg effects also deserve a mention, especially the stop-motion sequence at the end, obviously having something to do with the first Terminator.


Who needs an avatar? ...But the robot designs kick ass in this, in all seriousness.
So all in all, here's the resume: Nemesis is a solid action-packed sci-fi flick with decent acting, some kind of sense, intense plot, to-the-point dialogue and all in all a jam-packed treat to any old-school sci-fi/B-movie/cyberpunk fan. I recommend!

Top 15 Power Armors - 15 To 6

Alrighty, now let's chill out and just do something fun. I haven't posted any Top Ns for ages, so to fix things up, here you go. But what's that?! Yeah, this time it has unbelievably 15 positions! Bite that, Nostalgia Critic!

Today we're gonna talk about the Power Armors. It is a classic trope of sci-fi battle gear, with the roots growing from R. Heinlein's Starship Troopers novel and Games Workshop's Warhammer 40000 board game. Unlike the more traditional science fiction character designs, like Flash Gordon, or John Carter, or Captain Future, the power armors are massive, bulky and inconvenient, bordering the line of clothing and mecha. But at the same time, their massiveness and size give a serious boost to the threatening factor, and not to mention that some of these fatigues can be simply seen as works of visual art, aside of all pros and cons of their actual military capabilities. So, which criteria did I use here? Pretty much anything. Some of them have historic value, some are here mostly for aesthetics, some are worn by especially kick-ass characters, so it's less a traditional rating and more lie a simple list of what I consider to be the greatest power armor suits of all time.

So wear your over-the-top shoulder pads now, saddle up and lock-n-load!

15. The EXO Squad



Ahh, now that's a proper introduction! EXO Squad is an obscure-ish animated TV series from the US made in the 90s, that centers around an army squad participating in the mankind's war against the artificial race called the Neosapiens, all in a classis 90s space opera setting. It was a great show, obviously inspired by the wave of Japanese anime that has just started gaining enormous popularity in the US at the time. It had great animation, some drama, even a couple of romantic subplots, but the real spectacle was just to see these EXOskeletons blast the shit out of each other. The icing on a cake? Each character had his own unique model!


OK, I'll be lying if I say I didn't watch it for those killer female zerosuits. Don't look at me, it was my damn puberty!
14. Isaak Clarke (Dead Space)


Mr Clarke gets some serious bonus points for living in the future where something as simple and boring as a welder's uniform looks as badass as the military uniforms from all the other futures! Same goes for his tools - soldering iron is already a serious, yet melee, weapon in real life, but when it's heavy enough to bash the alien monsters' brains out and is most prominently used for dismembering them to make sure that these bastards never rise again - you got one hell of a maintenance worker!


Easy money, they said. Just a regular plumbing, they said. No ripping off Event Horizon, they said!
13. Silencer (Crusader)



You can read more about this guy and his game no further than here. Just to recap: he's a commando maintained by the futuristic megacorporation, the World Economic Consortium, that has turned against his masters in an act of protest and rebellion. He never speaks, but through his actions (for example, no penalty being for shooting the WEC civilians) we see a strong and determined person with a strong 'everyone is full of shit' attitude. And according to the box art, if you don't have the attitude, you don't have a chance. Oh, but you'd still better don't forget this Boba Fett's crimson power armor, you'll be safer that way.


Busty scientists? ...Yeah, I don't get it either.

12. Nomad (Crysis)


Though I am supposed to hate it for everything I hate in modern games, I actually like Crysis. It's a fast and fun shooter with addicting gameplay and several interesting features, one of which is the Nano-suit. You can channel its power several ways to increase your offense, defense, to become invisible, and so on. Not much to say about Nomad, a guy who wears it, since Crysis is predictably lacking when it comes to story, but hey, if a game had the best PC graphics at the time of its release, and the 'MAXIMUM STRENGTH!!!' signal has become an internet meme, there has got to be something good in it anyway, eh?


The editorial of Earth Under Lucifer Mk. II feels an immediate need to point out that Nomad's pose on the image above is exactly the same as Isaac Clarke's in the Dead Space paragraph. After summoning a meeting with all the staff responsible for the content verification and approval, it has been decided that this has to do something with the fact that both Dead Space and Crysis happen to be published by Electronic Arts. Whew.

11. Big Daddy (BioShock)



At this point in time, I believe that BioShock needs no introduction. It's one of the greatest first-person shooters that came in recent years - it has its style, it has a setting, it has a concept, and of course it has these creepy hulks wandering around the post-apocalyptic underwater city of Rapture. My favorite part is when they start punching the holes in walls and make their loud wailing cries - it looks just so heartbreaking, especially if you don't know why they do that (relax, I won't spoil it!). As for BioShock 2, it was more like a forgettable fan service game rather than a serious sequel, IMO. Why fan service? Because in the first game, I was and still am wondering - what the hell is actually underneath those overblown aqualungs? Well, turns out, this time no John, you are the Big Daddy! Just who can refuse to play a game where you have an arm drill? Arm drill!


Arm drill!
10. COG Gears (Gears Of War)


I fucking LOVE Gears Of War. I cannot do more justice to this series rather than say that it is one of the coolest, badassest, grittiest and downright most brutal third person shooter games ever! Mr Fenix has made an appearance in my Top 10 Video Game Gentlemen list, topping Kratos and Ryu Hayabusa. The characters are already as balls-to-the-wall as the space marines can get, but with those killer battle gears - in an Epic Games game, no less! (we'll see them again soon) - Fenix, Dom, Cole and Baird are one four-men army to destroy every alien who ever had balls to disturb the mankind on Sera or on any other planet.


Fan service? In my GoW?!

9. The Helghast (Killzone)


Abandoned and left for dead on the wretched human space colony of Helghan, mutated to adapt to its hazardous environment, armed up to their teeth and dangerous as hell, these guys take no prisoners. Their gas masks serve a practical purpose actually, but why do I get the feeling that these evil red eyes that stare into your sins from every Killzone cover are intentionally were designed to be that sinister? Just watch the intro to the first game, as they are all gathered in their ACVs with only one undoubted purpose - to come to Earth and destroy all resistance. Helghast don't fuck around. Even their weapons have much more threatening visual designs than the Terran firearms. And to be fair, I think that between all 4 games in the franchise, their uniforms became even cooler-looking each time! It's one thing when you make the main villain memorable, but the regular grunts? That's the power of the Power Armor.


Uhhh... sorry for sounding immature, but does the amount of silicon filler in this girl make her a better shielding than your whole friggin' suit?!
8. Miria (The Guardian Legend)


I have a feeling that the next time I'll say anything more about her, my fiancee will kick me. So, just cold hard facts: Scantily clad. Useless headset. Ability to transform into a space fighter. Enough strength to carry some huge arsenal. Was featured in the Top 10 Video Game Ladies.


Is Kusanagi her last name, BTW?
7. The Kerberos Police Unit (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade)


Once again, these guys have been featured very recently in my blog. Essentially, the Kerberos unit is the elite police force established in Japan of the 50s to keep the street riots and terrorist activity under control. You can definitely say that at the same time, they've become the daddies for Helghast, as those helms and brutally looking gas masks are almost identical. Though unlike the Killzone baddies, the Kerberos mostly consist of troubled psychologically scarred killing machines that manage to fail even at such simple things as having a girlfriend. But anyway, Jin Roh's Constable Fuse is an interesting character, and their fatigue is one hell of an example of memorable costume design.


Now that's something you won't expect from a Helghast to do.
6. Guyver (Bio Booster Armor Guyver)



To be honest, I've never watched much Guyver. I remember only seeing the anime ten-something years ago on TV, then one random clip on YouTube (being dubbed 'the greatest old-school anime scene ever'), and that's pretty much it. from what I can gather, Guyver is something akin to Marvel's Venom, only a good guy, and whatever the story is, it takes place in a dark dystopian cyberpunk world. During the 90s that was a guaranteed recipe for great anime, and there were even two live-action movies made in the US, one with Mark Hamill as the extra, and the second one where this guy(ver) was played by none other than David Hayter of all actors!


Ya, what he said.


Guyver! Guyver!! GUYVEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!11 T_T

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade [1999] (alternate history, psychological thriller, action, drama) - REVISITED

Studio: Production I.G,
Director: Hiroyuki Okiura,
Screenplay: Mamoru Oshii,
Genre: Alt. History, Psychological Thriller, Action, Drama

This is a masterpiece of anime. It is an extremely polished movie with lots of ladders, snakes and risks included, with no weaknesses, no yaoi/kawaii bullshit, no sugary cutesy cuteness. Based on Mamoru Oshii's manga Kerberos Saga, with the screenplay written by the man himself, and directed by his longtime pal Hiroyuki Okiura (who has also participated in making of the phenomenal Ghost In The Shell), it's grim and unsettling, filled with usual Oshii trademarks and style, such as slow, hypnotic pace, trams, brooding atmosphere and gritty art style. To put it simple, it's depressive as hell, but that's exactly why it is so powerful.


If the police force has to wear those things, then the world must've gone really down the shitter.

The movie starts off with an epic introduction to alternate-historical Japan of the 1950s after the Nazis winning WWII. The country is engulfed up to the neck in crime, riots and social decay. What began as a series of spontaneous terrorist acts has evolved into centralized underground network called The Sect. This gang specializes in expressing their anti-globalism by starting mass hysteria, blowing shit up and struggling with the police. Their trademark units are so-called Little Red Riding Hoods, basically underage girls with explosive bags. To control all this chaos and rebellion, an elite police unit was created, called Special Armed Garrison, AKA Kerberos (= Cerberus) Panzer Corps AKA The Wolf Brigade. Wearing heavy armor (this is where the Helghast from Killzone came from) and carrying their MG-42s, they rule the dying streets of Tokyo with the iron hand... quite literally.


That's why this movie is awesome!

The main plot begins during a regular Kerberos unit operation, which concludes in a suicide terrorist girl blowing herself up before the operatives' eyes in attempt to resist the arrest. One of the cops, Constable Kazuki Fuse ('foo-seh'), is our protagonist. He survives the explosion despite being at the minimum safe distance, but the accident carves a deep psychological trauma inside him. Also, this failure stains the already unclean reputation of Kerberos unit itself, because it was performed illegally without the city authorities' permission. The unit's superiors react quickly and start developing a complicated conspiracy to save the Panzer Corps, with Fuse featured in their plans as the scapegoat. Meanwhile the latter gets acquainted with Kei, the Little Red Riding Hood's sister, and this results in a romantic subplot. Don't want to give anything away, but the payoff and conclusion shatter all hopes for a better tomorrow that both the characters and the viewer may have accumulated, and makes clear that a man who lives by the sound of gunfire and the leader's commands, will never be able to carry a peaceful life.


And that's why I don't like Miyazaki.

Story aside, Jin-Roh encompasses several genres - psychological thriller (the subplot of Fuse struggling with himself on whether to abandon his life as a 'wolf for the government's pack' or not), gritty action (Kerberos armor and machine guns are not just for decoration here), melodrama (Fuse and Kei's broken love story) complete with the string of Little Red Riding Hood references and metaphors scattered throughout the plot, and of course, the twisted, dark and painfully memorable nightmare scene. Everything is constructed in a very clever way, so the genres logically swap each other, intersect and morph, from the stylish opening narration to the suspenseful and shocking twist ending.


It does even have some touches of art-house cinema.

The last, but not the least are the artistic achievements. First of all, the animation is flawless. In contrast to the current outrage of kawaii drops and fan service, all the characters have realistic eyes, look rotoscoped and are moving on 24 frames per sec. As a result, it's easy to forget that you are watching an animated movie, but what's interesting - if it would've been a live-action film (those were The Red Spectacles and StrayDog, also based on the Kerberos manga, there's even an upcoming live-action remake of Jin-Roh itself, directed by Kim Ji-woon [RUSSIAN SITE]), the final effect would unlikely be so powerful. Obviously, there's also some CG, but it blends perfectly into the hand-drawn environments. Slow and dark ambient soundtrack, though not written by Kenji Kawai, doesn't hurt, too.


Whether you like this movie or not, with Mamoru Oshii you can be sure of two things: ass-kicking balls-to-the-wall action and dark drama that will make you want to kill yourself.

I fell in love with this movie at first sight, and it gets better and better every time I re-watch it. Wish you the same!

From 'Project Savior' through 'Megiddo City' to... just 'Megiddo'

Alright folks, now we're getting serious. The video game I am currently developing, which is a Christian cyberpunk shooter, already has a long, long, LONG development story, but during the last few month I swear I was not slacking. I have decided to keep everything plain and simple, so here are the major changes I've came up with:

* The game title has been simplified to Sergei Savenko's Megiddo.
* There will be one protagonist instead of three.
* The game will use the DarkPlaces engine (SIC!!!).
* Not sure now whether the models will be 2D or 3D, as I am indeed a shitty modeller. But as we've seen RetroBlazer, at least DP does support 2D sprites.
* Right now I'm compiling a list of tools, links and other good stuff I'll need for the development, and the concept doc right now is just perfect to start, well, developing anything.

You'll possibly ask what did hit me? Well, it was like this:

* I have beaten Crusader: No Remorse (yay!)
* Afterwards I've read an interview with Andrew 'Necros' Sega circa 1995 where he said that he was 20 (!!!) years old and was writing the soundtrack for Crusader No Remorse.
* There were rumors that he was writing the music for Quake, which he himself denied.
* So I've played a bit of Quake on PSP, and yeah... DarkPlaces.

The last but not the least: here is how Rydia the Megiddo protagonist will look like:


Also, I'm going to publish some concept document excerpts so everybody will be sure I'm on track. Then I'll start learning the DP engine and reading the fuck out of the Quake engine manuals.

Oooh, it's going to be fun.

Cheers!

Crusader: No Remorse [1995] (action-adventure) - REVISITED

Developers: Origin Systems, Realtime Associates (console versions) Publisher: Electronics Arts Designer: Tony Zurovec Composers: Andrew Sega, Dan Gardopée and the Straylight Productions Platforms: PC (MS DOS), Sega Saturn, PlayStation Release years: 1995 (PC), 1996-1997 (consoles) Genre: Action-adventure, isometric System requirements: MS DOS 5.0 or higher, i486 DX2 66 MHz, 8 MB RAM, 65 MB hard disk space, Sound Blaster compatible sound card, VESA compatible SVGA video card

      
This future is all dark and cyberpunk. The world is engulfed in a social disaster, with everything being under control of the World Economic Consortium (WEC). Ruling with iron hand, they've put the nations in stranglehold with unbearable taxes, vicious military operations and continuous terror against the ones who dare to differ. At their service is a powerful elite force of Silencers - clad in red full body armors, holding the most powerful firearms that WEC has to offer, their mission is to crush the resistance and uphold the prosperity of WEC's tyrannical regime. But then there is one of them, an unnamed hero who betrayed the Silencer corps and joined the underground. Bringing hope to the rebels, he decided to assist them in crushing the government by any means... and with no remorse.


These fuckers are so evil they don't even cast sexy anchorwomen.
Sounds corny? Well, the game itself is anything but. That was the backstory of one of the finest 2D action-adventures ever released.

Throughout the 80s and early 90s, the legendary Origin Systems was best known for their RPGs (Ultima, System Shock) and simulators (Wing Commander, Strike Commander), but after some criticism around their 'intellectual' games leaning more and more towards pure action, the studio executives listened to vox populi and decided to launch a new shooter franchise under the direction of Tony Zurovec (of Ultima 7-8 fame). Five games were planned to surface, although only two of them were actually developed: Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret.

No Remorse opens with three Silencer units returning back from the mission they've abandoned by refusing to shoot unarmed civilians. They are ambushed by the WEC robotic assassin, and two Silencers are killed. As the third one (who happens to be our hero) manages to take the mech down with a grenade, he then proceeds towards the dying robot to give him his finishing headshot - this is where the game logo and main menu come in. What follows is outrageous, good old gory violent fun with a touch of intelligence here and there.

Basically, the Crusader games are isometric shooters not unlike Alien Shooter, Skeleton Krew, Project Overkill, or even a little bit of Diablo (played as the Amazon), but with extensive adventure elements: the levels are nonlinear, objective-based, backtrack-heavy and usually consisting of several floors. The game does a decent job at not being too boring and/or redundant, because the objectives are very variable and rarely resort to killing 'em all, with the environments gradually becoming more and more complex, and sometimes requiring running for miles from corner to corner to check if some last switch or necessary terminal was triggered. For the most time, you'll be walking around the maps, flipping the switches, bypassing the security cams and turrets, hacking into PCs, occasionally solving simple puzzles and of course, gunning down those WEC bastards. There are plenty of ways to accomplish the latter - machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher, spider bombs, all kinds of energy-powered weapons, and the list goes on. The game is also notable for its interactive destructible environments - a good majority of things you see onscreen can be blown up and used in combat this way. You can even control enemy mechs and exterminate the WEC troops remotely! You're even permitted to shoot the unarmed employees, to they can drop useful loot and be unable to trigger the alarms. Yes, alarms - the game also has some touches of stealth action injected within.

The Silencer is controlled in a remotely similar way as the early Resident Evil games, so you'll need some time to get used to it, but in the end everything turns out to be handled pretty conveniently (even on PSP). After you've completed whatever was required for a mission, you'll find yourself back at the rebel base. Here you can buy weapons and supplies, read emails and progress through the story. In the PC version, you're free to walk around and speak to anyone you want - the leader, the arms dealer, rescued comrades, etc., while in the PS1 version, the base map is redone - but we'll get to the differences later.

In between all the bloodshed, you'll be watching surprisingly decent FMV cutscenes (of course, Origin was always famous for their videos, though don't expect to see Mark Hamill or Malcolm McDowell here).


You knew this was coming.
Surprisingly, the acting is way better than your average 3DO games of the time, and the CG elements do not really stick out. Overall, the story is paced really good, and the characters, while nothing Shakespearean, are still fun and memorable. My personal fave is hands-down Troy 'Wizard' Reaves, the hacker responsible for inserting and extracting the Silencer between the battlegrounds and rebels base, as well as trolling his compatriots via email with chicken jokes and proudly carrying his kewl rad 90s hairdo.


Where is my Power Glove?
The Silencer himself is essentially a badass silent protagonist, along the lines of Boba Fett (see below), Master Chief (the ambiguous identity) and the DoomGuy (his screams and grunts are obviously male, so no 'Samus is a woman' twists here), a killing machine trained to be capable of waging any kind of warfare alone, and too bad that his bosses allowed his will and skill to be turned on themselves.


No Boba Fett. I am not your clone.
Powered by the Ultime 8 engine, the SVGA graphics are likeable for a DOS game, though at the first glance, levels consist of mostly the same prefabs over and over again. Still it's acceptable for something released around 1995, and despite some initial negative impressions, the backgrounds grow more and more varied towards the end. The animations are quite fluent and realistic, though there's not as much gore as No Remorse's reputation goes (fixed in No Regret). You can still make the enemies run around burning, blow them up with spider bombs or just stuff with hot lead, which will result in gibs and puddles of blood. The pixel art has a 'pre-rendered' style, highly reminiscent of Fallout 1-2, and it still looks alright on giant PC monitors, as well as on TV or PSP screens.


And one thing remains perfectly clear: if you don't have the ATTITUDE, you don't have a chance!

On par with the visual designs is the music by Andrew 'Necros' Sega (who later became famous for his contribution to the Unreal soundtracks) and his gang at Straylight. The title theme alone is one of the catchiest MOD tacks ever, not to mention that the tracker music itself was a pretty new thing back then. As a result, we have a brilliant electronic OST in super-quality, occupying a bit less than 4 MB! It's so energizing, it makes taking down the enemy forces even more fun.

The game was initially released on PC, later ported to PlayStation and Saturn. Unfortunately, I had no chance to check out the Saturn version, so the differences I'm going to list span only between PS1 and DOS. In the PC version, backgrounds do not scroll at all, they are only shifted by a certain distance. The PlayStation, on the other hands, has smooth scrolling all the way, making gameplay less jerky and more fluent. But the cutscenes in the PS1 version are a bit reduced in quantity, and mission briefings do not occupy full screen. As the rebels base is presented there like a bitmap background with hotspots (makes me think of Phantasy Star Universe vs. Phantasy Star Portable, actually), the dialogue cutscenes are replaced with additional emails that the Silencer is receiving between missions. The HUD is different between both versions, also the music shuffles annoyingly when entering and exiting the menu in the PS1 version, which does not happen in DOS. So despite some nitpicks and graphics aside, I'd say that the PlayStation version plays a little better, but obviously lacks in presentation.


Remember! No attitude = no chance! (I was really desperate to insert the 'blow shit up' word combination here, but still cannot think of a way. Well yay, you can blow shit up in this game!)
While Crusader: No Remorse is a fantastic game, unfortunately it is not flawless. Like I said, the first few missions are a little boring, mostly because of the recycled prefabs. It doesn't get really interesting until around the middle - that's where the plot twists begin, that's where the enemies gain variety, and the environments get pleasantly tricky. The physics model is a bit off, and no scrolling in the PC version is a bit disappointing, while the constant music shuffle is disappointing on the PS1. Also, some may be turned down by poor joystick/gamepad support and over-the-top controls - but the latter's excusable, given the usual Origin's habit of designing complex games with lots of options and available actions.

Crusader: No Remorse was favorably received at the time of release, winning the GOTY award from Computer Gaming World and being showered with their honorary awards later on. Also, the German magazine GameStar included it in its Top 100 list of 'the most important PC games of all time', despite the game itself having undergone heavy censorship in that country. It still remains a sort of cult classic between the old-school gamers, and I can guarantee that every time you bring it up in a conversation with them, at least one participant will go 'Oh yeah'. I know, I tried it! For example, here's what the fellows at shmups.com forum had to say:

I remember being blown away by this demo back in the day. [...] Glad you brought it up though, might have to dig up the full versions.

I loved the Crusader series back in the day. Played through the first one several times and sequel once or twice. Not run 'n guns in the arcade sense, [...] but still very fun games.
And Crusader: No Remorse will soon be available from GOG.com so I'll probably play through it one more time.

The Crusader games are personal favorites of mine. No Regret in particular is a strong candidate for my desert island game. I love almost everything about it. I've even gotten to the point where I derive a certain pleasure from the acted cutscenes ("Get to the tubeway system on level three! The prisoners are located on level five!").

I cannot possibly overpraise this game, it's this good. It's not super-hard or anything, and most likely the younger gamer masses of today won't appreciate the pixelized rendered graphics and nerve-racking gameplay, but if you're in for some good old-school run-n-gun action adventure, this is what the doctor ordered. It's still fast and intense, ridiculously interesting to play and addicting as all hell. Whether it's your 486 laptop, modern day PC with DOSBox (or GOG.com edition, see below), Saturn or PS1/PSP, Crusader will be welcome in the game library of any 2D shooter fan.

P.S. Grab the whole dilogy from GOG.com, like, now! With bonuses!