Crusader: No Regret

The Good
Made in 1996, published and developed by ORIGIN Systems, Crusader: No Regret is the follow up to Crusader: No Remorse, the isometric action game released the previous year. Set after the events of the first game, Draygan isn’t very pleased that Tinman escaped from the Vigilance Platform, so he sends his assistant, Judith Leach, to deal with him.

If you have not played the first game, don’t worry. You can jump straight into the game without playing the first one. But the game mechanics are the same. You complete a series of missions that will help you thwart Draygan’s plans, including blowing up an entire base and releasing nerve gas. You also have to rescue a couple of prisoner. One of them happens to be Ely, one of your superiors from the first game. The other is a chick you hardly see in the game. You can also blow up everything along the way as well.

In between missions, you explore a base where you can explore the sights and receive your next briefing. It is not like the base in No Remorse where you can talk with fellow rebels, watch news bulletins, and buy/sell/trade weapons. Actually, you can still watch bulletins after watching the cinematics featuring Draygan and they are not quite asflashy.

There are guards stopping you from achieving your objective, but you can kill them with a variety of weapons. Just point you weapon at them and you will see a red crosshair over them, meaning you are in their line of sight. One of my favorite weapons is the GL-303, a rocket launcher that will set guards alight. Shoot them again with the same weapon and they will turn into blood and guts. Getting the BK-16 allows you to shoot bolts of liquid nitrogen at enemies and freeze them, then you can shoot again to shatter them. The XP-5 turns enemies into blood and bone. The LNR-81 makes enemies go up in smoke. The weapons that I mentioned just then are new and didn’t exist in No Remorse. All the weapons in the game have increased damage.

As always, I like to stop and destroy WEC equipment all around me. In fact, this becomes a necessity as doing well may reveal hidden switches, and by destroying certain structures, you can remove the shields protecting security cameras and turrets. There is even a chance that destroying equipment gets you past some areas of the game. Teleports, elevators, and computer terminals also need to put to good use.

The music is done by the guys from Straylight Productions (now defunct) and its quality is just as good as its predecessor. There is now more than one piece of music covering a single mission, and some of the music from the first game is also reused. I enjoyed listening to the remix of Mission 15’s music, as well as the main menu's. The powerful the music depends on how intense the missions are.

The controls are the same in No Remorse. You can jump, sidestep, roll left or right, or crouch down. Performing some of these maneuvers can get you through certain areas. These maneuvers can help you avoid enemy gunfire as well. New ones are also introduced, and these include forward roll and kneeling sidestep.

The Bad
Again, the same bug that was found in No Remorse also is found in No Regret. When you use your weapon for about five seconds without stopping, the silencer will keep shooting whether you holster it or not.

The Bottom Line
Crusader: No Regret boasts the same gameplay as its predecessor. You must complete several missions which include destroying structures that will blow up an entire complex and obtain data that will be sent to your boss(es). But not only do you defeat guards that get in your way with the use of your weapons (which some are destructive), but you also have to access computer terminals and gather keycards and use them in the appropriate slots. I'm glad that Origin has retained their “shoot if you see it” policy, that you can shoot objects to destroy them. The high-quality music is excellent and makes you keep playing, and the controls are easy to use. If you enjoyed destruction in No Remorse, there's more where that came from.

The Good
Let's make this quick, Crusader: No Regret introduced vaguely the same game play as Crusader: No Remorse. Any additional features were (to my opinion) very much unnoticeable. Either that or I have a bad memory...hahaha.

The Bad
Well there are a couple of things that made Crusader: No Regret worse from its older sibling that I can still recall:

They eliminated the "shopping" feature. Killing enemies and looting them was always fun. Using the stuff found and selling them to buy new gear was even more anticipated. Now its just shoot and loot. The "economic" value suddenly was eliminated from the game...another linear action game.

Hey, what happened to my "kill statistics". I recall (I think) they eliminated the number of kills you obtained in this game. It's not essential, but a track record would be nice.

Honestly speaking, this game was a major disappointment, although I eventually finished the game. A disappointment because (obviously) gamers expect a better sequel - more this - more that. Crusader: No Regret was a less this - less that. It practically lost its soul which that made its predecessor a game hit.

The Bottom Line
Still a fun-packed game honestly speaking, but expect a 20-30% let-down, if you've played its predecessor.

P.S. Thank you to a mobyuser (forgot whom), who reminded me of a fatal error in this review.