The Cursed Crusade is a game which had the promise to become an epic medieval epic within the genre of hack'n'slashers. I among millions of others love the medievil period of history having read many novels by the likes of Bernard Cornwell amongst others so it seemed to have potential to grow into a title that managed to win a mass following. Not surprisingly, in this generation we have seen how some small productions have become the favourite of users over the larger AAA productions at times. However, this is not going to be the case with The Cursed Crusade.
Unless you like cutscenes, and this game does love cutscenes. It loves them so much that it can't let five minutes go by without another one popping up. The game opens with a lengthy cutscene, which leads into another cutscene which then leads into another. Finally, you get to attack and kill a handful of enemies. Then you get another cutscene! This wouldn't be so bad if Cursed Crusade had a gripping story, compelling characters and satisfying gameplay. It doesn't. The story is a mix of medieval cliches, with a weird addition of supernatural guff. Our main character , Denz de Bayle, is “cursed” . This means that he's able to transform into a sort of 12th century demon, which fills the world with flames, gives him devil horns, have stronger attacks and see weaknesses in walls to proceed to the next part of the level and the next inevitable cutscene.
Denz is joined on his generic quest by the Spaniard Esteban Noviembre, a stereotype is so present and so full of cliches that could become perfect example of the problems with The Cursed Crusade to take himself seriously. That's a big problem with The Cursed Crusade: the narrative is obsessed with and offers everything through cutscenes, but with a sinister result. Some games can pull this off, Metal gear solid games have a lot of cut scenes but they are well timed and well...interesting. A lot of these were a bit pointless.
So onto the main gameplay- the combat since between lenghty cutscenes that's virtually all there is to do. Cursed Crusade has the beginnings of a decent fighting system, with an assortment of different abilities depending on which weapons you're holding. A sword and shield combo offers different attacks to a mace and shield. Dual-wielding two swords opens up moves that are different to those available with a sword and axe. The potential is there for some good combo's, but it's ruined by the fact that none of it really matters. Hammering away on the x or y button gets the job done most of the time, usually ending in a finishing execution animation that can drag on a bit. Attempting the lengthier combo's is barely worth the effort, so most of the fighting system ends up being pointless.
You also have a crossbow which you have to get out a couple of time to deal with archer's which is kind of like the over the shoulder aiming in gears but even this is basic, firing invisible arrows till the archer goes “argh” and falls out of view. Combat problems are compounded by a horrible camera and a poorly constructed gameworld that your character gets stuck or the game doesn't move on to the next part of the mission and you have to restart the level (and the blooming cutscenes) again.
I find that as I level my abilities up a bit, the game starts to become a little more enjoyable. It is spectacularly buggy though. My sound regularly sets itself to zero and I have to go into the options to add sound again. I am not saying this game is broken. It works and you can play it through with nothing going horribly wrong. If you're a huge fan of action brawlers, then you probably won't hate it. Experience would suggest that there will be some people who get along reasonably well with it. It's actually because of this that the review needs to strike such a critical tone. This isn't an epic trainwreck, it's a game that you might be tempted to buy. Which is why the review score needs to emphasise all the ways in which the game falls short of the standards set by the competition, to deter the casual buyer who has better options available and make sure that the hardcore genre fan knows what they're buying.
As far as the achievements go this game is a cake walk, I have put in around 20 hours play and I only have my nightmare playthrough to finish for game completion so if you can look past the tedious cutscenes and frustrating combat system then it may well end up as a good weekend rental for the more dedicated score whores.
Slightly less than average
2.0