Crusader: A Conspiracy in the Kingdom of Jerusalem

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            Crusader: A Conspiracy in the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Review by Enigma

Polish up your chain mail. Sharpen your sword and your wits. We’re going to battle our way through sieges, espionage, assassinations, imprisonment, plots and betrayal in the Year of Our Lord 1183. Along the way, watch out! You won’t be able to avoid learning something interesting about entirely unchivalrous medieval knights and the snake pit of power-hungry rulers in the Holy Land. It’s going to be a journey into the past and into your own mind. In this historical “edutainment” game, they got the history right, and it will shock you out of any romantic visions you may have had about the Middle Ages.

This second in the trilogy of historical games produced by the French company Index+ uses the same kind of gameplay as Vikings and Genesys, but with an even more complex storyline and puzzles. This one’s going to take some time to finish, because many of the “riddles,” while they look easy, aren’t.

The Story

We begin in 1180. The introduction to our hero, Sir Arthaud, owner of a small-time fiefdom in France, reveals him as something less than your ideal chivalrous knight. He’s an illiterate, money-hungry brute, just like most medieval knights and lords. The little monastery in his fiefdom hasn’t paid him the full amount of tribute he’s demanded, so he attacks and destroys it. That kind of behavior, really, was typical of his historical counterparts. They were violence-crazed barbarians, and what they wanted they took from anyone, including monks, peasants, and other nobles.

Arthaud’s behavior shocks King Phillippe Auguste of France (if you’ve seen the great film The Lion in Winter, you’ve met Phillippe as played by a young Timothy Dalton). In the opening sequence of Crusader, Phillippe attacks Arthaud’s little castle and imprisons him for three years in a small stone chamber. When Arthaud emerges, Phillippe gives him a mission: travel to Jerusalem, steal the relics of the True Cross, and bring them back to France. If Arthaud succeeds within one year, Phillippe will give him his fiefdom back.

It’s a tall order but Arthaud has little choice. On the perilous voyage to the Holy Land Arthaud meets a stowaway, a mysterious, learned Muslim named Al Harawi who serves as the game’s narrator.  Once in St. Jean d’Acre on the shores of the Holy Land, Arthaud grabs his ship’s valuable cargo and sells it to one Reynald de Chatillon, a powerful lord. Reynald has hatched a devious plot to gain control of the entire Holy Land. In fact, Reynald might even be involved with the conspirators who plan to seize the throne of Jerusalem by murdering Little Baldwin, the five-year-old heir to Baldwin IV, Jerusalem’s tragic “Leper King.”

Will Arthaud succeed in his mission? Will he get rich? Will he save Little Baldwin and find salvation in spite of himself? That’s where you come in.

Gameplay

Crusader, like Vikings and Genesys, features “riddles” that organize the gameplay, interspersed with well-produced cutscenes that advance the plot. You must find objects and characters to place on the “riddle screens” in order to build a chapel, for example, or fire a trebuchet and catapult.  Unlike Vikings, however, in Crusader you’ll find these objects and characters not only on the playing screens but also in the encyclopedia. It isn’t necessary to visit the entire encyclopedia, but the game forces the player to visit and read a great deal of it to find clues, along with those objects and characters. That greatly expanded search area increases the difficulty of the game.  It’s often pretty tough to find the last object you need for a riddle, or even to identify what the thing might be. Frustration occurs at about the same level of most well-designed adventure games.

The encyclopedia covers a surprisingly large range of subjects.  In it you’ll learn something not only about the Crusaders, but also about Islam, Judaism, Christianity as practiced at the time, and the European and Muslim worlds during the Middle Ages. You’ll learn something about how to make Greek Fire, a napalm-like substance used in warfare, how to fight a sea battle and how to withstand a siege. You’ll delve into the tangled plots and schemes of those vying to seize the Christian holdings in the Holy Land. You can go to the encyclopedia at any time except during cutscenes by clicking on a “book” icon or by making a “quickmove” at the bottom of your screen.

Crusader also expands the range of puzzles over those offered in Vikings. This time you’ll find several puzzles in which you’ll chart a sea route to the Holy Land or an overland route to a fortress (the toughest riddle in the game, I thought). You’ll place characters on maps of St. Jean d’Acre and Jerusalem to see which factions controlled different areas of the cities. You’ll build fortifications and even play a chess game.

I wasn’t too pleased with Crusader’s inventory system. The game allows you to collect objects for upcoming riddles as well as for your current one, and you are allowed to collect more than one of the same object. As well as multiple copies of characters, I wound up with two “projectiles.” After I’d used one, the other stayed stuck in the inventory until I needed it much later in the game. That made for a sometimes unwieldy system. However, if you can cope with an even more cluttered inventory, you might choose to pick up any and all objects you find in anticipation of later riddles. It will save searching time later on, but you may miss important clues in the encyclopedia.

Crusader saves your game for you automatically each time you quit. That means you have only one save slot. If you want more, you’ll have to restart the game under a different name. While that limitation would be a serious problem in most other games, in Crusader it works just fine. The game is completely linear, so you don’t really need more than one saved game.

Lights, Camera, Action

In keeping with the high quality of its other games, Index+ spared no effort on Crusader’s cutscenes, artwork, and music. The scenery is simply, absolutely gorgeous. Marvelous, colorful sunsets, seascapes, and desert scenes will have you gasping and downloading screenshots to use as wallpaper. The artwork of the city and interior scenes looks authentic and often is equally as lovely as the cutscenes.  Haunting, exciting, and always appropriate background music uses instrumental and vocal arrangements, adding much to the gone-back-in-time atmosphere of the game. It’s all enchanting, leading to an extremely enjoyable playing experience.

Nicholas Calderbank, as Al Harawi, narrates the English version of the game and does a splendid job of it. His resonant voice holds the player’s interest and adds suspense. The plot he narrates has more twists and subtleties than the Zork text-only mazes, so pay attention to those cutscenes or you’ll miss something major.  I found it possible to repeat the cutscenes by pressing the “return” button.

Arthaud, our dubious hero, never speaks, rendering him a curiously passive character. The other voice actors do credible jobs, with accents appropriate to their characters. As in Vikings, the actors are shot in full-motion video and superimposed onto the playing screens. You can get them to speak by clicking on them, and they’ll give you crucial clues. Even in static scenes they move around constantly, lending plenty of realism to the game.

Bugs

Once I fixed my mysteriously corrupted Quicktime file, I had no trouble running Crusader on my iMac with OS 9.2. Very occasionally I would hear a break in the sound, but that happened so seldom it didn’t interfere at all with the play.

The Verdict

Occasionally, debates arise over which gamers prefer, Crusader or Vikings. It’s just a matter of personal taste, really, because both games easily rate Gold Stars. Crusader offers a much more complex story and gameplay, but the basic concept of the games is almost identical. For an involving plot, fabulous graphics, plenty of intriguing, vexing puzzles, and accurate history, you’ll find Crusader goes far beyond most edutainment games. It’s a great choice for entertainment and learning, from high school age to elderly adult. And dare I suggest it, you might even find that the real history is more intriguing than those fake wizards and spells so popular in medieval fantasy games.

So, do you want to travel through time to a lost world full of excitement, espionage, mystery, and ghastly diseases? Do you want to fight villains, if you can figure out who the villains are? Then play Crusader, but beware! If you get stuck in a medieval dungeon and your chain mail rusts, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Index Publisher: France Telecom Multimedia Release Date: 1997

Available for: Macintosh Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

PC: Pentium 100 16 MB RAM Thousands of colors 16-bit sound card 4X CD-ROM drive Windows 3.1 or Windows 95

Macintosh: Power PC OS 7.1 256 colors 4X CD-ROM drive

Where to Find It

Playing Games 24.95Prices/links current as of 11/10/02Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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