I had a bit o' trouble getting started with this action and you may find it hard as well, especially sans joystick. Once you figure it out, bring on the coffee, 'cause you'll be there awhile! Once again you suit up as the red silencer from the original "Crusader: No Remorse".
First off, you can choose which of the 4 levels of difficulty you want, which I found useful since I haven't played any PC shooters in ages. Second, you get 19 varieties of weapons that are really sweet. Third, you can go on mass-destruction frenzy if you like because almost everything can be blown up. Forth, while other shooters are simply walk and shoot, in this one, you get to duck, roll, strafe, run, walk... It's incredible the amount of actions your character does besides shoots and blow things up! But what really blew me away was the interaction between you and the environment. You can search bodies for ammo, use computers, remotely operate robots and pick up useful equipment you can find.
Graphically, this one is pure eye-candy. Best I seen on SVGA! Cameras, computers--the whole background is fantastically detailed. Sound gets the hats off too! You can hear every crisp detail from the sirens to people dying screams. Unfortunately, I have to deduct points for control. You have to use the keypad plus the mouse and with so many manoeuvres, so many weapons, and several items to use, it is really hard figuring out button functions.
Worse is the fact that the positioning of these hotkeys cannot be reassigned. If you're using the keyboard, you must accept these keys, no matter how hard they are to push; especially in critical situations. A joystick or other controller may be needed for better playability. Also, I was slightly disappointed that your objective is total elimination. To me, a greater challenge would be to watch your target ID. But that's just my viewpoint.
Overall a stupendous tactical action game, whose only downfall is poor hotkey placement and the inability to reassign these keys to more accessible keys (i.e. W=up, D=right, etc.) Still a near perfect game! 4.5 out of 5.
Written by:
~silus
