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The Cursed Crusade – Game Review

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Take a dark period of thirteenth century history, mix in generously some supernatural elements, now whisk in some of that ‘buddy genre type thing’ and turn up the combat engine to about 89 degrees centigrade. Now pop in the oven with some decent cut scenes. Add a sprinkling of Darksiders, a dessertspoon of Dantes Inferno, a gallon of blood.

What do you get?

 

A dish that looks good, tastes good, but ultimately could have stayed in the oven just that little bit longer.

 

The dish in question is none other than The Cursed Crusade, the latest game from French seasoned PC Games developer Kylotonn Entertainment. A game, I might add that has had so many delays that not even ‘Game’ knew when it was coming out. It also sports the now familiar ‘reduced’ price tag of £32. Make of that what you want, the reality is The Cursed Crusade is nowhere near a bad title, it’s just not a great one and it could do with more, a little bit of a lot more refining.

 

Young Templar Knight Denz de Bayle is the hero of the piece. His dad has gone missing, his family’s land seized and his mother killed. All knights of the crusade have committed unspeakable acts, but those who have carried out true evil atrocities find that they are befallen with a curse. A curse that will follow their bloodline and damn their souls to hell. Denz is heir to this curse; what’s more, Death wants him and will stop at nothing to take him personally to the hot house.

 

So begins the story. Denz de Bayle is a more than capable fighter but like many tales of this genre like Ghost Rider he can use this curse to his advantage. He can switch between this world and the cursed parallax of hell almost at will. Think Constantine but with horns and glowing eyes and screams. In the hell world he is stronger, can move faster, attack quicker and has access to more power and more areas but it comes at a price – energy and then health, not to mention also providing death with easy access to your soul and he cannot be stopped.

 

Denz is joined on his generic quest by Esteban Noviembre, a wise-cracking Spaniard, tried, tested and formulaic. Esteban has the curse as well so together they form a partnership and it is their camaraderie that flows throughout the game.

 

Combat is what this game is all about. If you look at other games of this genre it is really hard to escape the ‘old chestnut’ of repetitive gameplay. However The Cursed Crusade gets around this with a deep enough combat system. Thanks to the directional controller you can carry a combination of swords, axes, shields, double handed swords, maces, with either one in each hand or, if the weapon is big enough just one. Blocking, parrying and dodging is built around timings of button presses with enemies flashing a certain colour if they are about to attack. Points are awarded at the end of every stage which you can use to build up your combos and finishers to make you even more of a formidable fighter.

 

The scenarios themselves never vary too much from the reliable old staple diet of ‘go here’ ‘do this’ ‘meet this person’ ‘fight that person’ but the nature of the storyline and their friendship is strong enough to carry it through. More often than not the enemy just runs towards you and then take it in turns swinging their swords in your direction and at first you don’t need to think about your parries and protecting your self. But later when preserving your health is a requisite to survival you find yourself drawing on all your skills and Death really doesn’t give a damn how he gets you so hopping in and out of hell to get a one up on your foes is not always the answer.

 

Did I mention the game is bloody? Well be warned, true to its historical origins heads roll, maces can be used on either side to flatten a head to a pulp, axes chop people in two. I like the way the game developers opted to define each and every limb so that you can remove each one from the torso with deadly blows each one splattering blood on impact.

 

All of this sounds pretty good and indeed like the first mouthful of Diet Coke it actually tastes really good. I found myself drawn into this game quite quickly; rapidly building combos and cutting swathes through my opponents learning new skills all the time. However there were a few things that the game can’t shake.

 

Firstly the camera angle is dreadful. Why oh why did they opt for a floating camera when it would not know its way through a paper bag? Even with the right analogue stick being used as a last resort to control it gets stuck behind trees, buildings and walls. In the early stages this is not so much a problem but later, when you have tough enemies you cannot do anything other than block and watch as your life is ebbed away by an enemy who will tag team you into oblivion.

 

Secondly there is a real lack of direction, there are a few times where it really is not clear what to do or where to go. You spend ages aimlessly running around when if they had incorporated it into the ‘hell self’ or even done as LA Noire did where you could ask your partner for guidance the game would have flowed better.

 

Finally the game tends to sporadically save at the end of the level which means that if you die; even at the end of a stage you have to do the whole thing again and this includes the cut-scenes of which; take it from me, there are many. Just incase you are thinking to yourself – hey I have done Demon Souls and there is no way this game can be tougher than that, then hats off to you and you are right; this game isn’t tougher but the enemy tends to infrequently jump in difficulty and with the camera angles not being as solid you should expect to lose lives.

 

My Verdict

 

With a thrilling action packed story not to mention blood guts and gore and a reduced price tag The Cursed Crusade is not a bad title at all. However it does suffer from faults that set it back from being a decent enough purchase especially in light of the competition which is going to be huge in the run up to Christmas. It is competent and satisfying enough and no where near a bad title just not a great one. Try before you buy or Wait until the price drops further before you splash your cash.

 

7.5 / 10

 

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

 

 

Equal to: Quantum Theory

 

Better than: Wet, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Disney Universe

 

Worse than: Enslaved, Castlevania, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

 

 

 

The Greatest Hits and Misses of the Mortal Kombat Franchise

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It is great that the new Mortal Kombat is back, and looking fresher than ever, but like it or not there have been some right crazy ideas along the way, events that you have probably locked out of your mind because they were so much of a nightmare that they were best left forgotten. To help you reach those all too endearing memories here is my run down of the greatest hits and misses of the Mortal Kombat series

The Greatest Hits…

Having great game designers: Ed Boon and John Tobias.

Behind anything great lie special people with ingenious ideas. In this case Ed Boon and John Tobias, both with special and some would say gory ideas on where fighting games should go. Having completed work on Smash TV, Boon turned his attention to a game which was originally going to be based on the popular actor martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme. The idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was born. Hard to believe that Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with just four people; Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel, and Dan Forden. It is a little known fact that Mr Boon provided both voice acting and motion capture for the early games. And if that fails to surprise you, how about this: he provides the voice of Scorpion in all of the games, as well as both feature films. And I bet you didn’t know he provides a Cameo appearance in Ep 3 of Mortal Kombat Legacy? Hmm…bet you are going to tell your fiends about that one…

Having great characters and a great story.

If there is anything that has to be said is that Mortal Kombat has a huge list of characters. By the release of Mortal Kombat Armageddon there were 63 playable characters to choose from, giving it the fourth largest character roster in fighting game history, surpassing Marvel vs Capcom 2’s character roster of 56 but failing to surpass Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series (which holds 161 if you are interested). But all of those characters wouldn’t count for anything if they were just run of the mill bog standard and boring. Think for a moment about Street Fighter and then ask yourself what set it apart from King of the Fighters or Samurai Showdown. I guarantee it will be the characters and the storyline. You have ninja’s, warriors and just plain ‘insane in the brain’ nutcases that will stop at nothing. As for the story, yes it is that age old battle of good against evil but it is delivered with finesse. Thinking back to when I first saw the first arcade machine years ago I had to admit there was something very, very dark and serious about Mortal Kombat that I don’t think has been repeated since.

Breaking new ground.

Mortal Kombat is fondly remembered for many things, most notably its high levels of blood, guts and gore, including its graphic Fatalities – finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons pressed in order to perform an ultra realistic (and ultra bloody) execution to your opponent. This in part, led to the creation of the ESRB and highlighted the need for censoring violence in video games bringing with it the new ‘age rating’ for gaming titles. The use of digitized sprites was also a feature of the game’s creation, which at the time was completely different to the hand-drawn cartoon style of approach which was the norm for the time (a game called Pit-Fighter tried the digitized style but it was very chunky and frankly didn’t work well at all). The control system also broke new ground, with six buttons that were high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, block, and run (run was added in “Mortal Kombat 3”). Block and run buttons were never used in fighting games previously and have never been used since; yet we know they work and elevate the fight because they work in this game. Later games also introduced the ‘change stance’ button which surfaced in other games such as Tekken.

There is a reboot on the way

Not the ultra gritty Re-birth and web-series Legacy; no we are talking a fully fledged reboot; a re-vamp that is said to be much like the first movie but how they wanted to do it originally which is very dark. Not much else is known about it but we know it was defiantly going ahead because Threshold Entertainment filed a new breach of contract lawsuit to prevent it from moving forward. Hopefully it will all work out because the release date is penned for 2013. I am really hoping it comes to fruition because although I quite like the idea of Mortal Kombat legacy I don’t like the ‘Smallville’ way the are messing around with the mythology; as the saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke don’t try and fix it.’ hey if it works for Batman and Spiderman with all their years running the same story then trust me it ain’t broke.

Having a great movie: Mortal Kombat.

Say what you will about the Mortal Kombat movie; it still was a lot better than the other rubbish game to movie conversions that came before it. Surrounded by the Tomb Raiders and Resident Evil films it is easy to forget that not too long ago converting a game to a movie was a sure-fire way to create disaster. Who could forget the ‘so bad it stunk’ Street Fighter movie, the ‘so awful it was boycotted’ Double Dragon, or the where the f#@8 did they get the idea from ‘Super Mario Brother’s movie’. Mortal Kombat at least had characters that looked like their on screen counterpart, a plot that came from the game and who could forget that ‘bangin theme tune’. No wonder it still stands today; obviously the less that is said about it’s sequel the better.
The Misses

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero

Sub-Zero -the most enigmatic character from Mortal Kombat had his own spin-off in 1997, in the first of was originally intended to be a series of mythologies chronicling each characters back history. Sounded good on paper but in reality most games players will admit that even if the first stages were interesting it quickly became a mess of poorly digitised actors, poorly rendered cut scenes, disastrous costume and level design and that’s not mentioning game-play so frustrating, unforgiving and just plain downright annoying that it left many players with bite marks in their controllers. No wonder it quickly found itself relegated to the trade-in bin mere days after it was released.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Most people hold the first Mortal Kombat movie in fairly high regard, especially when compared to the likes of the Street-Fighter movie, so with all fairness it did not fair too badly at the box office. So hey, what better way to spoil a franchise then by bringing in the big cash cow film studios to ruin things. The script and any other resemblances to the game was thrown out of the window, along with the entire cast only to be replaced with a bunch of Z-listers who if you met them you would probably just ignore, and then, just when you think it could not get any worse; in a crazy effort to mimic the game’s ‘Animalities’ it decided to bring in ridiculous CG monsters with made-for-TV quality special effects in a fight sequence you can barely make out. Three words: Bad, Very Bad.

Sweat, Sweat and More Sweat – Mortal Kombat SNES Version

Although almost comical by today’s standards, Mortal Kombat perhaps holds the title for being one of the most violent games of the 90’s. When news came out that Mortal Kombat was going to be developed for home consoles there was outrage at the level of violence and gore it contained. Parents began going ga-ga with nightmares of their children pulling their faces off and giving them ‘toasties’, giving them solid uppercuts or freezing them and ripping their hearts from fresh from their cadavers. Cue the quick formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to monitor violence in games and a rapid toning down of violence. At the time of the game’s Super Nintendo release, Nintendo of America had a strict “Family Friendly” policy firmly in place. This required the removal of graphic violence, religious imagery, and mentions of death from all game content. This meant that the Nintendo version had characters that sweated upon injury instead of bleeding. Given how bloody the original game was, this meant that it had more sweat than an R-Kelly and Usher music video combined and left Kano desperately needing some Lynx anti-persperant…probably.
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm

Mortal Kombat is a violent game isn’t it? So it is kind of hard to imagine it translating well into a Saturday morning cartoon show. However the early 90’s saw just that; an animated series based on the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. With a storyline that served as a sequel to the first Mortal Kombat film what we have here is a mess of ideas. As the show was designed for young kids the ‘sensible’ choice was made to have no violence at all. But how can Mortal Kombat exist without violence; the very idea is absurd and some would even say offensive. Which begs the question of why Defenders of the Realm even made it past the planning stage? In a nutshell it was terrible; actually it was worse than that and thankfully was destined for a rapid game over.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Not content with destroying The Mortal Kombat mythology to pieces Mortal Kombat: Conquest dived to new depths by bringing changing the format of the movie into a television series which curiously followed the storyline of razor-hat-wearing monk Kung Lao rather than Liu Kang. On the plus side I was surprised to see Kristanna Loken (star of Terminator 3) as a main character – Taja. If you look closely you can even spot Eva Mendez in an episode. Ultimately though even with their ever so alluring smiles the series was a smoking pile of crap. Viewing figures sunk deeper than the titanic and when the producers panicked they brought out the big guns: Scorpion, Sub-zero, Goro and Smoke. In theory that should have worked except that Goro and Smoke were both badly computer generated characters and this only served to put the final nail in the coffin, bringing the series an abrupt end at season’s one finale.

Mortal Kombat – The Review

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“Finish him” “Fatality” “Excellent” “Flawless Victory”

If these famous words strike a chord in your conscience then you will be thankful for the all too recent release of the new Mortal Kombat (a.k.a MK 9) – the ninth installment in the ground breaking fighting game franchise. A game synonymous with blood, gore, death moves, twenty hit combos and did I mention blood? As Jigsaw from the SAW films quite aptly said: “Yes – there will be blood!”

Developed by NetherRealm Studios (what a name) (formerly known as WB Games Chicago and Midway Games Chicago), it is the first game published exclusively under the Warner Bros. label. At the time of writing only Xbox and Playstation 3 versions are available. Apparently the producers have discussed a PC version but unfortunately they have yet to reach an agreement.

Mortal Kombat was released almost a month ago on April 21st, but owing to the PSN outage I had to wait until full online play was restored before I could give you my full low down review.

Managing to get my hands on the full collector’s edition I was as excited as ever to fire up the disc. Mortal Kombat 9 certainly brings to the table a whole buffet of options and gaming experiences. Whilst perhaps not as over indulgent as previous titles such as Armageddon which included Kart racing and the like, for MK 9 ‘less is definitely more’ with a firm emphasis on quality over quantity.

Entering the Full Story Mode, I was surprised to see that Mortal Kombat began and played out almost like a movie. Beginning after the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, it is clear to see that the classic struggle between good and evil has claimed many lives on both sides. As the opening credits roll we see decapitated and tattered corpses laying in a desolate landscape while vulture type creatures feed from their flesh. In the distance we hear Raiden and Shao Khan fight. As the camera pans closer we see that this is their final battle and Raiden; the Heroic Thunder God is losing big time; his magic amulet shattered into pieces by a blow that sends him flying to the floor. Just before Shao Khan is about to deliver the final death strike, Raiden casts a spell that returns time to the very first Mortal Kombat tournament – can he change events and save the world?

Playing Mortal Kombat in the story mode puts you on a linear pathway spanning the first three games. In each chapter a short movie or cut-scene will play to set the scene and then you are thrust into the shoes of the character and will have to defeat your opponent to progress. This is a style seen before in DC Versus Mortal Kombat and to be honest it works even better here as for players new to the Mortal Kombat universe, it encourages you to learn each of the character’s moves in turn.

It starts with an introduction to the first tournament; Liu Kang, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage arriving for the battle to defend earth with each of their motivations revealed. The storyline makes some nice nods to the feature film of old and advances through some impressive cut-scenes that really expand on what you know. Characters interact before and after a fight and whilst some of the reasons for a fight are a bit petty the dialogue is great and the action is well paced. Also, owing to the fact that Raiden now has knowledge of the future and is trying to change it, there are some lovely twists along the way as the events of the mythology are altered, so you meet characters you might not expect, characters die when you least expect, motivations are changed and different alliances are formed. This all makes for an interesting game especially for those who needed more than just a reboot.

Game modes include the typical Tower Matches of the ‘old school arcade’ which are ten battles randomly chosen with the final battle being with supreme big bad boy Shao Khan. There is also a Challenge Tower which allows players to complete different tasks to earn Kombat Currency, Online play which includes a King of the Hill tournament, where fighters line up as spectators and wait for the next battle. There is also one on one and Tag team matches to sink your teeth into.

Not so new to MK 9 is Kombat Currency; you earn it in almost everything you do in the game, every fight and every challenge. With it you can purchase art work, alternative costumes, unlockable characters the list goes on.

New to this Mortal Kombat game is the tag team system. This is where you select two characters and can swap them in and out at key moments during the fight. This is very similar manner to the Marvel versus Capcom and Tekken Tag series set of games. Essentially tag matches run at a much more frantic pace to the normal game with characters jumping in and out at will, so learning how to jump in and out and initiate tag team combos is essential, as it can turn simple combinations into brutal air juggles and that is not even when taken into account the new super attacks.

Super attacks are initiated through use of another first for this game the “super meter”. This is charged by various actions during battle such as blocking successfully, performing a combo or getting hit by the opponent. The super meter can be charged to three levels and depending on the available level, three special actions are made available. A single level can be used to deliver an enhanced version of any one of the character’s special attacks; two levels can be used to interrupt a combo, and the full three levels will allow for the delivery of a special combo called an X-ray move. X-ray moves are very exciting and satisfying to pull off; the camera zooms in and shows an inside view of the character that is being attacked, showing bones and organs being broken or ruptured with each impact. The amount of damage you can inflict (or receive) is incredible and can really make or break a match, so it really does count to understand and manage your meter properly as well as to watch that of your opponent’s. Obviously Fatalities are a key point of this game and here whilst MK 9 has less of the smorgasbord of signature death moves, babilties and brutalities etc present in previous titles what it does have doesn’t disappoint. The death moves here whilst over the top are truly disturbing and gruesome. To help you get started there is even fatality tutorials so you can practice before you ‘enter the field’. It definitely warrants its 18 certificate.

Talking of 3D, this Mortal Kombat 9 is one of the first side-on fighting games to utilise stereoscopic 3D graphics for 3D compatible TV’s. I really didn’t think that this was going to work that well, I mean; if a game is in a 2D plane how can you as the gamer really be immersed in a 3D world. However, whilst this is not by any means one of the best 3D experiences I have seen in a game it is not done badly. NetherRealm Studios decided to reserve 3D effects for the fight matches only and whilst this leaves out the cut-scenes (which in many ways would have been perfect for 3D effects) what this does mean is that the level of immersion comes in the depth of the characters and their backgrounds. This brings to life the vista that is the Mortal Kombat world. For instance when you are fighting in the coliseum you can clearly see Shao Khan on the throne edging the crowd on. As you fight in the city you can see the Extermination squads setting fire to the city and dragons breathing fire onto helicopters as cars skid past you and crash, another noteworthy stage is the train station where litter gets blown past you and trains fire through the station in the midst of your battle. Although a little bit gimmicky if you have a 3D TV these effects do stand out are all nice touches especially if you are lacking games with 3D content.

Not so good is the online play. I am not sure if this was because the PSN network is yet to be restored properly or maybe that a lot of PS3 owners had defected to the XBOX 360, but trying to get into any match took quite a while. When I finally did manage to get into one, I found connection to be more than decidedly dodgy. Hopefully an update will sort this out. If it doesn’t though I figure I will be better off calling the boys round for a ‘quiet night in’.

One last thing that I do have to mention what this game has in its favour is the inclusion of the God of War character Kratos; all I can say is wow. I think if they had just included him without any real thought to the actual character; how he moves etc, then he would be a let down. As it is they have given him the full works; with a real insane fatality to boot. The only thing that is not so impressive is the non inclusion to XBOX owners – Come on NetherRealm Studios – that is just not fair.

My final verdict-
Whilst I am not an avid supporter of gratuitous blood, guts and gore in video games I have to admit that I shamelessly enjoyed this game. It is the re-telling of the story that needed to be told and in many ways exactly what the franchise needed. Packed full with tons of extra features and options, gamers and fans of the series are going to be in for a treat!

9.3 / 10

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

Fighting games are two-a-penny these days, this is however the first proper installment on the PS3

Equal to: Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter IV.

Better than: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, Soul Calibur 6, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Tekken 6 (only just).