Game Profiles: Star Crusader

I'd have called this a "game review," but it's a little awkward to call a post on a game I haven't played in over ten years a "review." Indeed, I don't think I've even had a computer that could run Star Crusader for at least ten years.

Star Crusader (I mention it briefly here, focusing on a particular subject within the game, and there is a possibly broken link in that article to another site) was one of the really old games. Older than Earthsiege. Older than Dark Forces. Ah, wait, here's a Wikipedia page. Ah, again, here's a YouTube video of the introductory movie. (Can you tell I do this as I go along? I'd have embedded it, but there's more information about the game in the YouTube description.)

It was a very old game, and my memories of its graphics don't really impress me (though for obvious reasons it was in 3D!). It also had some of the creepiest facial animation you'll ever see (seriously, just watch the video).

However, it still had quite a bit of charm to it.

Capital ships were a rarity in the game, mostly because it'd have been really difficult to make good and impressive ones. They were barely bigger than fighters, and easy targets, though they were very tough and could often kill fighters in two or three shots. (It depended on the capital ship and the fighter.) Fighters really ruled space battles, though, partly because they had nearly the same firepower and often had armaments that, while weaker than capital ships' equivalents, still had many uses.

Each faction, of which there were many, had lasers and various special weapons that they used.

Gorenes (the race the player character was) were the most powerful faction, logical enough as they were invaders from another dimension, and had disruptors (stun cannons, though only on one ship), torpedoes (one of only two limited ammunition weapons, and the best secondary weapon in the game for reasons I explain in the old post I linked earlier), and the bonus ability of self-repair systems. Yes, all Gorene ships could repair themselves at will, unless they lost the self-repair system itself.

Tancreds (who appear briefly in the above movie) had plasma torpedoes (despite the name, a recharging weapon, and perhaps the best such, as they packed a punch and had long range) and the vector cannon, which messed with your maneuvering by making you move in random directions (not enormously useful, but amusing). They were also essentially green Klingons.

Mazumas only had neutron cannons, which killed ship pilots, mounted on one fighter, though their ships were generally the fastest and most maneuverable, and in-story they were the most populous group, outnumbering the other non-Gorene factions combined. They looked like blue fish people, but could also shapeshift.

Zemuns had a weapon called the hellfire (or something like that, it's been a long time) which overloaded shields, but was useless against an unshielded target. It sounds strategic, but really wasn't.

The Nuubyans were some kind of space savages with a personal grudge against the Gorenes, and they actually just piloted copies of Gorene ships (which were actually slightly improved-don't ask how).

The Amiens were normally pacifistic guys who had parasitic stuff in their heads that made them crazy, and they had all sorts of peaceful weapons that didn't work well (stun fields that just made your screens blink, and EMP torpedoes that stunned ships for maybe three seconds) despite being really nuts and occasionally smashing stuff. Which was kind of funny.

The storyline was probably the most memorable thing about it, though, because besides the quasihistorical overtones (Tancred, Nubian, etc.), it involved lots of voice work and making a choice. (Although if you didn't learn the game system properly, it'd be hard to realize you actually had it.)

This game has gotten a bit more attention recently on the Internet (it used to be that the page I linked in the other article was the only thing I could find on the entire Internet), and it's a good thing-maybe it wasn't a game for the ages, but it was a good one.

-Signing off.