Video game demos today are like movie trailers. If well done, they can make a horrible piece of art at least mediocre. If there’s something special there though, a well-received demo can set the scene for a huge release. Or in the case of Atlus’ new hack and slash title, “Cursed Crusade,” it can make a bad game seem even worse.
In spite of simple controls, beautiful cinemas and what appears to be a pretty cool story, “Cursed Crusade” plays like an absolute disaster.
At first, the one-button attack scheme works splendidly. The amount of bloods and crazy looking kills helps as well. But after a few minutes, the relentless and ignorant button-mashing runs its course. While there are multiple weapons to chose from, the combat is ultimately unrewarding.
Most of the game’s problems stem from a terrible camera. While the title tries to change it’s view from time to time, reminiscent of other games such as “Dante’s Inferno” and “God of War,” the transitions aren’t nearly as fluid. The end result is a game that tries to do too much. This could have been a fun medieval beat-em-up with RPG elements; instead it feels like a broken, muddy-looking version of “Dynasty Warriors.”
On top of that, the enemy AI is brainless. One scene has your warrior face to face with three crossbow-wielding baddies. Have no fear though. They won’t try to kill you. They’ll just stand there, with no cover, wait for you to shoot them and allow you to continue killing their friends.
This is just a small taste of the silliness this game offers.
Had the AI been better, the camera woes and overtly simplistic controls could have been forgiven. While you don’t get the whole story from this demo, you get enough of a taste to realize there are too many problems here that could possibly ruin your gameplay experience.
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