History VideoGame / Crusader

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: See all these guns you have that invoke all manner of horrible deaths? See all those helpless scientists and engineers? Get experimenting. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything We put a lot of work into it.]]

* KaizoTrap: In ''No Regrets'', there is often a BottomlessPit trap hidden under the WEC floor logo just before the level exit.

** In an aversion, the Silencer armor, despite looking like a cross between a [[StarWars Royal Guardsman and Boba Fett]], was apparently designed by someone who wasn't familiar with StarWars at all.

* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids

* {{MOD}}: used this format for its music.

* OpenSaysMe: Some doors require keycards or keypad passcodes. However some of them can be simply ''blown up'', {{Film/Terminator2}} style. Of course, doing so immediately triggers the alarm.

-->''"No pity. No mercy. No regret."''

Made of roughly equal parts ''Syndicate'', ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', ''Film/RoboCop'', and ''Franchise/StarWars'', the story is as follows: In the year 2196, the WEC is a global economic hegemony, ruling the Earth and other colonies in the solar system with an iron fist. At the beginning of ''No Remorse'' the Silencer's team is betrayed by the WEC after refusing an order to kill unarmed civilians, identified by their commander as rebels. The rest of his team is killed, so the Silencer betrays them in turn, joining up with the [[LaResistance Global Resistance]], who are trying to remove the WEC from their position of system-wide dominance. The WEC is getting close to tightening their grip further by completing the orbital bombardment platform ''Vigilance'', which would allow them to bombard any point on Earth into rubble on a moment's notice through centralized control of nuclear-armed satellites and would itself remain safe by being a very small target well out of reach of conventional attack.

* FacelessGoons

** TheHero: The Silencer

* FrickinLaserBeams

* HeroicMime

* CruelAndUnusualDeath

Made of roughly equal parts ''Syndicate'', ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', ''Film/RoboCop'', and ''Franchise/StarWars'', the story is as follows: in ''No Remorse'' the Silencer's team is betrayed by the WEC after refusing an order to kill unarmed civilians, identified by their commander as rebels. The rest of his team is killed, so the Silencer betrays them and comes to the aid of the [[LaResistance Global Resistance]], who are trying to remove the WEC from their position of system-wide dominance. The WEC is getting close to tightening their grip further by completing the orbital bombardment platform ''Vigilance'', which would allow them to bombard any point on Earth into rubble on a moment's notice through centralized control of nuclear-armed satellites and would itself remain safe by being a very small target well out of reach of conventional attack.

Naturally, as the first member of the Silencer Corps to ever defect, the Captain is greeted with suspicion, mistrust, and even outright hatred from the Resistance. This cannot be helped by the fact that the Silencer [[HeroicMime never speaks in game]]. Nonetheless, [[OneManArmy he uncomplainingly takes on missions it would normally take a team of Rebel operatives to finish]], with only the equipment he can scrounge off bad guys, buy off an arms dealer, or steal from around the Rebel base and the trademark red armor of the Silencers to do it. (Presumably, the Rebels' quartermaster doesn't trust the Silencer enough to let him requisition stuff.) Complicating matters is a fairly well done subplot concerning a possible traitor in the Silencer's Resistance cell--which the Silencer himself is vocally accused of being on more than one occasion. ''No Remorse'' ends with the destruction of the ''Vigilance'' platform and the Silencer floating away in an escape pod.

Both ''Crusader'' games used a modified version of the engine developed for Origin's own ''UltimaVIII'', providing an isometric 3rd-person view on the PlayerCharacter not unlike that of ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}}''. The game featured pre-rendered sprites instead of 3D accelerated polygons generated on the fly. These graphics still hold up nicely today, especially when their age is taken into account.

The controls were good--though they took a little getting used to, the system was perfectly logical--allowing for an impressive array of diving, rolling, strafing, and just plain walking and running (though jumping was pathetically hit-or-miss) and it was easy to see where you were aiming, thanks to a targeting reticle drawn on the screen. Hitting things that were off screen was a problem, and you often found yourself wishing for a way to move the camera independently of the Silencer. On the other hand, enemies that shouldn't have been able to see you generally didn't react until you scrolled into their screen, but could still be killed by you if you knew they were there.

The games' music was rather advanced for its time, consisting of high-quality .MOD files, a step or two below [=CDs=] or .mp3s in quality. The game also had an all-but-undocumented "jukebox" feature, allowing you to switch through the games' tracks in the midst of gameplay. The tunes themselves were generally well-done [=rock/techno=].

** TheLancer: Sheperd
** TheBigGuy: Torch

** TheChick: Sekada

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The Disrupter is supposed to be a one-shot munition, [[TeleFrag telefraggnig]] anyone incoming on the trapped Telepad before destroying the pad itself. In actual gameplay the Disrupter won't do a thing to the Telepad and it will continue to frag anyone incoming on it as long as it's armed nearby.

* NonstandardGameOver: At least one mission in each game was timed, and if time ran out...

* PercussiveMaintenance: Used only once, thankfully.

The first two games [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/crusader_no_remorse have become available from gog.com]] for a nicely cheap price.

Made of roughly equal parts ''Syndicate'', ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', ''RoboCop'', and ''StarWars'', the story is as follows: in ''No Remorse'' the Silencer's team is betrayed by the WEC after refusing an order to kill unarmed civilians, identified by their commander as rebels. The rest of his team is killed, so the Silencer betrays them and comes to the aid of the [[LaResistance Global Resistance]], who are trying to remove the WEC from their position of system-wide dominance. The WEC is getting close to tightening their grip further by completing the orbital bombardment platform ''Vigilance'', which would allow them to bombard any point on Earth into rubble on a moment's notice through centralized control of nuclear-armed satellites and would itself remain safe by being a very small target well out of reach of conventional attack.

The Silencer has a [[HyperSpaceArsenal vast array of weapons]] he picks up (or, in the first game, buys from Weasel, an arms dealer sympathetic to the Resistance), from assault rifles, shotguns and grenade launchers to lasers and UV projectors to, in the sequel, inventively vicious weapons like the liquefier and the crystallizer. While the graphics aren't high resolution enough for it to be truly horrifying, the Silencer's more exotic weapons were delightfully gruesome when used against humans. ''No Regret'' in particular was somewhat notorious for the number of ways humans could die--which included being shot, set on fire, frozen (and then, if you wanted, shattered), blown apart, melted, reduced to a puddle of non-differentiated grey-green goo, and having the flesh burned off one's skeleton. Ruptured high-pressure chemical lines could also freeze people or light them on fire if they wandered into the leak.

* ElementsDoNotWorkThatWay: Silencer armor in one instance is referred to as being made from polonium. Yes, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium#Famous_poisoning_cases that]]'' polonium.

* [[SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom Exploding Hallway Traps Of Doom]]

* NoKillLikeOverkill: Sure, you could use a machine gun or pistol to gun down the low-level {{Mook}}s, but [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential it's nowhere as *fun* as using a grenade round]].

* RedHerring: TheMole is [[spoiler:Brooks.]] [[spoiler:Except it's actually Vargas.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In 2006, a European developer approached Origin and offered to port No Remorse to the [[PlaystationPortable PSP]]. They put together [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJvkaw4xerY&feature=player_embedded an example of possible gameplay]]. Unfortunately, Origin turned them down...but not before Andrew Sega, the lead composer on the original game, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZq-YvEUnyA wrote a new version of the theme music]].

The ''Crusader'' series was an early entry into the ThirdPersonShooter genre. Developed by Loose Cannon Productions and published by Origin Systems as ''Crusader: No Remorse'' (1995) and ''Crusader: No Regret'' (1996), they told the story of [[SuperSoldier a Silencer]], one of the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive World Economic Consortium's]] ([[MegaCorp WEC]])'s most elite soldiers.

* DroneJam: Easily remedied by killing said drone; anyone too stupid to move out of the way of a guy with a gun deserves it.

* BoringButPractical: The three round burst machine gun is not very flashy but its fairly powerfull and nearly every enemy carries a clip of ammo for it. This one should probably stay in your inventory troughout the game once you get it.

* IAmNotShazam

* InvulnerableCivilians: Subverted so ''incredibly'' hard: you can massacre them with glee. (And if you don't, they run and call in a RedAlert about half the time, so maybe you ''should''.) Some of them are also armed, usually with sidearms, though in the second game some have pistol versions of the cryo or liquifier rifles. In that case you ''have'' to kill them in self-defense. The fact that they will, if nothing else, carry money doesn't help them, and the fact that these people are pretty much explicitly high-ranking executives, the tiny fraction of the population who can live comfortably and do what they want because of money, makes it oh-so-satisfying.

* RewardingVandalism: Rather heavily subverted, considering the destructibility of the game's environment was a selling point: if you aren't careful you can lose powerups and/or healing stations via wanton destruction

''Crusader'' provides examples of:

Both ''Crusader'' games used a modified version of the engine developed for Origin's own ''UltimaVIII'', providing an isometric 3rd-person view on the PlayerCharacter not unlike that of ''{{Diablo}}''. The game featured pre-rendered sprites instead of 3D accelerated polygons generated on the fly. These graphics still hold up nicely today, especially when their age is taken into account.

* DidNotDoTheResearch
** ElementsDoNotWorkThatWay: Silencer armor in one instance is referred to as being made from polonium. Yes, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium#Famous_poisoning_cases that]]'' polonium.

Made of roughly equal parts ''Syndicate'', ''NineteenEightyFour'', ''RoboCop'', and ''StarWars'', the story is as follows: in ''No Remorse'' the Silencer's team is betrayed by the WEC after refusing an order to kill unarmed civilians, identified by their commander as rebels. The rest of his team is killed, so the Silencer betrays them and comes to the aid of the [[LaResistance Global Resistance]], who are trying to remove the WEC from their position of system-wide dominance. The WEC is getting close to tightening their grip further by completing the orbital bombardment platform ''Vigilance'', which would allow them to bombard any point on Earth into rubble on a moment's notice through centralized control of nuclear-armed satellites and would itself remain safe by being a very small target well out of reach of conventional attack.

* ArtificialStupidity

* DidNotDoTheResearch

** TheChick: Sekada

* TeleFrag: In ''No Remorse'', [[spoiler: Professor Wilmar is killed when the telepad he's using is reset in the middle of activation (presumably by TheMole Vargas)]]. Earlier in the game, the same effect occurs if you use a telepad which various sources in the game [[SchmuckBait tell you, in no uncertain terms, not to]]. In ''No Regret'', one of the munitions you can obtain is the Disrupter, a device that attaches to a telepad and deliberately scrambles an incoming signal, instantly killing anyone who comes in on that telepad--including you. Flavor documentation states that the Disrupter also destroys the telepad on activation but this isn't actually depicted in-game and thus you're usually encouraged to leave it on the pad to mulch enemy reinforcements...unless of course you know you'll be using that telepad later on.