Robert King - Crusaders of Might and Magic (1999)

 

Composer: Robert King
Console: Middle PC, GOG
Game Release Date: 
Bootleg Release Date: 
Ripper: Someone on KHInsider
Runtime: 42:19, 15 Tracks

Despite all of its flaws I quite enjoy The 3DO Company's games. Maybe its because of I played Warriors when I was younger that helped sow the seeds and the mystery I felt the 3DO console had. Regardless I loved Warriors. Then as the story goes I later played Shifters and loved it. I decided for this year, as soon as 2021 starts I am going to begin playing the 3rd (technically 1st) game in the 'series'. That is Crusaders of Might and Magic for the PC. I only beat it about 2 weeks ago at the time writing (publishing maybe way later, I'm writing a whole bunch of posts at the moment). Crusaders is also the most accessible game in the series with it being purchaseable on GOG. Although it had a handful of glitches (such as switching between menus) it ran with not many issues. 

I call it a series with Warriors and Shifters although the only real thing in common is that they use the same engine and just happened to be made by the same developers (not to mention all 3 being Might and Magic games). Unlike Warriors and Shifters this game follows a different warrior called Drake. The story follows him seeking vengence on the Legion of the Fallen after they killed his parents and slaughtered his village. Despite his traumatic upbringing and edge demeanor in the intro cutscene his is very laid back and constantly cracking jokes. 

After breaking out of a Legion prison he ends up joining the Crusaders in their war against the Legion. The story then follows as he ventures around the province helping the Crusaders and aquiring weapons for the upcoming assault on the Stronghold. 

The game is a third person hack and slash adventure with minor RPG elements. It's similar in gameplay to Two Worlds and Gothic but much less technical. You only have the ability to use a small number of spells (all hidden throughout the game), hotkey some items and then a basic set of armor and weapons. There are some unique weapons like the Boomer Axe but for the most part I used the same sword and armor the entire game. The game is pseudo-linear in that there isn't anything stopping you from going everywhere other than there isn't anything there until the correct point in the story. You can storm the final stronghold but you'll reach a dead end as you can't do anything there yet. 

Despite how I intend to end this post I did enjoy the game. Enemies were laughably glitchy, combat was simple, there were huge expansive areas with secrets all over, some areas were too big actually (Celestia's Citadel for example). I found the locations to be quite nice looking and didn't take any issues with it. I don't really care about how things have 'aged' unless it's particularly bad. Crusaders was fine. The game was a bit annoying to run in Windows 7 but I didn't experience any glitches with it. The soundtrack was a little lackluster due to how much back tracking you had to do. The best looking area was the crashed Kreegan ship followed by the Glacier. I'm a little disappointed that unlike Warriors and Shifters there wasn't much Kreegan influence and appearances. 

Now it's rant time. 

The ending was the part that pissed me off the most. The end game sequence starts with Drake entering the stronghold. It mentions that you won't be able to go back but it doesn't explain any more than that. But then you have to run through the entire complex and then after just barely making it out of the complex you are immediately thrust into the final dungeon. The final dungeon is in a kreegan spaceship (which it never explains how the kreegans are even invovled). It also fails to explain what happened to Celestia (may be covered in the ending) and just forgets about the plotline that Celestia may be evil. 
So I'm now stuck in this dungeon with no healing spell, the only spell that can heal doesn't work on enemies and no potions. I had the option to just barely crawl the dungeon killing enemies one at a time and incredibly stealthily but no, fuck that and fuck this game. All the pent up anger from playing with barely any healing items and other glitches just came up. I am done wasting my time on this shit. I charged through the dungeon just to see if there was anything like a shop but nope just a final boss. It is possible to glitch him as seen in some LP videos but I was just fed up and refused to waste any more time on the game. 

Compared to Shifters and Warriors this is the worst one of the trilogy. Shifters and Warriors really got this style much more downpacked. The PSX version has a different story and different gameplay. I do intend to give that a try but as for this version it's only just okay. The ending really did a lot of damage to my opinion on it. 

As for the soundtrack...it's alright. It's composed by Rob King. He is a member of the alt-rock band Red Delicious and most known for his work on other Might and Magic games. Going through the soundtrack now I realize my run may have actually been glitched. I only remember a few songs actually playing and looping awkwardly. So maybe that's why I didn't think much of the OST, it didn't play haha. Regardless, before I got bored of the same tracks over and over I did enjoy the music played. It was a little too cinematic for what was happening at the time but I still liked it on its own. It's mostly just dungeon synth and cinematic classical. He didn't go the industrial metal route that Barry Blum did on Shifters. 

I did end up getting bored of hearing the same X tracks repeating and with the constant backtracking just decided to put my own music towards the end. Although this post focuses squarely on the actual soundtrack I will still list those albums. What I was listening to during Crusaders was 4th Disciple & One Man - Crime & Punishment in America (2007), Slaine - The Things We Can't Forgive (2021) and The Cuf - Cufbaby (1999). They all fit somewhat. 

The rip below is courtesy of KHInsider. I have re-tagged the tracks and made it easier for consumption. That version is also linked below. Also, at the time of posting this GOG is currently having a massive sale. You can get Crusaders for more than a good price.

GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/crusaders_of_might_and_magic
Download (SnowBlue Version): aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvN05KR1hialMjYTFDRUY0TzRyQnhBWS1oeWwxbG1XTF8yQkV5bGxpZ3BwdjJVMVM0OHUtMA==
KHInsider: https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/crusaders-of-might-and-magic-ost
Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM5aKCbftdk
p@ss: kreegans