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Ever since the Age of Empires, I’ve loved the complexities of real-time strategy combat. But I also love it when a game allows me to customize my characters as deeply as possible. Those two things are what make Band of Crusaders an intriguing dish. As the leader of a crusader order, it is your job to assemble a group of brave fighters to keep the hordes of demons at bay. With in-depth unit building and high-stakes real-time combat, Band of Crusaders might be the fresh coat of pain the RTS genre needs.
From Peasants to Holy Heroes
While not the longest, my hands-on time with Band of Crusaders included many core systems coming to the game. Unit management, map exploration, and RTS tactical combat were the most notable. It might sound like a handful, but I was quite surprised by how well they all worked together.
When you finish the tutorial, you arrive at a war-torn map, which takes a lot of inspiration from The Witcher series in the sense of adding fiendish creatures while keeping a medieval style that doesn’t border on the fantasy and cutesy side. Here, you can choose where to go. You can travel to any province and city to recruit crusaders, grab quests, and purchase equipment.
During my first run, it didn’t take long for me to feel like I was playing XCOM. In what way? Wherever you travel, you can recruit individual fighters for your cause. Instead of being the cannon fodder you usually summon in RTS games by spamming a button, all crusaders here have an origin, a name, and even a background (even if it was a placeholder one). That evoked a feeling of attachment as I led my band of fighters through these infested lands.
The attachment doesn’t stop there, as you can raise your crusaders in many ways. There are five skill trees you can pursue, and they all affect your playstyle depending on the weapons you have. For instance, your mace, axe, and sword fighters are your damage dealers. They hit hard but are squishy. You also have your pikemen, who can make enemies bleed, attack from a distance, and even charge at foes. Also, each weapon has different properties. Some damage HP faster, while others pierce through armor. So, even if you have five crusaders following the same skill branch, all of them will play differently.
Demon Hunters in Training
Once you equip your heroes with the necessary weapons and armor, you can start tackling a few quests. The developers at Virtual Alchemy recommended we start with a few easy ones, and so I did. I started tracking down bandit leaders, assassinating outlaws, and halting the plans of a witch or two. The gameplay loop was quite easy but rewarding. You explore the overworld, find your target, enter an instanced arena to fight enemies, gather loot, sell it, and rinse and repeat.
All the above might sound repetitive, but I didn’t find it as such. On the contrary, I think there was a considerable enemy variety, even for an early build. Also, many enemies act differently. One mission included enemy archers only, and my crusaders were chasing them as if it were a Tom & Jerry episode, which was pretty fun to watch. Another was a skirmish between a local allied militia and bandits, where I joined to help the former.
However, my biggest takeaway was the first boss encounter against Beelzebub. After a certain amount of in-game days (or using the save file the developers provided because I kept losing before reaching that part), a boss will spawn on the map, and it’s up to you to track it down and defeat it. So, I grabbed my team of eight crusaders and faced this abomination, and oh boy, it wasn’t a walk in the park.
What distinguishes this fight from others is the dynamism in the mechanics. Most encounters have your fighters auto-attack enemies and then activate a few skills should the need arise. However, during my fight against Beelzebub, I had to dodge AoE attacks, reposition my units, and use every active skill I had. Five out of my eight crusaders had perished by the time it all ended. And you know what? It was one of the most enjoyable fights I’ve had in an RTS game.
A Promising Crusade
Even if this build lacked story-focused content and a few tutorials, Band of Crusaders already looks like a game that fans of RTS and RPGs will enjoy. I kid you not; even if you’re a fan of one but not of the other, it’ll hook you. There are still a few things that need a bit of tuning, like simplifying the trading process or making missions a bit more dynamic, but for an early build, it looks extremely promising.
Also, the fact that an RTS game doesn’t offer just cannon fodder and instead encourages you to create your merry band of heroes-in-training is gratifying and memorable. It provides a layer of attachment the genre usually doesn’t offer. Plus, the RPG systems are simple, meaning newcomers to the genre won’t struggle much. Out of all the recent games I’ve played, I admit this one is reaching a high spot on my wishlist, and I can’t wait to see it during its full launch.
