The first time around in mid February this year this sequel to the first Crusaders of Space (CoS) received 94% of 156 votes with 40 comments, some of which were concerning problems with running the game. See the end of this review for a return to that issue plus an expansion of it if you wish to follow it up. Others concerned the activation process, which, if you click on the link at the bottom of this page to Froggy’s Adventures, or follow the first hyperlink below and check out my comment # 8 I went through the basic procedure again for any newcomer that may have joined the project: :D
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/froggys-adventures/#comment-36906
This game is the sequel to the first CoS game which has now been given away twice. Apart from some slight differences such as different level sets and some improvements in the graphics which include stationary background graphics to give it more atmosphere, this is still basically the same as the first one. Both this and CoS are okay, but the third and final one in the series, which has also been given away twice is the better of the three (IMO), with some obvious improvements in graphics, however the game play remains the same throughout the three games. Rather than spend the next two to three hours dissecting this game (my first review only mentions the gamma control problems) I’ve copied my last review of CoS, with some slight omissions and changes as it is just as valid for this game. I hope you don’t mind, I’ve also included the main parts of the read me and help html documents that can always be found in any Alawar game, which describe the main features of this game as well as list the controls etc:
This is one of the earlier of the more up to date space shooters (does that make sense lol), and despite what previous comments say throughout the whole of this series, if you like space shooters this is worth the download. As for comparing it to the 8 bit graphics of yester year, which a few did in the last giveaway of CoS you’ve got to be joking. I’m sure we all know that we see things through rose tinted glasses when we look back on such things. The reality of those early games are, very pixillated graphics, and line diagrams representing the space ships and explosions and no colour, just white on black. The game play is, I agree, very similar to some of those games, but great game play in conjunction with better sound effects and more importantly, better graphics really adds to the atmosphere of these games. I know I repeatedly say that graphics aren’t really that important, but I make an exception to the rule with games such as space shooters because all those colourful explosions and weapon blasts really do make a big difference to the enjoyment :D I’m sure if I was left with only an old Atari, or my old Einstein computer, I’d still find any of the old games as good to play now as then. But given the choice between then and now, I know which I’d choose ten times out of ten.
The following is the main information found in the read me and the help html documents that comes packaged with the game (and as previously mentioned can be found in the games main folder:
Program description:
Just when you thought the alien invasion was successfully fought off once and for all, new waves of alien scum come in numbers far greater then 5 years ago. The government is alarmed. An abstract from an official intelligence report: Our satellites have located as many as fifty alien interceptor’s rapidly approaching planet Earth. Detailed analysis of the digital image data revealed a larger object as well. Without a doubt, it's the Big Brain, thought to be killed 5 years ago. Looks like we should start a search for a new hero right now! Who is going to win this time? Will the humanity be able to form a force capable of stopping the attackers? Or will all humans be enslaved by an alien civilization that came from a far away galaxy?
Game objects and controls:
Main Menu:
Start game: Click here to start the game
Top ranks: Click here to see the top ranks
Options: Click here to choose options
Help: Click here to see game help
Credits: Click here to see game credits
Exit game: Click here to quit the game.
Controls:
Basic keyboard controls:
Moving - Left / Right Arrows
Secondary weapon (rockets)- Space Bar
Primary weapon - CTRL
Pause & menu - ESC
Lap-top - F1
Setup:
Launch setup.exe in the game roller
1)Graphic:
- Brightness: move scrollbar to change brightness
- Rocket smoke: activating this parameter may slow performance.
- Splinters: decrease this value for better performance.
- Bumpiness: if this option is activated, the screen will jitter right after an explosion.2)Sound
- Sound Fx volume: sound effects volume level
- Music volume: music volume level3)Controls
- Device: select a device (mouse, keyboard or joystick)
- Configure keys: configure controls for keyboard.You can start the game with new options (save and start game) or exit (quit)
Troubleshooting:
Alawar STRONGLY recommend installing the latest versions of the drivers for your video cards.
(When installing new graphics card drivers, use the Windows Uninstall program to remove previous drivers)
- NVIDIA based cards must have latest NVIDIA drivers (www.nvidia.com)
- ATI based cards must have latest Catalyst drivers (www.ati.com)- Alawar recommend closing all applications when playing the game.
- Alawar recommend not installing the application in the Windows folder or in the root of the C: drive. (that means directly into the C: drive and not in a folder.
- DirectX Latest Runtime: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads
Installation Instructions:
All you have to do is to run the downloaded CosOR.exe file. The installation wizard will guide you through the setup process. When the setup is completed, run the game by choosing the "Crusaders Of Space: Open Range" item from the program group in the Start menu.
Hardware requirements
• Windows95/98/ME/2000/XP
• Pentium processor
• DirectX compatible video card with 16 MB
• 64 MB RAM or above.
• 18 MB free hard drive space. (+ 200 MB for swap file)
• DirectX 7.1 or higher
• Sound card
The options menu gives access to the control menu which allows you to select between keyboard, game pad and mouse, which should satisfy most people’ I hope’. The usual sound and music sliders are present, but apart from a gamma control slider there is little else to adjust the graphics. On starting the game you will be able to select the difficulty setting, and then you will see that there are two episodes; Star Gates and Alien world. The second one is locked until you complete all five missions that make up the Star Gates episode. Each mission comprises 10 levels, making a total of 100 levels. At the end of each mission you will encounter a level boss in the form of either a space station or a giant ship. Don’t bother accumulating your missiles for this encounter because any that you have left from the previous levels will be taken away. It’s fairly important that you make it through with the highest level of primary weapon which is the fifth upgrade. Once you attain full strength you will also be offered bombs which send out an arc of explosive charges when you catch them. Weapon upgrades are carried through till the end of each mission where you have to start afresh.
Although this particular space shooter doesn’t have the upgrades of some of the more recent games of this genre; it is still a worthwhile game in my opinion. It’s an ideal introduction for your younger children as well because the ship you control and the attacking ships are larger in size than most space shooters apart from perhaps hyper space traveler.
See my post comment #22 from the last space shooter Astro Wars, given away as I added a link to a free shooter called Alien Wars, which is similar to Astro Wars.
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/fury-astro/#comments
Also check the comments from the previous giveaway of this title. Check out Game Seekers comment #24, which is probably the most in depth:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/crusaders-of-space/#comments
I’d give this 7 out of 10 for playability (slightly better than it’s predecessor that scored 6.5. The sequel that was given away earlier this month is much better especially, which oddly received a lower thumbs up percentage than this one despite being better; then again there were fewer voting, so the result would be skewed a little. :)
Thank you Alawar and the Game Giveaway team for another good give away.
Check out the following links that compare the three games Crusaders of Space, Crusaders of Space:Open Range and finally Crusaders of Space 2:
Crusaders of Space:Open Range:
Crusaders of Space:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&q=Crusaders+of+Space+&btnG=Search+Images
Crusaders of Space 2:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&q=Crusaders+of+Space+2&btnG=Search+Images
or my original screencaptures: (Crusaders of Space and Crusaders of Space 2 respectively) slideshow only links:
You can see the difference between this game and it’s sequels as there are images of all three on the pages above, although Crusaders of Space 1 shows more images of it’s sequel than itself. .
Remember folks this is one of the older of the modern shooters. If we are just looking at tied to the bottom vertical space shooters then I personally much prefer the Star Defender series, especially the last one Star Defender 4. If you were to have only one of this genre and decide to purchase one then Star Defender 4 is really the most recent and the most graphically inspiring of this small niche in the larger Space Shoot Em up genre, although they all have basically the same game play.
I almost forgot:
This game will require some graphic emulation, (which is mentioned above in the hardware requirements section, though unless your computer is pre millennium, you shouldn’t have a problem as the video memory requirements are only 16Mb. You can see the read me file with the minimum requirements on this provided you leave the box ticked when the installation has completed.
If you want to change the music you can simply by choosing your favourite MP3’s and swapping them for the ones in the music folder contained within the data folder within the main games folder. They are MP3’s so you can swap them directly. However you must rename the tracks to the ones that are contained within the folder, ie Menu, Boss and Main. :)
You can also find the help menu within the game folder as well. (This is different to the in game help screen). It does mention that there are toggles to switch off specific effects for those with slower machines; however I couldn’t find these anywhere.
Finally, once you’ve completed a mission, you can replay it in any difficulty setting without starting from the beginning of the game.
I do apologize for all the links I’ve provided today. My heads spinning just checking them out, lol.
The following is my reply to some queries that may still be valid for some regarding Gamma Controls and DX compatibility.
“Quote (with some changes):
However if you don’t have a Gamma control you can get a freeware controller from the following address:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/DarkAdapted.shtml
Basically it allows you to adjust your screen brightness and colour to give the best possible look for your personal taste, as well as to increase the brightness of games that have dark backgrounds, much like the Crusaders games. I’m no expert so I hope someone else can help a little more on this one. However installing the controller just may solve the error. You can always delete it if it doesn’t work.
I would also suggest making sure you have the latest video and monitor drivers. There are lots of sites that you can download drivers from. Depending upon which graphics card you have, for example ATI or NVidia, or others, you can go to their home pages and get the latest drivers for your graphics. With respect to monitor drivers; Windows XP has an adequate supply of drivers that should be okay, provided you have the installation disc but again you can find specific drivers for whatever monitor you have by going to a drivers site.. I use the following
If you don’t know what your graphics card or monitor are called you can use the dxdiag command by clicking on the Start menu, then click on run and type dxdiag in the space provided then click okay. You’ll get a screen appearing called DirectX Diagnostic tool, click on the display tab and you’ll see the name of your particular graphics card and lower down it should tell you what display you have. You can save this report if you wish.
You may have to download a copy of Direct X if you have no 3D games installed such as first person shooters and simulation games like Microsoft’s flight sim’s. Again it can be obtained free from the following address:
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/directx.html
(the original address I posted:
now takes you to the Direct X 10 download page, which unless you’ve bough one of the {still few} cards that support this amazing step forwards in graphics eg NVidia 8600 and 8800 series of cards and the Radion HD2900 XT & HD 2600XT cards amongst others and are running Vista you will not need to bother with for some time to come. (most of the DX10 cards are still ridiculously expensive and for the top of the range models you could buy a decent computer with a dual core cpu, a reasonable TFT monitor and bags of HDD space) although the NVidia 8600 256Mb cards I bought to run in SL1 Mode only cost ~ $240 for the two and a NVidia 8800GTS 640Mb card for $400; I consider myself a medium to serious gamer and only bought those cards because I’d pre-ordered Crysis a DX10 ready game, nearly a year ago and it took me all year to pluck up the courage to spend such ridiculous amounts of money on just a few graphics cards. I could have purchased a reasonably cheap lap top for my son for the cost of those, but my son enjoys watching me play some of these games) . By the way they were all wasted in he end as neither of my two compatible computers will run Vista properly, so I can’t enjoy the ground breaking quality of DX10 yet…sheds a tear…
If you are interested in the DX10 debate check out the following article which explains some of the mystery surrounding Direct X 10 as well as making a comparison between the two leading manufacturers of graphics cards. (Thankfully we still have two decent competitors which keep the edge to the market boiling and also keeps the prices down somewhat ( lol in a sort of sarcastic way considering what I’ve just said above)
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/09/directx_10_shootout/page2.html
end of Quote”
