Folk legend turned video game.
Story:
You play as Pier Gerlofs Donia, I'll call him Pier from now on. He's a simple farmer living a quiet life with his family, but he finds his simple life turn to hell, when Saxons invade the land and make the life for Pier and the other villagers impossible, so he takes up a sword and becomes a warrior to stand up to the saxon invaders.
The story of Cross of the Dutchman is based off a true story, that I only found out about only when my first session finished. Overall the story is decent, but nothing all too special. The way it's told is basically a standard, common man becoming the hero of legend and there's not much you can do to deviate from a true story, but their attempt at telling is tale is done well enough.
Graphics:
Visually I think Cross of the Dutchman is a decent looking game graphically, although it does have some rough spots. So let's begin with the positives which is the incredibly vibrant environments. The art style almost seems cell shaded, but in reality it isn't, although it's definitely cartoony. I genuinely loved the color scheme chosen and I loved the designs of environments, although I wish there could have been more of them.
Characters and their portraits are a bit rough though. Character models seem fine for the most part, but there's a good chunk of them just re-used constantly, especially the enemies. Also their portraits range in quality and makes certain characters look stupid.
Audio:
I will begin by saying that one of the biggest negatives I can give this game right now is that there's no voice acting. The moment the game begins it feels like a grand story and the fact that there's no voice acting to narrate the whole thing is a big minus.
The actual audio that is here is decent although nothing really special. Battle noises are those generic sword slashes that aren't particularly impressive and it gets tiring to hear them. There's not much variety here, with the audio effects and in turn it makes the combat even more tedious than it already is, but more on that in a bit.
The soundtrack is good for what it is, although I'm not particularly big on the genre as a whole. It sounds fine and provides a nice little epic score that goes along the action well, but I wouldn't call it memorable, more like passable at best. I do like the more somber tracks, but overall nothing too amazing.
Gameplay:
Cross of the Dutchman is best described as a hack and slash. You're basically walking around a map doing objectives and then once in a while fight Saxon army soldiers and keep repeating until the game is over. So is the game any good of what it tries to do ? Well yes and no.
I'll begin with the fact that the combat is incredibly simple and I do mean simple. All you basically do is mash a button and you're automatically never going to lose. The combat is incredibly easy and you do get into quite a few encounters and in turn you get annoyed by them, cause all they do is halt your progress.
To help you understand how easy the game is, there's an achievement to die three times and in my entire story playthrough, I didn't manage to get that achievement, as I only died once due to my mouse unplugging and I didn't pause the game.
It's not say that it being simple is bad, far from it. The game is genuinely fun at times, there's no need for the game to kick your ass, sometimes it's fun to be an unstoppable force, but some challenge would have been welcome, maybe even with difficulty selection.
On the positive side, the game is pretty fun and while again the combat is tedious. I did get hooked to keep playing and finishing it up in one sitting. The controls work well and the combat is pretty fun and works well, I never felt like it was janky, so I have to give props to that.
Verdict:
Cross of the Dutchman is a simple little game about a grand legend, that although way too easy, is a fun experience that won't take you long to mop up. Everything it does is okay, but it does not go beyond that, which is why I'm kind of disappointed. I do recommend on a sale, but not much after that.
Final Rating:
6.5/10
Pros:
+ Environments are vibrant and great looking even in the darker moments
+ Combat works well and is fun
+ Decent storyline
Cons:
- Overall the game is way too easy
- Combat gets tedious, due to it's simplicity
- Sound effects during brawls get annoying
If you liked this review please consider joining https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog and https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ImperialReviews
