Cross of the Dutchman

Игра повествует о становлении вполне себе исторической личности, фрисладском воине и пирате, Пьере Герлофсе Дониа (он же Большой Пьер) Сама игрушка очень короткая (2-2,5 часа максимум), но достаточно ламповая и приятная. Разрабы взяли движок от Warcraft3, от туда же модельку крестьянина, накачали последнего стероидами, да так, что старина Халк жмётся в углу и плачет при виде нашего богатыря Пьера, сминающего голыми руками стальные кирасы саксонских ландскнехтов вместе с тем, что под ними. Но если вам и этого не достаточно, то во второй половине кампании вам выдадут 2-х метровый дрын, коим вы продолжите карать несчастных саксонцев. Но если опустить всё это, то геймплей сводиться к закликиванию моделек врагов до летального исхода, сбору золота из сундуков на небольших коридорных локациях и разрушению ящиков и бочек с этой же целью. Стоит ли эта игра 4,5$, которые за неё просят, думаю всё же нет. Но при наличии хорошей скидки она вполне способна подарить вам 2 часа расслабленного времяпровождения.

[h1]Introduction[/h1] [b]Cross of the Dutchman[/b] is an action adventure set in the Middle Ages. [h1]Pros & Cons[/h1] [b]Pros:[/b] + Engaging story based on a legend from actual history + Good soundtrack matching the action on screen + Pleasant cartoonish graphics [b]Cons:[/b] - Gameplay is too simple - Minor technical problems - Short (2-3 hours to beat) [h1]Story[/h1] The game takes place in the 16th century and follows the legend of [b]Pier Gerlofs Donia[/b]. One day, the Saxon soldiers have invaded his village and started taking taxes from the farmers. Our protagonist decides to intervene on behalf of his friends, but only makes matters worse. Yet he doesn't back down easily, so it's your job to help him rally the forces and push back the invaders. The story isn't particularly original, never the less it's interesting to follow. It is also nice to find out a bit of history from a videogame. The game mixes calm, relaxing moments and intense situations really well. There are a lot of characters in the game, although most of them are very forgettable and lacking in charisma. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The mechanics are very simple. There are only two attacks. The weak one and the strong one, which uses stamina. After a few introductory missions, you're free to explore the game's world. Which isn't very big, only 6 locations, but each of them contains hidden chests filled with gold. Which you'll need if you want to unlock your full combat potential. You can upgrade your stamina bar and health bar as well. You can also unlock different variations of a powerful attack. Getting those upgrades will turn you into a killing machine, which feels good, since the game provides plenty of foes for you to slay. There are occasional stealth segments that are as simple as stealth can get. There are no takedowns, just stay out of enemies' sight. Sometimes the game would hang a timer over your head to raise the stakes, which makes some stealth segments a bit frustrating. It's not that the limit is too small, it's just the tension forces you to make mistakes. Getting caught in stealth resets you back to the checkpoint, even though you could easily take on hordes of enemies. Checkpoints are also spread through the game rather sparingly. [h1]Graphics & Audio[/h1] The technical side of the visuals shows its age, but they're still pleasant to look at. Because of a consistent cartoonish style, the game has. The soundtrack is pretty good. It matches up with what's happening on screen perfectly. But there aren't any memorable tracks that you'd want to listen to after completion. There's no voice acting, although the game could certainly use one, since there's a lot of dialogue and adding sound would have made them much more impactful. [h1]Performance[/h1] Specs: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU 8GB, 32GB RAM. On max settings, at 1080p resolution, the game runs at a steady 150 FPS, although it suffers from drops when a lot of enemies are present on screen at the same time. In such moments, the FPS dipped to 60 for me. I've also experienced one bug when the enemy has spawned outside of an accessible area and I couldn't progress, because I couldn't get to them. Restarting the game has fixed the issue. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [b]Cross of the Dutchman[/b] is a rather simple action-adventure with an engaging story that can be completed in one or two sittings. If that's your thing, then give it a shot.