Crusaders of Might and Magic

The Good
- Flexible movement. The player can strafe, duck, jump, walk diagonally, roll in all directions, and block - a lot of moves for a FPS in 1999. The player can use these different moves to swing/thrust the weapon in different ways.

• Supports the infamous WASD/mouse FPS combo. (well, the move keys are ESDF by default but you can change them, another good thing)

• Melee combat can be pretty intense, with good close-up AI, and rewarding victories.

• Good music. Though I recognize some of it from Might & Magic VII.

• The armor/resistance system is well done. Instead of a flat armor class, there are "bash" and "slash" % resistances along with the usual element % resistances. Weapons can likewise do any combination of bash, slash, and elemental damage, so most weapons do different damage to different opponents.

• The "bullet-time" level-up kill was done after The Matrix came out, contrary to what the previous review wrote, but it's still pretty cool. :)
  
  The Bad
  - Lackluster graphics. The polygon count and environment details are rather low, even compared with similar games from 1999. The indoor/outdoor textures aren't very realistic either, although the people still look better than the Might & Magic IX people. :) The text is blocky and aliased, at least on my Radeon/AA setup.

• The voice acting is mostly poor and often laughable. Perhaps some programmers were recruited?

• Items are sold and bought for the same amount. How do they keep in business? It's useful, in that you can't get stats on weapons and armor for sale until you buy and equip them, but takes away some challenge in trading.

• The story line is second rate compared to most action RPGs.

• Distance AI is pretty bad. Some opponents will run in circles at first, and many won't notice you until you're within a few feet.
  
  The Bottom Line
  I played Drakan a few years ago, and find this game quite similar, except the obvious: you're a guy and you don't have a dragon. Decent for its time, I'm sure, but since then a million and one console games of the same genre have appeared and outdone it. If you're a fan of the Might & Magic series, well.. this one really doesn't have much to do with it, so it'd only be a less intriguing diversion. You're probably better off looking for Drakan, then moving on with newer games.

Speaking of which, it can be a hassle getting CoMM to work in Windows XP - I had to set the refresh rate to 60Hz.