The Wing Commander CIC is already reporting this, having beaten me to the punch (I wasn’t expecting the release to happen today, in all honesty), and it’s true: Good Old Games (GOG.Com) has released Crusader: No Remorse for purchase at the frankly bargain price of $5.99.

No, seriously…go and buy it. I’ll wait.

Now, for all the information you could ever want about the Crusader series, you should really hit up Echo Sector; LOAF at the CIC styles it as “the Ultima Aiera of Crusader sites” (the flatterer), and it certainly is the single best repository of Crusader knowledge and information out there. But for those of you who want the Coles Notes version, here’s what I can tell you.

Both Crusader titles (No Remorse and its sequel, No Regret) used an enhanced version of the isometric Ultima 8 engine, upgraded to support SVGA graphics and featuring an advanced sound system — Asylum — which used MOD rather than MIDI files. Origin developed the PC versions of the games; Realtime Associates ported them to console later on.

The Crusader games were mission-based action RPGs, with each map being a mission location; this was, in many ways, a smarter use for the Ultima 8 engine than in Ultima 8 proper. The main protagonist of the game was known as “The Silencer”, and missions featured all manner of traps, puzzles, enemies, and even a rudimentary stealth element in the form of alarms that the player was advised to avoid triggering.

The game also featured environments that were substantially destructible, and some environmental elements could be manipulated to best enemies in various ways. It was very much a tactical game, with areas designed to encourage the use of strategy in play. 

Setting-wise, the game took place in a dystopian future in which an economic collapse in the late 20th century forced the nations of the world to organize into super-conglomerates, and then eventually into the World Economic Consortium (WEC), which quickly became a tyranny that gave the outward impression of peace and stability whilst simultenously visiting upon its people a level of economic servitude and loss of freedom to rival the Soviets.

The Resistance — the usual ragtag blend of rebels fighting a hopeless cause — opposes the WEC, and at the start of No Remorse the player is one of three Silencers who, after botching a mission, are attacked by a WEC mech. The player is the only survivor, and the attack moves him to reconsider his allegiances; he joins the Resistance and begins battling both the WEC and the prejudices against him — a former WEC super-soldier — that other Resistance members feel.

It’s also worth noting that both Crusader games, perhaps taking a cue from the Wing Commander series, featured live-action full-motion video sequences between missions, which served to drive the narrative along. The in-box content was also typical of Origin games, with various trinkets included. I don’t know (at this time) if digital versions of any of these ship with the GOG version of the game, though I do hope so.