Grainy and blocky is the theme for Crusaders of Might and Magic. Lots of dingy colors abound in this world. Even the forest areas feel “dirty.” The character models are actually quite good, considering, and the spell effects are all right. I actually prefer this game engine over other Tomb Raider-esque engines, although it would be better if the engine were a bit more complete. The way the doors open at the beginning of the game is sheer lunacy -- sliding out and moving to the side? Is this Aliens or is it the mediaeval times?

The music is passable -- barely -- although it tends to restart for no apparent reason when you just touch a zone that is marked as no music, and then walk back into an area that has the music again. The sound effects are equally shoddy, and the voice acting definitely leaves something to be desired. Even the menus are drab and depressing.

So is the gameplay. Crusaders of Might and Magic is a port of a PC game that wasn’t so hot to begin with, and although the PlayStation game is marginally more fun than the computer version, it’s still a pretty big stinker.

To begin with, combat has somewhat improved. There is a minimally-working targeting system, a la Zelda, although it turns off while you’re moving. (Eh? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?) It is somewhat useful for chucking fireballs across a room, however. The combat itself is the same click-and-kill that the first Crusaders sported, and it’s still not much fun.

The PlayStation version of Crusaders doesn’t unfold quite the same way as the computer version did -- which is good, but it still has the absolutely pointless wide open spaces -- which is bad. I wanted to throw the disc out of the window after wandering around in the floating Citadel for about 20 minutes, running back and forth between guards that were at least three man-miles apart on some stupid fetch quest. And in the forest (which is painfully linear, by the way), if you jump high enough, you can see the rest of the forest. Sheesh.

One of the things that shows that this game was not quite ready to come out (well, besides the Magical Tracking Doors(tm)) is character placement. Every time that you get on a lift that goes down from Citadel, the other character spawns in the next level slightly above the lift, and ends up falling. Why? Is it for humorous effect? If so, it failed.

The game was entertaining... for a little while. I liked the little halos that surrounded the enemies’ feet when you targeted them, showing you how much health they had left. But otherwise, this game bites pretty hard.

The game isn’t so much difficult as it is tedious. You may die because you didn’t figure out the little trick you had to do, although you might die of boredom as well.

I noticed that pressing on the D-Pad made me move a step at a time, which was not beneficial to playing the game. After a bit of experimentation and turning the analog pads on, I could move normally. What was up with that? The inventory system is similarly kludged -- hit select, press a key for a type of item, rotate by tapping the analog stick, select with, er, Select. One of the problems is that halfway through my game, it stopped showing me which buttons to press in the inventory, so I always forgot which were spells and which were items. A minor problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Crusaders of Might and Magic, if given a little more love and care, could have redeemed the Crusader line from the pit that the PC version brought it into. As it is, it’s only slightly better, and still isn’t worth a purchase. Too bad; the concept was great. If only the execution were better...