Just over a month ago I reviewed a game called Crusader Tank. The game was fun but had a few flaws, and didn’t really have much in the way of visual variety.

Gametop (the creators of Crusader Tank) has just released a new game, and it seems they have made a lot of improvements in “Holy War: Invasion”.

But were they enough?

First, let’s just get the fact out of the way that this is pretty much the exact same game as Crusader Tank.

The graphics are the same bitmap rendered stuff you saw in C.T., only with a few new objects… oh and the ground is green instead of brown now.

You obviously don’t play as a tank in this game, rather as an armor-clad engineer with a big gun. Still, it’s the same top-view, run and gun play you experienced in C.T.

While this game is pretty much 90% recycled, it does have a lot of small improvements I feel I should point out.

First, the health, weapon and progress displays have been completely redesigned to fit vertically on the screen. This makes them easier to read during gameplay, and the visual quality of the guages are much nicer.

You can also toggle weapons as you get them. The weapon upgrades in each level are still present , but now you can jump from your gun to missiles on the fly when you need to take out a heavy tank quickly.

The sounds are about the same, although the music isn’t quite as annoying this time around.

A nice new touch is that the level scrolls slower when your character is at the bottom of the screen, giving you a way to change the pace when you get swarmed.

Perhaps the best change to the game is the inclusion of W,A,S & D being able to control your movement. This makes it much easier to move around and fire with the mouse for laptop users.

The difficulty of the game has been pushed up just a bit, so there is a little more challenge in this game, which would have made the game more interesting had I not gotten bored with this game style playing Crusader Tank for 20+ minutes a mere month ago.

If you are like me and you played Crusader Tank to the point of boredom, you probably will find this game lacking in any relevant improvement to the core gameplay. However, if you missed C.T., I would highly recommend playing this game instead. It’s addressed all the flaws C.T. had, except repetitive gameplay.

I’ve never had a problem with people rehashing a game engine. Sonic the Hedgehog had like 4 good games on the Genesis with pretty much the same game. SEGA just made sure to make compelling changes to each sequel to keep things fresh.
If it don’t FEEL like a new game, it ain’t a new game.

[ Play Crusader Tank... err ... Holy War: Invasion ]

[ Play I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives ]

[ Play Quadradius ]

[ Play Agent Wing Defenders ]

[ Play Crazy Flasher 3 ]

[ Play Solarsarus ]

[ Play Something Amiss ]

[ Play Chick Chick BOOM ]

[ Play Gateway 2 ]