Knights of the Temple (Xbox)

Unlike haunted mansions and terrorist filled bases, the medieval crusades on Knights of the Temple aren't one of the most exploited of game settings. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade is the first game to feature said religious mythical backdrop. Taking the form of a sort of pseudo 3D scrolling beat 'em up, Knights of the Temple has you assuming the persona of a young man who is desperate to make it as a member of the Knights Templar (another gaming first, folks). In order to do this, you must hack and slash through various castle themed stages in an attempt to rescue a non-descript Princess with magical powers from a dead/undead evil Priest (or something).

Credit must go to the developers for implementing some of the smoothest and most realistic motion captured swordplay yet seen in a game but that's unfortunately where the praise ends. Knights of the Temple is a game that has managed to get onto the shelves in a state that is clearly only half finished. The graphics are nice and sharp, but it all looks a bit angular and there is hardly any variation in the levels (dark castle, dark town, dark dungeon) or enemies (guard, guard with tunic, guard with turban). The levels are also un-interactive and pretty sparsely populated by groups of enemies and a few breakable boxes that yield objects. Even with all the power of the Xbox, Knights of the Temple is truly 16-bit in design.

There is no hand-to-hand combat, so you have to use various sharp things to beat the opposition to a pulp. The weapons are suitably medieval swords, axes and maces but they all seem to be identical and the bow animation (where the game switches to a first person view) is pretty pathetic - just tap the trigger and you get instant arrow launch - no analogue pull back / power gauge or anything that even hints at ingenuity.

The camera in Knights of the Temple is possibly the worst yet seen in a scrolling beat 'em up. Think Silent Hill or Resident Evil: Code Veronica's fixed locations where the camera moves depending on where you are in the field of view. It was pulled off to spectacular effect in those games, but here it just serves to annoy - especially when you turn a corner and the camera doesn't follow. It's even worse when there are two guards ready to hack you to bits and you can't see them. There is an option to control it via the right analogue, but this just lets you pan slightly in a sort of strange fish-eye type of way.

I really wanted to like this game, if only because of the unique styling and frankly spine tingling (outstanding) orchestral soundtrack, but there are so many points that stand out like glaring errors. It can look quite impressive at times when the camera gets it's act together and the sword fights are raging but it's just to little, too thinly spread to make Knights of the Temple a must buy.