I like to keep my eye on promising upcoming PC games, and Band of Crusaders is the latest game to capture my attention. It did so because it’s a new strategy game clearly inspired by the world of The Witcher.
Band of Crusaders is the first game from Virtual Alchemy, a Polish game developer. It takes place in a fantastical version of medieval Europe that has been overrun by demons, with players taking the role of a Grandmaster who’s recruiting crusaders to fight off these demonic threats. The setting and even the general art direction and color palette of Band of Crusaders look quite similar to CD Projekt Red’s games based on The Witcher, and that’s an inspiration its developers aren’t even denying. In a press release, art director Kamil Mickiewicz directly addressed any potential comparisons to The Witcher, directly stating that Virtual Alchemy “wanted to see what the world of The Witcher would look like if you removed all the Witchers.”
On the gameplay front, Virtual Alchemy stresses the game’s emergent nature. On a macro level, players move between points of interest on a world map, accept missions from different kingdoms, and recruit knights and other units to fight for them. Then, once players enter an encounter, they have to more adeptly use each character’s skills as they take on threats, human and demonic. Between battles, you can upgrade units at camp. It’s the kind of strategy RPG that works best on PC, and I think Virtual Alchemy can find an audience by offering up an answer to the following question: What would The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt be like if it were a strategy game?
Band of Crusaders does not have a release date, but it’s in active development for PC.
