A Shmup for the Rest of Us?
Crusaders of Space 2 clearly has its genesis in Space Invaders, but there's more complexity here than you'd expect from a straightforward Space Invaders clone with more modern graphics. In addition to your normal gun, you have a limited number of missiles, mainly useful in taking out fixed gun emplacements or bosses at the end of an 'episode', and upgrades, which you receive over time, can give you such things as a gun that fires both straight ahead and simultaneous shouts at angles to left and right.
As in Space Invaders, you're fixed to a line at screen bottom, and can move only left and right, which you do mainly to dodge bullets fired by your opponents, or to follow an alien ship you're trying to destroy. The aliens aren't simply unrelenting masses moving slowly down-screen, though some behave that way; some swoop about in circles or curved lines across the screen, in the fashion of opponents in more modern shmups. Some are "mines" that don't shoot back until you destroy them, at which point they release a hail of bullets that can be hard to dodge. Intermittently, destroyed opponents drop powerups of various kinds, which drift down toward you; ideally, you intercept these for their benefits, but sometimes enemy fire is too close (or you're busy elsewhere), and you have to let them go.
Every few levels, you can upgrade your ship with better weapons and armor, new weapons, and the like.
Why "the shmup for the rest of us?" Well, the difficulty knob on this game is fairly low. There's enough going on that it remains an edge-of-the-seat game, but it's not the kind of game that requires someone who's been playing space shooters for aeons, and has all the tricks down pat, to complete. That may be a negative, for some--serious shmuppers may find the challenge too low; but for those who like a little fast shooting action without the feeling of being overwhelmed instantly by a difficult-to-comprehend hail of threatening visual phenomena, Crusaders of Space 2 is a nice, potentially masterable game with crisp controls, good music, and engaging gameplay.
The Developer Says
Crusaders of Space 2 takes the classic gameplay of Space Invaders and adds a number of modern innovations. One improvement is the ability to fire missiles at enemies. As you shoot down invaders, aliens sometimes drop missiles you can collect. An enemy might also release one of three weapon boosts. The Freeze boost, for example, stops an invader in its tracks and shuts down its weapons.
COS2 also allows you to upgrade your ship between levels using points earned during combat. These can be spent on increased firepower or other bonuses. Since you can reclaim points spent on one improvement and apply them elsewhere, you can try out various strategies for beating different parts of the game.
Though COS2 has its roots in traditional arcade action, the developers made full use of current computer hardware to create a stimulating audio-visual experience. By mixing innovation with timeless gameplay, COS2 proves everything old is new again.