TCC takes place during the Crusades, i.e., right around the year 1200. The game supports two players locally or online for co-op, or if you play solo the CPU will control your friendly AI. The story is focused on Denz Debayle, a young knight who is trying to discover the whereabouts of his father who left on the Third Crusade when Denz was young. He never returned, but Denz still believes that he is alive. While his father was away, Denz’s uncle seized control of his father’s land, and even saw to the murder of Denz’s mother. Denz intends to find his father to help set things right.
Additionally, Denz is afflicted with The Curse. Little is known about this Curse at the beginning of the story but it’s breadth and mystique are gradually revealed. Denz has some control over the Curse in that the player can hope in and out of ‘Curse mode,’ but it’s also the source of some horrifically realistic nightmares. While in the Curse, Denz is often confronted by Death, who is determined to claim Denz’s soul.
So, Denz has a lot going on you might say. But he’s a skilled warrior and he will also get help from a stranger, Esteban Noviembre. Esteban is a Spanish thief, but also skilled with a blade. He is the second player in any co-op gaming you might do, and also acts as a strong supporting character for the story. He too is afflicted with the Curse, and together he and Denz will try to figure out what it is, and how to get rid of it.
In order to find his father and work to free themselves of the Curse, Denz and Esteban decide to join in the Fourth Crusade. After proving themselves in a tournament, the duo are put under the command of Baudouin de Flandre, who makes it very clear that he does not like Denz or Esteban. In the multi-mission siege of a Croatian city known as Zara, Denz and Esteban are often sent alone to clear paths for the Crusaders behind them, and numerous cutscenes also explain the dissent that de Flandre has for them. Additionally, above de Flandre, is another, darker, more scheming official known as Boniface de Montferrat. He is not a big part of the story for most of the game, but you always get the sense that his
real intentions are soon to be revealed.
I found the story and the characters to be one of the best parts about TCC. I really liked that Kylotonn Games had a sort of two-pronged approach to the story, including both the lost father plot as well as the Curse. The Curse is really significant in that it adds a major dimension to the gameplay. That said, I would not have minded some additional writing for Esteban, to help bolster his character more. Through cutscenes, you definitely get a good feeling for Esteban’s character, but the vast majority of the story is dedicated to Denz. Additionally, the story-telling in TCC is sound, done primarily through cutscenes. While the presentation isn’t very good, which I’ll explain a bit later, the content of the cutscenes is strong.
A solid story and characters are a good thing for any game, but the heart of TCC is in its combat. TCC is about as deep of a melee action game as you want it to be. There are literally some ninety different combo attacks to unlock and players have a wide variety of weapons at their disposal. Weapon types include one and two handed swords, long blades and short, a variety of maces, spears, axes and hatchets, shields, and ranged weapons like a crossbow and bow. Any single handed-item can be paired with another single-handed item making for some wicked pairs like dual swords or a mace and an axe. Combat controls include Square for a horizontal attack, Triangle for vertical attacks, Circle for guard break (shove or blunt strike), and R2 for blocking. Environmental objects such as chairs and pyres can be used by pressing X when near them to stun or burn your enemy.
I liked that there are more than just “light and heavy attack,” but even more impressive is the sheer volume of combos that you can unlock. Combos are available for every type of weapon and weapon pairing. You purchase combos and character enhancements (like additional HP, more time in Curse mode, weapon mastery, etc.) with Victory Points that are earned by completing the story missions. Each mission is worth about four Victory Points just for completing the main objectives, but you can earn a few more points by finding all of the coffers, or freeing so many souls in Cursed mode. The coffers and other ‘x/y’ second objectives are how TCC does their collectibles. I would have liked to have seen unique and interesting items within these coffers (like in Uncharted), rather than just finding empty coffers themselves, though.
Once Victory Points are assigned, they cannot be taken back, so you have to choose wisely, at least at the start of the game. I did find that as I went along I had built up a store (10+) of Victory Points that I could use on my weapon combos, but the Points for my character upgrades were always spent. I think the reason I ended up having a lot of extra VP for the middle and latter parts of the game was because I wasn’t sure where to spend them. While there are so many different combos and they are effective, I hesitated in spending as long as I could because I wasn’t sure what weapons would for sure be available. Combat was going smoothly too by that point, so I wasn’t in a dire need to learn new
combos.
Two other minor points about the combo system that I liked is how the combo upgrading or purchasing was handled. By pressing Select, you enter the upgrade screen and part of the screen is dedicated to showing Denz performing the combos as you hover over them. It’s neat to be able to see what all of these combos will do for you. It was also nice that whatever weapon you have in hand when you press Select, is the weapon that is brought up in the upgrade screen (meaning you don’t have to scroll through the list to find what you are currently wielding). Finally, as you unlock more combos (and a percentage is shown), you unlock more finishing moves, too.
The combat system has some other nice elements to it including sword clashes and weapons damage. By pressing L3, you can get a quick view at the state of your weapons, you collectibles status, and your current objective. Weapons deteriorate fairly quickly, forcing you to be ready to pick up new ones in the game world. You are given plenty of warning before a weapon actually breaks, at which point it’s just shy of being useless. Sword clashes occur at fairly regular intervals, and are TCC’s quick time events. Depending on the strength of your foe, and whether or not you handle the QTE properly, you may either strike your opponent or be struck, or it may just end in a hit-free separation. These clashes happen suddenly and randomly and do well to mix up the pacing of the combat, which can at times get a little monotonous.
Two other elements I haven’t spent much time discussing yet are the co-op sequences and the actual Curse mode. The co-op sequences are fairly typical and are mostly about navigating the environment. In other words, Denz and Esteban have to team up to lift gates, move heavy objects, turn large cranks, and help one another up onto a ledge. In combat, you can also grab an enemy and let your partner finish them off, which is pretty cool. In Cursed mode, the game world changes to look like something straight out of hell, all fiery brimstone. Some collectibles can only be found this way and at times you have to find a weak points in a wall or structure that you can break to advance. Cursed mode is also used in boss fights (who are also under the Curse’s influence) and in well-done dream sequences, too. You can blast fireballs while in Curse mode and when your HP runs out, you enter Curse mode and can shoot fireballs at Death, who is slowly walking towards you. Hopefully, your partner can get you on your feet in time…
TCC has a lot going for it, but there are a variety of miscellaneous issues and shortcomings too. The AI — both friendly and enemy — can be bad at times. On a few occasions during the story mode, Esteban was stuck running into a wall, trying to catch up with me. I had to back track a few seconds and then he was able to get himself freed up to join me again. The enemy AI can be a little too perfect at parrying your attacks sometimes too, being almost robotic in nature. The level design is also a little flat; there are multiple paths to take usually, but only the correct path goes on for more than a few seconds, so things are pretty linear and generally ‘grounded’ in that most of the time you start off on one plane of battle and never go up or down, just forward.
Presentation problems are more readily noticeable. The graphics are pretty rough. There is a fair amount of clipping and the overall game looks pretty drab and lacking of detail. The framerate stays smooth though, and I like some of the camera angles the game presents. Other times, the camera can get in the way, but rarely. The cutscenes are similarly lacking in visual pop and detail, but do okay for themselves. I did like the combat animations and the finishing move animations though, as well as the sword-clash QTE. The voice overs aren’t awful, but not great either. They’re somewhere in the middle of pretty bad to okay, but the dialogue and banter between Denz and Esteban is good. Death sounds cool when he talks, and looks pretty badass as well. Effects and music are nice and do a good job of bring the medieval combat to life.
With that, let’s get to the summary…