As the Tarasa expansion looms, I thought it would be nice to take a look back at the Crusade expansion that preceded. Crusade has something of a mixed reputation, for a number of reasons, but I feel that is unfairly maligned by many players.
Crusade was a groundbreaking expansion in many ways. It was the first (or perhaps second, if my theory about the SL meta-plot is true) expansion to continue the plot of the previous cap, as it tied into the overarcing Scorn meta-plot. It revolutionized the way SL players fought by bringing class weapons back into popularity, letting many players see true potential inherent in neglected gear like arc cannons. The new gear was also fairly original, a nice change from the cut-and-paste armor that many players had contended with during previous expansions. Crusade also introduced a number of impressive mechanics into the game, features like the AI drone followers and mobile hazards in the AI core (as well as putting a new spin on older features with the return of laser tripwires in the Cycorp level). It also marked the debut of SL’s first boss gauntlet, STS-25 Tarasa colony (which is itself unique, in that it’s the first forest-type map in SL).
Crusade’s biggest weakness, in the eyes of many, is that a lot of the expansion has been copy-pasted from previous areas. That’s an accurate statement, but not a valid complaint. STS games have always been heavily copy-pasted, and likely always will be. You should pick up on this pretty quickly. Complaining about that at this point is like complaining about how Call of Duty is unoriginal. If it comes as a surprise to you that most of SL is a thin-disguised version of another part of SL, you clearly haven’t been playing attention (though it’s not as bad as PL in that regard. How many times have we gone up against Knights of some variety?). And with Crusade, the copy-pasting is at least justified, since it ties into the Scorn plot and thus, we should expect to see the Scorn again.
Another complaint about Crusade is that it was too short, and that we would be left content starved for the next few months until the next cap, with nothing to do after capping. Here’s the thing: We had a HUGE amount of content available during Crusade, and during the weeks leading two it. We had the Infested deck event, which made vanity items accessible to the average player and debuted the flamethrower weapon type. That was followed by the Hive, the source of Napalm Carbines and Flux Cannons, aka the most beloved weapons in SL (take that, Shipyard pistols). We also had the UCS Savant, which was a huge amount of fun to play during the wait for Crusade. Granted, you can’t earn XP in those areas, but Crusades cap was low enough that most people can cap in about two weeks of casual play. Plus, Crusade included Durrex the Devastator, who was a huge boon to the “complain about how hard the boss is” community.
The two most valid complaints about Crusade are that the store never received new items, and that the crafting system was also ignored. I can’t say I disagree (though since crafted gear has always been unavailable to all but the most hardcore players, I also can’t say that it was much of a lose).
Was Crusade the perfect expansion? No. Was it as awful as people are prone to claiming it was? No, and In fact I believe that it is a much better expansion than most of the ones that came before it.
