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Band of Crusaders looks like The Witcher if it was a strategy game

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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 - Official Reveal Trailer

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.”

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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?

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Band of Crusaders does not have a release date, but it’s in active development for PC.

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Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake
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On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
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Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
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As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case. 
Initial Confirmation
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Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.  
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With just three months left in 2021, developer CD Projekt Red has some big plans to cap off what has been a difficult year for the company. In its latest financial report, the company revealed that it's still planning on releasing two games this year, both next-gen updates. According to the report, the previously announced next-gen versions of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 are still on track to arrive in "late 2021."

Details on what players can expect from the new versions of both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt are sparse. The financial report itself makes no mention of what will be included in the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt's next-gen release on the other hand will come with all of the game's expansions and "visual upgrades," along with "extra items inspired by the Netflix series."

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