The First Templar is a billed as a vaguely historical adventure. Indeed it is, but not because it’s set during the crusades. No, The First Templar is historical because it’s a look back at dated game design, a testament to how things were once done, and how they should never be again. This is the story of a Templar named Celian, a knight who is on a quest to recover the Holy Grail. His journey takes him all over the Middle East, with stops in historical cities like Acre. At its core, The First Templar is a hack-and-slash adventure, wherein you’ll be pushed through a series of environments, bludgeon tons of enemies and solve mind-numbingly easy puzzles. It’s nothing I haven’t seen done better many times before.

Moments into The First Templar you know you’re playing a budget game. The menus and user interface are bad with generic fonts and an intrusive heads up display. The screen is simply too crowded – especially in split-screen cooperative play – and it takes away from any of the ambience or occasional beauty the environments have. Games like Dead Space have shown that UI can be both elegant and serve a purpose, while The First Templar’s is just phoned in