PC / MAC

Defenders is an unreleased tactical slasher set in an alternative medieval world (announced in 2002). The main character at one point decides that “it is impossible to live like this”, leaves his homeland and joins the crusader detachment. As part of a detachment, he fights the Vikings in England and takes part in the first crusades.

As we can read news on gamez.ru  for 17.10.2003:

The protagonist of Defenders lives in a village in a small European country. At one of the stages of his life he decides to devote himself to a military career, joins a crusader unit and leaves his homeland, setting out on a distant, full of dangers adventure. On his way the young warrior is waiting for fierce clashes and large-scale battles, he will visit a lot of interesting places and meet amazing people, see distant countries and encounter mystical, fantastic creatures described in ancient myths and legends.

 

The developers highlight the following key features in the game Defenders:

• An interesting story that tells the story of a medieval warrior’s martial journey.
• Four large-scale episodes: England (battles with the Vikings), Germany (the beginning of the Crusade), Asia Minor (storming cities, suppressing rebellion) and Jerusalem (march on the city and its storming).
• Simple, intuitive interface.
• Optimal and logical character generation and development system.
• Carefully designed physics and character animation.
• Realistic damage system.
• A unique approach to single-player mode construction: the player gets an opportunity not to stand above the battle, but to be in the very heart of it.
• Large-scale battle scenes.
• Dynamic squad battles.
• An elaborate model of squad mates’ behavior, the ability to influence their behavior.
• Large arsenal of cold, stabbing and percussive weapons.
• Dynamic multiplayer game, inheriting the basic principles of the best representatives of the genre, but with a significant number of additions and innovations.
• Possibility to pass the game together (in cooperative mode).
• Special arenas for multiplayer matches between units controlled by several players in multiplayer mode.
• Support of a wide range of video gas pedals.
• High-quality modern graphics and atmospheric music and sound design.

 

Defenders will be released in Q4 2004.

In terms of gameplay, it was supposed to be something like a “knightly” Medal of Honor. The player fought in the same formation with other knights, carried out the orders of the commander, and subsequently received a whole squad under his command. The project was promising, but due to technical problems it never came out.

Information is taken from gamez.ru website and Igromania magazine, issue 02(113) 2007

There are absolutely no screenshots or materials about this project on the Internet, only mentions in magazines and sites like this. If you have something, let us know!