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Intro  The
year 2000 was a crazy time-flying cars and laser guns were abound. We had a Democrat
in the White House and a little game called Counter-Strike was enjoying
its short-lived success (should end any day now). But of the most importance to
us is the release of the original Crimson Skies to an excited PC-only audience.
And despite taking place in a cool alternate universe, featuring arcade physics
and insane acrobatics, and memorable voice acting that still rivals that heard
in most games, the game had this nasty tendency to randomly crash and erase saved
games, making the game somewhat unplayable. But here we are in the future-the
year 2003-cars no longer fly and Microsoft now has their own console division.
Since the inception of the Xbox, Microsoft has slowly started to reevaluate which
titles are better suited for a console system, and after releasing Midtown
Madness 3 to an eager Xbox audience, Microsoft has followed suit with the
newest Crimson Skies, deciding the series may be better suited to a console;
I couldn't agree more.Gameplay: 8.5/10 Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge has traveled a long road to release that includes several release date changes, a handful of E3 appearances, several gameplay revisions, and even a Discovery Channel special documenting the whole process. After fumbling the release of the initial Crimson Skies, the development team felt it necessary to produce a title that is nothing but quality. To do this, they developed this rather odd, seemingly unorthodox practice in today's world of bad camera angles and clipping problem-extensive testing. If a certain gameplay mechanic or feature didn't feel right to the testers, they tweaked it until it did. In short, the developer went through great pains to deliver a frantic, fun, dog fighting, swashbuckling experience that would not soon be forgotten, and it shows-does it ever show. In Crimson Skies world (also a table top game by the same name), the U.S. never quite recovered from the Great Depression, and instead of forging together to overcome our financial disparity, simply absolved into many smaller nations like the Nation of Hollywood and the Industrial States of America (a.k.a. the Midwest). As the U.S. broke up, the rail and road systems eventually broke down due to constant warring between the sub-nations, and soon, the predominant form of personal transportation was the plane. To complicate matters, pirates found out that air piracy was really, really easy (rich people tend to favor flying large, slowly moving, poorly defended zeppelins), and soon bands of pirates sprung up over the former countryside. One of these pirates just so happens to be our game's protagonist: Nathan Zachary. At the outset of the game, we find our hero in bed having just been the victim of a bad poker game and a hard night's drinking. To make matters worse, his plane and support zeppelin are being stolen. Thus begins a single player campaign spanning across 6 different lands, dozens of individual missions, and multitudes of fun, highly-explosive enemies. The campaign is broken into areas that operate much how the levels in Grand Theft Auto 3 do, albeit on a much smaller scale. Although progression from area to area happens in a very linear fashion, individual missions can be selected in any order. For instance, once Zachary arrives in the first area of Sea Haven in the Nation of Hollywood, he has the choice of chasing down some thieves, racing, or shooting down pirates in an AA gun - all for a price, of course. Missions are activated very easily, just fly to the mission location and press the X button when the onscreen indicator says so. Once these objectives are completed, he can then continue the plot, or perhaps just fly around the island wasting time looking for hidden locations and upgrade tokens. Overall the single player campaign, while fun, is a bit too linear and monotonous for my tastes. And while there are several key boss battles and interesting missions to break up the monotony, the only thing there is to do is shoot bad guys, and towards the end of the game, it just grows weary as wave after wave of planes attack and attack and attack and… But planes are the name of this game (well actually...), and that's just where Crimson Skies excels. Opting for maneuverability over accuracy and physics, the development team has succeeded in making a highly enjoyable flight system sure to induce vomiting in even the hardiest NASA astronaut. Lift? We don't need no stinkin' lift. These planes laugh at gravity between pulling Immelstadts and vertical ascents that fear no stall. Get the picture? Instead of making a realistic flight simulation, the developers wanted a more accessible, arcade feel for their title. Learning the system is quick and easy, and players will be flying mere feet from the ground while pulling barrel rolls and shooting down enemy aircraft in minutes after learning how. Planes in Crimson Skies are nimble and powerful-they hate gravity and gravity hates them. Each of the 10 planes is equipped with a standard primary weapon (usually a machine gun) and a secondary weapon that differs with each model, from the Piranha's plane-debilitating lightning attack to the Dust Devil's plain ol' chain gun. In addition to the standard health bar, each plane also shares a sort of turbo meter. Any time a plane wishes to use its turbo for speed or to pull off a special move, a chunk of the meter is consumed only to be replenished over time. Each plane is also upgradeable (except for the Mini-Gyro) by way of upgrade tokens, found hidden in each of the game's levels. Once upgraded, each plane gets an increase in the three stats of each plane-armor, firepower, and speed. However, one of the biggest hype producers for Crimson Skies is its inclusion of Xbox Live play, some even heralding the title as the successor to MechAssault for pure, unadulterated deathmatch action, which is interesting as FASA Studios developed both games. Gamers familiar with MA will immediately recognize similarities between the games, right down to the layout of the multiplayer menus. But while MechAssault features slow, powerful robots, Crimson Skies features fast and maneuverable planes-making the entire experience that much faster and frantic. Kills in Crimson Skies come quicker and more frequently. But what I enjoyed most was the lack of weapon power-ups. MechAssault players are all too familiar with being devastated by level 3 lasers early on from a player fortunate enough to stumble onto power-ups. Luckily, the only power-ups received in Crimson Skies are health and ammo-which make a strategic player live for a bit longer without ruining the balance of the game too early. Voice and friend support are both well implemented, making it possible to scream 1930s slang to your friend (and fellow CSI owner) in Arkansas with no worries. But
that's not to say that the multiplayer is perfect. Lag plagues every match. Often
times, health and ammo power-ups won't register until precious seconds after your
onscreen plane has flown through them-making any hits you receive between the
pick-up and when the pick-up takes effect legit. So, it's possible to pick-up
a health pack, get hit and subsequently killed by a stray bullet, and never receive
the health. Furthermore, the lag effects kill. On several occasions, I was killed
by a whole slew of bullets, so first I swore, then was respawned, only to have
bullet lag kill me again with absolutely no enemies in sight. In these instances,
I was simply dumbfounded at what happened. Also, as of publishing time, there
are only 5 maps available which is more than some games, is also less than the
scores of maps currently available for MechAssault. I know one's been out
about a year more, but man, I can only play the Chicago level so many times.
Graphics: 10/10 Sound:
10/10 Control:
9/10 Overall: 9/10 [ top ] | |||
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