Crimson Skies, the former PC game, long in development for the Xbox has finally been released and it's a good game. Originally to have been released for Christmas of 2002, Crimson Skies was held back for further refining, which included a change in the design team staff. The extra time that Microsoft and Fasa Studio put into the development of this game has really paid off with a game that is sharp in presentation and very polished in game play. Though added late in development, the Xbox Live support will offer a ton of replay value.
The world of Crimson Skies is set in alternate universe of the 1930's America. The character you play is pilot Nathan Zachary, an air pirate. You fly any number of supped up planes from that era on a great variety of missions from the desert South West to the ruined cities of South America. There is a great deal of mission variety from flying escort, manning AA guns, retrieving objects to shooting down enemy zeppelins and aircraft. In amongst the main missions are side missions to earn money for upgrades to planes.
Game Play
One must keep in mind that Crimson Skies in not a traditional flight simulator. Take off and landing are done for you. There are no altitude or airspeed indicators. Your main task is handling the plane in the air and shooting at everything that moves in the air or on the ground. Flying the plane is as simple as moving the analog sticks in the direction desired. An early tutorial at the beginning of the game teaches you all you need to know in regards to flying and shooting. To do an Immelmann turn, you simply click the right thumbstick and then move both joysticks down. Do the same procedure and move both sticks to the right or left to do a roll. The "Y" button is your accelerator and the "B" is for the air brakes. Fire your guns with the right trigger and your missiles with the left. This is all simply laid out so it makes learning and playing the game a breeze.
Crimson Skies, in single player mode is mission based. You'll fly and fight through four different environments-Islands, South West desert, Chicago cityscape and the mountains of South America. As stated above, the missions are varied but include such standards as flying escort, picking up things and shooting down enemy zeppelins. There are various jobs you can do to do earn money. There are random zeps floating around that you can shoot down. They will dump out a cargo of moneybags, which you can fly through to retrieve. Overall the game play is well balanced and you pick your difficulty settings if things get too hard for you.
The game features the process of hard and soft saves. A soft save is a checkpoint. You can end the game here and pick it up later by flying to the mother ship zeppelin to save at the last checkpoint. (This works well throughout the game except for the tunnel section in South American. See more on that below in the "Quirks" section.)
Unfortunately I do not have Xbox live or somebody to experiment with on multiplayer so I can't comment on how well that works. Suffice to say, I've read some great things about online play and I can say with assurance this one will not let you down and will give you hours of fun dog fighting with friends.
Graphics
You've probably hear this before but the visuals in Crimson Skies are simply stunning, from the atmospheric and lighting effects to the tracers and explosions of aerial combat. When shooting at an enemy plane you'll see differing effects of damage from smoke to fire trails. When the plane is finally shot down-explodes--it's a nice effect seen, to fly through the debris and smoke.
The planes you fly are very nicely modeled, with metal parts that gleam in the sun and will show a varying degree of damage when shot up. The same is true for the Zeps, which produce the largest amount of debris, fire and smoke when they explode. The framerate is rock solid too and stays steady throughout. |
The landscapes are beautifully rendered with very nice texturing. The opening arena, which is a large volcanic island, is gorgeous to behold with flames and lava boiling up. The cityscape of Chicago is nicely done as well with a tremendous variety of architectural styles, complete with cars running up and down the streets. The South West landscape, complete with mesas and natural stone arches is one of my favorites. It's bathed in a late afternoon golden sunlight and is extremely realistic to behold. Flying over the ground you can see the desert scrub and the tracks of roads.
I must say a word here about the water. It's some of the nicest I've seen rendered in any Xbox game. You fly to low to it and water drops will cover the screen for a short moment. The movement and ripples are very well rendered with more than one pass being used. Waterfalls are also very nicely done, as are the mountain rivers and streams.
The cut scenes are probably some of the best around for any game. Using motion capture the animated figures are real actors who have had their movements digitized. This is the same technique used in motion picture animated effects. This way, the walking and talking
looks exceptionally natural. Also, when your plane has gotten too much combat damage you can fly in to repair hangers to get a quick fix. The cut scenes will always show the exact amount of damage to your aircraft and are implemented in a seamless fashion.
Sound
The sound from the voice acting, the sound effects, to the musical score also showcase a high degree of polish. The sounds effects are nice enough for the guns, missiles and so on but it seems the best for airplane engine noise. You can hear the engines whine when in a steep dive and then back off for level flight. The voice acting is well done and I could swear, that one of the voice actors is the guy that plays the engineer in Enterprise! The background music is well done with a Saturday afternoon movie serial flare of the 1930's-the kind of music you'd hear in an Indian Jones movie.
A Few Quirks…
Every game has them. Some odd or annoying things that left in. Take for example the tunnel mission. This one is set in the mountains of South America and it requires you to fly through a serious of man-made and natural tunnels, dodge booby traps and fire plumes and do a lot of dog fighting in large cavernous areas. There are plenty of checkpoint saves but no final save in case you need to go do something else. It's too bad as this is one of the most long and drawn out, besides challenging, missions in the game.
Then there is the "end of mission" area return ordeal. Here, should you fly outside of the gaming environment the game takes over and gives you a hard turn back into the field of play. My only complaint is that if you are out to sea or over the desert, no problem, but in Chicago, it can slam you into the side of a building and cause damage to your plane. If your damage is too high and you haven't been to the repair hanger, you can quickly get killed off. So, beware gamer!
Overall
That's one thing about Crimson Skies that is hardly seen in games today to the high degree of craftsmanship that went into the game on each of it's different levels. From the graphics, the game play to the sound, nothing was scrimped on here. It's all of the same high quality through out.
The single player campaign is a nice introduction to the game, though it has has little replay value except for trying it again on harder settings. Replay value
will be found in the multiplayer and online play, via Xbox Live. This game is a sure winner for Xbox owners. It's fun!
Highly recommended.
4.5 out of 5
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