By: Brian
The setting is an alternate reality 1930's where war and plague has split the
United States into 23 different countries, each at war with one another and
ruled by aerial �pirates.� You play the of the leader of one of these groups, a
sort of hero character.
MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer Crimson Skies includes death match, team-death match, and ctf. All
of the modes are action intensive and more like a first person shooter in many
ways than a flight simulator. There are some oddities in that you can't really
create a custom plane in multiplayer properly and other strange things but
overall it is fun if you like multiplayer modes. Unfortunately there are no
cooperative or mission modes (such as in Halo, etc.) in multiplayer which I
think we all would have liked to see.
BASICS
Let's begin by saying that Crimson Skies is not a flight simulator in any
meaningful sense of the word. If you want a serious simulation this will be a
disappointment. Sure you fly a plane, but if you are looking for a hard-core
realistic simulator, then you�re better off buying Microsoft�s Flight Simulator
2004 for the PC.
This is made clearer in the default flight view mode, which is an external
camera behind the plane you are flying. You can fly in a first person view as
well as in a cockpit view, but I am here to tell you that in fact the external
view is the best one to play with. It gives you a better view for doing the
crazy stunts that you often have to perform since you can see where your wings
are in relation to tight spots, etc.
Before each mission you get a briefing that describes the mission objectives.
You can choose the plane you wish to fly of those available in your hanger (more
options are possible as the game goes on and you can even buy custom planes with
the cash you earn).
Now, it�s time to launch. Missions have a variety of objectives from the simple
shoot everything that moves missions to disabling zeppelins (hot-air balloons),
picking people up from moving trains, stunt flying and more. The variety is
really great. Each mission also has optional stunts you can perform. These might
mean flying under a bridge, through a tunnel, etc. When you perform one, a
picture is snapped of your maneuver and added to your scrapbook.
The scrapbook is a cool idea, similar to the medal case of other flight sims.
Here you'll find newspaper clippings describing your exploits, your in-flight
snapshots, as well as statistics from your missions including accuracy, enemy
planes downed, and so on.
Combat is arcade simple, pretty much point and shoot. Flying can hardly be
called that. Gravity is there, but the planes you fly are so grossly overpowered
that you can fly straight up for extended periods (without stalling), pull crazy
maneuvers, and otherwise defy the laws of gravity in ways that even today's
super-powerful fighters can't.
In combat you have both missiles and machine-guns at your disposal. You can only
fire one type at a time, however.
There are three difficulty settings, but I didn't notice much difference between
them. In all three the enemies are not very smart and your wingmen are nearly
useless. You almost always have to kill all the opposition as well as do the
hard bits like disabling engines or what have you. The only real purpose wingmen
serve is to draw fire until they have to bail out. A bit disappointing but then
this is a game where you are supposed to be one of the best of the best flying
aces so perhaps it is understandable.
I really enjoyed the mission variety and even if there is a mission that really
annoys you there is an option to skip it if you fail three times in a row. You
can always go back and fly any mission later also, so you are never completely
stopped in advancing levels, which is a very a nice feature.
The dialog is crisp, the plot interesting, and the action keeps things moving at
a swift pace. Overall the game concept and execution is really very good and I
had great fun while the game lasted.
Not all is rosy with Crimson Skies however. I was annoyed by odd sound problems
when some missions ended. Other people have reported a variety of different
problems as well. Nothing too bad, but enough to get on your nerves.
But the biggest problem is the brevity of the game. There are only 25 missions
total. And since most missions can be flown in under 10 minutes or so, the total
game time from start to finish for me was about 14 hours. Once you finally get
into it, the game is over. There is some replay value as you try to perform all
the stunts possible in each mission, but even so this is a game that is really
just way too short.
OUTCOME
This game is definitely a good buy if you are a gamer who likes relatively short
games, with interesting storyline and dialogue. Overall, I give this game a 8
out of 10 for some technical problems I had encountered, and for being a
relatively short game.
8/10
