Crimson Skies : High Road to Revenge (Xbox)
This week, we take to the skies in this console release that's a sequel to a PC only flying game, pitting you in the pilot's seat of a member of an air pirate gang. Let's take off in this one and see if it's any good or if it just leaves a scorch mark on the side of a mountain.
In this game, you control Nate the morning after an alcohol and gambling filled evening, during which he gambled away his signature fighter plane and zeppelin to a man named Thibodeaux, the leader of a rival gang of pirates called the Ragin Cajuns. Despite losing them in a bet, Nathan is able to recover them both, which angers Thibodeaux who then steals another Fortune Hunter's, Betty's, plane. Nate responds by eliminating all of the Ragin Cajuns. Afterwards, Doc Fassenbiender, a friend of Nathan's, calls him up to say that his lab has been broken into, and he believes it is due to plans for a secret weapon he was developing : a wind turbine which can manifest storms. While out on another mission, Doc contacts Nate again that he is under attack. When he and Betty arrive, they discover a zeppelin loaded with Tesla coils that's firing electricity all through the area. Together, they take down the attackers, however they're unable to do so before Doc is killed. The two of them, along with other members of the Fortune Hunters, swear their revenge and set out to take down all the other gangs to find out who is responsible and make them pay for what they've done.
You can also use the two joysticks to do special flight maneuvers. You do this by first clicking the right stick, and then immediately moving both joysticks in a direction (either the same direction or opposites). This allows you to do moves like barrel rolls, snap rolls, and an Immelman (thank you Erik!)
In the portions of the game where you can control mounted weapons, your flight controls apply to aiming the guns, A lets you zoom in in a sort of sniper mode, B and Y can rotate you through different weapons (there are usually a few to cycle through like rocket launchers, regular artillery guns, and bigger shelled guns), and X will have you exit wherever you are and reenter your plane.
Each area features an environment that is specifically catered towards flying, packed with lots of things to do either high and low, as well as tight quarter areas that are going to require a bit more skillful of an approach.When you are in the GTA-style areas, other than the missions that you can select, there is usually a race-type event where it's just you testing your skills by flying through small gates racing against a clock. You can also collect different upgrade tokens in these areas, and find other planes to steal and add to your arsenal.
The missions themselves usually require you to either follow someone and assist them with enemies, destroy a certain group of enemies, retrieve something that was lost or stolen, or help defend a building/ship/person. The majority of these missions take place out of the Pandora, Nate's zeppelin, which acts as a sort of hub for everything you need throughout the game.
During missions, some have a repair area you can fly to to fix any damage you might have taken. If there's no repair station, then you can either fly to the Pandora (if it's available) or a carrier-type boat to swap to another plane of yours (again, if available). After completing missions, you're rewarded with upgrade tokens and some money, both of which can be used to upgrade your fighters, but each plane only has one upgrade possibility. And it's more of an overall upgrade of the plane as a whole, instead of choosing to upgrade flight capabilities, or defense, or amount of secondary ammo capacity.
All the enemies in this game typically share the sky with you. Their flight planes will all be specifically styled visually to their gang, and they mostly will shoot their traditional guns at you, but will also send the occasional missile your way. In addition to fighter planes, you'll be dealing with zeppelins in the air, both large and small. Some enemies will stick to the water in small gunboats, and even smaller guard towers with artillery guns in them.
While there are technically bosses in this game, most don't really count as anything more than slightly stronger enemies. These are typically the other pirate gang leaders, and after you defeat them you're rewarded with their fighter. The one boss that definitely has a presence in this game, however, is Die Spinne, the massive electricity shooting zep I mentioned in the story section. (We'll talk a bit more about him below).
All in all, Crimson Skies is a pretty fun play, but what's the challenge?
The flight controls are pretty easy, in and out of combat. In the opening level of the game, where you stop Thibodeaux from stealing what he rightfully won (damn pirates...), you get a decent amount of time to adjust yourself to the controls, which are a lot of fun and pretty responsive as well.
Speaking of combat, it can be a moderate challenge to you. Even on a normal difficulty setting, the enemy can be pretty evasive and you'll literally hunt them down to destroy them. The guard towers are probably the hardest part of the combat, if not for anything other than the fact that they're so small and require precise aiming and more than a couple shots to destroy. However, the gunboats and the zeppelins are the easiest area of combat, as these are massive targets that move extremely slow.
Finding the upgrade tokens in the levels is pretty easy, but it can be a bit of a challenge as well. This is one of those areas where it's moreso dependent on you, and your expertise in flying games. If you've played a lot of these types of games, you can probably breeze through them, but if you only pick up flight simulator games on the rarest of occasions, you might find yourself exploding against the mountainsides and joining the fishies.
Lastly, Die Spinne. This thing is tough, but not impossible, so I'd place it somewhere between moderate and hard, but definitely a shade closer to hard. The one saving grace about it is that it's a huge, huge zeppelin, so it's a slow target. But it is far from an easy target. Without completely handing the strategy over to you guys (come on I have to leave something for you to figure out), there is only a specific part of the ship that can take damage, and it requires you to approach the zep from a precise angle.
In the end this game can be a bit of a challenge, and again that's just on the normal setting. Now let's look at some good and bad points for this one before wrapping it up.
- Flight Game With Story. This was a detail in this game I hadn't expected when I first put it in. I've played a handful of flight combat games before and they were just really simple war-scenarios where you'd be given a briefing, and sent out to blow stuff up only to return to base, rinse and repeat. Crimson Skies isn't like that at all, there's an actual narrative behind it all, and while the world in it isn't completely original, it's different enough that it successfully takes you away every time you hop in the cockpit.
- Feels Limited At Times. With all the stuff that you can do in this game, there's just times where it feels like there should be more, but you run into a proverbial wall. The single upgrade system leaves you wanting further customization for your fighters, which apparently is something that was present in the original PC title, and even one of the game's designers has been known to wish they'd done the original game's full customization instead. The areas you get to fly around in for the GTA-style sections are small. There's still a decent amount to do, but they feel so small, especially when you're in a mission fight and you try to loop around for a second pass on someone and are getting yelled at because you're going out of bounds. I just felt that this game was restricted where it should have been more open, and it was a bit more open where it didn't need to be.
Have I Beaten This One? Not yet, but only because I'm still having fun with it. I've honestly redone a couple of the missions because they were that much fun, and if it weren't for that simple fact I'd probably be done and on my 2nd playthrough.
The Story
Crimson Skies is set in an alternate historic version of the United States, where the country is divided into numerous sovereignities instead of united under one banner. Due to this division, an insterstate highway system was never constructed, and travel instead turned to the skies rather than the road, and the skies are littered with pirate gangs, including the Fortune Hunters, of which Nathan, your main character, is a member.In this game, you control Nate the morning after an alcohol and gambling filled evening, during which he gambled away his signature fighter plane and zeppelin to a man named Thibodeaux, the leader of a rival gang of pirates called the Ragin Cajuns. Despite losing them in a bet, Nathan is able to recover them both, which angers Thibodeaux who then steals another Fortune Hunter's, Betty's, plane. Nate responds by eliminating all of the Ragin Cajuns. Afterwards, Doc Fassenbiender, a friend of Nathan's, calls him up to say that his lab has been broken into, and he believes it is due to plans for a secret weapon he was developing : a wind turbine which can manifest storms. While out on another mission, Doc contacts Nate again that he is under attack. When he and Betty arrive, they discover a zeppelin loaded with Tesla coils that's firing electricity all through the area. Together, they take down the attackers, however they're unable to do so before Doc is killed. The two of them, along with other members of the Fortune Hunters, swear their revenge and set out to take down all the other gangs to find out who is responsible and make them pay for what they've done.
The Controls
With Crimson Skies being a flight combat simulator, the controls are pretty expected going into it. Your joysticks control your flight, the right one really only controlling your ability to manually roll your fighter and the left doing the rest. A lets you enter certain areas where you can land your plane for either repairs or to control a mounted gun, B is your brakes in the air while Y is a speed boost, and X is your action button throughout the whole game. With the black button, you can make the camera lock onto an enemy that is being targeted, and lastly the triggers fire your weapons, the right firing your main one and the left firing your secondary weapon.You can also use the two joysticks to do special flight maneuvers. You do this by first clicking the right stick, and then immediately moving both joysticks in a direction (either the same direction or opposites). This allows you to do moves like barrel rolls, snap rolls, and an Immelman (thank you Erik!)
In the portions of the game where you can control mounted weapons, your flight controls apply to aiming the guns, A lets you zoom in in a sort of sniper mode, B and Y can rotate you through different weapons (there are usually a few to cycle through like rocket launchers, regular artillery guns, and bigger shelled guns), and X will have you exit wherever you are and reenter your plane.
The Gameplay
This game takes place predominantly in the air, although there are portions where you can hop on a boat or a zeppelin to take control of a mounted gun for a short period of time. Either way, you'll almost never see Nate on his feet except for cutscenes and the transition scenes from his fighter to either the mounted guns or a new fighter.
The story itself is fairly linear, but there are portions where you get a sense of free roam. Most of the missions are locked into each other, where you'll finish one, enjoy a cutscene, and then be brought to where you have to select the next mission. However, some areas offer a Grand Theft Auto-styled "open world" where you can choose to either fly freely around the area, or swoop into different people for missions, whether they're main missions for the story or fun side ones.Each area features an environment that is specifically catered towards flying, packed with lots of things to do either high and low, as well as tight quarter areas that are going to require a bit more skillful of an approach.When you are in the GTA-style areas, other than the missions that you can select, there is usually a race-type event where it's just you testing your skills by flying through small gates racing against a clock. You can also collect different upgrade tokens in these areas, and find other planes to steal and add to your arsenal.
The missions themselves usually require you to either follow someone and assist them with enemies, destroy a certain group of enemies, retrieve something that was lost or stolen, or help defend a building/ship/person. The majority of these missions take place out of the Pandora, Nate's zeppelin, which acts as a sort of hub for everything you need throughout the game.
During missions, some have a repair area you can fly to to fix any damage you might have taken. If there's no repair station, then you can either fly to the Pandora (if it's available) or a carrier-type boat to swap to another plane of yours (again, if available). After completing missions, you're rewarded with upgrade tokens and some money, both of which can be used to upgrade your fighters, but each plane only has one upgrade possibility. And it's more of an overall upgrade of the plane as a whole, instead of choosing to upgrade flight capabilities, or defense, or amount of secondary ammo capacity.
All the enemies in this game typically share the sky with you. Their flight planes will all be specifically styled visually to their gang, and they mostly will shoot their traditional guns at you, but will also send the occasional missile your way. In addition to fighter planes, you'll be dealing with zeppelins in the air, both large and small. Some enemies will stick to the water in small gunboats, and even smaller guard towers with artillery guns in them.
While there are technically bosses in this game, most don't really count as anything more than slightly stronger enemies. These are typically the other pirate gang leaders, and after you defeat them you're rewarded with their fighter. The one boss that definitely has a presence in this game, however, is Die Spinne, the massive electricity shooting zep I mentioned in the story section. (We'll talk a bit more about him below).
All in all, Crimson Skies is a pretty fun play, but what's the challenge?
The Challenge (or lack thereof)
From the flight controls and combat, to the single boss and upgrade tokens, Crimson Skies might bring a bit of challenge to you as the player, but the level of challenge is entirely up to two things. First, your experience with flight games in general, and second, where you place the difficulty slide on this one as it offers four levels of difficulty from the start. I chose to keep this one on normal, as I do for most games, so the ratings below are relevant to that.The flight controls are pretty easy, in and out of combat. In the opening level of the game, where you stop Thibodeaux from stealing what he rightfully won (damn pirates...), you get a decent amount of time to adjust yourself to the controls, which are a lot of fun and pretty responsive as well.
Speaking of combat, it can be a moderate challenge to you. Even on a normal difficulty setting, the enemy can be pretty evasive and you'll literally hunt them down to destroy them. The guard towers are probably the hardest part of the combat, if not for anything other than the fact that they're so small and require precise aiming and more than a couple shots to destroy. However, the gunboats and the zeppelins are the easiest area of combat, as these are massive targets that move extremely slow.
Finding the upgrade tokens in the levels is pretty easy, but it can be a bit of a challenge as well. This is one of those areas where it's moreso dependent on you, and your expertise in flying games. If you've played a lot of these types of games, you can probably breeze through them, but if you only pick up flight simulator games on the rarest of occasions, you might find yourself exploding against the mountainsides and joining the fishies.
Lastly, Die Spinne. This thing is tough, but not impossible, so I'd place it somewhere between moderate and hard, but definitely a shade closer to hard. The one saving grace about it is that it's a huge, huge zeppelin, so it's a slow target. But it is far from an easy target. Without completely handing the strategy over to you guys (come on I have to leave something for you to figure out), there is only a specific part of the ship that can take damage, and it requires you to approach the zep from a precise angle.
In the end this game can be a bit of a challenge, and again that's just on the normal setting. Now let's look at some good and bad points for this one before wrapping it up.
PROS
- Visually Stunning. I've noted this in a few reviews, and I try not to unless the visuals are truly noteworthy, but this game looks fantastic. The cutscenes in particular look as good, if not better, than some current games, and this was two generations previous. It probably helps that the first game in the series was built for PC, and even moreso with Xbox being from Microsoft in that respect, but still this game stands up visually among a lot of games today which is hard to do with what's being pushed out currently.- Flight Game With Story. This was a detail in this game I hadn't expected when I first put it in. I've played a handful of flight combat games before and they were just really simple war-scenarios where you'd be given a briefing, and sent out to blow stuff up only to return to base, rinse and repeat. Crimson Skies isn't like that at all, there's an actual narrative behind it all, and while the world in it isn't completely original, it's different enough that it successfully takes you away every time you hop in the cockpit.
CONS
- Control Inversion. My least favorite thing in flying games is when the aiming controls are the same for flying as they are for shooting regular or mounted weapons : up being down, down being up. What makes it worse, I feel, is when you can't separate the two. For me personally, I have no problem wrapping my head around the inversion while in-flight. It just makes sense with all the times in movies and TV shows where you pull back to make the plane go up. However it makes no sense for the same to be said when aiming a regular gun. Most games will allow for you to differentiate between the two, giving you inversion options for flight and for aiming separately. Crimson Skies bundles them together and while it's not the worst thing ever, it seems silly to not separate the two.- Feels Limited At Times. With all the stuff that you can do in this game, there's just times where it feels like there should be more, but you run into a proverbial wall. The single upgrade system leaves you wanting further customization for your fighters, which apparently is something that was present in the original PC title, and even one of the game's designers has been known to wish they'd done the original game's full customization instead. The areas you get to fly around in for the GTA-style sections are small. There's still a decent amount to do, but they feel so small, especially when you're in a mission fight and you try to loop around for a second pass on someone and are getting yelled at because you're going out of bounds. I just felt that this game was restricted where it should have been more open, and it was a bit more open where it didn't need to be.
Final Verdict
It's not perfect, but it doesn't miss by much either. I can tell you right now that if you don't like flying games, then don't even bother with this one, because it doesn't offer any other style of gameplay in Crimson Skies. However, if you do enjoy flying games even the slightest bit, pick this one up. All variations of this game (loose, CIB, or new and sealed) run under $10, AND it's one of the titles that's playable on the Xbox 360, so if you have that and not the original Xbox, you can still enjoy it. It looks great, has an actually entertaining story, and the flight combat is so well done. So again, avoid this one if you absolutely dread flight simulation games, otherwise, you will get your moneys worth out of this one, many times over.Have I Beaten This One? Not yet, but only because I'm still having fun with it. I've honestly redone a couple of the missions because they were that much fun, and if it weren't for that simple fact I'd probably be done and on my 2nd playthrough.
