Flight combat games have been one of my favorite niche genres ever since I'd played the original Red Baron on my PC. That thing must have been running at, like, 3 frames a second when there were 4 or more planes on the screen, but damn if I wasn't having a good time every 1/3rd of a second. I'd hoped that this entertainment would carry on to the original Crimson Skies, a game that looked like it was cut from the same mold, only with a more creative and fanciful world.
For the most part that didn't happen, because the game didn't run well on any machine I tried it on. It would die every 3 minutes on my machine, and on my roommate's machine, it would drop all the textures after 15 minutes of play. I went through that entire Hollywood scenario thinking all the mountains, etc., were supposed to be white because they were scenery pieces. When I saw the game running on a third friend's machine, it had different textures missing, and I saw that it was supposed to be covered with greenery. So, while I had fun with the game, the technical errors left me fuming, as it was not the first game purchase Microsoft had utterly burned me on.
When I saw the sequel to the game was appearing only on the XBox, I was a little disheartened, not because it wasn't coming to one of the two consoles I owned, but because it's a game that's really meant to played with a flight stick. But, I also reasoned, that they'd probably be able to make this version of the game stable since it was on their own closed box this time. So...without further ado...here is my first ever X-Box game review on the 'Jak.
Story
You are, once again, Nathan Zachary, an air pirate. The FASA world of Crimson Skies involved an alternate reality where, in the era right after around WWII, air power reigned supreme, huge cargo zeppelins replaced the cargo ships that dominated the era, and as such, roving bands of single person planes would make off with loot and terrorize the shipping lanes in the air.
Nathan is a fairly renowned figure in the world of air piracy, despite his less than intelligent moments. We find him in one such moment at the beginning of the game, in bed with a conquest from last night, staring down the business end of a cocked and loaded pistol...due to a critical failure from last night. It seems that Mr. Zachary gambled and lost his crew's zeppelin, and his plane. Since Nathan's as much of a cheat as the next pirate, he knocks out his assailant, Thibodoux, and takes his plane back. After getting his plane back, he and his sidekick Charlie get his zep back, and head off in search of their zep pilot, Big John.
Along the way, he runs into an old friend from the past, a professor who worked on a secret project for the Nazi regime. He wanted to use these plans for a machine that could control the weather, while his evil scientist colleague only wanted to create a weapon of mass destruction with it. He gives the plans to Nathan, and very, very predictably gets assassinated. You take the plans and try and find out who killed his friend, and set out upon...the High Road to Revenge.
Gameplay
For being a flight game, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge ends up working surprisingly well on a console stick. There are definitely parts where you're cursing the dual analog sticks, but for the most part, the game tries to make the controls a good blend of realism and fast paced action.
The left analog stick shoulders most of the burden of the controlling, and the right analog stick controls your rolling, etc. The game tries to auto-level you off so it's not too much of a distraction, and you can use combinations of the two to perform stunt maneuvers. (Pushing up on one stick and down on the other will perform an Immelman turn, for example.) You've got a primary and secondary fire button, an afterburner, and the green button (I'm not too familiar with this "X-Box Controller" you speak of) switches your views.
The blue button is the interesting one. If you fly by an icon that's flashing blue, it'll mean that you can either activate a mission there, or hop into whatever you're looking at. Don't think your plane's going to survive the mission? Well, just hop in a turret, and let it take out some of the enemy craft and distribute some of the damage between the turret and your plane. Or switch planes entirely with one that's on the ground. If you happen to hop into a new craft that you hadn't used before, you'll unlock it for use in other missions.
The result of all these controls is a very tight controlling arcade-style flight combat game. The action is quick and enjoyable, which is just the way I like my flight combat games. Missions usually consist of you shooting up a bunch of planes on your way to tracking down your evil Nazi antagonists. Along the way, you can pick up upgrade tokens that are tucked away into hard to reach sections of the map, which, along with some cash, you will use to upgrade your plane.
If you've got an XBox you can take online, I've heard nothing but great things about the multiplayer. However, since I was just borrowing the Box from a pal just to play this game, I didn't want to get too fancy with it. We did play head-to-head split screen which wasn't really all that fun, but that's a far cry from what online multiplayer would be offering up.
Graphics
Very clean, very nice. The planes will start trailing fire and smoke as you light them up, and the afterburner effects are also very keen. I had a couple of clipping and collision problems, but nothing that really detracted from the game's overall appearance.
The maps themselves offer some stunning views. The colored stone walls of the Arixo portion and Chicago’s skyline puncturing the clouds stick in my mind as being particularly fine examples of the visual splendor this game has to offer.
Audio
Can’t really complain about the voice acting in this game, and the audio either. It's all pretty up and up work by the team on this one.
Gripes
The game is a lot shallower than its predecessor on the PC was. The PC had a lot more missions, it seemed, and actually a more engaging and less “out-there” plot. On top of that, the missions you'd engage in differ radically. In the XBox version, you'll be tasked with taking out multiple large zeppelins, whereas in the PC version, you would get a mission asking you to disable it by taking out the individual engines or gun turrets. Now...a few shots from the secondary fire, and poof. Instant Hindenburg. That takes a bit of depth away from the game.
Speaking of missions, while there is, of course, the "fly through the canyon" mission, Crimson Skies goes out of its way to seemingly make it as annoying as possible. It’s probably the longest portion of the game. You fly through a cave to destroy two bases, and engage with 3 different squadrons of planes while making your way through it.
On top of that, they make up a new type of annoying mission. Tell me: Why is it that mad scientists build SO much redundancy that even with 1 generator, the evil machine of death still operates at 100% power? The characters spend the whole mission talking about how the ship needs a tremendous amount of power to sustain its destructive weapon, yet...all completely sustainable with 1 generator. Of course, getting at those generators invovles flying through sawblades, flamethrowers, and choppy propeller blades. Ooooh-kay. Seriously, can I get a final mission that doesn't involve a circus act gone horribly wrong? Please?
In addition to the missions being dumbed down, the whole upgrade system that was on the PC is gone, and that's a severe disappointment. I knew the game's mechanics would be dumbed down for the console, but I didn't expect that something as simple as being able to choose your guns and missile options would be taken away. Lethal Skies II and Ace Combat 04 had this functionality, so I don't see this as being something they couldn't have kept. As it is, I'm just stuck with using one type of plane (honestly, the Devastator is a much better choice than nearly any other plane, and you start with it) because even if I did like one body type better, there's nothing I can do to address that craft's weaknesses anymore.
Also, if you don't have the ability to get online with Crimson Skies, the experience is soured somewhat by the fact that CS can be easily beaten in a weekend, probably a day if you wanted to. Without the broadband content to keep this interesting, this is unquestionably a rental.
Overall
I have to say that I'm glad my first XBox review is for a game that meets our standards for excellence; otherwise, people would be saying that all I can do is rave about PS2 games. Crimson Skies is a great game, albeit very, very short, and a stripped down version of its predecessor.
Crimson Skies is definitely worth playing through for the experience, although there isn't a whole lot to keep you around after the first play through if you're not online. I can see the replay being around a 9 or so if you enjoy the online multiplayer, but since I was playing it single player...that's why it's a 6.
