Future Games Network -- Crimson Skies Review (PC)

Crimson Skies (PC)
Developed by Zipper Interactive
Published by Microsoft
In My Humble Opinion
by Michael Askounes

OK, I’ll come clean... usually when I hear the words "flight simulator", I run screaming from the room, flashbacks of entire nights wasted learning to take off and interfaces that only an erudite octopus could master streaming through my skull. As most of my career flight simulation time has been spent either taxiing down runways for hours at a time or crashing into the ocean like a pelican on LSD, suffice it to say that I was less than enthusiastic about reviewing Microsoft’s latest flying game Crimson Skies. However, after a few frustrating false–starts in which I crashed into the Pacific more times than I can remember, I slowly began to realize that Crimson Skies was more than an ordinary flight simulation — Microsoft and developer Zipper Interactive have actually managed to create a addictive and well–designed mission–based flying game that even a moron like myself could figure out — and one with a fantastic story to boot!

Crimson Skies art Actually, calling Crimson Skies a "flight–sim" might be an exaggeration — it has much more in common with Wing Commander then it does Falcon 4.0, which means that you’ll spend more time blasting and barnstorming and less time reading the manual and figuring out the difference between pitch and yaw (Pitch and Yaw... sounds like a folk band...). However, that is not to say that Crimson Skies isn’t challenging — on the contrary, some of the missions will have you pulling out your hair in frustration and picking monitor glass from your fist. The umpteenth time you fail docking with a zeppelin or rescuing a damsel in distress from a moving train you’ll feel those familiar "flight–sim" veins begin to pop out from your forehead. Fortunately, the frustration factor of the majority of the missions is relatively low so you’ll be able to truly enjoy the fantastic environment and storyline that Zipper has developed. At what an environment that is!

Crimson Skies art Crimson Skies is based in an alternate universe where prohibition and the Great Depression combined to cause the breakup of North America into 23 separate countries. These nations include the Republic of Texas (the first to secede, of course), Lakota, Confederation of Dixie, Navajo Nation, and about a score of other unlikely sovereign nations. Defending these nations are various gangs of barnstorming pilots flying the latest in 1930’s–style aircraft — all accompanied by a zeppelin–come–airacraft carrier. Your role is to play the part of dashing aviator Nathan Zachary who begins his fight for good with his gang of pirates (named the Fortune Hunters) over the Kingdom of Hawaii searching for Drake’s lost treasure. However, you’ll soon finds yourself in battle against the notorious Lucas Miles and his air pirates The Black Hats for control of the skies all the way to The Empire State. The game’s background story is extremely well thought out (as a matter of fact, expect some written fiction coming your way using the Crimson Skies universe as a backdrop), and mixing a science fiction plot with early 20th century attitude is both fresh and entertaining.

Crimson Skies art Most of the missions in Crimson Skies consist of 80 percent straight up dog fighting, and 20 percent barnstorming and aerial tricks. During your engagement with your enemy, you can also seek out "danger zones" which result in barnstorming points and bonus entries in your scrapbook, which is used to track your progress in the game. These danger zones usually consist of caves and other tight spaces through which you can fly while engaging the enemy in combat. Speaking of combat, the dog fights in Crimson Skies are very fast and furious, and if you’re flying one of the game’s more nimble planes, you’ll almost feel the wind in your hair as you perform Immelmans and Yo–Yo’s to escape harm. As the pilot, you’ll have complete control over the model and load–out of your flying machine, and unlike a lot of other games the choices made at the load–out screen really impact game play. If you try and engage a fast fighter like the Curtiss–Wright J2 Fury with a slow and plodding aircraft like Bristol Type 140 Balmoral bomber, you won’t last very long — so make sure you spend enough time researching the various planes to determine which is right for each mission. And, if you don’t like any of the planes that are available, Crimson Skies allows you to use some of the money earned for successful missions towards a totally custom built planes complete with paintjob and wing artwork.

Crimson Skies art While Crimson Skies does excel in the "entertainment" department and features a well–programmed game engine (hardly any choppiness at all, even during heavily populated battles), there are a few minor problems with the game. First, load times are excruciatingly long and there seems to be a problem with the custom plane screens, as exiting from them often took slightly longer than a Catholic wedding. Also, despite the overall fun–factor of Crimson Skies, some of the missions were just a tad too difficult for my tastes — fortunately these missions can be skipped after three failed attempts.

Crimson Skies art That having been said, Zipper and Microsoft have done a wonderful overall job with both execution and design of Crimson Skies. The universe created to serve as a backdrop to the storyline is one of the most interesting virtual worlds I’ve encountered in quite some time, and I expect a long line of sequels to result from this game as the story possibilities are all but limitless. In short, Crimson Skies is the flight–sim for folks who hate flight–sims.

More information – as well as a trial version – on this excellent release can be found at the Crimson Skies website.