Flyboys and
flygirls alike rejoice! The lengthy void in your gaming life where a flight
combat game should be is only months away from being filled. Microsoft Game
Studios and Fasa Studio are to be thanked by anyone whoever dreamed of taking to
the skies in a twin prop plane to become a demon in the clouds, reigning bullets
and fear into other pilots while playing with their handlebar moustaches. This
Red Baron re-enactment will become virtual reality with the October release of
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for the Microsoft Xbox.
Crimson Skies,
previously seen as a franchise for the PC, comes to the Xbox for the first time
amidst a swirling buzz of great multiplayer action, intuitive controls, and a
true sense of flight not seen before on next-gen home consoles. Amidst a spread
of pizza, spring rolls, and beer, GameZone.com got a sneak peek at the game and
an opportunity to whoop other industry folk’s tails.
Crimson Skies can
best be described as an action/adventure air-combat game. The setting is an
alternate-history 1930’s, and ground transportation has all but disappeared as
politics, The Great Depression, and intense hostilities have forced citizens to
take to the skies for trade, travel, and survival. The main character Nathan
Zachary, part Indiana Jones and part Errol Flynn with a dash of Chuck Yeager, is
a member of the Fortune Hunters, a group of air pirates that act like Robin Hood
and his band of Merry Men without the green tights and singing and dancing. The
Fortune Hunters target larger operations in an attempt to “even out the wealth”
of the unruly world. Nathan must set forth into hero mode when he hears of his
friend’s death and some high-tech plans that have gone missing. What’s an air
pirate to do? Get revenge, get the plans, and get the girl of course. All in a
day’s work.
Pilots must tackle
nearly thirty missions in the single-player mode over roughly fifteen hours of
gameplay. Missions can be taken in different orders, with completed missions
unlocking new ones as the game progresses. From the looks I got of the single
player campaign, gamers should quite content with the variety of the missions,
the intense boss battles, and the cutscenes that propel the developing story.
The bulk of
gameplay will undoubtedly be spent playing the multi-player portion of the
game. Playable over System Link or Xbox Live, Crimson Skies should be a huge
hit with the multi-player gaming community. Among the game modes are the simple
dogfight (deathmatch), flag raid (capture the flag), and a kill-the-carrier mode
where the ball has been replaced by an understandably frightened chicken.
Microsoft had eight Xboxes hooked up together and we played some large
multiplayer games, both individual and team-oriented, that were a blast.
The controls are
quite simple. Microsoft decided to do away with an accelerator, forcing pilots
to control their speed with limited turbo and an air brake. The left thumbstick
controls pitch and yaw, and the right thumbstick controls the roll of the
plane. Each plane (there are ten overall with more possibly available as
downloadable content) has a primary and secondary fire, controlled by the left
and right triggers, and they vary from simple machinegun fire to guided
missiles, shotgun blasts, and lightning guns. Scared of heights? Just hop into
one of many anti-aircraft turrets and take out planes from the ground. The
planes can also defy the laws of physics with eight special moves that are
pulled off with simple flips of the thumbsticks. Most of the moves are evasive,
but come in handy when pursuing enemies in dogfights as well. Excessive use of
the moves will throw your plane into a stall or spinout, so use them wisely.
Crimson Skies
looks fantastic. Most of the single-player mode takes place outside, and the
sky and water look fantastic. Planes move fluidly, which is incredibly
important when trying to navigate a 3-D space. There really can’t be any
complaints about the graphics of Crimson Skies as they are a strongpoint of the
game.
Crimson Skies:
High Road to Revenge is a genuinely fun game that anyone can pick up. Its ease
of use will attract gamers from all walks of life. Think of Midtown Madness in
the clouds with a deeper single player game, and you’ve got Crimson Skies.
Crimson Skies is
rated T for Teen and takes off in October.
