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Great game, and a few corrections

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: March 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Crimson Skies is a superb blend of action, comedy, camp, and noir. Do you like Indiana Jones? Do you like James Bond? How about Casablanca? How about the classic Private Eye stories full of mobsters and dames? Crimson skies is a flying game backed by a superb action-adventure story line, and yes it's worthy of comparison to the above. Note: I don't have XBox Live, so this review is entirely based on the singleplayer. That said, I love this game enough to give it 5 stars for singleplayer alone. Live is the super atomic icing on the cake. And I'll try to keep this pretty much spoiler free.

The story(10/10): You are Nathan Zachary, a former playboy who met unfortunate circumstances (along with the rest of the nation) and is fighting his way back to the top. Along the way, you form a rag-tag band of air pirates as you explore this strange quasi-America and unravel a mysterious plot.

The immersion factor(10/10): Amazing. From the moment the intro cutscene pops up, you're going to be completely immersed. Segments like this do tons to push the story, and you're going to love savoring every moment of them. You're quickly thrown into the fray as you hop into the pilot seat. This game makes you remember why you always wanted to be a plane/ bird/ pilot/ superhero/ mobster/ pirate/ (you get the idea) as a kid.

Controls(9/10): The first "level" is a mini-tutorial that's quick and fun. Controls are super natural and goals are (almost) always extremely clear, so you have tons of time to enjoy flying and rarely have to spend time wondering about objectives.

Value(9/10): The singleplayer is long enough to please and worth every moment. I'm not even finished yet, and I would be 100% content if the game was only as long as I've played to. Very nice. There's not much replayability aside from collecting more tokens or exploring more areas, but for some (like me) it'll be more than enough to warrant a few more games.

Overall: This game is FUN. The story needs to be a movie yesterday. The controls can be picked up instantly, but there's plenty of room to grow in skill. The gameplay ranges from frantic dogfights to free-form exploration. Yes, you will find yourself just skimming a lake to see the water splash on the camera, or buzzing through a canyon to test your skills. The combination of graphics, control, and gameplay combine for what may be the best flying experience ever. Sure, die-hard sim fans will gripe about the realism. But do you ever really want too much realism in an action-adventure? I think not.

Bottom line (9.5/10): I think this game is going to start showing up on a couple "Top games of all time" lists. Not THE top game, but definately not far.

Great Live Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 36
Date: November 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Even though most other reviews have already said it, it bears repeating: this game is great online! The game types are: dogfight, team dogfight, capture the flag, keep away (a sort of tag-like game), team keep away, and wild chicken (a game similar to capture the flag, but with only one flag).

The downside to live is that you're dependent on the number of other people online. You can always find a dogfight game going on, but it's harder to find a keep away or wild chicken game going on at 7 on Sunday morning.

The single player mode is good, but repetitive. There's only so much flying and shooting you can do before you get tired of seemingly doing the same thing over and over again. You can get into AA guns and fire from the ground or from vehicles, but overall this doesn't add too much in the way of variety. The storyline is pretty ridiculous (not in the good way like odd world), and it lacks any sort of complexity.

Overall, I really wouldn't recommend buying this game unless you have x-box live. It's got the great microsoft-title graphics (ala brute force or halo), so it's definately worth renting for that by itself. But if you don't have the challenge of playing other people online, this game's playability is pretty thin.

A fantastic game ruined by one major con.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: November 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm a huge flight game fan. You name it and I've played it, though my favorites tend to be the first two StarFox games (that were legally released that is) and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. You almost couldn't ask for anything more in Crimson Skies because it has it all. Outstanding graphics, an awesome soundtrack that is worthy of a purchase alone, easy controls, top-notch production values, a fun online mode that has a huge following, and voice acting that's professional. So what's the one whole thing that keeps this game away from being five stars? I'll tell you: it can be completed in about 5 or 6 hours. And that's even on the Hard difficulty. Oh how I wish I could this great game 5 stars overall, but believe me, when you play it and get to the sudden last boss (which doesn't even really seem like one), you'll agree.

There isn't much of a plot to CS. Like it matters. This is a straight up action game, and we don't need some boring story about the characters like so many are trying to do these days. You take the role of Nathan Zackary, a mercenary pilot that kinda wasted a ton of money on gambling. So now it's time to get some money back by taking a few jobs in various towns. The game takes place in an alternate 1930's, where the use of planes has been fully realized and is the main form of transportation. It's pretty cool and they don't over do it with trying to hint that this takes place back then. But at the same time, you get to learn about new things. Well, what was "new" back then. Like titanium and its importance in vehicle design. What's kind of funny is that early into the game, you take on different bosses that are just plain out there. What I'm talking about are huge mech spiders that tear apart blimps, a giant metal snake that takes down other transports and more. You don't have to like flight games to appreciate CS at all. It's easy for anyone to get into and enjoy right at the beginning. Controls are simple enough: A is confirm as usual, B is brake, Y is boost and X is the action command that lets you talk to other pilots when the feature pops up. And of course, the right trigger is fire and the left trigger activates your plane's secondary weapon. A lot of these are pretty cool. Ranging from missiles to rapid-fire machine guns to fireballs to sniper shots. What surprised me was that the right thumbstick is what rolls your plane. Instead of arching to the side with a trigger like StarFox 64 did, if you want to slant your plane at all, just tap the right thumbstick in the direction you want and you're done. And it's very responsive, so don't worry about making a wrong move thanks to the controller settings. Plus you can do a few tricks by clicking in the right thumbstick while moving your plane in another direction with the left one. You can do a u-turn, flip behind an enemy craft, and do barrel rolls. While they were a nice addition, they're pointless, and I guarentee you can go through the game without using any of them even once. I didn't even know you could barrel roll until I screwed around at the beginning of my second play through. And you also get to use different weapons scattered about the game map. Want to get out of the plane and try taking down a few opposing ones with a rocket launcher mounted on your Zepplin? Go for it. Want to use dual cannons to derail a train? Be my guest. It never gets old.

In the graphics department, CS has it all. A smooth framerate, no 'jaggies', and crisp lighting effects. There's hardly any slowdown which is a major plus, as that always bugged me about previous flying games. Here you are in the middle of a dog fight in the skies, only to have tons of slowdown taking the suspense to a lower level. All of the (completely original) planes look great and are easily distinguishable from the others. And you gotta love that blast of electricity as a secondary weapon in a later vehicle. The environments in which you visit are beautiful. I'd spend minutes just traveling along the vast mountains here and there, ignoring that I had a couple of Gyro-Copters on my tail. It's not like they stood a chance anyway. Oh, and the FMVs are sweet as well. You're not getting pathetic FMVs like those found in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. No, you're getting ones where the designers actually tried. No grainy-ness, no slow movement, no pitifully deformed looking characters. In fact, a lot of the characters in the FMVs look very realistic. I just wish there was an option to watch the FMVs whenever you want from the main menu like in KotOR. That would've been nice, as some of these are worthy of showing off what your console can do. Yep, this is a pretty game, plain and simple.

Like I said, the music is perfect, and easily worth buying the soundtrack for. If you've ever seen a movie from the early 1900's, then that's what you can expect here. Valiant tracks accompany daring efforts to protect your home Zepp when the time comes. And mysterious scores make for that sense of wonder that helps move along scenes in the lost city later on. Sometimes the score will tune out and go to more ambient sounds, which is a nice change of pace. It does get old eventually, hearing the same track replay over and over. There's not a lot more to say for the music. I've yet to hear a complaint about it. The sound effects left me speechless. Hearing that rapid fire machine gun on the Dust Devil left me wanting more just o hear its clear ratta-tat-tat, followed up by a beautiful explosion and a scream on the radio from the victim. That doesn't happen too much though, which is a shame. They could've done a lot more with the plane radios. Hopefully, if a sequel is in the works, that'll be something keyed in on. And there's no bad voice acting here. Nathan sounds like your usual confident hero from that time period with no out-of-place lines. Indians sound like Indians and not Americans trying to sound like the stereotypical kind. As you can tell, a lot of effort was put into the sound department as well. If you have a huge Dolby surround setup for your TV, brace yourself.

Again, like I said, Crimson Skies' major con is that it's way too short. Sure, a key feature in the game is the online play, and that's good for people that are able to use it. I can't, so I'm stuck with regular multiplayer and the main game. But I've heard nothing but good things about the Xbox Live gameplay. I'm sure you'll like it if you like the game even the slightest bit. When playing the main game though, just keep expecting the ending to be after the next mission. That way, you won't be too disappointed. When I took out that last boss and the ending FMV appeared in its 18 second glory, I was crushed. It just ends so suddenly that you almost want to not go back and play it again. But I did, trying out the hardest difficulty setting and not upgrading any planes. Sadly, some of the plane upgrades don't even seem that different. Sure the secondary weapons are noticable in their changes, but the speed boosts and everything aren't too noticable. In the end though, Crimson Skies is a good game and worthy of all the good reviews it gets. It could just haev more replay. Like even a score mode. Here's hoping for more in the future.

refreshing to say the least

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: December 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I originally bought this game because it offers two free months of xbox live with it. This alone is a great bargain if you really want to try out xbox live without purchasing the $70 kit. I began playing it, and it was a whole lotta fun. I've become extraordinarily bored by first person shooters, because it is what the Xbox library is dominated by. Everyone's making first person shooters because they saw how successful halo was...Well, here enters Crimson Skies.

It's a third person shooter in a sense. It is more a dogfighting game than a flight simulator (it hardly simulates anything close to reality, which is a good thing!). Single player consists of an almost GTA-like storyline...There's a main plot, but you can go off and do your own thing (to an extent), too. As you go along, you earn tokens, and money, which are what you need to upgrade your planes. The single player experience makes this game rent-worthy, while the multiplayer (like so many other games) is what makes this a keeper.

If you don't have xbox live yet, that's fine. The game comes with an activation code that gives you two free months. You take 5 minutes to sign up, then you're off! You pick quickmatch, which automatically searches for an open game of the type you desire. You get in, and you pick your plane. Everyone checks in, and you're now beginning your first xbox live experience. You may be playing dogfight or team dogfight (equivalent to deathmatch or team deathmatch), flag heist (capture the flag), keep away or team keep away (you grab "the booty," and everyone else tries to kill you- basically kill the carrier). Or you might be playing the best of them all...Wild Chicken. This is a game much like football, but with a chicken. You start out on your team's side, and everyone rushes to the middle of the map where there's a chicken falling from the sky. The goal is to take the chicken to the enemy's base, through a set of four goal posts. You earn seven points for every chicken-score, and 1 point for every kill. Sound fun? You have no idea.

Instead of looking just in front of, to the sides, and behind you, you have to be aware of above and below as well. While this may seem obvious, you cannot truly understand its significance until you play. Because it has a light learning curve, the game is easy to pick up. This allows it to be a great party game, or just something you play by yourself. The single player is fun, but nothing compared to multiplayer.

*For those without xbox live: the game is a lot more fun in multiplayer if you have the headset (you can purchase it alone for about $30). the headset made all the difference for me, and got me hooked on xbox live.

ENJOY!

Great for kids, too

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My six years old is a budding ace on this (better than me at this point, I fear). The learning curve is perfect, with lots of encouragement, relatively frequent autosave points and a very simple UI. There's no death (pilots parachute out) and, like a good Pixar movie, the jokes work on many levels, so kids and adults alike will find it clever.

And the biggie: it's great fun, and looks amazing. The Xbox is thin on games that are appropriate for kids, and Crimson Skies is a very welcome arrival. Highly recommended.

The Best New XBOX Live Game Around

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: October 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I preordered this game and received it the day it was released. Let me say this - WOW. I have been playing flight games since the days of the old Apple II, and I am a former Navy Pilot myself. This game far exceeded my expectations and the live play is astounding. If there is a clipping problem, you won't notice it whatsoever. The live play is seamless and faster-paced than MechAssault. The flight controls do not have as steep a learning curve as some have previously said. My 8 year old daughter was up and running in minutes.
The game's true appeal is variety. Even if you don't have Xbox Live, this game still holds virtually infinite replayability. The premise is simple: you're an air pirate in a post-depression world. (use your imagination) The controls are very responsive and the flight-dynamics are extremely well done. While it is true that the programmers have eliminated low-velocity stall, any pilot can tell you that stall is nothing you want in an entertaining game anyway. Stall sucks, simply put.
If you have Xbox live, this is the game to have. More players are allowed to enter each game than you were allowed in MechAssault, and this makes for a more chaotic battle. I have to give this game 5 stars for its overall graphic detail and as I mentioned earlier, the infinite replayability.

Awesome Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let me just say that Crimson Skies:High Road to Revenge is a great game.It's up there with Halo,and others.It's one of my top five favorite games.

SINGLE PLAYER:
You are Nathan Zachary,a pilot for the infamous Fortune Hunters.You are out to get revenge on someone.I am being blunt to keep from spoiling the plotline.
It might actually be worth it to go out and buy the original Crimson Skies,so you know what's going on in the storyline.Especially since the original is only about $10.00 here on Amazon.
SCORE:8/10
________________________________________
MULTIPLAYER:
Split-screen is okay,but for some real action,go on Xbox Live.It is a lot of fun (on Live).Without Live,it's still an good game,though.
You can play Dogfight, (Deathmatch) Team Dogfight,(Team Deathmatch) Wild Chicken,(try to keep the Chicken and return it to the base) and others.
The game is developed by Day:1:Studios,so if you play MechAssault,you'll feel right at home with Crimson Skies.
By the way,my Gamertag is TurboCircuits...
SCORE:10/10
________________________________________
GRAPHICS:
Truly amazing.The water in the game is very realistic,and if you fly low to (the water) it'll splash on the camera lens.
The graphics are very detailed.It's hard to explain,you'll have to see it for yourself.
SCORE:11/10
________________________________________
CONTROLS:
The controls are very simple.If you have played MechAssault,you'll catch on pretty quick.
The controls are like this:
Right Trigger:Fire main weapon
Left Trigger:Fire secondary weapon
SCORE:9.5/10
________________________________________
SOUND:Very good.The explosions are realistic,along with the gunfire sound effects.Very realistic.
SCORE:10/10
________________________________________
FUN FACTOR:
This game is a lot more fun on Xbox Live than it is offline.Just think:
Your plane is on fire and another player is on your tail.You see a plane depot up ahead,and fly in.You exchange your old,beat up plane for a new one with full health.The other persone is eating your dust.
You just into a gun turret,fire a missile,and direct it straight into an enemy's face.This is one of the hundreds of things that can happen of Live.
SCORE:10/10
________________________________________
Buy Crimson Skies:High Road to Revenge.You won't regret it.
TOTAL SCORE:10/10

Gamertag:TurboCircuits

Fun, arcade feel - can be somewhat frustrating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: October 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Overall this is a good game but it does have its frustrating moments. The single player gets old fast, but that is the case with all games of this type. The use of vehicles and AA guns in addition to the standard air-to-air combat helps out.

The GOOD
- Fun.
- Cheaper than other games.
- Wide selection of aircraft, weapons and guns.
- Not any real noticeable glitches or lagging.
- Some levels are very large and detailed.
- The controls feel odd at first, but work well once you get the hang of them.
- A game you can just drop into.

The BAD
- The single player tends to get boring.
- Some of the mission objectives are down-right annoying, especially escort missions.
- The "Tesla" weapons encountered later tend to "lock" onto you, which is really annoying.
- You can only upgrade certain planes and then only once - I would have liked to apply more upgrades to my favorite planes.

The UGLY
- Ok, the below surface levels are a real pain in the rear. The close quarters are bad enough, but trying to navigate the narrow corridors is really frustrating, especially when you just can't seem to find the exit.

Good game, but not great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Crimson Sky is another good game for the X-box that keeps the consoles owners busy as they await a slew of new and innovative games including Fable and Halo 2. Crimson Sky is what we would expect from a recent X-box game. The graphics are amazing, none of the environments leaves any detail untouched. The games graphics, however, are it's best feature. The game play suffers slightly due to two major factors, weak flight characteristics, and a lack of compelling need to use the variety of planes offered to you. The levels and missions are great though, and most are pretty varied, although some require you to engage in trial and error to figure out which parts of a zeppelin to shoot at.

The flight characteristics are fun in that they are intuitive and not over complicated. However the game's dog fighting becomes a simple game of constantly turn until you have the enemy in your sights. You can use your airbrake constantly in level flight with no consequences of slowing down too much and plummeting to the earth. Occasionally I found you could enter what I can only describe as a flat spin, but I was never sure if this came totally from use of your airbrake and turning too tightly, or impacting an enemy. It also only seemed to occur in certain planes.

The variety of aircraft given to you is a nice change from other games, and each does have it's own special characteristics. Unfortunately, the game only respects firepower and armor leaving speed and maneuverability on a much lower level. There was never any reason to take out the lighter armed aircraft since most levels forced you to face numerous enemies armed with heavy guns except to complete the race courses. The game offers you three light, fast aircraft, but if you only need them to complete the races, why bother offering three? It was also difficult to use speed to your advantage since the game only let you gain maneuverability through lowering your speed. Maneuverability and speed are not always mutually exclusive in aircraft and perhaps in a sequel, maneuverability needs its own stat line in the plane selection screen. In addition, the nature of most missions let you get away with hoping into an AA gun. There were few times when you couldn't simply jump into a gun, take minimal enemy fire as you vanquish them from the skies. On the other hand, it is great fun to try and hit an enemy plane from an AA gun that lets you control the flight of a missile.

The final drawback to the game is the story line. It's a mixture of playboy pilot meets sci-fi western movie. The main character is always smooth, but the game doesn't provide a good setup for these moments, they just sort of happen and like a train wreck, you just can't look away even though you almost want to. Also, a zeppelin that turns into a spider like device makes you reminiscent of Kevin Kline and his mechanical spider from Wild Wild West. The story is not sold well by the voice actors who keep their acting to the level of caricature and come across as stiff and a little unbelievable. I'd swear George Lucas directed the cut scenes.

The level design is superb although there are a few sticky points such as having to shoot certain zeppelins at certain spots and the recurring theme of having to sneak into an open door gets a little worn. Despite that, the levels are beautifully done and well balanced. The game seems non-linear even though it is, and perhaps a more open feel to the game could be provided in a sequel. A missing weapon from the game was some sort of flak type weapon. Also, the ability to target the nearest enemy or the enemy right in front of you would be nice, and the ability to due specific damage to the aircraft such as destroying it's weapons would be a nice touch. The various special maneuvers are fun and more useful than in other games as are the special weapons on the various aircraft. The scenery seemed static though and it would be nice to see more effects of the weapons on the land or buildings such as glass breaking or damage that gets repaired as you play the level. Adding a bomber plane would be nice too to take out targets on the ground without having to dive in with guns or rockets.

Overall, this is a good game that needs just a little something more to make it great. I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for an action game with a RPG component to it or anyone who enjoys air-to-air combat.

Awesome!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is ok single player but really shines on multiplayer with XBOX live. The maps are big and graphics are great. I've never once noticed any framerate problems which is unbelievable for such large maps and fast speeds. The new downloads take this game to a solid 5 star. I don't care much for the indoor maps like caverns and lost city. From the different maps to different planes stationary guns and secondary weapons this game rocks. For the price this game is must own.

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