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A good idea badly done

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: October 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This was one of the games that I had been really looking forward to this year, and sadly I have been disapointed. The underlying game concept was very cool; alt history air-piracy action with the ablity to customize planes and missions should have made Crimson skies a classic. Indeed when I first got the game I was blown away by the stunning grafics which were far better than thouse in MSCFS. Then I noticed the games extreamly bad quality of work that basically ruined the game. It has numerious bugs, for example in the basic version of the game if customize a plane for use in the "instant action" scenarios it erases your any campaign missions that you have completed, there is a patch for this that you can down load but something like that should have been caught befor the games realese. The other major bug is the tendecy for memory leaks to crash the game in a manner that forces you to use crtl+alt+delete to reboot your computer( it screws up your video settings otherwise). When you add this to the games habit of taxing system resourcs to the limit on even the fastest machines and the rather choppy frame rate you have a real looser of a game. In short Crimson Skies can be sumerized in seven words; good idea, bad execution, terrible quality control. My advice is save your money and get CFS2 instead.

Hard on system resources, but still a blast to play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Once I got this installed and started a mission I thought the game had crashed. For some reason, this game has pathetically LONG load times. It seems to freeze your system, but its just going through its routine. Very frustrating at times when you are in a hurry to shut the game down, or to get into a mission. Once you get through all of that pain in the arse stuff you will find the game to be a blast. The storylines are terrifically entertaining, very original. The flight itself is excellent to. There are numerous odd aircraft to fly, all with WWI style guns which I just love. Besides the usual dogfighting, there are some "barn storming" missions where you get to see who's the best hot dogging pilot. Most of the times I crash, but its cool when you can fly right through a train tunnel with barley a foot on either side of the wing. The downside to this game, might be that you need a bit of "umph" in your computer to run and load this. For all its faults though, its really fun to play.

Fly, Shoot, and Blow Up Things...no expertise required

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

One of the biggest drawbacks of most flight sims is that they assume that you have some interest in learning how to really fly -- from takeoff to landing. I dont.

I don't want to worry about fuel levels, or landing, or taking off (where most of my other flight sims destroy me). With C.S., you drop out of a balloon, shoot up your targets, head towards the home zep, and press "A" to autodock.

Some missions start off like you have to perform incredibly difficult air stunts, but in many cases, you can just ignore it and go for your target (you'll here lots of insults from the enemy, but, I repeat, ignore it).

As for the hardware / software issue - yes, that can be a problem. With a PIII 833, 128 MB RAM and a 32 MB Video Card, no game should give you a problem...but I did have the occassional lockup. Additionally, I had to reconfigure my joystick settings every time I used the game (I'm left handed, and use a Cyborg 3D gold - but it's not the joystick's fault; the necessity to reconfigure didn't happen until well after the joystick had worked fine).

It's odd that Microsoft can't get a game to work flawlessly under a Microsoft operating system, but nevertheless, the game draws you back, and you grudgingly learn to live with those little problems. The storyline and the action is so addictive that they become simply inconveniences.

C.S. is a great game, excellent thought behind it, exquisite design, with crappy programming. So fly, shoot, and blow up things, and don't kick the computer when it locks up.

Crimson Skies: One of the Greatest Games of All Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing video games since the late 70's. Arcade, console, and PC. I've played on them all. On each and every format there always seemed to be one or two titles that stood out from all the rest and made me want to come back time and time again. These games are the same ones that become the "benchmarks" on which all other games are judged. These games all had one thing in common. Great gameplay. Graphics may differ, story lines are different(or non existant), but they all are fun to the extreme. Crimson Skies is one of these games. I have'nt been sucked into a game this deeply in ages! This is the 1st computer game that made me run out and by hardware to hotrod my pc to improve my framerates! The online game is insanely fun! The in game AI aren't the brightest at times, but crank the difficulty level up and they provide quite a challenge in almost all the levels. Now that the price has been dropped, this is an absolute must have game for anyone who has a pc. Buy this game! You won't regret it!

Good, but not without problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First off, I don't think this game should be rated as harshly as a lot of other reviewers have done. Yes, the load times are long, but not unbearable and I (only) have a P266 with a Voodoo 3. Those who complain about the load times in this game are going to be livid waiting for 'No One Lives Forever' to load (a great game, by the way).

I've always wanted a game like this, dogfighting Indiana Jones style without having to worry about pressing this key or that, maintaining proper altitude, airspeed or whatever. Sim fanatics need not apply. This is hardly a simulation, and for me that's a good thing.

The acting is fun, actually interesting dialogue that you don't skip through. The missions are fun, shootouts in the air against zeppelins, boarding and hijacking planes in midair (sim fans try that one), flying through caves, bridges, hangars, you name it. Basically, this game's one overriding factor is simple. It's *fun* to play!

Now for the bad stuff. Yes, you *must* download the patch so your campaign info isn't erased when you go multiplayer. It's not a huge download, and besides, this is a Microsoft product, were you really expecting it to be bug free? Also, the game provides you with wingmen but like most flying games they're worthless. Mine are usually shot down in the first minute.

My biggest complaint - as you progress in the game, you'll find the missions become harder not because the enemy AI becomes smarter, but because the missions become longer and you find yourself fighting wave after wave of enemy planes. Kind of like the shooter games where you find yourself alone in a room surrounded by 100 monsters. Gets tedious. Lastly, there are minor annoyances like hiccups in the music as the mission ends, and slow menu change times, etc. Nothing unbearable, though.

To summarize, it's the most original flying-shooter I've seen since Wing Commander and it's a lot of fun. Anyone remotely interested in flying games is going to love it. Just make sure they're not looking for a simulation.

High system reqs?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I don't know what all the fuss over system requirements is for this game. I have a PII 300 with 128 megs of RAM, and a TNT2 Value card from Creative, and this game runs like a dream with most of the detail settings on high. As for load times, I didn't find them to be a problem at all. If you want excessive load times, try playing Fallout 2. The atmosphere of this game is amazing; this is the first game I've played in a long time that had immersive gameplay and story elements, and I kept ignoring my work to come back and play. Awesome game!

Fantastic !

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one awesome game ! Beautiful graphics, very nice cloud and haze effects. Unlike FS98 or FS2000, you don't need to master your piloting skills. Very playable.

But, I have a PIII 800MHz, GeForce 32M card... Slow load times, once it loads, no slowing down. On another 300 MHz machine I have, it takes 5 mins to load and has a low frame rate.

Crimson Skies: A Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First I don't own this game, but have the demo version. And I'm planning of purchasing this game. This game (for my case, demo) is very fun that it'll make you stick to your computer for hours. It has both Multiplayer and Singleplayer missions. The thing made me most astonish is that when playing over Internet, it's soooo smooth, except for occational mis-graphics. You can custamize your plane as you earn money in the singleplayer. You just do what they tell you to do and start shooting the bad guys down. It feels soooo good. I really love the sound of the machine guns.

More Good Than Bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought Crimson Skies on a Friday and I played it continuously until I was forced to go back to work on Monday. I would highly recommend this game to anyone. What is so great about it?

The game's storyline, centered around a group of "Air Pirates" in an alternate 1930's era Earth was very engrossing. The whole idea of flying armed prop planes and having a zeppelin as a base was great. The concept of moving the plot along via a series of black and white newsreel-type cut scenes was a brilliant idea and works very well. The voice acting was great; they were deliberately "hamming it up" and this added to the fun. The game environments were very well designed and allowed for a great amount of free movement. The mission where you attack a pirate base on top of a mountain was particularly eye-catching. The game's interface works well. I never read the manual and I was able to figure out how to customize my plane and it's weapons after playing the game for ten minutes. And the planes and their weapons (different caliber guns, types of bullets, missiles and zeppelin busting "air torpedoes") are wonderful. There is also a "custom battle" option that let's you create then play a combat option that let's you create a combat scenario. Speaking of flying in the game, realize that this is not a true flight sim; it's an adventure game. The flight dynamics are not 100% realistic, but the game won't let you get away with anything. I crashed my plane a bunch of times trying to pull off tricky stunts; that only added to the thrills. Also, the game lets you skip missions that you flunked four consecutive times. I played the game on the "medium" setting and I used this option about 3 times. I do not think that there is a limit (which is good in my opinion). The missions range in difficulty and most have multiple objectives that vary in difficulty as well.

What is not so great about Crimson Skies?

Microsoft is consistent with their game stopping bugs. After playing this game for about four hours straight, it locked up and I had to "alt-tab" out of the game and reboot my PC. This is the same thing that happens when I play "Starlancer", another Microsoft game. This probable "memory leak" bug would be worse for anyone playing this game on a "low end" PC; that is, one that only meets the "required" game specs.

3LT: Long Level Load Times. Although it was worth the wait, it took some considerable amount of time for most of the game levels to load. This is annoying.

Buy this game, its one of the best available.

An Entertaining Gem of a Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have always enjoyed flight sims, but I was never big into reinacting historical combat or being locked into strict physics modules. I have always like creative stories and fascinating ideas, but it is becoming harder to find such creativity.

So when I say that Crimson skies has really grabbed me and consumed enourmous amounts of my spare time, it should be apparent that it is soemthing special.

This game has managed to take a wonderful story- involving alternative history, a style of story-telling that echoes of '40's radio drama, swashbuckling action and wonderful voice work- and combine it with a flight engine that is close enough to real physics to feel real but far enough removed to be fun, easy to learn and challenging without requiring you to be a pilot.

Atmosphere is the byword to describe this game. The designers adapted the concept wonderfuly and it is totaly engrossing and enjoyable. I heartily recomend this game, which I feel is one of the best and possibly THE best, in the genre of action flight games.

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