Being an aficionado of hard
core ultra realistic sims, Crimson Skies is not the kind of game I usually
play. As Microsoft were kind enough to offer a preview copy for the benefit
of our readers I decided to fire it up and see what it had to offer.
Crimson
Skies is set in an alternate Earth in 1937. This is an Earth filled with
heroes and Sky Pirates. The focus in Crimson Skies is purely on action
and dogfighting. There is no need to worry about complex flight models
or long uneventful flights to the target. This game is geared up to get
you straight into the thick of the action.
You take the part of Nathan Zachary, a daring air pirate and leader
of a gang of Sky Pirates called The Fortune Hunters. The game is presented
in a B Movie kind of style with a liberal helping of cinematic cut scenes
breaking up the action. These are well used and so far seem to pop up
at just the right moment enhancing the game rather than detracting from
it.
The graphics are nice, not earth shattering but they do the job very
well and at high resolutions can look pretty sweet. The terrain looks
good and there are plenty of skyscrapers to fly between and other tight
spots to fly through such as hangers and train tunnels. There are many
building types, bridges and other landscape features such as Mountains
etc. Many of these features act as great obstacles during a dogfight
and can really add an exhilarating feel to the combat.
You have 3 gameplay options, Instant Action, Campaign and Multiplayer.
Instant Action has a novel way of allowing you to change the parameters
of the mission that you are about to fly. You are presented with a short
introduction along the lines of I was flying my plane and my 4 wingmen
were flying etc. You can change elements of this intro via drop down
menus allowing you to completely customise the mission. This is a very
flexible system and allows for lot of variation between missions. You
can even set up stunt flying custom missions. These missions are great
for when you fancy a quick action fix.
In the campaign you work through 25 scripted missions. Your objective
to win fame, fortune and the hearts of the ladies :) During the campaign
you get a wide range of mission types including Zeppelin to Zeppelin
combat, Stunt Flying, capturing other aircraft (by literally leaping
from your own plane into another) and of course dogfights and action
by the bucketload. You can steal plans for new aircraft and also design
your own. The aircraft design section is very well done, it's not just
a case of make a cool looking plane out of various parts but instead
you have to make trade offs between armour and weight, weapons load
and maneuverability etc. It can be a lot of fun designing and building
your own plane then taking it into the skies to give it the old once
over. I found the campaign very reminiscent of the old Cinema-ware games
on the Amiga where the focus was very much on story telling and action.
Multiplayer is well catered for and comes in the following flavours
Microsoft's Gaming Zone, LAN (TCP/IPX), IP and Modem to Modem. You can
select from a choice of co-op missions or just go head to head for a
dogfight. The multiplayer missions are varied and you can build your
own missions when you get bored of the ones included. You can also use
custom planes in multiplayer which gives you the chance to test your
designs against those of your friends (or enemies :)
At the risk of losing my credibility as a hard core simmer I have to
admit that I have been having an absolute blast with this game. Whilst
it's not what I would call a sim I am sure that anyone that enjoys dogfighting
will find this a lot of fun. It's quite arcadey in places but I found
that I kept loading it up for a quick blast whenever I had half an hour
to spare. Even though this is only the beta it's looking very polished
already. If the beta is anything to go by then Microsoft will have a
winner on their hands when this game ships.
random irc quote: <Paul1212> My reality was worse than yours. No one ever tried to kick my ass. No one ever offered me drugs. I didn't exist, I guess.. 8-(
