Crimson Skies

Moby ID: 2320
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/22 10:19 PM )

Description official description

Crimson Skies is an arcade flight simulator, set in an alternate reality in the year 1937. Based on a FASA pen-and-paper game, the player is cast as a daring rogue who flies missions for fame and fortune. The planes look like a mixture of futuristic planes and planes from WW2.

The single player missions let the player complete jobs such as finding a treasure, hijacking an experimental plane from the enemy or defending their base, a huge zeppelin.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

46 People · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 41 ratings with 5 reviews)

Not much for the hard core simmer, but likely the most fun you'll ever have

The Good
Basically I'm a hard-core simmer and I love a good physics engine. So my fav games are ones like Fighter Squadron, A-10 and Su-27. But on the other hand I realize physics isn't everything. CFS2's physics engine is laughable, yet it's a pretty well produced game and that makes up for it to some degree. In fact I'd say that Red Baron represents this sort of ideal very well, it has a downright terrible engine, but it's still one of the most fun flight sims ever written.

Crimson Skies takes that "second way" to it's logical end. It's based on the CFS2 engine and thus has lousy physics, but of course that also means that it has excellent graphics and terrain. However they have toned down the flight model even more than CFS2 to the point where the planes are utterly unrealistic - they can climb straight up for instance. But it doesn't make a difference, the GAME is so good that even I don't care - I'm having way to much fun playing it!

You play the roll of Nathan Zackary, dashing leader of a band of sky pirates flying from their zeppelin, the Pandora. The action takes place in the 1930's in a world without the United States. Instead the US is broken down into several independent countries, Dixie, Hollywood, Pacifica and others. The game seems to stay within this setup quite well and never seems to stray, but that's likely a side effect of drawing on the rich FASA supplied world.

Off in search of fame and fortune you have to complete a series of missions that take you from an independent Hawaii, to Boeing field, to Hollywood where you do battle with Howard Hughes' cronies. The missions pit you against the military forces of these various nations, as well as England, the USSR, and the rest of the pirate fleets of course. And the missions are FUN too, they're fairly detailed and grow in difficultly to the point where you have to try some of them several times before you get it.

Each mission is introduced on map showing the various waypoints and goals, with "you" providing the voiceover narration. Other members of the crew chime in here and there while their pictures appear as photos in the upper left corner. Some sort of movie would have been better here, but this will do. After that it's off to the cockpit to see if you can complete the goals.

As the missions progress you make money that you'll need to buy new aircraft to stay with the state of the art. If you don't you'll eventually end up completely outclassed by the newer planes your enemies are flying and you WILL lose every mission. Sadly while it's fairly clear how to improve your own plane and your wingman's, it's not entirely clear how to get everyone to fly newer designs (or maybe wingman actually means wingmen?).

And the planes themselves are a wonderful selection of bizarre alternate-reality designs. Wings sprout out all over, guns are the size of cannons slung under the plane, and you even get to paint them they way you like. Again, the planes fit within the game very will and seem completely convincing.

The entire game has a definite old-movie feel to it. Corny voices, stirring music, missions where you rescue people in your plane using a rope ladder, movie starlets, you name it. Although it seems dated that's the whole idea. The result is flawless. This is one of the best produced games I've ever seen.

I'm about half done the game now, and loving every minute of it. This is by far the most FUN I've had playing a flight sim, and likely the most fun I've had in general since Half-Life.

The Bad
My main concern was the seemingly random setup of the ordinance you carried. You had a series of guns starting .30 cal to .40, .50, .60,. 70. Hmmm, see a pattern? In all of these cases the weapons can fire the same types of bullets, which leads to silly things like the .30's firing explosives. Moreover the only difference between the weapons seems to be that that larger ones fire slowly. The end result being that all the guns seem to put out the same amount of lead - fewer bigger bullets or more smaller ones. I would have much preferred to see certain types of ammo only available for certain guns, adding to the design problems.

Another related complaint is that if you load up your plane with more of the same sort of gun - say two sets of .30's - you still can't fire them all at the same time. Instead need to switch between the two sets, which pretty much makes it pointless as you'll never run out of ammo for the first set anyway. And the flight model is really bad on this point. If you remove guns the plane should fly better, but that doesn't happen, so there's no real point in removing them.

The only other complaint I had was that some of the enemies seem, well, "wrong". For instance in one mission set you repeatedly attack Hughes' combination of aircraft factory and movie studio, defended by autogyro's. These things are practically impossible to shoot down! You can't hit them for some reason, and when you do they seem to be built out of a single block of steel. Meanwhile the various other forces come in equipped in huge planes that you dispatch with ease. Bad play balance.

Finally I have a real problem with the plane purchase system. There's no way to simply modify an existing design that I could find. So if you only have enough for a basic model plane at one point in the game, you can't simply go back and bolt on another gun later, you have to rebuild the design from scratch. This really got on my nerves.

The Bottom Line
I used to think that Red Baron was the most fun a flight sim could be. I was wrong, Crimson Skies is that game. It's one of the best adventure games in a while too, with compelling scenarios set in a fascinating alternate reality.

Windows · by Maury Markowitz (266) · 2001

These guys almost had it perfect!

The Good
(1) Graphics
Crimson has some of the nicest graphics that I have seen. Unlike many other flight games the landscapes and environment feel REAL. Lighting and in flight music is excellent throughout the game.


(2) Storyline
But the best and probably the biggest reason why I like this game is the story line. In Crimson Skies the US has split into 20 or more different nations. Because of this air travel has become the primary means of transporting people and cargo. Thus air piracy has become a viable and lucrative business. Oh did I mention this all takes place back in the 1940's? Granted at first I didn't buy this product when it came out because I thought that the premise was rather strange. However I recently picked up this gem for 10 bucks and boy was I surprised. They lovingly styled the graphics and sounds. The effect of this effort was to make a story line as rich as it was new. I would compare this to what Interplay did with fallout and they way they styled the game to feel 1950s. My hats off to Microsoft and Zipper interactive.

(3) gameplay
While no one would mistake crimson as a "realistic flight sim" the gameplay is fund and enjoyable. One of the nice touches of the game can be seen when you shoot one of your opponents down. Often times the plane will start to smoke and slowly fall to earth. At the same time the pilot will bail out. The missions are varied and the scrapbook that is kept is excellent.

The Bad
Well first of all some of the missions (like the race in Hollywood) can be difficult to the extreme. Fortunately you can skip a mission after 3 tries. Also it seems that the Zipper did not completely test or fix the game. Often times the music will skip and lag in between missions. Also until the patch the load time for missions could be long.

The Bottom Line
Overall the game has little to be upset about and much to enjoy.

Unlike many gamers today I enjoy a good story, and boy does Crimson provide!

Windows · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2001

A lot of fun, a lot of shooting, but the stunt flying parts can leave you frustrated

The Good
The atmosphere is perfect. Instead of fancy schmancy video briefing, Zipper wisely substituted a map with some animated icons and some photos with excellent voice acting instead. It makes you feel right in an old-fashioned radio show. Most of the movies are there in that brownish color of old movies complete with white streaks... even more authentic. You get a LOT of souvenirs from each mission, and there are plenty of enemies to shoot and planes to build or customize.

The Bad
One of the ways you "earn fame" is by stunt flying, and that means you have to fly through tight space that no one else would DARE fly into. Can you imagine taking a plane and fly through a TRAIN TUNNEL? How about fly through the arcs of a bridge, following the traffic lanes? THROUGH a hangar UNDER the zepplin already inside? If you have a steady hand this can be quite entertaining, but unfortunately I never was a very "precise" person and stunt flying proved to be extremely frustrating for me. I can kill enemy planes with no problem. It's these stunt tasks that had me completely beaten. At least the game lets you skip the mission if you failed it 3 times in a row.

The Bottom Line
Crimson Skies is a "lite" sim that dropped most of the flight model in favor of "fun", and it is a lot of fun.

Set in an alternate 1930's when the United States no longer exists. Due to the Great War, the Stock Market Crash, and the influenza epidemic, the country had broken up into multiple nations that rely on air travel, with planes and blimps replacing rail and cars as the ultimate means of transportation. Blimps can launch and recover aircrafts with landing hooks, thus allowing them plenty of range. Pirates raid commercial blimps, and mercenary airforces are often contracted to provide protection. You play Nathan Zachary, a "notorious" air pirate and noted ladies' man.

The game is your typical Wing Commander-style presentation. You see a movie to start you off in the right mood, then you're left in your "stateroom", where you have the choice of reviewing your missions, contract a new custom plane built for you (which costs money), go onto next mission, and a very nice touch: change the "momento" on your desk, which is a picture frame that contains a lot of pictures of pretty women and even your dog. As you go on more missions, you can get more pictures as keepsakes.

When you select "next mission", you get to mission briefing, which is a map with some movie icons and markings, with some pictures of notable persons or events, and a full voice narration between your persona and the rest of his "gang".

Once that's done, you can choose your plane and outfit it with the appropriate ammo. You can choose from multiple types of ammo from slug to explosive. You can also choose different types of rockets for your "hardpoints". Sorry, no guided missiles in 1930's (yet).

Then you watch an in-game cutscene of your blimp, the Pandora, and your plane inside being spun up for launch. You can choose from three different viewpoints: in-cockpit, no cockpit, or behind-plane. Most people will probably choose behind-plane as it makes stunt-flying a little easier.

The objectives will vary a lot, but mostly it involves shooting down enemy planes that attack, and sometimes it involves hijacking other planes, picking up people from trains, and more. There are even a few blimp-busting missions where you have to kill enemy blimps by hitting them when their gunports are open, or by killing their engines so they can be captured. There are even some ground attack missions where you need to take out enemy boats, ships, bases, etc.

Most of the missions are nicely designed, but quite a few have strict time-limits. If you don't kill of all the enemies in the alloted time you can't fulfill your objective, esp. on the escort missions. With some practice, it's easy enough, but the really frustrating points are the stunts.

As mentioned previously, you get souvenirs from each and every mission. In each mission there are certain stunts you can perform, mainly by flying through impossibly tight spaces like tunnels, hangars, and such. You'll hear a "camera shutter" sound, and get an extra photo for your scrapbook. However, some of the missions REQUIRE you to perform the stunts, and those can be pretty frustrating, as ANY mistake would virtually require you to start ALL OVER. Can you imagine flying through EACH of the O's in the famous HOLLYWOOD sign? You need a VERY steady hand.

However, do not despair. The game allows you to skip any mission if you fail it three times in a row.

The game has a LOT of atmosphere and is a lot of fun to play, except for the frustration levels of stunt flying and some of these "kill them faster" missions. Zipper should be commended for creating such a fine product. I just wish they would have left the stunt flying to be completely optional.

Windows · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2002

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Crimson Skies appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

The original release of the game was extremely buggy with several engine-related problems, but worse than those was a horrible bug that erased your single player campaign whenever you started a multiplayer game. This was addressed on the very first patch, however.

Installation

During installation of the game you are treated to a radio play featuring Nathan Zachery (the player character) and the Fortune Hunters. However, on faster machines, the installation finishes before the radio play does... and cuts the drama short!

Intro

The introduction movie to Crimson Skies is done in the style of 1930s newsreel footage... complete with propaganda.

Merchandise

In addition to the game, Crimson Skies universe also extends to a tabletop RPG, novels a comic book line and a planned, but never made, movie from Dreamworks.

Pictures

One of the features in the game is the ability to change your "momento" on the "stateroom" screen. The momento is a picture frame containing B&W photographs of a variety of subjects, mostly women, but also of your dog, yourself, and yourself with Black Swan. As you win more missions, you can get even more pictures to put inside.

You can export most items you "won" in your scrapbook to your Windows desktop. For example, when you took out the sub, you get a picture of your gang posing with a life preserver from the sub. You can export that to desktop! You can also export most of those women pictures (such as the one in the screenshots).

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2000 – Special Award for Sound
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2001 - Best Simulation in 2000

Information also contributed by Kasey Chang and WildKard

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Released 2003 on Xbox, 2007 on Xbox 360, 2021 on Xbox Cloud Gaming
Skies
Released 2005 on Windows
Crimson
Released 1987 on PC-88, MSX, 1988 on Sharp X1
The Skies
Released 2016 on Windows
Three Skies
Released 2023 on iPhone, Android, Windows
False Skies
Released 2022 on Windows
Divided Skies
Released 2023 on Windows
Darker Skies
Released 2021 on PlayStation 4, 2021 on PlayStation 5, 2022 on Nintendo Switch...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 2320
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by DaHero.

Additional contributors: Zovni, Abi79, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added November 8, 2000. Last modified March 23, 2024.