Crimson Skies

Moby ID: 2320
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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.

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Credits (Windows version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

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

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

Cool and unique retro-styled masterpiece

The Good
Strap on tight and get ready for some barnstorming aerial fun as you take to the skies in the coolest flight sim to come out of Microsoft. Well, actually calling it a "sim" is stretching things a bit, in fact the game might better be classified as a "sci-fi sim" in the same vein as Wing Commander or Tie Fighter, regardless of the prop aircrafts in it.

The game is based on the boardgame published by FASA (of Battletech fame) and probably came to Microsoft as an added bonus when they acquired the Mechwarrior rights. Taking it's cues from early 20 century radio dramas (wow, doesn't that sound right out of star trek or something? :)) the game throws you into an alternate reality 1930's earth where the great war has torn apart countries like the US in several independent states (like the Kingdom of Hawai!!) and the primary means of transportation and warmaking have become the airplanes of the era. Sort of like Interstate '76, only with the look of movies like the Rocketeer or Indiana Jones, and boy is that "look" realized! This is one of the most perfectly designed games in terms of style and presentation. The whole interface has 1930's written all over it and the game constructs it's radio-drama feel perfectly with a blend of stylish B&W photos, newspaper articles you collect in your scrapbook, funny "memento" pictures you take aboard your plane as well as the "News on the March"-like style of the cutscenes and the amazingly orchestrated serials-influenced dynamic soundtrack. Heck, the soundtrack alone deserves a place in the spotlight as one of the most fantastic soundtracks I've heard for these types of games, beaten only by X-Wing Alliance and its use of John William's classic score.

As for the story and gameplay premise, you play as Nathan Zachary, your everyday "gentleman pirate". You know, dashing, courageus, a hit with the ladies, and honorable as opposed to the other aerial pirates out there. From your zeppelin/capital-ship you'll launch with your merry band of pirates to complete a series of mercenary campaigns that string together a larger plot as usual for these types of games. Said campaigns take you all over the place from the pacific ocean to sky-scrapper filled New York, glitzy Hollywood and sunny Hawai.

As mentioned the game plays like a sci-fi sim, meaning that it emphasizes action and gameplay over realistic game mechanics. In fact, your airplanes might be X-Wings for all you care, having no drag, no stalling or climbing problems and unheard of aerodynamic properties. Not a problem for me, as I love these types of games! Wisely, the developers included a variety of camera views, but placed the focus on the default fixed chase cam, which essentially turns the game into a much more detailed aircraft version of Rogue Squadron.

Of course, unlike that game you have a much less arcadey gameplay premise and the missions often span several complex objectives that go beyond "kill X thing" and involve puzzle elements and scripted events. Also included is the aspect of stunt-flying which is a winner for me and that involves precision-flying through narrow spaces and tight locations. Several missions are solely dedicated to that, like a race through manhattan near the end of the game and a kickass hollywood stunts trial. These elements seem to be love-or-hate for some, but I think they add an original level of excitement and fit perfectly in the game world, as well as serving as a nice extra for each mission (most of the times stunt locations are hidden in the levels and are there for bonus purposes as they unlock new mementos or scrapbook articles).

As the leader of the mercenary squadron you also get to choose what type of plane to take with you, and after you have accumulated enough cash, build a custom plane yourself in the best I76 tradition, selecting from a variety of wacky chassis and gun calibers as well as rocket types and even color. Unfortunately you have a few missions which force a specific plane on you, and your custom plane cannot be modified, but what the heck, right?

Technically speaking it's worth noting the great graphics engine under the hood of this game, which delivers great models and detailed textures as well as other niceties such as impressive ground detail and draw distance. And you also have a multiplayer mode to continue the dogfighting bonanza after you've beaten the main game!

The Bad
Practically the only bad thing I can mention about this jewel is that some of the missions can be a real pain (that gyro mission alone is unbelievable in it's difficulty) but fortunately the game allows you to skip the missions if you are not up to it and try them later on. Well, I guess that leaves the long load times and the graphic bugs as the only main gripe, but if you get the patch then that's about gone too.

The Bottom Line
Fantastic stylish sim that blends exciting action and killer production design into a masterpiece of the genre. Do not miss this game! It's unique setting and incredible gameplay alone makes it a clear home-run.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2003

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

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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.