Crimson Skies

Both the premission briefings and the missions themselves play out like the campiest of Hollywood cliffhanger serials. Everything from the music to the way the dialogue is delivered evoke memories of the few episodes of Mystery Squadron and Tailspin Tommy we've seen. It's the kind of game where your enemies taunt you while you're flying, stately zeppelins float through the sky, and stunts are encouraged--the crazier the better. In fact, every time you perform an aerial feat that is particularly skillful (or stupid), the game automatically takes a picture of the dramatic event for your photo album.

Graphically, things couldn't be much better. The various planes are fanciful caricatures of real models of the period and are very detailed. The terrain and ground objects look amazing and are packed with little details. Mission environments are relatively small, but we never felt confined, thanks to the well-crafted mission objectives.

So is Crimson Skies an action game or a flight simulator? If it's this fun and stylish, who cares? The flight model is realistic enough that dogfights and canyon runs are challenging--speed bleeds off as you climb or tighten your turns, and the planes actually feel like they have some mass and inertia. On the other hand, missions are so over the top that you can't help but feel like you are playing an arcade game. Whether you are squeezing through mountaintop tunnel or barnstorming a hangar (and watching hapless pursuers smack into the sides of said objects), Crimson Skies is more reminiscent of Star Wars than of an episode of Wings on the Discovery Channel. However you want to categorize it, one thing is clear: Crimson Skies is a high-flying blast. --T. Byrl Baker

Amazon.com Product Description
Alas, mounting isolationism, prohibition, and the economic depression of the 1930s has taken its toll on America in the air-combat/adventure game Crimson Skies. The former United States has been fractured into regional blocs, and the skies above have been filled with superstar pirates and bootleggers taking advantage of the burgeoning air-transport system. You'll play as Nathan Zachary, a swashbuckler/ladies' man with an assortment of privateer missions that will require you to be a daredevil flyer, ruthless dogfighter, and a good judge of character since there is no honor among thieves. You'll steal government fighters for parts and save beautiful damsels in distress. A special logbook tracks all of your adventures, or, if you'd rather, you can put the cart before the horse by using special pull-down menus in the log to create your own adventure from scratch. The game includes 24 single-player missions and supports up to 16 players on MSN Gaming Zone.

Crimson Skies is more of an arcade game (flight stick and throttle are all you need to manage) than an actual flight sim (with flaps, ailerons, landing gear, etc.). This is fine with me, but some may prefer a more technically involved program. In addition to a pretty wide variety of aircraft, there is also a wide range of ammunition (which, like matching the plane to the task, also needs to be managed). Once you get into it, Crimson Skies is nothing but fun.

Like TIE Fighter, my favorite arcade-style flyer, Crimson Skies features a strong story line linking one mission to the next. The game features a cast of recurring characters - this adds to the fun of moving from one mission to the next. Do I get to push Ace Dixon around again? Yes. Excellent! It also helps explain why you'd do a stunt mission on the Hollywood studio lot you just shot up and from which you've commandeered the Spruce Goose. The instruction manual and pre- and post-mission summaries help build the retro atmosphere with news clippings, photographs and art deco-themed memorabilia.

If Amazon were to allow half stars in the ratings, this would come in at 4.5. How could it be even better? Two of the things that made TIE Fighter so much fun were its flight recorder and side missions. The recorder let you go back and view your mission from any desired angle. It would make Crimson Skies even more enjoyable if you could go back and see things you've shot down crash and burn instead of having to immediately switch to your next target. The side missions in TIE Fighter amounted to going further and further over to the Dark Side. In the first few missions of Crimson Skies it looked like there'd be added "targets of opportunity" (shooting the munitions truck on the suspension bridge, destroying the work camp, etc.), but they soon dried up to be replaced primarily with stunt flying. An offhand comment about Germans early on has a payoff at the end of the game, but it would have been nice to feel the big ending building up more over time.

It's not entirely fair to evaluate a game for what it isn't, so please don't let my comment above dissuade you from buying this game. Crimson Skies is simply the most fun I've had in a long time, and while it's possible that it could be improved, it's pretty close to perfect as it is.


SHORT AND SWEET!   February 23, 2004
This game is for anyone who enjoys flight sims, action games doing mission for money and engrossing story lines. The graphics in this game are some of the best I've seen. Don't let the title or box art fool you, this is an action, flight sim game. You play as an air pirate in an alternate reality North America in the year 1937. The skies are the roads of the world filled with cargo zeppelins, militia fighters and of course pirates. You follow the storyline missions and sometimes are reward with money to buy new planes.

I have only three complaints about this game. Once you gain a new aircraft or buy a new aircraft, the only thing you change on it is the armaments. The damage done to zeppelins is unrealistic. The only way you can destroy one is to fire rockets into three cannon hatches. In real life they would simply ignite in a balll of flame once hit with a few machine-gun rounds.

Finally the game is too short. I beat it in a day. The storyline could have been longer. I think the developers spent more detail on graphics than the mission themselves.

Anyway this is a very good game. The second should be better and hopefully longer. Worth the low price!


Nice   December 15, 2003
Peter Pacyniak (US)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

i like this game...i haven't played multi but 1 player i fun...exept this game is short like only 24 missions...otherwise its great