E3 2003: Crimson Skies Hands On

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge from Microsof is a surprisingly solid title. See here for our impressions and new screens.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is flying much higher than it did at last year's E3. We always knew the game would look spectacular, but now it has the gameplay and features to match its head-turning visuals.

Most importantly, we'll be witnessing online play with up to 16 competitors when Crimson Skies touches down this fall. The full stable of online modes is still under lock and key, but we know deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag modes are on the way.

The E3 version only featured LAN play, but it was an exciting sign of things to come. We were concerned that in these vast, open environments we would scarcely see our opponents, much less shoot them down, but those fears were quickly put to rest.

It wasn't a fragfest of Unreal Championship proportions, but in a 5 minute game with 4 players several pilots were sent scrambling for their parachutes again and again (not this pilot, of course).

The dogfighting comes off very well. It can be tremendously rewarding to line up a competitor after a tough, white knuckle pursuit and blow them to high heaven. Each plane harbors distinctive strengths (and weaknesses), which certainly lends a deal of strategy to the multiplayer mayhem.

Our plane, the Piranha, was quick and nimble and armed with a unique special weapon that disrupted the controls of other planes with a bolt of electricity. Clearly, online multiplayer is a major draw for a game like this, and to our discerning eye it appears to coming along rather well.

Crimson Skies has been in development for a long time, and it shows in the revamped single-player game. We were only able to play on one map - a lush, mountainous island surrounded by a circular archipelago -- but every facet of the game exuded a high level of quality.

The controls feel dead-on, the visuals are clean and impressive, and there's enough gameplay variety to impress even staunch Crimson Skies detractors.

In the build we played, we watched a cut sequence we couldn't hear and then took to the skies in search of fame, honor, and heaps of cash. We're not exactly sure how the final single-player game will work, but we got the opportunity to pursue several small objectives in the demo version.

We acquired these objectives by approaching other aircraft (distinguished by a $ icon) and offering our skill, mercenary-style. In one mission, we had to protect a frigate from pirates as it transported cargo from one side of the island to another. In a completely different mission, we dropped our Mr. Hyde masks and joined the pirate ranks to decimate some fuel tanks.

In still another mission, we landed our plane and took the seat of a punishing anti-aircraft gun to repel an oncoming raid. At any point in each of the missions we could land our plane, change planes, or strike our own path by manning a turret. Evidently, the developer is taking strides to ensure that Crimson Skies is not a monotonous experience.

Before the show, we would not have placed this game high on our list of must-haves. Now, Crimson Skies has risen to the top of the pack. Even as an incomplete build, the game is incredibly fun. If the full version maintains the level of quality we observed in the demo and steers clear of repetitive gameplay, Xbox can really begin to reverse its shoddy track record with first party titles.

Tony Scinta
Staff writer, Kikizo Games