Crimson Skies is mostly meant for flying enthusiasts
I'm not saying the plot was great but it was better than par for games. The game's hero is a typical flirtatious and heavy swagger pilot; sure of his skills and his masculinity. Receiving apocalyptic news from his scientist friend, that an evil madman is trying to take over the world; the butch pilot flies off to take on a doomsday army of robots, planes, derigibles, and any other machine-like things that may or may not fly. I won't spoil the rest of the game, to protect those who wish to play it.
There is only one part of the game: flying the plane. There are no ground missions or other additions to the game. All you do is fly different planes that you collect from different missions. This may seem like paradise to a plane enthusiast gamer but to others, that are more varied in their taste, the game is pretty bland, repetitive, and annoying in parts. To give the game credit, the planes collected from the missions in the game help to give the game a bit of change and nuance. However, the planes don't end up completing that purpose. The different planes one can use in the different missions are either, slightly different from the original plane or inversely helpful to your missions. That aside, nothing changes through the course of the game except for the intelligence of your enemies. The missions are mostly the same. Destroy this big ship, other plane(s), and/or land your plane here is the standard marquee for the game's missions.
The sound, though, quiet and subtle does add some feeling to the game. When first playing through the game, the music was well done and helped pull off the feeling of flying. The machine gun and other small sound effects were on the ball for timing and believability.
The graphics were another stunning feature of the game, although, the game's repetitive nature did make the game seem more annoying than stunning. The textures shown in the game were easy on the eyes and were done well (or at least the parts I remember. The planes and interactive elements of the games were quite life-like but unfortunately the game's monotonous gameplay did detract from the great attention given to the graphics (well at least the graphics for its time).
The value of the game is pretty much whether your a flying fan or not. If your a flying fanatic, this game is probably your forte, for the rest, probably a game that you can waste a few hours on before giving up. This is hardly a rant on flying fanatics, it's just that this game does not offer the different venues that most adventure games have.