"Just one more level!"

User Rating: 9.1 | Crimson Skies PC
By Psymon138 | Review Date:
For me this game has been a major cause of "Bleary-eyed at school/work next day but God was it fun!!!" Syndrome. Many people say its too hard, it is certainly hard, but unlike other games you never get the sense the game has cheated you. If you fail a mission (which will happen a lot believe me) this is not the sort of game which results in throwing your joystick, or younger siblings, across the room. Often the time limits will be tight and the enemies many, particularly in later missions, but with practice and a powerful nitro-boosted engine you will be able to beat the enemies and the timer, or just outrun them. You just have to keep trying until you feel the utter elation of beating the level after several tries.

True the early releases were buggy, but this has been largely cleared up and though the loading is slow it is worth it. The gameplay is just pure fun, true the physics engine is pretty lenient, but this shouldn't put you off unless you are an obssessive flight sim player. The graphics are no longer top notch (i doubt they ever really were) but are servicable. You will see planes begin to smoke, flame and explode as you pour bullets into them. The rockets are pretty good too, aerial torpedos smoke heavily and move slowly, while armour piercers flash by so fast all you see is the green trail. The sound is fairly good, bullets and explosions make satisfying bangs and the rockets hiss as they launch, though a damaged engine sounds more chokey than you'd expect, like a robot clearing its throat. Possibly the best aspect is the variety of missions you go through. Not many are typical just dogfights, bombing runs or babysitting missions like I found in Combat Flight Sim (the other game in the double pack i bought CS in). You have to pull off daring rescues, audacious thefts, attack a mountain fortress and on one occasion win an air race, all the while trying to fill your scrapbook with piccies of you doing daring stunts.

Another factor is the ability to use airframe designs you have captured to create your own aircraft paintjob, weapons, armour and all. This gives you the ability to tailor a plane to a particular mission you're having trouble with, or just design the best damn plane in the world. Of course you do need enough money.

Though possibly the best bit of this game is the story and characters. The voice acting is brilliant and fits the over-the-top theme of the game perfectly. This has got to rank as one of my favourite games of all time, after a shaky start. And I will leave you with a quote:
"Lets get one thing straight darlin', Errol Flynn pretends to be me!"

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