Crimson Sea Preview

While Koei originally rose to fame because of its historical strategy games, such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition franchises, the past few years have seen the Japanese developer expanding its range. Thanks to more-action-oriented games such as the recent entries in the Dynasty Warriors series, Koei's library of games has started to become far more well-rounded. The latest game to expand Koei's development scope is Crimson Sea, a futuristic action game for the Xbox that's a hybrid of the full-on brawling of the Dynasty Warriors games and traditional 3D action adventure games. We had a chance to check out a previewable build of the game to see how it was coming together. Crimson Sea offers slick graphics, accessible gameplay, and strong sound, and it looks to be a very promising entry in the action genre on the Xbox.

The game is set far in the future and takes place in the solar system known as Theophilus. While you might think it would be pretty cool to live in a far-off galaxy on a planet chock-full of futuristic stuff, that's really not the case in Crimson Sea. A series of unsolved mass murders has taken the fun and wonder out of life at the start of the game. You'll take the role of Sho, a private detective from the planet Grarve who's a big fan of earning cash. Unfortunately, Sho's penchant for earning cash drives him to take a job from the voluptuous and mysterious woman known as Live-D, which embroils him in a complex mystery that's tied to the mass murders and the hordes of surly aliens involved in them.

Crimson Sea's gameplay follows a linear structure that keeps things simple. You'll take on a mission, gather up a party if you can, and head out. You'll travel to several different worlds in Theophilus over the course of the game. In addition to exploring the floating cities in Grarve, you'll venture to Agitato, a war-torn planet that's less than hospitable; Gen, a gas-enveloped planet; Semplice, a sand-covered planet; and Meno Moso, an underwater city. The individual missions offer a respectable spread of objectives such as item collection and all-out extermination. While you'll initially start out alone, as you progress through the game you'll encounter characters to form a party with to tackle certain missions. While this may sound a bit like an RPG, Crimson Sea's gameplay is strictly in real time. Your party members will act on their own during combat and will usually use fairly decent common sense. At the end of each mission you'll find yourself at the IAG (Intelligence Agency of the Galaxy) headquarters, where you'll be able to purchase items such as medkits, parts to upgrade your weapon, and neopsionic powers, which are special attacks you can use to devastating effect when things get crazy on a mission, which is pretty frequently.

While the action in Crimson Sea can get pretty hectic, the game features a simple control setup that won't require much of your attention during a battle. The left thumbstick will move Sho around and will also let you auto-target enemies when you face them. You will use the A button to jump and the B button to perform a 180-degree turn. You can also perform a dash with the B button when you hold down a direction button at the same time. The X button lets you fire your weapon or investigate items, depending on the situation, and the Y button lets you slash with an energy blade. The left trigger will lock the camera behind you, and the right trigger will lock your reticle on the currently targeted enemy. You'll be able to cycle through enemy targets by clicking in the left thumbstick. Holding both triggers at the same time will call up a laser sight that lets you manually target enemies. The back button will call up a "camp" screen that lets you manage your party and items. The white button will let you use the neopsionic powers you have available. It's a good setup that keeps things simple and lets you use your different attacks quickly. An onscreen radar helps you track aliens, although most of the time you'll find they're pretty conspicuous.

Graphically the game is extremely impressive, with highly detailed character models and environments. Sho and the other members of your team are extremely detailed and make good use of their ample polygon budgets. Facial detail is high, as is the detail in the clothing worn by everyone. Animation is a bit stiff, but the characters move fast, which helps gameplay pacing. The environments are quite varied; for example, Grarve offers a bland, cramped city environment, while Semplice features a mix of wide-open spaces and cramped interiors that are far more organic. The enemies we saw in the early part of the game didn't offer quite as much variety, although that changes a bit as you get further into the game. Your primary foes hail from the typical buglike space-alien family that's fairly common in games. The creatures are highly detailed, although not quite as much as the main characters, and they appear in droves as you play through the game. The sheer quantity of enemies that get thrown at you in the game is one of Crimson Sea's most impressive features and is quickly turning into one of Koei's specialties. What impressed us most was that, even in our preview build of the game, there wasn't much slowdown. Our only major quibble is the game's camera, which goes wild in enclosed spaces when the action picks up.

Crimson Sea's audio is extremely sharp, thanks to Dolby 5.1 support, and it offers a rich auditory experience that definitely helps sell the combat experience. You'll hear a good amount of ambient sound as well as a satisfying assortment of weapons fire and death cries from your foes. The voice acting in the game isn't quite as impressive because of questionable inflections and assorted vocal foibles.

From what we've played of the game so far, Crimson Sea looks promising, and it features deeper combat and gameplay than the Dynasty Warriors games. The ability to customize your weapon and your character's neopsionic attacks looks to offer quite a bit to explore. Crimson Sea is currently slated to ship next month for the Xbox.