Hands-onCrimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Earlier today, Microsoft representatives brought by a playable demo of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for the Xbox. It's a flight-combat game set in the Crimson Skies world, though it's not quite as mechanically complex as its PC predecessor. The Crimson Skies games are set in an alternate USA, circa 1930s--a world in which man's wildest romantic fantasies about aviation have been fully realized. It's a world that's altogether different from that era's version of our own in more ways than one--the "union" between states is much more shaky, resulting in a country that's much less cohesive. No interstate highways exist, as a result, so the premier mode of transit is aircraft--everything from slick "flying hot rods," as Microsoft puts it, to huge zeppelin "sky buses" and freighters. Regional militias are composed of these types of aircraft, and they're used to settle state-to-state disputes and deal with the bands of air pirates that have emerged. It's a very interesting world, to be sure--the pulp-adventure tone is pretty tangible. Think Indiana Jones meets Top Gun, and you'll be pretty close. The original concept came from the same fertile minds that brought you the Shadowrun tabletop RPG, so you know to expect something very well-thought-out and novel.

The game itself is a fast-paced combat shooter, and the controls are meant to be easily accessible, as well as quite fast and loose. The build we played today felt as if it were fast approaching that goal. Before we go into the particulars of the mechanics, though, we'll provide a little background for the sake of context. The Xbox's take on Crimson Skies puts you in the role of Nathan Zachary, the sky pirate of the "heart of gold" variety, who starred in the game's PC predecessor. The single level we got to play took place shortly after Zachary had knocked off a casino in Catalina. Cash in hand, he has flown out with his cohorts--members of an airplane gang called the Ragin' Cajun--when via radio, he's contacted by the casino owner's enforcers, the Red Skulls. They then proceed to shoot at him, whereupon you gain control of his craft. In Zachary's shoes, you have to clear the otherwise idyllic island's skies of anyone not on your side.

The ship we were allowed to pilot during our demo was called the Devastor, the real-propelled four-winged craft most prominently displayed thus far in the screenshots that have been released. It's quite zippy and maneuverable, but it's the only plane we've ever had the chance to fly, so there's nothing to compare it to. In and of itself, though, the game is very fast-paced, and the controls are such that you'll be allowed to pull some flashy stunts. The layout is as follows: You'll shoot your machine guns with the right trigger and fire missiles with the left. The A button is reserved for the special weapons you'll find littered throughout the game's battlegrounds, while the Y and B buttons control boosts and brakes, respectively. Moving your ship, finally, is done with the analog sticks--the left one lets you steer, and the right adjusts your roll. We've seen only a couple of special weapons so far, but they've been pretty useful. One pickup was called "minimissiles" by Microsoft--these had sort of a homing cluster-bomb effect that could take out a close-flying squadron. The other special weapon we saw was the Tesla cannon, which shot forth short-ranged bolts of the mythical purplish energy.

The mission pacing was pretty intense in the demo we played. Combat was thick at all times, and flying all around were enemies' planes, as well as your own squadmates'. Dozens of ships seemingly occupied the sky at any one time, and there were just as many balloons and zeppelins about, populating the space between the hills and rocks and making the environments feel quite busy and alive. All of these cool visual and gameplay elements do much to convey the mood of the world; it all looks like something out of a 1930s World's Fair postcard. Buildings are fully destructible, as are many of the flying objects--the hot-air balloons specifically. This particular level seemed heavily combat-focused--there were a few heavy dogfighting sequences, and after the last one, we were made to perform a "trench run" of sorts. Basically, we had to follow one of our wingmates into a narrow canyon and watch her back as she made it through. Enemies would periodically zip and attack her, and we had to dispatch them as quickly as possible. There were also several destructible land bridges that you could shoot. The effects seemed scripted, but we're not hard-core real-time fetishists.

Truth be told, the game looks quite far along, and we were suitably impressed with how well it played and how smoothly it ran. We're suspicious, though, because we weren't shown anything resembling the coolest Crimson Skies has to offer; we have seen screenshots of the flying casinos with the neon lights all over them and have even caught wind of a stage that takes place inside of a storm. We're also fantasizing about going up against 1,000-foot-long superships, but we're making those up. In any case, we'll likely see some of this crazy stuff at E3, so we'll update you then. Be sure to check out the latest screenshots.