I really like this game, flaws and all, and I don't really know why.
So what is it, besides a clearly successful attempt at appealing to some kind of weird fetish for domineering cyborg women in latex?
Essentially a beat-em-up merged with an RPG, Crimson Tears puts you in the role of three bio-engineered humans named Amber, Tokio, and Kadie. Abandoned by their creator, their search for answers will lead them through a ruined city that's overrun by monsters and other augmented humans. The story, while not likely to win any awards, actually does a pretty good job of keeping the action flowing. Each of the characters, despite their many abilities, displays a certain innocence about the situation facing them. It's a refreshing touch that adds a bit of humanity to characters who otherwise have none.
Exploring the city requires plenty of combat, but luckily, none of the characters are ill-equipped. Similar to many RPG's, you'll earn experience points, gold, weapons, items, and ability upgrades that quickly turn your nascent characters into efficient killing machines. This adds a nice bit of depth to the game, as each has inherent strengths and weaknesses to consider. This is further expanded upon by allowing weapons to be combining into new ones, many of which can only be found through this method. It's unexpected in a game like this, to say the least, but a welcome surprise.
The rest of the game isn't quite so rosy. While the character designs are pretty alluring, the environments are bland by comparison, as are the enemies. Each level boss is distinct, not to mention challenging, but you'll usually be facing the same handful of basic enemies. They do get stronger from level to level, but their tactics remain largely the same. As your character learns more combo attacks, you might expect this to provide a bit more variation, but combat is still reduced to pounding out the same two attack buttons...fighting the same enemies...in similarly uninteresting places. The repetition is broken up slightly by the inclusion of your modified body overheating and requiring a cool down, but it's rarely an issue once you reach the later levels of the game.
It's that constant feeling of sameness that drags the game down, yet is its greatest allure. I can't fully explain it, but there's a certain charm to the simplicity of Crimson Tears that makes me not want to put it down. I really like this game, flaws and all, and I don't really know why. It's not as frenetic as Dynasty Warriors or as carefully paced as an action-adventure like Prince of Persia, but it has it's own odd niche somewhere between the two. Adventurous gamers who go in with no expectations may find something to like here, but most everyone else will probably want to steer clear. It's not too long, but for $10, why not give it a shot?