Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge on Xbox was supposed to come out in March of 2002 but the game was delayed until October 2003. Crimson Skies is a game where you fly a one-man plane to take out enemies or complete other objectives.
The gameplay is fun. One mission could be to take out all enemies, the next mission could be escorting an ally from Point A to Point B. Your plane is equipped with guns and rockets but if you don’t have enough firepower to take down an enemy, you can dock your plane in your zeppelin and use their guns and rockets to take down enemy aircraft and enemies that will also attack by boat.
The gameplay is easy. Most missions were accomplished on the first try and I the missions that I failed the first time I attempted them, I was able to complete after the second attempt. As you play through the game, you will unlock access to better planes and when you exit the Zeppelin, you can decide which plane you will use.
Completing some missions will get you money. You will also find tokens while flying around and you may get tokens for helping out people. You need cash and tokens to upgrade the planes you have a selection from when you exit the zeppelin. If your plane gets damaged, you might be able to go to an allies station to get your plane repaired. If your ally doesn’t have a station in the area, you have to find med packs that will repair some damage to your plane.
If you are docked in the Zeppelin or on a boat using the weapons available on the boat, you still have to keep an eye on your health bar because if you run out of health, regardless of what you are controlling, the mission fails. Missions that have multiple parts do have checkpoints so if you die in the middle of a mission, you will resume from the last checkpoint that you reached.
While the game is not extremely difficult, there is one part I could not get past. I was supposed to take down an opposing Zeppelin but even docked in the Zeppelin and used the rockets from my Zeppelin, the health of the opposing Zeppelin would not decrease. I only got it down halfway then no matter how many rockets I shot at it, the opposing Zeppelin would not lose any more health.
The controls could not be better. One trigger is your gun while the other trigger shoots rockets. You have a brake and boost button. There is a button to dock on a Zeppelin or ship and if you want to turn your plane around, you pull both analog sticks back and then press down on the right analog stick. None of the buttons felt like they had too many functions and there is nothing I would change about the controls.
The story of the game is that you lost your plane in a poker game but when the person you lost it to tries to take your plane, you jump on the wing before he takes off and you manually eject the person who tried to take your plane. That is where the game starts.
The graphics are fine for XBox standards. Unfortunately, the areas do not change up all that much. While the environment may not be the same, it looks similar and you feel like you’re looking at the same battlefield for hours as you play the game.
I have no problems with the sound. The voices are believable. The sound effects also sound great but there is no music in the game. However, there is a lot of chatter from your allies during missions.
There is replayability because up to four players can play off the same console. More people could play when this game was on Xbox Live. However, I did not have anyone to test out the local multiplayer mode with.
The gameplay is fun and the game was pretty much easy except for when an opposing Zeppelin stopped losing health. I have no problem with the controls. The story makes sense. The graphics are alright except for the levels looking too similar. I also have no problems with the sound and there are multiplayer modes that can be played off the same console. So I give Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge on an XBox 9 out of 10. There were a couple of things I didn’t like but this game should be checked out by anyone with an original Xbox or Xbox One. This game is very cheap to buy for Xbox and this game is included in Game Pass if you have an Xbox One.
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