Crimson Sea – XB – Review

When you hear the
developer KOEI, you might think of games that are set in medieval Japan, such as
Dynasty Warriors. However, they decided to twist things up a bit and make a game
that is based in a futuristic space setting. Crimson Sea is an action RPG,
similar to Phantasy Star Online, without being online. Will their knowledge of
creating such games as Dynasty Warriors help them cross over to this different
genre and setting? Read on to find out!

The game takes place in a solar system called Theophilus. Players take on the
role of Sho, who is a bounty hunter for hire. In the beginning of the game, a
beautiful lady asks him to retrieve an item for him, once he accomplishes this
mission; he finds out that he has ”recruited” with the IAG (Intelligence Agency
of the Galaxy). After his first mission, he proves himself in battle and becomes
the squad leader of the G-Squad, which contains a bunch of washed up recruits.
The player’s job is to completely irradiate the growing Muton (hostile aliens)
invasion. As time progresses you will find out there is more to Sho than meets
the eye. Will you have enough talent to save the world, or will you cower in
fear?

From the beginning players can defiantly notice that Dynasty Warriors has an
influence on this game, with the linking combos, hordes or enemies, and powerups.
The mission structure is very nice, since players can pick and choose where what
to do, when they want to do it. There is a lot of mission variety in the game,
some missions will have you retrieve an item, kill hordes of enemies, or escort
people to a designated area. Besides the different mission types, Crimson Sea is
further expounded since it some missions are linear, some are timed, and others
have puzzles to solve. This adds great replay value, and keeps the game from
becoming repetitive. Between each mission, players will have the chance to
regroup at the base to get supplies, train, and do variety of other things.

There are a lot of ways to level your characters in this game. One way is to buy
new Neo-Psionic powers (a powerful super move) that can cause immense damage to
the enemies. The weapons used in the game are two fold, a long-range projective
and a short-range melee weapon. The twist to this is that all weapons are
extremely customizable. Each weapon has three different parts: Barrel, Effector,
and Generator. This level of customization allows for numerous weapons to use
throughout the game, and it gives the players a chance to find their favorite
type. The more players use all of the weapons at their disposal, the more
experience they revive, which makes the characters more powerful.

Controls for the game are good and are very responsive. There are two huge
complaints that I have with the controls, they are not customizable, and players
have no control over the camera. The game offers players a sniper mode, but it
is essentially useless since you cannot invert the aim, this would not have been
so bad if it was not really sensitive. Having full control of the camera would
have been exceptionally nice. It seems like during boss battles, when players
have to move around a lot, get a bad view of the boss and end up getting damage
that would normally be avoidable. This is a shame to see KOEI not include this
in the game.

Another interesting thing about Crimson Sea is that it allows for a great amount
of strategy. During the course of the game, players will pick up several new
teammates. Once they join your team, you can put everyone in a formation that
will be most effective while taking on the hordes of enemies. The sad part about
this is the players can only play as Sho, but the developers made the AI smart
enough to actually be helpful instead of a burden. The enemies also have their
own AI script, to prevent the game from becoming repetitive. The swarm of
enemies will come in at different directions, try to get behind you, and use
many different tactics to defeat you, other than blindly charging to their
death.

The game sports a really nice and detailed graphics engine. During any point in
the game, the players will find themselves surrounded by hundreds of aliens, and
there will never be a hint of any slow down! This is one of the best points
about the entire game! The character models are highly detailed, and contain a
lot of textures. The models look really nice, and seem like something seen out
of an anime cartoon. The cut screens and FMV’s are also done with high
production values, similar to Final Fantasy CGI movies. The environments
player’s fight contains as much detail as the players. Each place looks nice and
really keeps any sense of repetition away.

The sound in this game is phenomenal! Everything from the voice-overs to the
soundtrack has a very professional feel to it. The music is composed with great
care, and really fits the entire game. Crimson Sea supports Dolby Digital 5.1
sound, and it adds a whole new layer to the game. If players are fortunate
enough to have a setup that has this, they need to listen to it, and see how it
drastically affects the game. It will really knock your socks off once heard
through a surround sound set up!

Crimson
Sea
is rated T for Teen for violence and suggestive themes.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 8.7
Crimson Sea is
extremely fun to play, but the camera can become more of a hamper than help,
especially during boss battles. No inverted angles while sniping, what where
they thinking? Other than shoddy camera angles and no inverted mode for sniping,
the game is a blast to play, and will provide hours of entertainment.

Graphics: 8.9
The game looks
extremely well. The thing that is most impressive is that the graphics engine
can handle a lot of enemies on screen, with no slow down at all!

Sound: 9.1
If you have a
home theater system (with Dolby Digital 5.1) you MUST hook it up to it, because
the game sounds extremely awesome!

Difficulty: Medium
The game offers a
few difficulty modes, and each of them provides a greater challenge than the
previous. The AI in the game doesn’t cheat, and is usually fair. Players might
feel overwhelmed by the site of 100+ enemies to defeat at once, but once they
master the controls, they will not prove to be a problem.

Concept: 7.5
Save the world
from hordes of aliens? This theme has been played to death! That does not mean
that the game does not introduce anything new. The game has a great combo system
and gives players many unlockable secrets.

Overall: 8.8
Lets face it, on
the Xbox there is an extremely low selection of quality RPG’s released. Even
thought Crimson
Sea
has a few quirks, it is still a really great game to play. If can forgive a few
bad camera angles, and a shoddy sniper mode, than you will derive great pleasure
from this game.