Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge

In a year of delays, Microsoft looks to the skies for their big holiday title

Tags: Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews

Posted by Jake McNeill on Jan 29th, 2004

Title Players
Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge (title page)
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Action No


No Halo 2. No Ninja Gaiden. No Sudeki. No Kameo. The Xbox 2003 holiday lineup lost a lot of its big hitters to delays one by one, a problem just about every game platform faced last year. This vacuum arguably had a positive side-effect in that a lot of titles that may have otherwise been overlooked during the holiday season became the focus. Games like Prince of Persia, Links 2004, and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge actually has a lot of parallels to Mech Assault. Both are Xbox-specific sequels to franchises Microsoft made a name for on the PC. Both are a good deal more arcadey than their PC counterparts to better suit a console. Both involve a good variety of vehicles and a lot of blowing up stuff. Finally, both games are perfectly suited to multiplayer mayhem on Xbox Live, and were designed in many ways with this in mind (which is not to say that either game’s single-player mode is at all lacking). As a result, one could argue that Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is kind of like Mech Assault with wings, something that most would agree is certainly a good thing.


Graphically, the game is one of the best on the Xbox, featuring beautiful oceans, twisting canyons and vast valleys, with dozens of highly-detailed enemies fighting without the burden of suffering framerates or poor draw distance. Some of the more complicated maneuvers your plane is capable of do occasionally give the camera a bit of trouble keeping up, but generally everything goes pretty smoothly considering how fast and busy the action gets at times.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it takes place in an alternate timeline in the 1930s, where America is a collection of nation-states and the nations of the world have expanded their efforts in industrialization into the skies. Commerce, business, and war have all taken to an age of flight, and so has piracy, which is where swashbuckling hero Nathan Zachary steps in.


An air pirate who generally leans towards the good cause but doesn’t feel the need to play within the bounds of the law, Nathan often stumbles into situations too big for him, and his latest adventure is no exception. With his day starting out running a few errands involving minor scuffles with other local air pirates, he’ll come to get tangled up in a mysterious enemy’s diabolical plot to rule the world. The game’s plot is told both through pre-rendered cutscenes and voiceovers during gameplay, both of which do a decent job of building the game’s atmosphere.

The game’s structure is generally pretty linear, but it takes a break every now and then to give you the opportunity to explore if you so choose to. You start the game with one plane, but any planes you spot parked on runways throughout the game can be commandeered at any time, even in mid-mission, after which you’ll be able to select it from your zeppelin, which acts as your base of operations. In the meantime, it adds a great deal to the strategy of combat, as a damaged aircraft can be swapped for something else to change the tide of battle, or to switch to something more appropriate for the current situation. You even occasionally have the option of commanding a stationary turret, which sacrifices your mobility for firepower.


Flying the game’s aircraft is simple and easy, albeit not as “Dumbed down” from its PC predecessor as many seem to complain. The left thumbstick steers your plane, the right controls your spin, right and left triggers are for primary and secondary fire, and the four primary face buttons are for boost, air brakes, zoom (When in a vehicle capable of doing it) and an action button, used to dock for quick repairs, swap planes, or accept missions. In addition, players can press in the right thumbstick while holding various directions on the two sticks to perform special maneuvers, like the Immelman, which lets you quickly turn the plane 180 degrees. All said, you’re given a lot of freedom of movement with relatively simple controls, something that prettymuch works perfectly for this game.

The game’s missions are fun and pretty varied, although they do occasionally devolve into the tried-and-true escort and seek and destroy missions that have become a staple and a bane of the genre since its inception, and there’s occasions where it seems like you’re just getting into an endless series of dogfights. Thankfully, the variety in locations and vehicles and occasional odd job help to break up this monotony. There are even a few inventive boss battles throughout the game as well.


As you progress, all of your planes can be upgraded, provided you have earned the cash and upgrade tokens required to do so. Cash is easy enough to get, earned by accomplishing missions, doing jobs for the locals of a given area, or competing in races. Upgrade tokens are a great deal harder to come by, available only for completing certain missions and hidden throughout the levels. One of the game’s problems is the apparent inability to backtrack to previous areas to try and seek out tokens you’ve missed and maybe earn back some extra cash.

While the single-player mode of Crimson Skies is good for what it’s worth, the main draw for many will be its online capabilities. Players will be pleased to discover that Crimson Skies has more than its fair share of online options for players to pit their skills against others online. Much like Mech Assault before it, this game is at the forefront of the Xbox’s holiday lineup this year, and Microsoft has once again demonstrated a mastery of how to create the perfect arena for gamers around the world to pit their skills against each other.


Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge isn’t perfect, and at times it’s even a bit repetitive, but it’s a strong entry into the Xbox lineup that anyone looking for a good action game will enjoy. In addition, this is one of the best Xbox Live titles to come out Not since the Crimson Permanent Assurance set sail on the seas of finance has piracy been this fun.

What Works Score
+ Great graphics
+ Wonderful controls
+ Plenty of online features 		8.8
What Doesn't
- Occasionally repetitive
- Too linear
Under the Shrink-wrap
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is a solid title with a wealth of online features and impressive graphics, more than worthy of a spot in any Xbox owner's library
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