Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Overview

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is a first-party game developed by FASA Studio, part of Microsoft Game Studios, for the original Xbox. Like the earlier Crimson Skies for the PC, it is an action-oriented arcade flight game. The Xbox game has a more open-ended mission structure, but it offers less plane customization than the PC game.

It is set in an alternate 1930s in which planes and zeppelins are the main means of transport. You play Nathan Zachary, leader of the Fortune Hunters air pirate gang, who sets out to avenge the death of his old friend Doc Fassenbiender.

It is an arcade flight game, not a simulator. Takeoffs and landings are automated and the controls are simplified. There are more than twelve playable fighters, each with its own speed, manoeuvrability and armour, and secondary weapons such as magnetic rockets, heavy cannons and a Tesla coil. You can swap planes in the middle of a mission, and take over gun turrets that switch the view to first person.

The single-player campaign has twenty levels and four difficulty settings. Several levels work like the open-world missions in the Grand Theft Auto series, with mission icons spread across the map, optional side missions, air races and neutral airships to plunder. Multiplayer supports four players split screen on one console, and up to sixteen over System Link and Xbox Live, with Dogfight, Flag Heist, Keep Away and Wild Chicken modes.

The game was announced in March 2002 for a fall release. The team pushed it back a year to retool it, dropping an "interactive movie" idea, simplifying the story and adding Xbox Live support. Drew Struzan, known for the Indiana Jones posters, painted the box art. Stan LePard wrote the score, recorded with a forty-piece orchestra. It came out in October 2003 and a planned Windows port was cancelled.

Critics gave it generally favourable reviews, praising the graphics, audio, arcade controls and especially the Xbox Live play. It was not a big seller, with roughly one copy for every hundred Xboxes, and it is now considered a cult classic. It won Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year at the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Official trailer

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge Xbox Trailer - Crimson, IGN. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge Playthrough, Look Back Gaming. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action, Arcade flight

Developer

FASA Studio

Publisher

Microsoft Game Studios

Series

Crimson Skies

Composers

Stan LePard

Designers

Bill Morrison

Writers

Jeffrey Howell

Producers

Sean Gilmour

Directors

Jim Deal, Jim Napier

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

4

Online multiplayer

16

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Subscription history

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Achievements

AchievementsNo trophy list

Space and patches

Space needed5.02 GB

DLC

Microsoft released free downloads through Xbox Live in 2003 and 2004: new planes, multiplayer maps, voice chat and two extra multiplayer modes. The original Xbox Live service has closed, so they can no longer be fetched from Microsoft.

Items

Name	Adds	Obtainable today	Price
Chicken Pox	A variant of Dogfight and Wild Chicken where chickens act as power-ups	no	free
Gunheist	A mode about seizing and holding the territory's AA guns	no	free
Extra planes and multiplayer maps	More aircraft and maps for online play	no	free

Playable today

Playable offline todayPartly

The campaign, split screen and System Link play from the disc or the download. Official online play and the free downloads ended in 2010; Insignia, a fan service, runs online play on original Xbox consoles.

Online

Online servers runningPartly

Plays offlinePartly

The original Xbox Live service closed in 2010. The game can be played online again on Insignia, a community revival server for original Xbox games.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Xbox Live (original service)	closed	2010-04-15
Insignia (community revival servers)	running

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox	88	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
IGN	9.1	10
GameSpot	8.9	10
GameSpy	4	5
GameZone	9.5	10
Game Informer	9	10
GamePro	5	5
Official Xbox Magazine	9.2	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8.83	10
Eurogamer	8	10
Edge	7	10
Famitsu	32	40

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Developer	FASA Studio
Publisher	Microsoft Game Studios
Directors	Jim Deal, Jim Napier
Producer	Sean Gilmour
Designer	Bill Morrison
Artist	Robert Olson
Writer	Jeffrey Howell
Composer	Stan LePard

Cast

Character	Actor
Nathan Zachary	Tim Omundson
Betty Charles	Tasia Valenza
Big John	Wally Wingert
Maria Sanchez	Nika Futterman
Dr. Fassenbiender	Neil Ross
Louis Thibodeaux	Jimmie Woods
Dr. Nicholas Von Essen	Charles Dennis
Jonathan Kahn	Keith Szarabajka

Notes for collectors

• The box art was painted by Drew Struzan, the artist behind the Indiana Jones film posters.
• It was one of the first titles on the Xbox Originals service, which let Xbox 360 owners download original Xbox games from 4 December 2007.
• The Xbox 360 plays it through backward compatibility, and it was among the first original Xbox games announced for Xbox One backward compatibility at E3 2017.
• The first announced release was fall 2002. The game slipped a year while the team reworked it and added Xbox Live.
• A two-disc soundtrack was released separately, with a CD of 54 game tracks and a DVD of 5.1 surround mixes.
• A tie-in paperback, Crimson Skies, came out in October 2002. It tells the backstory of the world and is not a prequel to the game.

Credits

Publisher

Microsoft Game Studios

Developer

FASA Studio

Director

Jim Deal, Jim Napier

Released

2003-10-21

Age rating

T (Teen)

Disc ID

4D530021

Region

US

Time to beat

about 8 hours

Copies in the shop

• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (XBOX) CA$14.99