About the game
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.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 88 out of 100 (Xbox). Individual reviews: 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 8.8/10.
Extra content
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.
- Chicken Pox: A variant of Dogfight and Wild Chicken where chickens act as power-ups
- Gunheist: A mode about seizing and holding the territory's AA guns
- Extra planes and multiplayer maps: More aircraft and maps for online play
Good to know
- 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.
Made by
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.
