Crimson Sea 1/24/2003 | 1:26 am prfectjon

Over the past couple of years, it seems like Koei has cornered the market on the one-vs-many gameplay style with their Dynasty Warriors and Kessen titles. Sometimes there?s nothing like sitting down in front of your TV and controlling your character and his/her weapon of choice as you face un-ending hordes of baddies. Koei apparently realizes this, and not content to rest on their laurels, is taking that concept and branching out with it. The result? Crimson Sea, which mixes the ?swarm? action with squad tactics, varied missions, and even a few RPG elements thrown in to boot.

The storyline of Crimson Sea, while not the most original thing in the world, gets the job done quite well. You play the role of private detective Sho, who is almost always trailed by his young partner Yangqin. Sho?s private detective career is quickly ended when he is recruited by the Intelligence Agency of the Galaxy (IAG). Turns out that Sho isn?t quite all human; in fact he?s a special type of being known as a Vipa (pronounced Vee-pa). Sho doesn?t remember much of his past, but it is revealed that he was actually one of only two survivors from an experiment to fuse a Vipa with a human in order to create a sort of superweapon to combat the growing enemy threat throughout the galaxy. Sho is sent on a variety of missions for IAG, and during his journeys he begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding his existence and eventually embraces his destiny, all while making both friends and enemies along the way.

Crimson Sea, while set in a futuristic space environment, still features heavy doses of oriental themes. In fact, pretty much all of the characters look like they jumped straight out of a random anime movie, wild hairstyles and clothing and all. The game features quite a bit of voice acting, and while it isn?t anything horrible, does seem a bit too cheesy at times. About the only truly painful part of the storyline and voice acting deal with the love story that?s thrown into the mix, if you can even call it a love story: boy meets girl, boy goes on mission with girl, boy and girl love each other.

Most of the various cut scenes (and there?s quite a few, but you can skip through any of them with the touch of a button if you so desire) serve as explanations and setups for the various missions you?ll be sent on. There?s actually quite a bit of mission variety in the game, although almost every mission will invariably wind up involving the slaying of lots and lots of enemies. While the game does emphasize the squad combat aspects of the gameplay, in the end it feels like it doesn?t play much of a role in things. In fact, it seemed like on at least half of the missions you aren?t even with your squad and are just acting solo. You?re given the option to setup squad formations and such in the menu (also referred to as the ?Camp? screen, but more on that in a moment), but only once did I ever actually make an attempt to toy around with the formations. More often than not I was playing doctor to my squad rather than relying on them for support fire.

Luckily, Sho is enough of a powerhouse, especially as the game progresses, that the ineffectiveness of your squad mates is rarely ever an issue. Using the Camp (a.k.a. menu) screen, Sho is able to choose and configure his weapon. By completing missions (and finding it hidden in barrels and boxes throughout the levels) Sho is able to earn money which he can then use in between missions to purchase various weapon parts, in the form of Barrels (the weapon body; determines the type of fire), Effectors (amplifies the weapon?s power and controls energy output), and Generators (the weapon?s energy source). Sho can mix and match these parts simply by selecting them in the menu; weapon configurations can be changed on the fly during missions, just by hitting the start button and choosing the new parts. In addition to being a gun, each of Sho?s weapons can be used as a blade for close-range combat. These dual-natured weapons become quite handy when trying to mow down a horde of giant cockroaches ? pick off as many you can from a distance, and once they?ve swarmed around you, let loose with your blade and slice and dice them by the dozens. Additionally, not too long into the game Sho gains the ability to use NeoPsionic powers, which are basically the magic spells of the game. Sho can use these powers to do everything from cure himself and his comrades to unleash a powerful blast upon his foes. NeoPsionics use up BP points which are replenished by collecting the glowing red balls that are left behind after killing an enemy (and thankfully there are plenty of enemies to be killed, so there is never a lack of BP to be found). Finally, of course, there are a variety of items that Sho can find and/or buy that can restore his (or his allies?) health and BP, as well as such things as raising his max HP and BP levels.

The variable weapon configurations, the NeoPsionics, and the items combine with the interaction with characters in between missions to give Crimson Sea an almost RPG-flavor to it. Between each mission you can wander throughout your base of operations (be it a space station or a spaceship) and speak with your various teammates and superiors. These interactions aren?t necessary at all to complete the game, but if you make a point of talking to these people, it helps to flesh out the storyline even more. These in-between mission segments are also where you are given a chance to spend your hard-earned cash at the various ?stores? located at your base.

It?s also during these in-between mission segments (and also the various cut scenes, of which only a few are FMV) that the graphics engine of Crimson Sea truly shines. This game isn?t a graphical tour de force like such games as Halo or Splinter Cell, but it holds its own quite well against the rest of the Xbox library. In fact, it?s a wonder why the developers decided to use FMV at all for anything besides the outer space shots considering how nice the real time cut scenes turned out. The one downfall in the graphics department comes when you?re actually playing out the various missions of the game, as the on-screen characters tend be a bit on the smaller and on the not-so-detailed side. This is more than understandable though, considering how many enemies are on screen at once. In the more compact and indoor levels, the characters are a bit larger on screen, and thankfully Sho becomes transparent if backed against a wall or such, so as not to obscure your view.

The camera follows Sho at all times, and with the touch of a button one can look left and right, but that?s about all of the control over the camera that the player has. At first this proved to be a bit frustrating after being so used to a free-floating camera such as the one in Splinter Cell, but with all of the action that goes on in Crimson Sea, trying to position the camera is the last thing I want to be worrying about. This is especially true when I was having difficulty even controlling Sho himself. In what seems to be an effort on Koei?s part to simplify the game?s controls, they actually wound up making things a bit more frustrating. The button used for dashing and a 180-turn are one and the same (using the control stick in conjunction with the button causes a dash, while just pressing the button does the turn), and more often than not I found myself doing 180?s while trying to dash or vice versa. Targeting and locking on to enemies also proved to be a nuisance now and then, but was nowhere near the level of annoyance as the dash/180 problem. Thankfully it doesn?t take too long to get used to the controls though, and more often than not you shouldn?t have a problem in your quest to mow down the evil hordes.

Overall, Crimson Sea winds up being an enjoyable experience, despite the occasional flaw or annoyance. It?s not the longest game in the world, but it will keep you busy for at least several days on just the first play through, and with the varied missions and endless waves of baddies to slaughter, you won?t ever find yourself being bored. There are additional modes to unlock including one that allows access to the more powerful weapons early on and one that ramps up the difficulty level, so there is some replay value there. I only wish the game had included some sort of multiplayer aspect, as that would have truly extended its replayablity.

Basically, though, what it comes down to is whether or not you like the Dynasty Warriors style gameplay and whether or not you?d like a little more depth added to that style. If that?s your thing, then definitely give Crimson Sea a shot, you won?t be disappointed.

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