Death Crimson OX

"Beware of the Crimson it may destroy your soul"

Death Crimson OX is a fantastic gun game to play. This is really one of the Dreamcast's greatest games and also one of their last before Sega stopped the Dreamcast. Death Crimson OX is a rare type of game to get now, what the basic purpose of the game is to use a gun controller and shoot the enemies on the screen. Such games are very rare for the home consoles and usually only appear now in the arcade.

What has happened is SMO agents have destroyed a beautiful town called Saronica. You play as Kou Yanami and the player 2 (if there is one) would be Yuri Rosenberg. They are in this story because Yuri's mother had been captured by the leader of SMO, Lily is also the leader of the resistance who go up against SMO. Kou also is a part of the resistance and wants his leader back. So they shoot all the enemies known as Subliminers, and pursue who has captured Lily known as Admiral Zaza.

In the story mode you will go across six stages killing Subliminers amongst other enemies such as skeletons. When in the game there will also be civilians hurting these will cut down your health as well as letting Subliminers attack you great to have some classic features. Even though these are the only things which will affect your health, but that doesn't make this game that easy. If you play the game normally you will have to keep reloading, this requires shooting off the screen for a gun or pressing X with the controller. Across the levels you will see extra things to shoot, some give you extra points some are for machine guns and other are for extra health. When playing the game you have get to get used to a couple of game systems. The main one is your experience gauge the name of it is in the beautiful colours of the rainbow, all you must learn from that is it goes up when killing Subliminers and when it's full it will put up your health and reset itself. The other systems to learn are for your end of level ranking. This ranking is based on your accuracy, life, your score and enemies killed. Letter ranks go much worse that even F so it's almost impossible to get an A. But before you are ranked there is a boss at the end of each stage, with each boss you must learn their weak spot and kill them before they kill you.

Although this can be played using a controller it is horrible to, is very difficult as well and really takes a lot of the joy out of the game. Therefore if you are to buy this game I would recommend getting a light gun to play it with. Even with a normal light gun shooting outside the screen is annoying so it's perfect to get a gun which has auto reload, but that is up to you in the end. All of this makes it easy and much more enjoyable to play. When you've learnt how to use the gun/controller you are already on your way to a great time.

During the gameplay you will experience cut scenes the graphics are beautiful in this, in fact they are at least two years ahead of their time. You can see things so clearly that you can even see the dirt on the walls, the doors open even with the creaks and even the fire of the gun shots. All of the areas are dark and gloomy to suit the place, as most is at night and also take on board the fact that the place is now invaded. This is good if you like games with darker areas and a bit of gloom, however if you prefer a brighter game then it may not be a good game for you. The music inside the game is good and suits the mood and atmosphere of the level. None of it is badly suited, you will almost certainly never mute the TV. Firing bullets sounds exactly the same as shooting them from a real gun and even shares the same effects. The glass breaking sounds like the glass is crying out its smash. Sadly there is no speaking everything anyone says is subtitled and people only speak during cutscenes. Within the cutscenes you will uncover the main story line, if you skip all the cutscenes you will have no idea on why you are at certain places. Death Crimson OX's story is a good aspect of the game and is something which you need to see.

In terms of option you can't do much to edit the game you can, increase the difficulty, lower your life gauge or cut down your credits, not much special really.
There isn't really anything to unlock within the game either, the only real purpose of being able to save is to record your high scores. They could have at least added in a boss mode or even just an extra level, this does get annoying and cuts down its replayability a lot. The only reason why someone would want to replay it is to pump up its difficulty, which is a good part because it gives you a reason to play it five times. You may also replay it to catch the complete storyline, because it takes quite a few times to understand the story completely and to be honest it has an excellent story which makes perfect sense as to what you are doing in the game. Death Crimson OX now is not just about shooting Subliminers there is a purpose which I like in games like this. There are also a couple of extra bits to do, there is a mission mode which is equivalent of level select. The only other mode is bullet mode there you play through the levels trying not to shoot anything other than enemies or bonus things.

Overall I think this is a great game to get except the fact that you will finish it quickly. What the surprising thing is too is that they never made a U.K release. Any U.K gamers must import this though it is the best shooting game on the Dreamcast. If you like this also I would recommend playing Confidential Mission and The House of the Dead 2, both are the same style and are equally enjoyable.

Good Parts

.Unique game for the home console
.Excellent Graphics
.Realistic sound effects

Bad parts

.No unlockables
.Only Six stages

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/06