Crimson Sea 2

"Obnoxious 3rd-Person shooting action is a nice change of pace from standard FPS's"

Crimson Sea 2 mixes the intensity of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, games like Gungrave, adds a strong RPG element, with elaborate story, and tosses the concoction into a space setting.

On looks alone it's quite easy to write off CS2 as a cheap and bland shoot-em-up but once the you've got the controls down and get into the swing of collecting origins to level up a number of weapon stats, CS2 becomes an addictive way to release frustration while still maintaining a feeling of achievement.

Game play is rather simple involving ducking in and out of multiple missions to achieve certain goals from escort challenges to merely obtaining an item and running back to the start of the level with it. You take alternating control of male and female characters each with two guns, a sword, and a set of psionic abilities. Combo uses of each result in high hit counts that stack up and trigger slow motion segments where said weapons deal a lot more damage. The whole affair is like stepping into a room and opening fire on swarms of living things charging you all the while strafing and spinning in circles to keep the masses from making contact. As some of the creatures are defeated they drop collectible 'origin' items that are used, after the mission, to upgrade your swords, guns, and psionic abilities.

CS2 serves as an extremely satisfying break from many of the other genres you've had the chance to sit through. It's enjoyable to repeat missions to try an earn S rankings in all goals to earn special rewards as well build the strength of your two characters and their weapons. Unfortunately there are limited worlds with a few different locations to each which means that you will be running a lot of the original missions in areas that you've already been through multiple times before. Along with this factor the areas are all eyesores containing repeated textures and a box-to-hallway-to-box mapping which really does away with exploration and any scenic beauty one might have hoped for. Indeed this is definitely only about getting in, getting out, and mass slaughtering.

On the other hand, the monster and character models are extremely well done and highly detailed to the point where it seems impossible, considering this,that so many of them can be on the screen and in the action all at once without any stutters or slow downs but CS2's engine chugs along brilliantly despite.

An old game, now lost to bargain bins, that I highly recommend as a break from the same-old that you've been feeding yourself for years. One should warn shooter fans that if you're the stealth type, that likes to pick off the enemy from a distance, you might be a little disappointed as the enemy in this game is close up, heavy in number, surrounding from all sides, and quickly approaching. However, for those who ever wondered what it would feel like to be in such a situation and spinning around, blindly, while screaming and firing with no pauses, this might be just the action that you're looking for.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/07

Game Release: Crimson Sea 2 (US, 03/30/04)