Crimson Sea 2

"The greatest game ever made that you are not playing."

IGN had this game on their top 10 overlooked games list, and for once I am in full agreement with them. Having played, for a very short moment, Crimson Sea on X Box, and having a major problem with the horrible control, I can see where others would feel the same and stay away from this game. That is a shame, because in fixing most of what was wrong in the first game, they have created a stellar game, that is at its heart a simple hack and slash, with very mild rpg elements, but that transcends the genre, into something extremely fresh and original.

GRAPHICS: 7/10 This is probably the games weakest point. The enemies themselves, collectively known as the menace, are excellent looking and pretty well animated, as are the hero and heroine of the piece. The environments, however, do not fare as well. Looking like the "Alien" planet, it is very dark, and all the levels are constantly being revisited, with just some cosmetic changes here and there. Even though you may be assaulted by hundreds of enemies at a time, there is no slowdown that I have been able to see. There really isn't a whole lot of detail in the areas, but that may be a good thing, since you are always on the move and don't have time to look around anyway.

MUSIC/SOUND: 7/10 I love the music in this game, I just wish there was more of it. The music and sound effects, what little there are, are all rather appropriate for the area you are in. It is in Dolby Digital, but they do not really take advantage of that fact. Also, there is no dialogue spoken in the game.

CAMERA/CONTROL: 9/10 Having seen the error of their ways, they have fully corrected the player control from the first game. The camera is easily manipulated and never blocks your view. All the PS2 buttons will be used, but it is not too hard to learn, and they are all extremely responsive.

GAME PLAY: 10/10 This is where the game really shines. Who ever thought that a game that was a hack and slash, and threw hundreds of enemies at you at once, and constantly repeated level environments, could also be so varied in your assignments. There are 60 missions, some of which, but not very many, that are optional. As certain ones become finished others open up. Some mission may require you to guide someone to safety, another to rescue 5 people, another to use radar to see because the facility is down and you are in total darkness, yet another to find a ring in under three minutes that could be anywhere, and on and on. Really, the degree of variability in the missions is remarkable. The game has three difficulty modes. Easy is really normal. Normal is actually hard. Hard is pretty much impossible. On the easy setting, the game only starts out difficult, but once you get the hang of it and start leveling up and getting better equipment, it isn't too bad. You will have to repeat missions quite a bit if you want to get an "S" ranking. You are measured on time, menace killed, highest combo, and damage taken. To get a total "S" ranking you must have it in all areas at one time, which means you will be repeating the missions quite a bit, however, the game is unbelievably fair, even on the time. The missions are ranked on a scale of difficulty from one to about ten. If you continue to get "S" rankings, though, you will be strong enough to weather the storm. The rewards are going to make the difference, big time. I have been playing at easy, and by the time I got to 5 rated difficult missions, I found them easier than some two's. Sometime into the game you will get to play as Feanay, a female, but by then you will be leveled up so high you won't want to, but some levels are for her only. The game does a remarkable job of forcing you to use everything in it.

VALUE: 10/10 Even if you buy this game new for $50, my score is valid. I've been playing for 27 hours and am only 46% done. The last two hours were wasted trying to get an "S" ranking on the one level out of about 26 I've finished, that I can't. On some levels there is a 5th grade, and you won't know what that is until you finish it, but it is always fun trying. Even if you consider yourself to be the greatest game player of this type of game, getting 100% will take you, at the absolute least, some 30 hours or more. Most people can expect to be playing for 50 hours and up.

FINAL COMMENTS: If you are even the slightest bit into games of this kind, you need to get this now. This is clearly one of the best games of the year and always fun to play. At least give it a try and rent it, but if you do, you will be wasting money because you will buy it, in the end.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/04