Crimson Alliance was one of the games that we got a chance to preview at E3 2011 and it has been release for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Crimson Alliance was developed by Certain Affinity, the same folks who brought you the Halo: Reach Defiant Map Pack and the original Left 4 Dead. Certain Affinity is also pitching in on the new Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary. With such a strong track record with high profile first person shooters, how would they do with a top down dungeon crawler/beat’em up like Crimson Alliance?
Crimson Alliance follows the classic hero story with three main characters who are returning to the war torn lands of Byzan. The capital has been over taken by an evil force and it is your job to return order to this world of chaos. Nothing ground breaking here as I think we have all played through this story a time or two before. The three character types are stereotypical also with a warrior, mage, and assassin to choose from. The warrior smashes things, the wizard shoots fire balls, and the assassin has a quick attack. The problem here is that even though the three characters have different types of attacks, they all end up playing the same. Each one has a heavy and light attack, a stun move, and a dash move. The warrior is the only one that stands alone because he doesn’t have a projectile attack.
The game starts off feeling like a standard action RPG. You kill some enemies, collect some experience points and gold, find some items, and clear out the level. Each of the attack/defense controls has a level bar that you can fill up by getting new items only. It’s disappointing to find out all the experience points you racked up are not for leveling your character but just for getting a higher ranking on the leader boards. The other way that you earn points for moving up the leader boards is by finding not so secret areas that often consist of going the other direction on the rat trap. Which is exactly what this game feels like you are playing through by the time you get to the end. Sure there are some different path ways that you can take to move around but at the end of the day you are just looking for that damn piece of cheese.
The good stuff for Crimson Alliance is the online multiplayer and the visuals. For being a $10-$15 arcade title (depending on if you want to buy one character for $10 or all three for $15) I was pretty impressed with the visuals and art direction. There is a ton of detail in each level with tons of things going on outside of the actual game play. It’s just too bad you can’t get down into some of the other areas to participate or explore some more. The four player multiplayer is the most rewarding part of the game because you and three other players can run your way through level after level and just destroy enemies in the game. The multiplayer fell short though as there are only three character classes and it allows for four players to be in the game at a time. Maybe a white mage will be release later on to get the fourth character and complete the party.
To sum this up, if you need something to kill time while waiting for Diablo III, Crimson Alliance won’t cure the itch but it might tide you over for a couple of weeks. Gauntlet fans may want to check this one out also. At the end of the day, the three main characters are too similar to each other and the game itself is missing too many little things for me to make a mass recommendation for everyone. If you are looking for some mindless hack and slash game play to keep you busy while waiting for one of the major holiday releases, then Crimson Alliance is waiting for you on Xbox Arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points. I’ll be waiting for Certain Affinity’s contribution to the Halo Anniversary game.