Crimsonland

 
Developer: 10tons Ltd
Steam Release: Jun 2014
Hours Played: 8.6
Similar To: Circuit Breakers / Iron Fisticle / Nation Red / Tesla Vs Lovecraft
Rating: 5/5 Stars

GAMEPLAY

Crimsonland is a chunky, arena-style, top-down/twin-stick shooter from the Robotron school of gameplay. You control a humanoid who roams around on a rectangular plot of land covering slightly less than a full screen while enemies spawn relentlessly in an attempt to overwhelm and swamp you with sheer numbers. Tactics take the form of killing enemies as quick as possible to keep numbers down and to make clearances manageable. It is an extremely satisfying experience as you hear your bullets smack and tear apart your enemies that include your usual suspects from zombies, lizards, spiders and insects of various kinds. Levels are short and sweet, usually lasting around two minutes. To aid you, a great variety of weapons drop from killed foes to be picked up.    

BALANCE & PACE

You'll never tire of the sizzle and crackle of missiles such as bullets, lasers, plasma and lightning attacks that rip into the hordes of enemies. Furthermore, each weapon has unlimited ammo so although reloading requires a slight pause, it is done automatically as you keep your hand on the trigger. Power-ups also enhance the experience to make it even more explosive. These range from those that increase the speed and power of weapons; nukes that detonate in a large radius destroying all around them; swirling fireballs that angrily obliterate all who stand in their way and the freeze blocks that encase all enemies in ice so you can rip into them for a few glorious seconds. In short, the game is a satisfyingly squelchy bloodbath and one almighty romp.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

Menu-wise, Crimsonland has a strictly no-frills policy when it comes to presentation. You'll hit Play and be taken to plain panels more associated with mobile gaming than with the PC. The quest chapters, level names and difficulty settings are simply named in a plain white font and you get a single gold star as a reward if you complete a level unscathed. Not surprisingly, this makes navigation simple but not particularly exciting. Graphics are also fairly simple with the flat battleground being made up of greys, greens and browns. The sound-effects is really the feature that steals the show here and this comes alive in the game as you pick up the assortment of weapons and let the missiles fly. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM

You can play Crimsonland by completing a story mode called Quests or trying the Survival mode by essentially aiming to complete one of six endless levels and going for the best score. Quests will take you to a level-select screen featuring 6 chapters with 10 levels in each. You plow through the levels unlocking them as you go and likewise unlocking the three difficulty settings. Complete a level with max health and you'll be rewarded with a gold star. Here, during levels, you also unlock one of three perks to equip at regular intervals. Survival mode (like Waves) gives you that choice of six interesting ways to play - plus an efficient online leaderboard for each one showing your best score and your world rank for each. Oh, you can even unlock a typing-mode level later on!

   

CONCLUSION

Crimsonland easily sits in the Top 5 when it comes to top-down shooters and this is mainly down to the huge number of ways it allows you to bring down foes, the absorbing sounds that accompanies this, the simple gameplay involved and the all-round satisfaction this brings as you rip apart the evil hordes and baying crowds that surround you. What's more, like the arena shooter Waves, the six survival modes really help to give the game scope and add that extra replay value that a lot of games of this nature fail to deliver. Its stable and reliable leaderboards - some adding an extra touch by showing your favourite weapon used - is another plus that helps the game reach the forefront of this genre. It's comparatively expensive but one you'll not regret being included in your library.