Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra
 
Crimsonlands by Wacky Willy 04/27/2005, 5:16pm PDT
Bill Dungsroman wrote:

...I wasn't in the market for an action RPG


Monocles fly as I flagrantly ignore BDR's original question! Egads!

The best game to ever mix the action and RPG genres is Crimsonlands. When the original freeware version came out it incited a huge thread of praise, score bragging, and philosophical analysis at OMM. The man game mode, "survival," is Robotron 2084 with you facing an endless onslaught of tougher, faster, and more numerous monsters. Controls are move with the keyboard and aim/shoot with the mouse.

The hook is that your score is measured in experience points and when you level up you can pause the game and pick from five randomly chosen "perks" ala. GURPS/Fallout. No stats or die rolls or other abstract nonsense. These perks range from the utilitarian "load your gun faster" to the strangely useful "emit deadly radiation" to the grim "die now and increase your score by 20%" So in addition to the nonstop blasting and the body counts in the quadruple digits, there's a real mindfuck strategy game of how to build your character up balancing survivability and experience accumulation to face your inevitable death with the highest score.

Sadly, once you got the hang of it you realized the weapons were horribly unbalanced and there was only one "right" way to get a high score. You can still snag the freeware version here.

Since then the author expanded it and balanced it and made it into a $20 shareware game. Is it better? Yes and no. The good is there are zillions of interesting and creative new weapons (gauss shotgun, anyone?) fixed balance issues (sawed-off shotgun is not longer teh ultimate, mean minigun is now practical, flamethrower and blowtorch still suck, though) and threw in a fuckload of new perks, including perks that heal you! There are now many different strategies that will net you a high score, and hours and hours of replay!

The bad is that the designer fell into trap of including what may become the "unnecessary FPS jump puzzle" of the 21st century: Mandatory Unlockables! The vast majority of the weapons and perks start out locked and you MUST play through 50 "quest missions" (you verses a fixed number of enemies) to finally be able to play survival mode as it was meant to be played. Now to be fair these quests can be pretty fun sometimes on their own, but this is supposed to be a 15-minute-violence-fix-arcade-game and I just paid frikkin' MONEY for it. Gimme all the fun stuff now!

Whichever version you get, I guarantee fun. If you have a couple hours to unlock everything, the shareware version is superior. Score bragging in the death threats forum!
PREVIOUS NEXT REPLY QUOTE
 
Qt3 to BDR: We're gay. by Mr. Kool 04/25/2005, 8:42pm PDT NEW
    Heh. by Bill Dungsroman 04/25/2005, 11:34pm PDT NEW
        Fallout NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 04/26/2005, 3:49am PDT NEW
            Fallout 3? 2006/2007 optimistically. NT by Bill Dungsroman 04/27/2005, 8:10am PDT NEW
                Well, it was worth the wait. I hope you are loving it. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/03/2008, 2:23am PST NEW
                    someone listed abandonware and he makes the jump to fallout 3 NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 11/03/2008, 12:49pm PST NEW
        Jade Empire. NT by bink 04/26/2005, 11:54am PDT NEW
        Re: Heh. by Arbit 04/26/2005, 12:34pm PDT NEW
            Re: Heh. by Mysterio 04/26/2005, 4:44pm PDT NEW
        Fallout? How about Wasteland? by Drummer from Whitesnake 04/27/2005, 11:25am PDT NEW
        Ultima 6 by Ray of Light 04/27/2005, 12:32pm PDT NEW
            Re: Ultima 6 by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/27/2005, 11:42pm PDT NEW
                Re: Ultima 6 by Fussbett 04/28/2005, 1:49am PDT NEW
                    Wasn't that all of them? NT by Mischief Maker 04/29/2005, 9:56am PDT NEW
                    Re: Ultima 6 by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/29/2005, 12:04pm PDT NEW
                Re: Ultima 6 by binkbot 04/29/2005, 1:33pm PDT NEW
                    ffs NT by Ray of Light 04/29/2005, 1:33pm PDT NEW
                        Ray of light Atored himself NT by binkbot 04/29/2005, 9:25pm PDT NEW
        Quest for Glory NT by FABIO 04/27/2005, 1:34pm PDT NEW
        Anito: A Land Enraged! It's from the Philippines! by Worm 04/27/2005, 3:49pm PDT NEW
            Fuck you forever. by Kab(uke) Seme 04/29/2005, 9:22pm PDT NEW
                Has anyone mailed them a dead bird yet? by Worm 04/30/2005, 1:30am PDT NEW
                Ha ha, I was going to mention how much you "liked" it. by Bill Dungsroman 04/30/2005, 10:55am PDT NEW
        Crimsonlands by Wacky Willy 04/27/2005, 5:16pm PDT NEW
            Tell us more about this "Crimsonlands" NT by OMM fanboy 04/27/2005, 6:54pm PDT NEW
                Description: "It's not an RPG" by foolio 04/27/2005, 11:19pm PDT NEW
                    OMM Fanboy is saying it's old news by Fussbett 04/27/2005, 11:37pm PDT NEW
                        Why did he delete it? by Kthor 04/28/2005, 9:48am PDT NEW
                            No. by Bill Dungsroman 04/28/2005, 6:38pm PDT NEW
                            Re: Why did he delete it? by Quentin Beck 10/30/2006, 7:16am PST NEW
        Re: Heh. by curst 04/29/2005, 11:14am PDT NEW
        RPGs by jeep 04/29/2005, 10:51pm PDT NEW
    Review Request: Wizardry 8 by Mischief Maker 04/29/2005, 9:55am PDT NEW
        Re: Review Request: Wizardry 8 by curst 04/29/2005, 11:08am PDT NEW
            Re: Review Request: Wizardry 8 by Worm 04/29/2005, 1:09pm PDT NEW
                Re: Review Request: Wizardry 8 by Mischief Maker 05/02/2005, 12:59pm PDT NEW
                    phuck Phantasy Star 2, play Lufia 2 instead by FABIO 05/02/2005, 2:43pm PDT NEW
                    I had an entire post, I guess I lost it somewhere. by Worm 05/02/2005, 11:16pm PDT NEW
    Is there some website I could go on to read people complain about RE4? by Jerry Whorebach 11/03/2008, 8:29am PST NEW
        no one ever complains about resident evil 4 NT by Weyoun Voidbringer 11/03/2008, 12:25pm PST NEW
            Some people might, about it being "too western." NT by Creexuls, a monster >:3 11/03/2008, 2:18pm PST NEW
            He's talking about Qt3's Robert Sharp by Fussbett 11/03/2008, 3:36pm PST NEW
                Story: sucks. Leon never fills Ashley's dark soul with light. NT by arms-crossed FABIO 11/03/2008, 4:05pm PST NEW
                Re: He's talking about Qt3's Robert Sharp by Creexuls, a monster >:3 11/03/2008, 4:05pm PST NEW
 
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