3RRDC DeathCrimson

Now, I know that when you have an arcade game you're not going to
get an epic storyline; you're just going to get some fast action for a
few tokens. And with the Dreamcast we got to see a lot of the arcade
coming home, in perfect shape. This was both a blessing and a curse
to these games. While it's great to see arcade games jumping to the
DC they often lack replay value, but they do have (hopefully) excellent
and fun gameplay. Such is the fate of the light gun games, and there
were four of them released on the domestic Dreamcast. Here we
examine the odd ball Death Crimson OX. Alright then, hold your
crimson!

The story to Crimson is one of the most confusing and nonsensical
things seen on the Dreamcast. I don't know if there are any
connections between this and past Crimson games, as seen on the
import Saturn, but here goes. The year is 2010 and a city is invaded,
events leading to this evil army being formed and a resistance formed
to counter the evil doers. Well Lilly, the leader of the resistance is
taken by the evil army, and so yuri and friend Kou go out to try and
save her, and take down the "subliminers". Kou brings with her the
legendary crimson guns, guns so powerful that they hurt-a lot. All in all,
the story is stupid. Sure it tries to twist and turn along the way, but in
the end you won't give a damn about any of the characters as they are
all so forgettable.

Being a light gun game, you can use the light gun to play, but if you're
like me and you still don't own one then you shoot down the undead
with the A button. Controls are easy: shoot and reload. If it's a bad guy,
shoot; if it's a human, don't shoot. Also, like House of the Dead 2, there
are things in the background you can shoot for bonus points. There are
also special "death flash" items where you can destroy all of the
onscreen enemies without harming civilians.

There are a few modes to talk about. First, is Story mode. This is the
standard arcade game, all six levels (it can be defeated in a half hour).
There are cutscenes sprinkled about, but there are no branching
pathways as seen in House of the Dead 2. Next is Mission mode: no
cutscenes; you just play for points. You can choose which level you
wanna play though, so if you have a level that you're just dying to play
again, this is your mode. Oh wait, you don't have a level you really
wanna play again? Oh. What about Bullet mode: pass the levels using
as few bullets as possible. I tried this and it was hella hard. And that's
it for modes. So as you can see, there is not much here in the way of
content, just pure arcade fun. Well it would be if it wasn't full of
problems.

Experience points somehow found a way into the game, but you don't
really level up. The more you kill, and depending on where you shoot
the enemies, will give you varying amounts of experience. Once you
experience bar is full, you then get an extra life. It's just one of the
many weird quirks of the game. Speaking of weird, let's talk about how
random this game is. First, the enemy selection is odd. Not content
with having just zombies Crimson has you shoot weird robot, axe-men.
Sometimes there are skeletons. Skeletons that know karate and sound
like broken glass when shot. I think there were about a handful of
zombies in the game, but they were lame. The bosses are neat. The
first boss has a giant sword. Haven't I seen that in some other game….

The game isn't very hard and the boss fights don't take too long. I liked
all the stuff in the background you could shoot, but ultimately, it was
all very shallow. The sad thing is, this game is gonna get compared and
destroyed by House of the Dead 2 by almost everyone. And while
House of the Dead 2 is a way better game, this is still interesting and
nice to own for light gun fans. So if it sounds like I'm bashing the game
just realize everything that has been done here has been done better
by another game on the system (a game that was a launch title).

Graphics are either poor, or just a plain rip-off. Some of the street
locations look like they were ripped from the House of the Dead, and
when they aren't ripping off that game (like when you go to Arabia
later in the game to kill Zombie Saudis) the graphics just look boring-
not bad mind you, just plain. Sure there are some cool lighting effects
here and there, and enemies, while nowhere near as detailed as the
HotD2 zombies, look decent. Human characters are all fairly dumb
looking (sorry Sammy). Also, this game is only rated "T" so there is no
blood spray, which is a shame since shooting zombie chunks is sweet.
Man, I wanna go play some HotD2....

There is hardly any voice acting, just some catch phrases here and
there (how cheap!). The dialogue has been left in Japanese though, so
if you like authenticity then I guess that's a plus. The sound of bullets
can be heard but breaking glass kung fu skeletons…I mean, come on.
And so, the audio section isn't a let down. If I remember correctly, the
soundtrack is probably some boring techno-ish sludge that you get
served in so many games. Might have been a hot beat somewhere in
there, but nothing memorable.

Replay? If you have a light gun you're gonna want to play this game
again, but for those of us who don't, we'll stick to the better light-gun
games. I honestly have no idea why anyone would prefer this over
HotD2, or even Virtua Cop 2. Hell, Cirtua Cop 2 kick's Crimson right in
its weak zombie balls. Also the ending is stupid. It tries to teach a
lesson about guns, but it just sounds stupid in the process. Worth a
laugh at least.

Wow, Crimson, didn't get too much love with me. I mean it's an
interesting game, it tries to be different, and yet it just smells like rip
off. Is that another reason why arcades died, too much of the same?
You be the judge. But when it comes to Crimson, yeah I play it once
and a while, but only when I've tired of the other light-gun games. It's
fun for a few minutes, but then after that even this hardcore gamer
moves on. Hold your Crimson to that, you filthy animal. The funny thing
is, the fact that this was released by Sammy, the company that owns a
lot of Sega now, which is fairly well documented online. The change
pissed off many Sega fans, and put fear into the hearts of other's of
what would become of Sega. If this was any sign of that, then I'm sorry.

Review by: Orochi Sonic