Crimson Alliance Review

Posted By Shaun K. about 8 months ago

Crimson Alliance Review

Originally founded by a number of ex-Bungie employs, Certain Affinity has mostly stuck to producing works such as map packs for other games and have to date only released one original title, 2008′s multi-platform downloadable RTS Age of Booty. Now the company makes their return to Microsoft exclusivity with the release of the XBLA-only Crimson Affinity, an action-RPG set in and around the ruins of city turned necropolis Byzan. In a year that has already seen Bastion and still has the fan favorite follow up Torchlight II to come, can Crimson Alliance stand out from the crowd or is doomed to be lost and buried in the crypt of obscurity?

The city of Byzan was once the head of a great empire, one whose reach extended far across the world. Until the coming of Asturi the Soul Siren, once princess of Byzan then sorceress finally mad goddess, who brought ruin and despair upon the land. Though eventually defeated by the wizard (and her one time mentor then slave) Zampara, the Soul Siren could not truly die, forcing the wizard turned ruler to intern different parts of her body within a massive Necropolis built beneath Byzan itself for just this purpose. For a time Zampara led Byzan back to greatness, yet still the cult of the Soul Siren remained, growing ever more in power and influence. Eventually Zampara, suffering from a growing wasting disease, left the city to die in piece and in that moment the cult struck, taking control of Byzan once more and in time leaving it, and all the surrounding land, a decaying and ruinous place. So it was that hundreds of years passed, until one day three very different and unlikely souls (one an assassin, one a wizard, and one a solider) would find themselves forced to journey the road to, and through, Byzan together. United by fate, yet disparate in almost every other way, it would fall to this unlikely threesome to battle the hordes of the cult in a desperate bid to stop them from freeing the Soul Siren from her grave…

If nothing else, the story of Crimson Alliance gives the game a memorable and fun personality. While the game does employ many familiar fantasy tropes for its story, it uses said tropes in a way that help them feel at least somewhat fresh. It also helps that the game takes more than the usual token effort at telling a story that many other action-RPGS do. For as much as I love the original Torchlight, for example, the game was always more buoyed by its gameplay than its rather bland and slight story. Leading the way are the three characters who serve as the game’s leads, with each having their own definite and individual voices. This in turn also makes them a nice change of pace from the standard silent ciphers who still so often serve as protagonists in RPGs, action based or otherwise. To be fair, once the game proper actually begins, story definitely takes a back seat to the action, but the narrative never completely drops away and by the time the credits roles, players will likely find themselves surprisingly attached to CA’s leads. I also like the fact that two of game’s three playable characters are non-white, something still an all uncommon occurrence in games, particularly those of a fantasy bent. Certainly things are left very open for more adventures with this threesome down the line, an occurrence I for one would not be opposed to happening in the slightest.

And so, it begins…

On a more negative note, the game employs a sketchy style of artwork for its stills based cutscenes, relying more on voice work than anything else to get across what is happening in any given cutscene. While this mostly gets the job done, I cannot deny that actual animations might have been more effective in the long run for telling such an action packed tale. Nor does it help that a handful of stills can be completely incomprehensible when it comes to deciphering what exactly they are meant to be depicting. Still, this is a fairly minor complaint, and while nothing groundbreaking as far as storytelling goes, Crimson Alliance’s narrative is more than effective for the game needs in this regards.

Angry Joe Plays: Crimson Alliance is RIDONKULOUS!

By AngryJoe