Crimsonland (v1.9.3 retail update)
Platform: PC downloadable from http://crimsonland.reflexive.com/crimsonland/
Developer: 10tons.org
Publisher: Reflexive Entertainment
MSRP:: 20 USD
ESRB: Mature
Date of Release: Continuing, but June 2003 for this version
As of April 2003, Crimsonland is a leading title in
Reflexive Entertainment's lineup, retailing for 20
USD. With corporate sponsorship comes a slew of changes, I would say for the better. The menus are streamlined and slick, you can purchase the game right from the
demo (as long as you're connected to the
intarweb and have some
plastic, and there's a host of gameplay changes. This is version
1.9.3.
Career mode became
Survival Mode - this is the
mode where you start off with a few, slow monsters and a pistol, and the game
gradually ramps up from there. New monsters have been introduced with their own
behaviors, and they come at you in something resembling
waves, based on their
own behavior pattern. My survival scores are counted in minutes. Following the
format of the write-up above:
- Aliens - these appear to have a host of arms and legs and protrusions, and steadily shamble in your direction. Their progress may be described as inexorable, and they are generally a pasty white. There's a variant of aliens which come in swarms, fast-moving but small, more vulnerable and usually a different color.
- Zombies - groaning undead of varying size, their progress is the slowest and may be described as lurching. They come in all colors but predominantly a pasty white and are fairly tough. A zombie boss (very large zombie) takes probably the most hits before going down.
- Lizards - quick small enemies with some degree of randomness in their movement. Will pause, change direction, maneuver around you to cut you off (player movement prediction). Not very durable, and usually do not come in larger sizes at all - but sometimes swarm. Their movement is skittering.
- Spiders - ranging from medium to huge, these insects make good targets as their eight legs make their hitbox larger than just about any other monster's. They move in a jerky manner; while their movement is fast, they sometimes pause completely.
Survival is now called Rush, and remains
largely the same as before retail. My good survival time is a little under a
minute.
A new mode called Quests has been added. There are 4 sets
of 10 quests each, and they are winnable scenarios the completion of which unlocks
a new perk, bonus, or weapon. These are mostly assorted rushes, but a
few stand out in that you have to think about them to survive. Notables include
a level in which you receive a Gauss Rifle to start with and have to stand
in place while monsters spawn radially around you - lined up for an instakill
shot. Speed and mousing precision is of the essence. Another notable level includes
an Invaders like setup with a swarm under the control of a herder, moving
slowly towards you - if you kill the herder the swarm is cut loose, overwhelming
you in seconds. Thus, precision and fast walking is required so that the herder
is clear of your line of fire at all times - he moves faster and faster the
longer he lives, too, drawing the swarm after him. Obviously, more perks, more
bonuses and more weapons have been added to this version. The Assault Rifle
replaced the Auto-Rifle. The Submachine gun replaced the High RPM Rifle, although
it is less accurate, not more, than the AR. Again, following
the above writeup but withholding the opinions on weapon efficacy (as I don't
agree with some of the above - except the flamethrower: it is truly dismal):
Weapons
- Rocket minigun - Fires a string of dumb missiles, explosion not as big as the launcher.
- Jackhammer - Uber rapid fire shotgun, with decent spread (somewhere between sawed off and regular shotguns) but less force. Takes a noticeable while to reload.
- Pulse Rifle - With an ululating shriek, fires off waves of green force. Firerate that of a submachine gun, force is weaker but has 3 interesting properties. First, the waves get larger the farther they go. Second, the waves push monsters back a little. Third, there is no reload time. Zero, zip.
- Ion Rifle - Fires slow bolts of electricity; upon hitting a monster, they split and hit nearby monsters, although with weaker force. Note: this is not the Splitter Gun, although a similar effect.
- Ion Minigun - Fires many fast bolts of electricity, but their split/spread is very weak.
- Ion Cannon - Fewer bolts, more oomph per bolt.
Bonuses
These are all either one-time, or limited duration.
- Score-related - You can now snag an instant 500 point bonus, 1000 point bonus, or a 2x experience bonus which lasts for a limited time.
- Fireburst - From the location of the pickup, a spread of fire bullets goes out, radially.
- Speed up - You can run faster.
- Weapon power-up - Your weapon fires faster. Note: awesome to combo with fire bullets!
- Health - Gives you a small boost to your health bar.
- Shock Chain - Gmits a bolt of electricity which bounces off monsters, usually killing them. Can travel around the screen numerous times, looking for monsters.
- Energizer - Monsters will run away from you for a while. Very rare.
Perks
Some of these have been changed from above, so forgive the replication. Perks in
Perk / Perk format mean that the first is a prerequisite to the second, and the second is a stronger version of the first. Most perks are permanent changes to your character, but a few can be picked over and over again for a one-time effect.
- Berserk Attack - Removed.
- Almost Invisible Man - Removed.
- Spontaneously Combusteous - Name changed to Pyromaniac.
- Grim Deal - You now get 18% experience more instead.
- Fatal Lottery - 50/50 chance of dying or getting 10k points.
- Perk Expert / Perk Master - Adds one perk to your choices. The second level adds another.
- Bloody Mess / Quick Learner - The bloodier the screen, the higher the experience.
- Random Weapon - Here's a weapon. no questions asked. Multipickable.
- Alternate Weapon - You can carry a second weapon, at a small cost of speed. Use the reload button to switch weapons.
- Pyromaniac - Your fire-based weapons become stronger.
- Uranium Filled Bullets - Your shots do more damage. I'm not sure if this applies to everything, but I assume everything with 'bullets', i.e. not flamethrower or blowtorch. Not sure about pulse gun, as it's hard to judge this quantitively.
- Poison Bullets - Bullets deal more damage.
- Barrel Greaser - Your shots travel visibly faster, thus doing more damage. As above, not sure which all weapons this applies to.
- Regression Bullets - Firing on empty costs you experience, but reload time is reduced greatly.
- Ammunition Within - There is no pause while you reload - instead, ammo is taken away from your health if you fire on empty.
- Telekinetic - Pick up powerups just by aiming at them for a short while.
- Bonus Economist - Your timed bonuses last 50% longer.
- Bonus Magnet - Bonuses appear closer to you, and more often.
- Regeneration / More Regeneration - Self Explanatory.
- Mr. Melee - Monsters that get near you will die by your hands.
- Veins of Poison / Toxic Avenger - Monsters biting you, die.
- Reflex boosted - The action slows down for you by 10%.
- Thick skinned - Take 2/3 of the damage from monsters, but it costs you 1/3 of your life right now.
- Unstoppable - Monsters biting you doesn't slow you down (usually does).
- Dodge / Ninja - You have a chance to avoid hits from monsters.
- Highlander - You are immortal. Well, almost. Actually monsters have a 10% chance of killing you instantly - rest of the time they do no damage.
- Hot Tempered - You occasionally emit a sparse radial blast.
- Monster Vision - Monsters emit a faint glow for you. Useful on a screen crowded with corpses.
- Breathing Room - Trade 2/3 of your health for the death of every single critter on-screen. You do not get the experience. Multipickable.
Secrets
Only a few of these are unconfirmed personally, but confirmed numerous times by forumers and Official Unofficial faqs. These are all from the Survival mode unless indicated otherwise.
- Blade-gun - Kill a monster with one shot. Go stand in its death-spot and do not fire until your health is at about 1/4. Then kill each monster that has taken a bite out of you, still without moving. Unconfirmed
- Shrinkifier 5000 - Survive for 1 minute without taking damage or shooting anything.
- Splitter - Gained when you complete all levels in hardcore mode. Unconfirmed
- Alien Zoo Keeper game - View the credits. Click each line that contains at least one "o". When the message "you can stop watching now" passes, keep waiting (don't forget to click it). There will be one more line to click, and you should have a new button in the menu.
- Typ'o'shooter - Defeat all quests, unlock a game where monsters come to you with words over their heads. Type the word to shoot in the direction of the monster with an instakill shotgun.
Community
While the community isn't very big, or strong, the built-in score uploader/list gives you instant access to the rest of the Crimsonland playing world. It's very well done, with stats such as player's name, survival time, final experience, and weapon used. It can be a nice teaser to a new player to see weapons and scores to boggle the mind. The fact that the community is not that big only means you'll see some names repeatedly, and have a chance to become known easily.
Sources:
Playing experience
Crimsonland forums
The badly formatted and slightly dated, but still informative Bloody Footsteps Fansite: http://gibbersoft.illicitdev.net/blood