Crimsonland Review

Crimsonland is the latest indie top down shooter to hit the PlayStation 4 in a week’s time, It has already released and had an array of success on Steam. It is a top down shooter with style, giving you the ultimate feeling of claustrophobia at times with its unrelenting spawn system.

Crimsonland does have main game missions and these see you battling it out against different types of enemies until you have cleared them off of the map, this is pretty much it for the main game, although doing each mission unlocks perks and extra weapons for you to use in the most entertaining part of the game.

First off the visuals are by all means ok for a top down shooter, but beyond that they really aren’t anything special or that we haven’t seen before. Admittedly the sprites used are unique and the game’s effects look good, but overall it’s just o.k.

Where the game shines most for me is its spectacular survival mode. In this mode, you can play on your own or together on the same screen with 4 friends (sadly no online co-op though folks) and work to survive the infinite waves of increasingly difficult enemies! Upon killing enemies you will rack up points and the overall ending score when you die will be posted on the online Leaderboards. To me, this seemed to be the best aspect of the game as it utilizes all of the perks, power ups and guns unlocked in the main missions and throws them at you randomly as you play through survival. You could be mowing through a ton of spiders with a flamethrower only to pick up an assault rifle which may cause problems, but then a nuclear symbol pops up and you step on it causing an explosion that saves you from impending doom.

These moments were extremely intense and certainly satisfying, if that wasn’t enough after you had gained so many points the game would throw a choice of perks at you, some would offer you better damage whereas others would trade 99 percent of your health for a massive Xp bonus. These perks only added to the mayhem and weighing up your options for a few minutes is a must.

Crimsonland also makes use of the PlayStation 4s touch pad which is cool as it allows for more precise aiming but to me it still felt more natural to use the analog sticks.

The game doesn’t come without flaws,the missions dubbed as quests don’t offer any story whatsoever and the quest in hand is the same everytime. Destroy everything you see. Sure, it is fun seeing all the blood spatter everywhere on screen, but no story or objectives make the quest mode seem like a way of fleshing the game out in order to price it slightly higher.

Crimsonland is a solid experience, but by no means is it a perfect one. The quests will seem dull and boring, but once you take those unlocked perks and weapons into survival mode whether by yourself or with friends it becomes complete carnage and extremely fun!