Crimsonland Review

Dec 5, 2017

Chrimsonland
Rated T
Developed by: 10tons Ltd

Crimsonland is a twin stick shooter with a top down perspective. The games core campaign missions, which are just 60 levels with different types of waves of enemies will have you gripping your controller as you attempt to survive the hundreds of enemies that will come your way. You will kill things such as zombies, mutant lizards, and spiders. The spiders are definitely the worst things in this game due to the challenge that can present. As you progress through the game you will begin to unlock a variety of up to 30 weapons and 55 different types of perks that will help you through each level. Your HUD is very minimalistic.

You have your score count, level progression bar, and experience progression bar. As you level up, a wave blast will go off knocking enemies away from you and you then get to select a new perk that are randomly chosen for you to pick form. Things like gaining experience fast to reloading your weapon fast. Items will also drop that will help freeze the enemies or a nuke that will create a huge blast killing anything near it. The screen can get crazy as at times you’ll be shooting hundreds of bullets against hundreds of enemies as blasts from perks and drops go off.

The game runs incredibly smooth, as I never experience a single dropped frame even when the screen was filled with tons of enemies. Playing the game docked or in handheld mode felt and looked great. The game isn’t exactly using a demanding style of graphics, but it gets the job done and you never feel lost at what you’re looking at when things get crazy. It also features 4-player local co-op and your friends can jump in anytime. No online co-op mode unfortunately. You will be required a full controller as two thumb sticks are needed so a single joy-con will not work. You also unlock 5 different types of survival modes as you progress through the campaign missions. The variety is a nice break and change-up and more importantly, they are challenging. High scores will go up online so you can always try to out do others or your friends. Co-op is available in the survival modes too. With modes like a classic survival mode where you are able to use all weapons and perks that you’ve unlocked or a mode where you can only attack with dropped items.

Crimsonland aims to be what a shoot ‘em up style game needs to be, fast and fun. The large variety of weapons from assault rifle to a rocket mini gun (yes, that’s a thing and it feels great) give you get a sense of joy when you feel powerful and things can quickly turn as you fight to survive. If you are fan of twin stick shooters or in need of something that’s quick to pick up and play for even 5 minutes. Don’t look past Crimsonland as it’s hard to not say “just one more time” after you die and try to beat a level. Crimsonland is available now on the Nintendo eShop for $12.