Crimson Alliance Reviews

Certain Affinity’s XBLA-exclusive hack’n’slash Crimson Alliance keeps garnering positive but not enthusiastic reviews, and we rounded up another batch of them for your reading pleasure.

NAG Online, 70/100.

Where Crimson Alliance makes its most significant departure from regular action RPGs, however, is its levelling system. Or, more specifically, its lack of any real levelling system. The only way to improve your stats is to acquire better gear, which can be bought from merchants or sometimes found in chests. None of the items feel at that special, though, and it’s kind of odd that you can’t sell off your unwanted weapons and armour, especially considering that all the best gear is outrageously expensive. Of course, you can buy extra gold from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, but that seems so vulgar. And by (vulgar), I mean (you’ve got to be shitting me, I’m not paying real cash for fake cash).

It’s not deep, it’s not innovative, and it’s not particularly clever, but Crimson Alliance is actually quite a bit of fun to play if you don’t expect too much from it. If nothing else, it’s filling the space between now and Diablo III.

Original-Gamer, 7.5/10.

Crimson Alliance has a strong focus on co-op play, and it shows, particularly in the fact that a number of puzzles in the game can’t be solved by any less than two people, and that high-scores can’t be attained without assistance. It works well as a single-player experience, but co-op is something to bear in mind if you want to fully experience what the game has to offer. Saying that, even playing by yourself, Crimson Alliance contains a ton of content, encourages replays, and is generally a fun romp through a fantastical city, destroying enemies and scenery as you go. With perhaps a little more innovation, in terms of both design and narrative, this game could be one of the best on Xbox Live, but instead, it will have to remain a solid and enjoyable, yet unremarkable experience.

Pixel Perfect, 6.8/10.

So there it is. If the world’s least complicated dungeon crawl sounds appealing to you, by all means, get Crimson Alliance. At the very least, it’s a good time waster for a lazy weekend afternoon.

The Gaming Zoo, 3/5.

Crimson Alliance may be one of those games many people do not play as it is a smaller game on the xbox live arcade. With Torchlight also being on xbox live arcade, there is not a lack of quality (hack n’ slash) games, but Crimson Alliance is ,while similar to, is different than Torchlight. The story mode takes only a handful of hours, but awards players for going back and looking for all secret areas and collectables. If you have played Torchlight or Diablo and are looking for a similar game with co-op Crimson Alliance is a good pick up for the price.