“Baton down the hatches! Swab the poop deck! Arm the cannons! Feed Polly his crackers! Argh!”
Like pirates? You’ll love Crimson: Steam Pirates.
Crimson: Steam Pirates is the first game from Bungie’s Aerospace project – An indie developer spotlight program – as well as new iOS indie company “Harebrained Schemes.” While Crimson was originally was released for Apple’s iPad (and iPad 2,) can this tablet game condense itself down enough to be just as awesome on the iPhone and iPod Touch? Let’s find out.
As you start up Crimson for the first time, you’ll hear some extremely stereotypical pirate music begin to play, (remember, stereotypes aren’t always bad!) and you’ll be greeted with a very steampunk main menu where you can select one of three story book chapters. You’ll go through the relatively simple tutorial, read some backstory, and get acquainted with the controls before getting thrown headfirst into the game. (Or should we say walking the plank?)
From what I found, Crimson’s controls are very easy to use…at first. (More on this later.) You simply tap which ship you’d like to move, and then drag its navigation guide around the top down map. The ship’s will automagically fire upon any enemies you may encounter as they come into cannon range. Now this sounds like a fairly easy experience, doesn’t it? Let’s go back to what I said earlier.
At first, Steam Pirate’s controls are relatively easy. Although once you get 3+ tasks at once while controlling 5+ ships, things get complicated. While this may be relatively easy on the iPad’s 10 inch screen, but on the iPhones 3.5 inch screen things get cluttered very fast. I found myself constantly having ships destroyed because I simply couldn’t find them. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the game’s “We lost one ship – that means WE LOST EVERYTHING!” mentality. You never quite know which objectives to do with which ship. “Raid this fort with this ship but collect this gold with this oh and board this ship with this ship yada yada yada.” It’s confusing beyond comparison and left me asking myself what the hell am I supposed to do?!
Presentation:
While the gameplay may not be perfect, I’d venture to say the graphics may just be. Steam Pirate’s graphics look beautiful on the iPhone 3.5 retina display screen, the maps are filled with colorful displays and parchments, real steampunk pirates, all with that warm charm we’ve come to love from Bungie. (Did I mention there’s a good amount of sarcasm in the game as well?)
Final Thoughts:
Is Crimson: Steam Pirates worth the $.99 price tag? With 16 levels, (24 if you purchase the third chapter for an extra $.99,) beautiful retina display graphics, and the feelsgoodman of supporting an upcoming indie developer, you can’t steer wrong when looking for some fun iOS Pirate action.
