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FeaturesMain »» Reviews
Crimson Fields 
(Read 3548 times) | Genre: Strategy/War
License: Freeware ( Open Source )
Price: Gratis
Where to get: http://www.os4depot.net
I am quite a strategy game fan, the first game I played on the ZX Spectrum was the classic D-Day game which had line of sight, "eyes", unit movement, fire turns, loading and unloading of units but was achingly slow ( it was part written in BASIC, you would sometimes by mistake end up breaking out of the game so you had to remember to type c ( continue ) and hit enter ). War In Middle Earth was good but you could not finish it on the Spectrum without losing - cue loading screen of Sauron laughing but Lazer Squad made up for it.
I progressed to all time classics such as Dune II, Carrier Command, Total Annihilation, Battle Isle and the all time great History Line complete with animated story teaching you about World War 1.
After that I got a bit bored with strategy war games - not because the genre had palled but because the implementation seemed to go for unnatural and non strategic 3d views.
There is a reason maps are 2D, there is a reason that strategic battlemaps used in warfare are 2D. It is because for "strategy", it is the easiest way to visualise your enemy on a single given plane.
So when someone told me that there was a port of the Battle-Isle lookalike Crimson available for AmigaOS4 on os4depot I immediately downloaded it and tried it out.
Crimson Fields is compatible with most History Line and Battle Isle maps so if you have those games you can relive old times  I however have a checksum error on my Battle Isle disks so I can't.
After unpacking Crimson Fields you can just run it from the cute icon and then you get a loading screen and promptly into the game menu. No messing about which is what I like. I actually get annoyed these days with animated intros!
The games that are highlighted in white you can play right away, the ones in orange you have to work for, I haven't got those to turn white yet as I find a couple of the missions impossible!
The game types are:
- Hot Seat - where you and a friend use the same keyboard and computer and at the end of each turn you swap seats.
- vs. Computer - computer plays against you, when your turn is done the AI will annihilate you without seconds thought .
- Play By Email - works using PBM, I haven't tried this yet but I wouldn't mind playing against someone else!
Now remember to select the one you want to play BEFORE you select a map, the amount of times I have ended up playing Hot Seat by mistake ... well if I had a Euro for each time I could easily buy a new car.
You will want to start with Uprising, you get some tanks, some infantry - in fact the same as your enemy, and a troop carrier. Its a small map, and there isn't a lot to do! Its the simplest level too. The idea is to move your troops to the enemy base and take it over ( which you can only do with infantry ) or wipe out the enemy forces.
When you select a unit to move it the tiles you can move to are highlighted nicely and when you can fire on an enemy unit you get a nice crossfire on their unit. 
Once you have made all your moves its time to use the menu to end the turn, during your turn you can ( if you have taken over factories ) make new units, repair old units (vital - see later on in the review ) move units, move units into carrying units ( people carriers, hovercraft, ships, transport planes ) fire at enemy positions etc. At the end of each turn the movement happens in an animated fashion and if two units conflict a popup shows how many segments they have left ( 6 segments per unit ) and how many they took out of an enemy during a fight. If you run out of segments the unit is removed from the map.
Its then the enemy turn to move, you can watch it or thankfully skip it. It is worth watching an enemy move to start with as it gives you ideas on how to treat your units based on their strength - and what units to go for straight away. With air cover for example its vital to send in bombers to take out the anti-air craft batteries otherwise you wont have a chance in hell of landing troops. Then its worth going after the howitzer field guns ( artillery ) before sending in tanks. Certain units have no defense against others.
Plus Points
- The game is remarkably solid for freeware, enjoyable and the AI pitched not too tough.
- Unit graphics are excellent
- Maps are in the main well thought out
- Addictive
Negative Points
- Its not the latest Crimson version out there.
- Fiddly after transferring crystals, have to remember to press first aid icon.
- Ugly "base" graphics
- More varied terrain graphics level to level would be nice.
Summary
Its a quick download, fair enough its an SDL port but it works well, quickly and looks good in the high resolutions. I love 2d views although it would be nice if the graphics were more varied. Some of the batles are damn near impossible but it keeps you trying again and again. Its quite irritating that your veteran units lose some of their skill when repaired.
I like the varied units in it but I found the BI/HL plane treatment a bit irritating ( you can't fly over a pitched battle as its considered a ground unit ).
Rating
Graphics 7/10
Sound 6/10
Gameplay 8/10
Usability 10/10
Addictiveness 8/10
Overall: 7/10 - For a free game of its genre its a must for strategy fans. Simple to get into hard to put down.
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