When 3D graphics hit the mainstream we saw somewhat of a resurgence in the light gun genre. It was never particularly huge considering the fact that you needed a peripheral controller to properly play the games, but developers such as Sega and Namco created some inventive new franchises adhering to the classic rules of on-rail shooters. House of the Dead 2 was a launch title for the Sega Dreamcast and was the only every other release was compared to. Sega’s white box had several other light gun shooters released for it, but none of them really made a big splash. Then we have Death Crimson OX. This light gun game from Sammy was released after the Dreamcast was discontinued, and almost no one has heard of it. I’m a big fan of the genre and because of the limited number of releases I decided to give it a go. Death Crimson OX is better left forgotten.
There’s no sugar coating it; the plot here is a mess. There’s something going on with a powerful gun called the crimson, and monsters taking over the planet. Then there’s robots. The game tries to explain what’s going on through a series of cut-scenes but that just makes things worse. I was way too distracted to pay attention to what was happening by the oddly animated characters and poorly translated writing. It’s hilarious, and very Japanese, but don’t expect to be able to follow what’s going on. With that out of the way let’s get down to business.
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| The enemies are pretty unique as you can see. |
Death Crimson OX is best described as a poor man’s House of the Dead. It has the same basic formula; you have a series of incoming monsters some with protected areas on their bodies as they jump out on-screen and either charge or shoot projectiles. The developers tries to make this one seem like more of an RPG by having numbers splash out of the enemies when they’re hit, but this matters little in the grand scheme of things because it makes little difference. There is a weird leveling system that increases your ammunition or life, but I could hardly be bothered to care or even pay attention to it. You have a life bar in the bottom left hand of the screen that depletes as enemies hit you. It also empties a little when you shoot an innocent civilian which can be annoying because they’re constantly running out in front of the action. Enemies range from robot looking creatures with swords, to skeletons, bats, and zombies. I just wish everything wasn’t so generic.
The game suffers from some major pacing issues. You would think a rail shooter wouldn’t have this problem; you’re just running from room to room but they somehow managed to mess it up here. Everytime you enter a room (which is automatic by the way, as is all of the other movement) the screen goes black as it transitions to the new environment. It’s very weird then that the game will do this, pit you against a few foes, and then move you back outside through another door. I think the developers rushed a few aspects of the game because moments like these really break up the action and feel out of place. Additionally it feels like the camera whips around too much during otherwise mundane sequences. It can be very disorienting and often times it isn’t focused enough to allow any semblance of accuracy to your shots. Speaking of which there’s only one power-up in this game and it’s a sub-par machine gun. You get no other weapons besides this and the starting supposedly legendary gun crimson. This lack of variety really hits Death Crimson OX hard.
The biggest problem with Death Crimson OX is that it’s just plain boring. The whole experience has the ‘been there done that’ feel to it, and the only thing it brings to the table is hilariously bad dialogue and creepy character animations (seriously, their mouths don’t even move while talking). I feel like you’ve seen just about everything Death Crimson has to offer in the first few minutes of playing, and this game is a good half hour long. It can be a little grueling because the action is so repetitive and boring. I had high hopes for the boss encounters but Sammy messed up in this area as well. In the same fashion as House of the Dead (I’m beginning to sound like a broken record here with the comparison) boss characters are mostly invincible with a weak point highlighted by the game. They have a health bar at the top of the screen, and you can interrupt their attacks by hitting them at just the right time. There’s just no energy to these encounters and they drag on and on.
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| The game largely looks the same between scenes. |
I think the graphics are pretty decent to be honest. The enemy designs are pretty good but there just aren’t a lot of different ones. To make matters worse it can be tough to tell exactly what the graphic artists were even going for. Some of the mechanical enemies are a mess design-wise, but because the rest of the game is so abstract I can forgive it. The boss characters are also pretty underwhelming for the most part and are barely more impressive looking than your standard foes. The real highlights are the environments. Some are chock full of detail and are fairly impressive when compared to other games on the Dreamcast. The graphics are pretty nice overall but some elements are underwhelming. Now for the soundtrack. This game has some really over-the-top rock music, and I absolutely love it. It too is very Japanese, and although it doesn’t really fit the on-screen action I found myself tapping my feet to the beat.
Death Crimson OX gets a bad beat but it’s pretty well deserved. There really isn’t a lot that this game does right, and it’s best elements are stolen directly from House of the Dead. That wouldn’t be so bad but the former just does everything so much better and with more style. Death Crimson OX probably should have been a launch game because as one of the last pieces of Dreamcast software it’s pretty darn underwhelming. You’re best off passing on this one; it’s not hard to find a better one.
