I finally finished Crimson Skies earlier this week, for real this time. I hadn't touched it since it was new and could not finish it then. The game's difficulty is all over the place but it was almost always fun and stylish. 🛩️🏴‍☠️🏝️ It was a arcade-ish, alternate-history, dieselpunk flight action game released in 2000 after many false starts and delays, based on a tabletop boardgame by FASA corp, perhaps better known as the creators of the long-running Battletech/Mechwarrior and Shadowrun universes.

Here is art of the plane I used the most, the tailgun-equipped Fairchild F611 Brigand. While slower then the default Devastator, it was fast enough not to get torn apart instantly like the Warhawk and Balmoral, and the AI-controlled tailgun proved invaluable for keeping the numerically superior enemy pilots off of me a few extra precious seconds- this was the deciding factor for me (along with giving my wingman the same plane) in the incredibly difficult mid-game mission where you kidnap/rescue the actress Lana Cooper off her Hollywood movie set. Nothing you have at that point the campaign can match the agility of the Studio Security force's Hoplite autogyros (not even the nitro-equipped Bloodhawk), but they are quite fragile and my AI tailgunner destroyed two of them on his own. I went on to use the Brigand in basically every mission that did not force the use of another craft.

It feels weird counting this game in my "Retro PC games" series. 2000 does not feel like it was 23 years ago.