Overview

Developer: Zipper Interactive
Crimson Skies official page: http://www.microsoft.com/games/crimsonskies/

World War II without the War

Ever dreamed of flying WW2-era aircraft without having a pesky war to distract you? How about throwing in a little bit of free enterprise… trading and piracy perhaps? Crimson Skies is a little something along the lines of Disney's "Tailspin", though set in an alternate-reality 1937 America. Is this game another hackneyed last minute brain storm by some poor designer? Actually no, Crimson Skies looks to be a promising game based on the FASA license by the same name.

FASA? Aren't they owned by Microsoft? Exactly. In fact, Zipper Interactive, the same developers that brought us the excellent MechWarrior 3, is the developer currently cranking away on Crimson Skies.

Mmmm... Zeppelin.

Bloodhawk through a hanger

Crimson Skies

It is the 1930s. The Great Depression ravages the country, which has not yet recovered economically from the Great War. In an attempt to stop an impending social collapse, America adopts an isolationist policy, separating itself from the world and its problems. As always, during times of crisis, the moral extremists get their way and government starts meddling in citizen's affairs - the Prohibition now has the force of law.

The country virtually disintegrates into a state of civil unrest. The backbone of America's transportation infrastructure - the road network and mighty railways - has been rendered useless. Now it's up to the fledgling air fleets to save the remnants of Western civilization from collapse.

Jonathan Genghis Kahn and lady friends

Charlie Steel

Of course, whenever profit and even survival itself rely on insecure method of transportation, a beacon is lit for the shall we say… the more active members of society - ambitious men and women in search of high-pay, high-risk jobs and the people who want to rob them. These bandits have always been around. They plagued the roads of the ancient and medieval world. They were the pirates of the Caribbean, the train robbers in the West, the explorers of the New World. The future is in the hands of the honest and courageous pilots.

In the Crimson Skies universe, they're the men who have essentially torn the US apart into 4 separate region-states (Empire State, Pacifica, Kingdom of Hawaii and the Nation of Hollywood), and you get to be one of them!