# Crimsonland

Crimsonland is a top-down dual stick arena shooter video game with role-playing elements. It was developed by Finnish studio 10tons Entertainment and published by Reflexive Entertainment in 2003. In 2014 a re-release through digital distribution followed.

## Gameplay

The player is placed in the middle of the map while enemies gradually enter and make their way towards the player. The player has to eliminate the enemies before their health reaches zero. With each death of an enemy the player will gain experience points. Each level the player gains, the player can select special perks that range anywhere from faster reload times, faster shooting speed, faster movement, to status effects like radiation (creating an area of affect around the player that damages all enemies within its range), poison bullets, and many others. Randomly, when an enemy is killed they will drop a power-up that may be extra points, temporary invulnerability, fire bullets, slowing of time, and many others.
The game also offers local multiplayer for two players on the original and up to four on the re-release. In a multiplayer game, all players share the same experience and perks but are free to pick up any weapons or power-ups that may appear.

### Game modes

The game features four game modes. There is a secret bonus mode (puzzle mode); the developers have never said if completing the puzzle leads to something.

#### Quest mode

The player has to complete 50 levels each with their own starting weapons and enemy layouts. As the player completes each quest they unlock weapons and perks.

#### Survival mode

The player tries to survive as long as they can as waves of enemies come after them. All perks and weapons that have been unlocked are available.

#### Rush mode

The player is equipped with the AK47 and has to survive as long as they can without any perks or power-ups.

#### Typ'o'Shooter

The player remains stationary in the middle of the map and is equipped with a shotgun. As the enemies make their way towards the player there is a word hovering over them. In order to shoot at the specific enemy the player needs to type out the word and press Enter. The longer the player survives the longer the words that appear over the enemies.

### 2014 re-release game modes

With the re-release of Crimsonland in 2014, new game modes were added.

#### Quest

The player has to complete 60 levels each with their own specific goals and weapons. While the main goal is to eliminate all the enemies, how that goal is accomplished is different. Many quests do not give the player the option of picking up alternate weapons. Also, perks can be disabled in the game's options screen to add even more difficulty. There are three levels of difficulty (Normal, Hardcore, and Grim) from which the player can select, and if the player completes a quest with full health, a star will be marked on the quest in the quest selection screen. This mode is where the player unlocks most of the game's weapons and perks.

#### Survival

The player has to survive as long as they can while wave after wave of enemies appear at an increasing rate. All perks, weapons, and power-ups that have been unlocked are available in this mode.

#### Rush

The player is equipped with the AK47 rifle as monsters and spiders make their way towards the player from the left and right sides of the screen respectively. This mode does not have perks or power-ups.

#### Nukefism

The player does not have a weapon in this game mode; instead, they need to pick up power-ups to eliminate the enemies. This mode does not have perks or any point-based power-ups.

#### Weapon Picker

The player cannot reload their weapon and has only the ammunition found in the clip of each weapon they pick up. Weapons are randomly dropped throughout the map.

#### Blitz

Like survival mode but everything is increased. The monster count is increased to make the play time much shorter than in survival mode. All perks, weapons, and power-ups that have been unlocked are available in this game mode.

#### Gembine

Gembine is a hidden minigame within Crimsonland. The game is similar to the puzzle game 2048. The player is presented with a 4x4 grid and must use the D-pad or arrow keys to create larger gems by combining smaller ones. Each time two gems are combined, the player receives points. To play the game, the player has to select the credits from the main menu and do the following while they roll:
* If using a keyboard, type "gembine".
* If using a PC controller, press up up up left left left up on the right D-pad.
* If using a PlayStation controller, press "triangle" three times, then "square" three times, and finally "triangle" once.
* If using an Xbox controller, press "Y" three times, then "X" three times, and finally "Y" once.
Beating the high score in Gembine awards the player with a perk.

## Development

Originally developed by 10tons Entertainment and released as freeware/demo version, in 2003 a commercial shareware version with publisher Reflexive Entertainment followed. The game was re-released and self-published through digital distribution in 2014 with updates to graphics, perks, weapons, enemies, and game modes. In 2015 it was released for the Xbox One and later for Nintendo Switch in 2017.

## Reception

The general reception has been fairly positive. On Steam, the user reviews have Crimsonland rated as "Very Positive" and a 4.5 out of 5 from TouchArcade. IGN gave Crimsonland a 7.5 out of 10. Meanwhile, Metacritic has Crimsonland at 68 for PC and 64 on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.