Sometimes it's nice to unwind with a game that doesn't take itself seriously and all it requires the player to do is shoot stuff, lots and lots of stuff. This is Crimsonland in a nutshell; you are a marine, or you might not be a marine, you don't actually know as there is no story in the game, so lets start over. You are a guy with a gun, dropped into an arena, and by arena I mean an empty area of space. Suddenly a zombie or spider or mutant lizard or something will appear at the edge of the screen, slowly making it's way in your general direction. Of course your instinct is to shoot that sucker, so that's what you do. As the projectile fired from your weapon connects with the approaching abomination, a glorious fountain of blood will stain the floor and this is what gives the game it's title. The more bad guys you dispatch, the more claret is spilled and eventually the whole screen can be covered in blood, hence the Crimsonland!

Carnage

You control your player using the left stick and you aim with the right stick, shooting with either trigger. This is all you will need to get well on your way to achieving mass murder! In the campaign there are 6 zones with 10 missions each. 3 difficulty settings ensures that even the best crack shots out there will meet their match. There are a set amount of enemies for each mission so as long as you keep plugging away, you should eventually become victorious. You have never truly completed a mission until you finish it without taking any damage.

Weapons

After the first few kills you will get a weapon drop which is always something better than your starting pistol. These pickups range from assault rifles to shotguns, to Ion cannons, miniguns and flame throwers and the further you advance in the campaign, the better the weapons you will unlock. My personal favorite was the Rocket Launcher. This adds a bit of RNG to how well you will do and how long you can survive, as some weapons simply out perform others. You will also pick up power ups for your weapons wich are limited to a single use or a timer. These drops greatly improve your overall odds of success and break up the monotony of the task at hand. There are 30 weapons to unlock throughout the missions which adds variety to the way in which you kill stuff.

Perks

As well as random weapon drops, you will also unlock a vast amount of perks. These can be of great help and add certain effects like speeding up your movement, freezing time, adding a shield or extending the life of other perks and drops. There are 55 perks to discover and some drastically alter the gameplay in your favor should you choose the right ones at the right time.

Survival

There are 5 extra modes to unlock next to the 60 mission campaign, such as Survival and Rush mode. Survival is the standard survive as long as you can whilst waves and waves of enemies keep spawning and attacking you. Rush mode is trying to survive with no power ups, no perks and the underpowered starting weapon. 

Unlike the original 2003 release of the game, perks are only used in Survival mode making the RNG of both weapon and perk selection a big factor in how well you can place on the included online leaderboards. Survival is currently my favorite way to play the game but as you can see from the video below, what weapon you are granted at the start really matters as to how well you can keep up the crowd control. I started with the Rocket Launcher and was doing pretty well until I accidently collected a different weapon which threw me off and ultimately sealed my fate!