Crimson Alliance
Crimson Alliance is a co-op action role-playing game developed by Certain Affinity and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was first announced at RTX 2011 and was available for demo at E3, Comic-Con and PAX Prime, with the press release being announced on May 31, 2011. Released on September 7, 2011 on Xbox Live Arcade for free as a freemium.
Crimson Alliance
- Date
- 2011
- Publisher
- Xbox Game Studios
- Genre
- action role-playing game
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q5185677 · wikipedia · Crimson Alliance
In this article
The object
The object
Player can choose to pay between 800 Microsoft Points for one character class or 1200 Microsoft Points for all three character classes. The game was also offered as a free bonus code download for those who purchased all five of the fourth annual Xbox Live Summer of Arcade titles before August 23, 2011.
Key facts
Key facts
• Developer — Certain Affinity • Publisher — Microsoft Studios • Designer — Mark Tucker • Producer — Tom Potter • Platforms — Xbox 360 • Released — September 7, 2011 • Genre — Action role-playing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer
Plot
Plot
Once a thriving empire, Byzan has faced dark times with survivors living a meager existence while a cruel goddess, the Soul Siren, rules with an iron fist and is not afraid to have her minions do her dirty work. Direwolf, Moonshade and Gnox – the wizard, assassin and mercenary – dive into the primitive world to stop the Soul Siren from unleashing her ultimate weapon. But these three have their own sordid pasts to deal with as well.
Gameplay
Gameplay
Crimson Alliance is an action RPG that uses gold to upgrade characters weapons and armor. Each character has a special fighting style which players can equip to match their play style. There are three equipment slots for each character. Direwolf, the wizard, uses long range attacks to defeat his enemies while Gnox the mercenary has a melee fighting style. Moonshade, the assassin, is a hybrid of the two, using both melee and long range shots to bring down her attackers. Each character is equipped with a basic attack and a heavy attack and can also stun their enemies and dash throughout the levels. In each level there are secret areas to find as well as class specific areas where characters can open chests that contain items to upgrade their weaponry and armor. Merchants are available to improve items. Also throughout the game are challenge maps where players will have to defeat hordes of enemies. The leaderboard system takes advantage of the hack and slash style of play. As the player kills more enemies without being hit, the player's score multiplier increases, resulting in higher overall scores. Higher difficulty settings also increases the points earned.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Crimson Alliance is associated with United States.
Country
Reception
At E3, Crimson Alliance was a nominee of Game Informers and G4TVs "Best Of" awards as well as 1UP.coms "Top 10 Sleepers of E3 2011." On release, the game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The Observer gave it an average review and stated, "Once past the hackneyed presentation of this co-op dungeon crawler there is a real meaty, moreish pleasure to be had. The key is solid combat – each of the three characters has basic, heavy and stun attacks, with special moves and collectible extras such as deployable turrets, which add to a contained but tactical system." The Digital Fix gave it seven out of ten, stating, "Leave your traditional RPG expectations at the door, jump in with some friends and for 800 points you will find a great little arcade dungeon crawler." Metro gave it six out of ten, calling it "Derivative, shallow and ruthlessly unambitious, but as Diablo clones go this is still one of the best and most addictive on consoles." On September 27, 2011 Certain Affinity announced the release of the Vengeance Pack for Crimson Alliance, which became available on October 12, 2011. The pack was reported to contain 4 levels, new monsters, new treasures, a new challenge type, and 3 new achievements. Sales at year's-end 2011 are approximated at 116,000 units.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Crimson Alliance”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5185677: Crimson Alliance
General reference · Wikidata
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Crimson Alliance, revision 1357714520 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.obi1mccarthy. Certification? Nailed it. Crimson Alliance. Certain Affinity. July 18, 2011.
- 2.Crimson Alliance Announced!. Certain Affinity. May 27, 2011.
- 3.Official Crimson Alliance Announcement Press. Certain Affinity. May 31, 2011.
- 4.Fletcher, JC. PSA: 'Free' Crimson Alliance download isn't the full game. Engadget (Joystiq). Oath Inc. September 7, 2011.
- 5.Microsoft. Free Crimson Alliance Offer. Xbox.com.
- 6.CBS Interactive. Crimson Alliance for Xbox 360 Reviews. Metacritic.
- 7.Sterling, Jim. Review: Crimson Alliance. Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. September 6, 2011.
- 8.Miller, Matt. Crimson Alliance. Game Informer. GameStop. September 6, 2011.
- 9.Reboucas, Eduardo. Crimson Alliance Review. Game Revolution. CraveOnline. September 14, 2011.
- 10.Haske, Steve. Review: Crimson Alliance (360). GamePro. GamePro Media. September 8, 2011.
- 11.McGee, Maxwell. Crimson Alliance Review. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. September 8, 2011.
- 12.Viacom. Crimson Alliance Review. GameTrailers. September 12, 2011.
- 13.Workman, Robert. Crimson Alliance Review. GameZone. September 12, 2011.
- 14.Sliwinski, Alexander. Crimson Alliance review: Born-again gauntlet. Engadget (Joystiq). Oath Inc. September 6, 2011.
- 15.Lewis, Cameron. Crimson Alliance review. Official Xbox Magazine. Future US. September 6, 2011.
- 16.Marchello, Sam. Crimson Alliance - Staff Review. RPGamer. September 7, 2011.
- 17.Phillips, Andrew. Crimson Alliance Review. The Digital Fix. Poisonous Monkey. October 10, 2011.
- 18.Hargreaves, Roger. Crimson Alliance review - in the red. Metro. DMG Media. September 8, 2011.
- 19.Ditum, Nathan. Crimson Alliance - review. The Observer. Guardian Media Group. September 17, 2011.
- 20.Langley, Ryan. Xbox Live Arcade by the numbers - the 2011 year in review. Gamasutra. UBM plc. January 20, 2012.
References
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reference work
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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