How’s everyone going so far?
This is the first time I’ve ever played this game. Unlike other months I’ve actually managed to string a few nights playing together and I’m starting to get more competent. There’s definitely a bit of a learning curve to it, I stupidly didn’t read the manual before starting, but now that I have I ‘get it’ I’m a bit better.
Aside from the overall graphic/audio experience (which is excellent), the first thing that struck me was the depth. There’s an initial training in flying basics (several levels) along with four combat training missions. Per ship! I think there’s about 6 ships or so… I’ve finished the Tie Fighter and Interceptor combat training missions, and have probably banked about 4 hours playing so far…
The system itself strikes a good balance between having a full set of functions while remaining relatively simple. I haven’t played the likes of wing commander yet so not sure how it compares to that, but it did remind me somewhat of MechWarrior 2, maybe a step or two more basic.
In terms of audio and visual experience it’s as you’d expect from a lucasarts game, especially one based on the Star Wars. The music doesn’t stray too far the standard John Williams repertoire (and doesn’t need to), and sounds great on my Roland Sound Canvas. The 3D graphics are also pretty good for the time. Not sure how they stood up at the time but I’m a fan.
And my final thought, I love just how blatant this game is about being the bad guys, right from the start when it opens with the classic Star Wars opening and then goes right into the imperial march, and even making your radar colour red rather than green (which confused the hell of out of me to start with).
So in summary, really enjoying this game so far. Wish I’d played it back in the day as it would have been perfect for my system back then… It doesn’t rest on the Star Wars Laurels and doesn’t suffer from dialing it in and relying on the strength of the franchise to hold it together. You could remove all the Star Wars IP from this and it’d still be a cool game.
.
