Reviewed: December 1, 1999
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Microsoft Games
Developer
Digital Anvil
Released: April 27, 2000
Genre: Action
Players: 4
ESRB: Everyone
8
10
10
8
9.4
System Requirements
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away there was this little game called Wing Commander that would forever change the face of gaming for generations to come. The original Wing Commander shipped on a handful of floppies and featured some of the best graphics and special effects the gaming community had ever seen. Optional speech packs and mission add-ons prolonged the life of this innovative title, and Wing Commander has been synonymous with computer space-combat sims for over ten years.
Sequels followed, each game showcasing the latest technology and sending gamers running for the computer store to upgrade their systems. But as the series grew the designers became a slave to the technology and something got lost. Gameplay became boring and repetitive giving way to huge and involved stories told through high-dollar FMV filmed on live sets with famous actors (namely Mark Hammil aka Luke Skywalker of Star Wars). By the time Wing Commander IV game out you were merely playing these little "flying games" to see what would happen next in the movie.
Apparently designer Chris Roberts came to the same conclusion. A few years ago he left Origin to start his own studio. Thus was born Digital Anvil which was promptly acquired by Microsoft. With the creative genius of Chris at the helm and the resources of Microsoft it was only a matter of time before something very special would happen at Digital Anvil, and it's called Starlancer.
Starlancer gets back to the roots of what made the original Wing Commander a great game - a perfect blend of action, suspense, and storytelling. Before I go on let me clarify that Starlancer is not part of the Wing Commander saga nor does it take place even in the same universe. I merely draw the obvious comparisons because the titles come from the same designer and falls into the same genre.
Starlancer focuses on space combat and game play. Instead of blowing the development budget on actors' salaries we are treated to stunning pre-rendered movies, which set the mood for the epic quest ahead of us. Smaller cut-scenes carry the story along once you are in the game, although most of the story is told through radio chatter during the missions themselves.
You will fly over 25 missions, which are comprised of several sorties that dynamically change based on your performance and the success of various objectives. This adds great replay value to the entire game since each mission can vary based on the outcome of the smaller components. The consequences for your actions (or inactions) may not always be immediate. If you fail to kill that scout ship in mission 5 it may be back in mission 7 with reinforcements.
Between missions you have limited access to several parts of the carrier you are stationed on. In reality this is just a nice 3D interface to access the game menus and options. You can also check your awards and access the flight simulator to brush up on your dog fighting skills. The animation as you move around the ship is smooth and realistic but gets repetitive after awhile. Simply right-clicking skips the animation and jumps you to the next scene - a great time saver after about three missions.
The ITAC system allows you to pull up database records on all known ships as well as combat history and past mission reports. You can also access the Alliance News Network to get up-to-the-minute news flashes on the state of the war. These news broadcasts often tie in to the mission you just flew and help propel the story.
When you are ready for combat you head to the briefing room where you join your fellow pilots for a multimedia mission briefing. The graphics on the mission-briefing screen are some of the most complex and beautiful graphics I have seen in a game such as this. Once you know what your objectives are, it's time to pick and outfit your ship. While you are free to pick the default ship and default load-out for each mission you will find that picking your own ship and weaponry offers a greater challenge and is often better than the ship the computer will give you.
Once you have your ship configured its time to head to the launch bay and then to the cold depths of space. Your mission rarely resembles the one you were briefed on. Very often events will happened to change your plans almost immediately. An enemy cruiser may warp in or you may receive a distress call. The dynamic mission structure is very good at mixing things up and keeping you on your toes.
Starlancer resembles an old WWII air combat movie from the intense dog fighting action to the use of familiar countries and situations from Earth's history. Countries like Russia, Britain, and the United States have taken their race for world supremacy to the solar system and now we fight for control of planets. Carriers, destroyers, fighters, scouts and other popular aircraft associated with warfare give the game an ultra-realistic tone.
Starlancer plays like most other games in the genre (Freespace, X-Wing, Wing Commander, etc.) and features familiar controls and a standard HUD design that makes learning Starlancer as easy as completing the few short tutorial missions in the simulator. The controls are not overly complex but you will have to master/memorize many keyboard commands as well as become proficient with a joystick. The commands will become second nature to you in just a few missions, but I suggest you don't play any other space-combat sim while you are playing Starlancer otherwise things could get confusing.
The HUD is fully configurable and you can have items appear only when necessary to keep things less cluttered. Hotkeys will activate certain sections such as guns, missiles, and the innovative Powerball. The Powerball allows you to easily analyze and redistribute energy to necessary systems on your ship. While other games have featured similar power distribution modes in the past, none have been as intuitive as this.
While the game supports force feedback I was a little disappointed in the use of these effects. Even with the settings maximized I rarely felt any feedback using my Logitech Wingman Force USB joystick. Even obvious effects such as a vibration while using the afterburners or a jolt when hitting another ship or asteroid were either weak or missing entirely. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the excellent force feedback in Freespace 2, but I was hoping for better results in this area of the game.
The AI (artificial intelligence) of both the enemy and your own squad are excellent. While friendly fire still occurs it is much less often than in previous games of this type. The enemy is downright tricky and will evade your attacks using maneuvers that I have yet to master. You will have to use every trick in the book to take down some of the more formidable opponents.
Starlancer is without a doubt the most visually stunning space-combat sim I have played to date. It is the first space fighter I have played using the new GeForce 256 card and with the settings at 1024x768 at 16bit color the frame rate is rock solid and smooth as glass.
The fighters and capital ships are all exquisitely modeled in great detail. Starbases and the larger carriers are huge and accurately scaled so it can take you quite some time to make a fly-by on a capital ship. The larger ships have incredible detail such as spinning radar dishes and rotating laser turrets and glowing engines. These areas are usually sub-targets which you can lock-on and attack to whittle away at these monster ship until they explode in a huge fireball sending out a shockwave and spinning debris in all directions.
The pre-rendered movies are amazing to the point where you can see the pores in the characters' faces. Inside the ship, your cabin and explorable locations are all modeled with excellent detail and many parts of the ship are interactive. All visual components of this game blend together perfectly so your suspense of disbelief is never broken by any huge change in graphical style. Movies and gameplay merge seamlessly using the same game graphics. Only the letterbox effect lets you know when you are watching a movie.
The music in Starlancer is simply the best. It dynamically changes with the action giving it a movie-like feel and enhancing the experience. Sound effects are also excellent quality and appropriate and the voices are crisp and clear with the lines being delivered by talented voice-actors.
The game supports all the 3D sound variations including D3D, EAX, and A3D. The use of 3D sound is done very well and if you have a 4-speaker setup you will find yourself looking over your shoulder as enemy fighters whiz by. Explosions will rock your system if you have a subwoofer as part of your setup.
You might think that 25 missions isn't very many but think again. Each mission is usually comprised of 3-5 smaller objectives which can change during the course of the mission. Additional waypoints may be added or a mission could be cut short, but the average mission can last anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Often you can return to base and resume the campaign after a failed mission but some key missions must be flown until you get it right or at least achieve some sort of minor success.
Overall you can expect Starlancer to keep the average gamer busy for about 50 hours on the solo campaign. How much you play it after that either online or solo is up to you. The deathmatch modes are interested and fun for a while but there are better games more suited to online play than this. The dynamic mission structure offers enough variance in the main game to make it worth another tour of duty.
In additional to mission failure there is another annoying way to conclude your campaign - the firing squad. That's right - if you aren't careful and you inflict too much friendly fire on your wingmen your co-pilot will take over the ship and return you to the carrier for a court-martial and subsequent death penalty. It's fun to watch the first time it happens but it gets annoying after awhile - especially since your wingmen are free to shoot and crash into you with no obvious penalties.
Perhaps what makes Starlancer truly innovative is the multiplayer enhancements. Sure other games of this type have offered multiplayer options but this is the first where you can play the solo-campaign with up to four players. If you get stuck on mission 9, just go online and hook-up with a friend (or two or three) and tackle the mission as a team. And when the campaign is over you can hook-up with up to eight players on MSN Gaming Zone or a LAN and battle it out in six exciting deathmatch modes.
The only thing that kept this game from getting a perfect score is the fact that the campaign just starts to drag on about halfway through. The missions become repetitive and downright impossible - even on the easier skill levels. You will find yourself playing some missions many times until you can get an acceptable outcome.
I also found that the lack of interaction with your fellow pilots seemed to isolate you in the combat sim. Even though a story is being told you really don't feel a part of it since your character has no definition through interaction with others. In one of the earlier missions you lose one of your wingmen in a scripted event. The other pilots are all upset and the commander even mentions it in the next briefing but it's hard to care about this pilot since you've never interacted with him. Even the original Wing Commander was able to achieve a camaraderie among the pilots and "make you care" just by the brief conversations in the bar between missions.
Chris Roberts and Digital Anvil have brought back the "old-school" feel of the original Wing Commander with graphics and special effects for the 21st Century. They've proven it doesn't take fancy sets, famous actors, or expensive movies to make a great game. All it takes is good gameplay and Starlancer deliver just that.