Star Wars: X-Wing - Collector Series

The Good
I had been looking for X-Wing Collectors' CD-ROM and Tie Fighter Collectors' CD-ROM in stores for some time, but they're not available any more. One day, I bumped into this Collector Series edition. After playing for a while, I have mixed feelings of the game.

The engine has been updated to X-Wing vs Tie Fighter's engine. The in-game graphics, CD-music, sounds are good, correspond to XvT-style.

Mission selection interface have not changed from X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Essentially the gameplay remains, and that's what I expected from a remake.

The secret missions in Tie Fighter are still there, if you want to get into the Emperor's Inner Circle.

Storyline: It's actually fantastic to play through a part of the original trilogy, with sidequests and twists. Not to mention, you can fly on the surface of Death Star...

FMVs are EXACTLY the same... well that's good and bad and the same time.

The Bad
As I already told, the game is built upon XvT engine. Because of this and the fact that it was released in 1998, it's unacceptable that it doesn't run on NT-based Windows' (2000/XP). After a bit of tweaking (with App Compat Toolkit's QFixApp), I could make it run, but only with software rendering, no hardware 3D acceleration! (X-W vs. T/F does work). Totally Games could release a simple patch to solve this.

Another "dislike" of this engine, that it requires a joystick/pad. In the DOS version I could chase the enemy using the mouse.

CD Redbook audio cannot respond to events as well as the DOS version's MIDI. (E.g.: imperial music when imperial starships arrive) Well, it's compensated by the CD-quality. Several new campaigns would have been nice, and it would be great to solve the missions in multiplayer.

The Bottom Line
Just consider it a slightly updated re-release of two great games (plus some missions included from XvT). It isn't worth a full-priced game, but is more likely into the budget category. If you liked the original games, or you're an oldie-fan, it's for you.

The Good
I was a part of the Rebel Alliance, felt like one and felt for the characters in the original trilogy. I was inspired by the Empire's quest:

"peace and order throughout the galaxy. Even now our capable forces, led by Darth Vader, are striking back at the Rebel insurgence."

I got to loyally serve a righteous and virtuous Empire in this game.

Graphics were absolutely awesome. Just like the actual Star Wars movies. The music made it all the more realistic. Never before or since did I experience such an engaging game experience.

TIE Fighter was by far my favorite game in this collection. Superior graphics, interface and GAMEPLAY made it far better than X-Wing, X-wing vs TIE Fighter and X-wing Alliance. The story in TIE Fighter was one of the best I've ever seen in a computer game. You could actually ask for reinforcements and NOT LOSE POINTS in the game. Your allies actually helped you to accomplish the missions and you did not feel like you were always alone like in X-Wing. The mission briefings and in-flight radio comm from your Imperial comrades as well as the Imperial March was exciting. If you succeeded the missions you got great compliments from the Imperial Officer doing the debriefing and from the Cloaked Figure. If you fail your mission objectives you would receive very helpful advice so that you could correct your mistakes. The Officer and cloaked figure always spoke in the most elegant and civilized way. The original game and movie music helped bring about a sense of pride in the Empire as well as that 'you are there' feeling along with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader. All these elements made this game a great inspiration for me. This game was simply fun, fresh, and thoroughly entertaining.

The Bad
X-Wing could have been made better. This release gives both of them good graphics but it was so hard to beat X-Wing while TIE Fighter was much easier and more rewarding.

More realistic missions could have been useful in X-Wing. Instead of escorting a million shuttles that are easily destroyed with no support from the Rebels it would have been nice to go on the attack for once. I got this collection to kill TIEs. They did not even have to kill me to make me lose the game. The Empire gives much better support and craft to the gamer than the Rebels, which is so unfortunate since I got this collection to kill TIEs, not defend them.

It would have been nice to play as the Empire at the Battle at Endor in TIE Fighter as the game really brings you to that point but then left me a little disappointed that I could not serve the Empire in the time of its greatest need. I know the original TIE Fighter was made back in '94 but they could have enhanced it further in the '98 version with that famous battle. To defend the Super Star Destroyer and the Death Star II would have made it the greatest game of all time.

The Bottom Line
TIE Fighter is the best game ever, now with superior graphics that make it better than the newer games in the series. X-Wing is good for the Death Star missions but not for much else. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter gives the Rebels TIE Fighter quality equipment for use in their craft. This may be old now but I highly recommend it for all Star Wars fans.

Serve the Emperor.

The Good
It's good that they thought updating the classic games. I wish many more games were updated.

In this case, the only improvements are the graphics and the ehm.. music, which is now cd audio.

By graphics we mean of course both the completely redrawn concourse screens and its cutscenes, introduction and of course the flight engine which now uses the XvT engine. The Death Star textures are really worth looking,

On a funny note, the droids of the concourse are somehow cartoony and remind me of Space Quest 6!!

The atmosphere is also changed. They environment is darker, more serious and 'techy'. To this contributes the absence of original music, replaced to an atmospheric humming (well, this isn't actually positive!).

And that's all I have to say about the good parts

The Bad
In one word: In these editions, all they did was improving the graphics. Everything else was left unchanged while some update would be needed, not to mention that some things were REMOVED.

What I mean?

• The great implementation of the imuse system of interactive music is replaced by cd tracks. The loss is compensated by the quality of cd music, but where is the old atmosphere?
  Some cutscenes are briefer. Some are ommited, like the taking off, the landing etc.
  Some screens were left unchanged, only with a cheap 'blur' effect to make them fit the high res.
  The screen of choosing co-pilots in X-Wing from preexisting ones, as well as the whole feature, is also missing
  The X-Wing tech room. You only see rotating holograms, not detailed and realistic schematics
  It's a bit ironic to have really high detailed textures on an X-Wing flight while everything is silent. Some in-flight speech would be needed. I know it's not an easy feat but its absence is obvious.
  Now you can't control your ship with mouse. Joystick is required. On the other hand, now you can't move the cursor with the joystick or the keyboard, only the mouse
  The concourse as mentioned, is darker and more serious, while music is absent. Some might like it, but why make the remake poorer than the original?
  Original TIE Fighter had two nice implementations that corrected some weaknesses of X-Wing: speeding up time for long and boring time-consuming missions and a simple and easy way of backing up your pilot in case he dies. Why these features weren't implemented in the remake of X-Wing now that they are availiable?
  
  The Bottom Line
  I think I have stated the whole situation in one word: graphics improved, the rest is poorer. This is pity that they lost a good opportunity

I really don't know what should i say if someone asked whether he would by it or not. It's a matter of preference. I am sure some people would like the changes, especially new players who havent experienced the originals. However some feats were not improved (eg. voice), keeping the games still outdated.