Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance

aka: Guerra nas Estrelas: X-Wing Alliance, XWA
Moby ID: 1126
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/27 9:11 PM )

Description official descriptions

You are a young member of a trading family trying to make a living by staying neutral, but your business rivals have other ideas. The galaxy is at war, and sooner or later you will have to choose sides...

X-Wing Alliance is the latest in the X-Wing series of Star Wars space in-cockpit combat sim. You start in your family's Corellian transports (multiple models) as you deliver cargo and practice gunnery against pirates, poachers (who steal your cargo), and rivals. Later, you will get to join the Rebel Alliance, fight plenty of battles, and eventually make your way to the battle that will destroy the second Death Star! Adjust power, change weapons, arm lasers and concussion missiles, even jump into a gun turret (for crafts so equipped), adjust power and recharge. There are OVER FIFTY missions for you to make your way through, plus full multiplayer support. You also get a "souvenir" from each mission you complete... Very cute.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

186 People (176 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Project Leader
Mission Programming
Deathstar Programming
Graphics / Artwork
3D Modelling
3D Animation
Level / Scenario Design
Interface & Network Programming
3D & Special Effects Programming
HUD & Cockpit Programming
Proving Ground & Hangar Programming
Device & Special Effects Programming
Texturemapping
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 55 ratings with 7 reviews)

Great game for Star Wars fans, but the puzzle aspects turns me off

The Good
Great "souvenirs" as rewards after each mission, plenty of Star Wars lore, nice missions with a lot of combat, some "stunt flying" (maneuver through tight spaces), and other objectives.

The Bad
Some parts TOO puzzle like. The auto-dock features don't always work and you must do manual docking. You have to be VERY precise with your shots as gun energy is extremely limited. Energy management vs. speed management can be troublesome.

The Bottom Line
XWA is an interesting title to quantify. It is a lot of things to different people... It's a bit of 3D puzzle (similar to X-Wing and TIE Fighter), it's a bit of resource management (energy management), it's a lot of 3D space combat that requires precision shooting (a LOT more precise than Wing Commander series), and the full force of Star Wars lore.

If you enjoy that type of gameplay, XWA should be right up your alley. However, it is NOT for everyone.

Graphics and sound were adequate and not quite state of the art any more, but for an older title this is expected.

Windows · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2002

Star Wars perfection

The Good
The last in the X-Wing games closes the trilogy with a bang (yes, trilogy. I don't want to hear anything about an "X-Wing vs Tie Fighter". Understood?). Basically it just wraps up everything the original games were known for, adds the multiplayer genius of XWvsTF and the best 3D accelerated graphics circa 1999. Plus it throws a neat collection of original features that set it as one of the best games of it's kind.

Let's deal with the graphics first. As I mentioned, the game looks niiice, real nice. It's basically the same engine of XWvsTF, but the texture detail and resolution have been completely overdone, and small details such as the cockpits now sport fully polygonal models and cleaner huds. These new cockpits work like a charm as they allow the game to let loose with all sorts of funky colored lighting (from the laser fire, explosions, etc.), the ship models seem much more detailed than before (specially notable on big ships like the Calamari cruisers) and space itself is much more detailed, with lots of colorful nebulas, asteroids, stations as well as interior locations such as space stations and platforms. Add to all of this glitz the usual LucasArts production values for a Star Wars game and you have in your hands a class-A product that just oozes Star Wars coolness, with sights that match the sounds ripped right from the movie soundtracks and SFX libraries.

The gameplay itself remains unchanged save for the premise and mission design, and it's in these two areas where the game rises above the rest of the saga and crowns itself as the definitive Star Wars space sim. Instead of being a nameless Rebel fighter you take on the role of the youngest member of the Azzameen family, a struggling merchant family that operates from a modest space station and which has to deal with piracy and shady competition from smuggling gangs. So yeah, the game doesn't start with you shooting down imperial scum from the cockpit of your X-Wing, but instead places you in the comfort of a Millennium Falcon-lookalike from which you take on a series of trading-oriented missions that serve as a tutorial to the many new gameplay additions such as turret handling and auto-docking as well as initiating the n00bs in power management and basic dogfighting.

The main hub for the game in these early moments are the living quarters of your family ship, from which you can read mails from other family members and friends as well as check out your stats, initiate the next mission or check out your always growing collection of "souvenirs" that you get from each mission (such as a contraband brandy or part of the hull of your first Tie Fighter kill). This somewhat quiet existance fortunately ends before it gets too boring and after a nasty incident with some smugglers, you find out that you have been sold out to the empire, which comes knocking at your door with guns loaded. Tragedy ensues and next thing you know you find yourself running to the Rebel Alliance for protection (and a chance for revenge). This returns the player to the classic Concourse hub we all know and love, from which you can access all the classic features in the X-Wing games such as the ship's database, training grounds and missions selection, from which you engage the Imperial forces through a series of campaigns that take you from the aftermath of the Hoth battle to some original campaigns dealing with drone fighters and Imperial battles and culminating in the battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi (more on that later on). The real genius touch however, is that the Azzameen ship remains as a sub-feature of the main Concourse, and thus allows you to switch back and forth between the militaristic Rebel/Empire conflict (which weaves it's own storyline) and your own personal struggle as you contact your surviving family members and go out in "family missions" that follow a plot of it's own. This not only keeps the gameplay always fresh as it provides a change of pace from each game style (the family missions are usually much more puzzle-oriented while the Rebel ones are more classic space dogfighting) but also serves to add a little human touch to the always stale military plots that these types of games always have. I personally couldn't care less about the nameless pilot from the original X-Wing, but your character in Alliance is someone you can relate to, because you watch how he gets developed as a Rebel fighter, deal with his friends and family, and ultimately get involved hands-on in his personal struggle.

Of course, all of this would be for naught if the game's missions were all a bunch of "kill all the Kilrathi" borefests. Fortunately Alliance is blessed with some of the best mission design ever in a space sim, throwing in every kind of mission you can think of and involving everything from head-on engagements, chases, stunt flying, etc... To keep it all fresh the game also makes a steady use of puzzle elements and scripted events, which range from simple flag-checking events to full-blown puzzles in which you have to infiltrate military enemy bases or create an ambush. The puzzle-oriented design sometimes takes too much of a front seat in some missions, but never to the extent of games like say... I-War, and ultimately serves it's purpose as a way of deepening the gameplay. And while in most games complex features like power management and weapons configuration can always be set under "safe" settings and left alone for the rest of the game, Alliance calls for you to truly understand and properly manage them (specially the power settings) which gives the game an incredible gameplay depth as well as adding a lot of adrenaline to some moments such as when you find yourself escaping to a jump node at full thrust while you pray that you can squeeze a little more speed from your power station and at the same time try to dodge incoming fire while redirecting shield strength aft... and no, those enemy flyboys aren't any idiots either...

Anyway, as I mentioned above, the game also ends with a reproduction of the Endor battle and I dare say that it's a flawless reprisal of what you saw in the movie, complete with a massive engagement with the imperial fleet (divided in 3 missions) and the final tunnel-run and final escape through the Death Star itself. Yes, the tunnel-run too, because you get to fly the Millennium Falcon itself! Waaahoo!! Now if that isn't the coolest thing ever then I don't know what is!

Oh wait, I think I do: How about the same kickass multiplayer and mission generator element from XWvsTF with the chance to fly with or against practically every ship in the Star Wars universe? No seriously, even Dash Rendar's Outrider is here, as he makes a cameo appearance along with Luke in the single player game!

The Bad
There's isn't a whole lot one can bitch about a game of this pedigree, it's downright fantastic. I will point out that there are some bugs every now and then, mostly dealing with bonus objectives, and there's the fact that the Azzameen plotline is left hanging at the end of the game... This one is really puzzling, you just get to a point in the story and then there's the battle of Endor and that's it! ?? I remember reading an official answer in a LucasArts forum about that really being the end of the game... there's no point-related secret ending as in other X-Wings... man, what a downer.

The Bottom Line
Along with Knights of The Old Republic one of the best games ever made with the Star Wars license, combing the always cool Star Wars lore with stellar production values, unprecedented gameplay depth and fantastic mission design in an airtight package. A must have for anyone that even remotely likes quality videogaming. This is as good as it gets for Star Wars fans.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2005

Probably The Best Star Wars Game To Date!

The Good
Great graphics, sound effects, and gameplay. Cinematics are not to bad. You get to play the Battle of Endor from the Return of the Jedi! Wide variety of missions and goals. Great battles. Multiplayer is no to bad. Good sense of complexity. Flying all those cool ships from Star Wars is very cool.

The Bad
Some of the beginning missions basicly suck. Some missions drag, drag, and drag. Multiplayer can get a little laggy and all you get to use for "maps" is just plane space. Yawn! You must have a joystick to play.

The Bottom Line
Has some flaws, but great eye candy. If you like Star Wars, this one is for you. Probably the best Star Wars simulator to date!

Overall Rating: 90%

Windows · by MasterAbyss-ESB (11) · 2000

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

One of the first "e-mail" you receive in the game is about "Alliance Net". To quote:

Welcome to Allaince.reb, the largest network service in the galaxy. Your account has been processed and is now ready for use. To solve problems, contact: [email protected] To cause problems, contact: [email protected].

H.Voolai Human and Other Resources

This had me chuckling for days. :-)

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter
Released 1997 on Windows
Star Wars: Yoda Stories
Released 1997 on Windows, 1999 on Game Boy Color
Star Wars: Rebellion
Released 1998 on Windows
Star Wars: X-Wing
Released 1993 on DOS
Star Wars: X-Wing - Collector's CD-ROM
Released 1994 on DOS, 1998 on Windows, 2014 on Linux
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Released 1992 on Game Boy, NES, 2021 on Antstream
Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Released 1994 on SNES, Game Boy, 1995 on Game Gear...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1126
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JubalHarshaw.

Additional contributors: Kasey Chang, Abi79, Duduzets, Plok.

Game added March 23, 2000. Last modified March 3, 2024.