WizardX

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Speech Accessory Pack (DOS)

Most influential addon ever?

The Good
The revelation of this Speech Pack cannot be overstated. In 1991, sound cards were still considered something of a luxury commodity, and most gamers were content with the beeps coming out of their PC box. However, all it took was one session with a fully-speech enabled Wing Commander 2 to sell Sound Blasters by the dozen. At the time, the level of immersion it added to the game was entirely unparallelled. And I'll always remember my amazed reaction the first time I heard a wingman spot an oncoming enemy and shout "Oh S@#$!" It was likely the biggest single step forward in game immersion up to that point, arguably the biggest ever.

The Bad
Some of the wingman vocal performances were pretty bad, but that didn't matter. They were TALKING! (and most of them were surprisingly good, considering the actors were just Origin employees hauled off to a recording booth)

The Bottom Line
Well, it is nothing but a historical curiosity now, since all subseqent editions of Wing Commander 2 came on CD with the pack pre-installed. But it represents a real turning point in PC gaming and should be remembered for that.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Super Smash Bros.: Melee (GameCube)

Crack on a 3-inch DVD

The Good
Above all other things, this is quite possibly the greatest multiplayer game ever conceived. I have a group of friends that meet regularly for sessions, and we are always up until insane hours of the night, and have logged hundreds of hours. Between the huge number of characters and levels, and the sheer chaos of the game, it never grows stale. (Even as we've burned out on other "party" games within a couple days)

The play dynamics, as invented in the original Smash Bros, are still highly unique. Instead of simply playing "last man standing," the point is to knock as many players out of the ring as many times as possible. No one is removed from gameplay at any point for more than a few seconds, and last second comebacks are quite plausible. Furthermore, the game seems to almost equally reward skill and button-mashing - unless you're up against a Grand Master player, even newcomers will be able to hold their own while learning the ropes.

The one-player games are nearly as good. There are a multitude of different adventures, tournaments, and various challenges you can engage in. The "adventure" mode turns into an odd homage to side-scrolling adventures, with your character of choice running through levels inspired by all the games represented, along with certain important battles that come along. And there's always the option of simply playing battles against the computer - whose AI is quite good at the high levels.

The graphics, while not the best the Gamecube has seen, are pretty much as good as this sort of game would allow. Some of the levels are QUITE huge, and all the character animations are spot on. There's never any slowdown no matter how much is happening. Sound is similarly great - around half of the soundtrack is comprised of orchestral arrangements or classic game themes, performed by a full orchestra. And the various sound effects for the characters are spot-on as well. (I take great demented glee in the pathetic "Piikkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaa" when Pikachu sails into the sunset)

The Bad
My one big complaint is how they make you jump through hoops to unlock the hidden characters and levels. I hate that, and some of the trials they put you through are nearly impossible. You will be made to log a lot of hours with the game, some of them very frustrating (cough15 minute battlecough) to open up all the secrets.

Also, the game can be unforgiving to players with smaller TV sets. Some of the battlegrounds are so large that, if the camera pulls back all the way, it's virtually impossible to tell what's going on, or even who is who. (this effect is especially bad on the Hyrule castle level, leading to the occasional called truce as we move back to the center of the field)

The Bottom Line
In terms of entertainment and hours spent relative to cost, this is quite possibly the best game purchase I've ever made. Cannot be recommended strongly enough.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Final Fantasy III (SNES)

Possibly the best RPG ever made

The Good
Where to start? The graphics were simply incredible - some of the best ever seen on the SNES. Ditto for the music - Uematsu-san actually composed half an hour of an Opera for the game at one point. But primarily, the draw for this is in its excellent storyline and impressively complex characterizations. I wouldn't dream of spoiling it, but halfway through the game the plot takes a massive left turn which still leaves gamers gaping (in a good way) to this day. The sequence that follows is one of the most sombre and emotional I've seen in any video game ever - and they drug this level of involvement out of little 32x32 anime sprites! The plot is also non-linear compared to most Final Fantasies, with a number of quests that can be taken in any order you like before the game ends. And the subquests are far better than in most of the FFs - instead of silly diversions like breeding chocobos, most of the subplots are character-centric as well. By the end of the game, you are forced to be fond of your entire party. Everything about this is excellent.

The Bad
One tiny little irritation in the game design - call this a warning. You must level up all your characters or you won't make it through the endgame. If you, like me, are the sort of gamer who prefers to focus on one single "supergroup" and ignore the rest, this could result in greatly extended play times right when you're wanting to reach the end.

The Bottom Line
A utter classic which must be played by anyone with the slightest interest in Japanese-style RPGs.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Space Hulk (DOS)

Brilliantly involving and scary game

The Good
"I told them to fall back... I told them to fall back..." Despite the primative graphics and 3D imagery, Space Hulk creates an incredible atmosphere. It's a squad-level tactical simulation where you send a group of marines in to clear out spaceships filled with chitinous xenomorphs. Yes, pretty much just like that one sequence in Aliens. To this day, I don't know quite what it was about the game which was so involving, but it sucked me in like I couldn't believe - to the point I was literally shouting commands at my screen when things went badly. (and oh, would they... walk into an ambush and you can see your squad vaped in a matter of seconds) The game also had an innovative blend of real-time and turn-based gameplay. Most of the game plays out in real-time, but you have a certain amount of replenishable time which you could use to pause the game and plot out strategies without being attacked. The balance on it was just about perfect - you always had just not QUITE as much time as you'd like, so even when it's paused, you are kept stressed. You could also switch between an overhead tactical view, and taking control of each Marine (or a group thereof) in first-person mode. Oh, and the background-story ambience added quite a bit too. The religious overtones made everything a bit more creepy - with your commander issuing orders like, "Let the purifying flame cleanse that vessel!"

The Bad
I got jittery after playing too long and generally had to take breaks to calm down. (I'm not kidding, it really was that immersive. And I generally don't get that "into" games) And I thought the difficulty could have been dialed down a bit - some of the missions, you basically have to memorize (through repeated deaths) where all the aliens would come from to be able to succeed.

The Bottom Line
It's difficult to get working on modern computers, but well worth the effort - and far better than its 1996 sequel, which managed to destroy all the gameplay balance.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Hostage: Rescue Mission (DOS)

Pretty good game, brilliantly advanced idea and design

The Good
For years, this was the only game remotely like this available - a tactical squad assault simulation. First you had to position your men in doorways where they could be used as snipers, then rappel your other team down the wall, and then break into the building to rescue hostages. You could freely switch between all three team members within the embassy, as well as the three snipers. This led to some interesting possibilities, like intentionally shooting out the windows early on and just picking terrorists off from afar. All in all, a truly great game for the day.

The Bad
As the other reviewer noted, it just couldn't handle being truly real-time. There were some weird places where it paused, such as when you start firing within the building. (I never saw this as too much of a problem - if you're letting loose with a machine gun a 5-foot range, things aren't going to turn into a shootout. Whoever fires first, wins) And unless you got REALLY creative, the snipers were virtually useless. It was quite difficult to tell the hostages from the terrorists. And the step-by-step 3D could sometimes be disorientating, but that's typical of games of the time.

The Bottom Line
Groundbreaking game. It probably could have been a bit better, but for years this was a completely unique - and enjoyable - piece of software.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Dragon's Lair (DOS)

Bizarre

The Good
The "full-screen" animation was quite impressive for the time...

The Bad
One word: WHY? Who EVER thought it would be a good idea to port a fully-animated Laserdisc game to the PC in 1989? While the graphics were, in fact, quite impressive given how much power the PCs didn't have, they still looked awful most of the time. And there was pretty much no sound at all. Plus they had to chop out huge loads of the game to fit it onto a reasonable number of floppies. And that's without even getting into the "gameplay," which is still infamous to this day. Watch the animation, and when you think Dirk is about to be in trouble, hit an arrow key and hope you made him jump the right way. That's it.

The Bottom Line
See this game as evidence that no idea, no matter how bad, cannot make it to market.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen (PC Booter)

A good idea wwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy ahead of its time

The Good
I was 10 when I picked this up. The idea of an interactive comic book on my computer was just too cool for words. And it was actually pretty good. The writing was no worse (snicker) than most comics of the time, and the interactivity was a big bonus - there were a lot of branching points, and you had to go through it quite a number of times to see everything. Plus the graphic effects to simulate a comic book were pretty nifty. (vector-scaled zoom-ins on "panels" and such)

The Bad
The CGA graphics were pretty bad, although I'm not sure if an EGA version of this would have been do-able on computers of the day. (still a lot of 4 mhz machines out there) And the PC beeper sound effects were horrible - even 10 year old me recognized that.

The Bottom Line
Had Infocom waited on this a couple years for technology to improve, it could have done well. The low price could have been to its advantage if properly marketed. Alas, it didn't happen - but these are definately the precursors to the CD-ROM "Interactive Movies" we all came to know and loathe.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)

Button-mashing raised to the level of art

The Good
The game is absolutely insane. It's one you just have to see in action to appreciate. Especially on the turbo modes, the amount of stuff happening onscreen is simply boggling, what with characters leaping up and down the playfield, letting loose screen-sized super blasts, tagging in and out with other members, etc etc. Frenetic to the extreme.
The huge cast of characters also helps, with very few dupes, and the method of unlocking new characters is excellent. (no achieving nearly-impossible goals; you simply get "points" whenever you play the game which can be used to purchase new characters and levels) All of them are excellently animated, and display loads of personality true to their sources. (all of the graphics are great, outside of the final boss being oddly pixelated) The controls are also spot-on, although it did leave me wishing that the DC controller had more buttons. Even in full turbo mode, I never felt like it was misinterpreting my commands.

The Bad
The chaotic nature of the game virtually destroys any sense of strategy. While it IS possible to become a Zen Master at the game, in the end, ESPECIALLY in two-player mode, it becomes a button-mashing contest. This doesn't really doesn't hurt the game at all, as far as I'm concerned, and just adds to the overall insanity, but people who prefer more thoughtful fighting games (like the Street Fighter series) will likely disagree. Ultimately, this is a game to pull out for grins and for the experience, not to become a black belt with. The sound is also extremely weak. The music is horribly bland, and more vocal samples are desperately needed. (you'll be ready to throttle the announcer by the 20th time you hear, "I can't believe it! You're amazing!")

The Bottom Line
Fighting Game crack. To this day, unbeaten in terms of sheer visual insanity and chaotic energy.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon (DOS)

Great fun for masochists

The Good
The graphics and sounds were quite good for their time. The ability to see your home base and talk to your computer added to the immersion factor. And driving a hover-tank is simply fun.

The Bad
Dear God, WHY is it so hard? Stellar 7 had a very nice gameplay balance, ramping up to be pretty difficult (but winnable) by the end. This game, however, starts out by kicking you in the head a few times, and then continues to gloat over your body every time you die. The addition of puzzles alongside the huge multitude of things killing you was pure sadism. I don't know anyone who even managed to get halfway through the game.

The Bottom Line
Hard as a frickin' rock. While probably not as insanely difficult as Shadow of the Beast, it's well up there.

By WizardX on July 15, 2003

Inca (DOS)

Among the weirdest games ever

The Good
The plot is wacked-out to the point of incomprehensibility. Imagine the Inca civilization never died out, but rose to be a starfaring race. You are El Dorado, flying a ship shaped like a statue, racing to beat Cortez (who flies a Spanish Galleon in space) to obtain... something or other. The game starts off trippy and just gets more surreal as it goes on. It, on the whole, mixes a number of different genres (including combat flight sim, inventory puzzles, and maze exploration) with a fairly high degree of efficiency. It's also very strange. The graphics were quite good for the day, and hold up today just in terms of their uniqueness. (outside of the sequel, there simply has not been another game that looks remotely like this) And did I mention it was just plain WEIRD?

The Bad
Some of the arcade sequences get quite difficult, and the overall mix of gaming styles is likely to turn off gamers who aren't proficient with both their wits and their reflexes. The ship's computer voice gets annoying. The "puzzle" sequences are logical, but like most puzzles of the day, can be solved just through persistant clicking.

The Bottom Line
If you can find a copy and a computer capable of playing it, it's worth the experience simply for the sheer oddness of the game. I'm honestly surprised it doesn't have a cult following; it's the sort of game that lovers of the bizarre would flock to.

By WizardX on July 14, 2003

XF5700 Mantis Experimental Fighter (DOS)

An ambitious, but failed, experiment

The Good
The best thing about this game is that it attempted what no flight sim before (and very few since) had tried: a space combat simulator using a realistic physics model. There was decent fun to be had just in flying around your station. (and the model was quite solid given processors of the time - even firing your machine gun caused a slight backwards force) Also, its attempt to use digitized movies was extremely advanced for the time, and pretty much unmatched until CD-ROMs became standard. The opening cinematic, with its depiction of how the war started, was especially effective.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the attempt at realistic space combat just didnotwork. It was virtually impossible to dogfight in any traditional sense - you just ended up taking missile pot-shots from several kilometers away. Actual manned flight was extremely difficult, and you just ended up using your onboard computer for everything. This is probably realistic, but didn't make for a very fun game. Most of the missions got very repetitive, and has been discussed, the difficulty at the end ramped up to the point of insanity. I suppose proficiency with manual flight is possible, but would require months of practice. It had many plot ideas which COULD have been interesting if explored, but it felt incomplete. One subplot, for example, involved you being snagged by a higher being of great power and made into an experiment, several times. Except this plot vanishes from the game and is never resumed. (well, it's possible it is at the end; I got about 90% through it and could proceed no further - I almost got the feeling they never planned on anyone managing to complete the game) And while the videos were ambitious for their time, the acting was beyond atrocious. Simply painful to watch.

The Bottom Line
This is still, probably, the closest thing we've got to a Babylon 5 flight sim, since the official game was cancelled. (although there are a couple fan projects aiming to do it) People with an interest in a realistic handling of space combat might enjoy the experience, but it's simply too dry to be considered a fun game.

By WizardX on July 14, 2003

Star Control 3 (DOS)

Simply terrible.

The Good
Umm.... Duhhhhhhhhh... Tell me about the rabbits, George.

The Bad
Where to begin? The gameplay is a joke, all around. The Strategy element is dull, and waiting for colonies to produce fuel for your mothership causes the game to drag horribly. The plot is excrutiatingly linear, and while it may SEEM like you're doing things, in fact you're just cruising around waiting for the game's clock to hit Point X, at which point your computer pops up and tells you where to go next. The dialogue, when not ripped straight from SC2, is poor. The new alien races are almost uniformally poorly-thought out, and either stupid or excessively silly. The captured claymation video is almost always bad, and the humanoid characters are hideously deformed. Oh, and they absolutely destroyed the play dynamics of the series by attempting to move the gameplay into full 3D, and the new ships available to play throw the previously perfect balance of the battles way off. Finally, extra demerits for completely ruining what had been a wonderful series.

The Bottom Line
How would I describe this game to others? With words entirely inappropriate for a family site.

By WizardX on July 13, 2003

Star Control (DOS)

Great game for its day

The Good
At the time SC came out, it was unsurpassed in the depth of its play. Although the controls were fairly Arcade-like and simplistic, the balance of the different ships is nearly perfect. (and arguably unmatched even by SC2, which had a few too many ships) Not only was each ship completely distinctive, but the dynamics of the battle changed completely depending on which ships were in play. An Ur-Quan and a Chenjesu would have a long-distance slugging match without closing, whereas a Spathi and Arilou would have an insanely frenetic dogfight. And there was great joy in discovering particular strategies for each matchup. On a smaller note, the included strategy game section was entertaining, if simplistic.

The Bad
The AI is a bit dumb compared to SC2, but my guess is they programmed the AI in SC2 based on the more successful strategies discovered by players. (IE, the AI was about as good as could be expected) The rotating starfield in the strategy segment was INCREDIBLY difficult to learn, and many players never got the hang of it. (although if you could, it made the navigation a lot of fun)

The Bottom Line
Overall, this is a fun game with incredible amounts of replay ability. While it's easy to see all the game has to offer within a few hours, months could be spent exploring combat strategies.

By WizardX on July 13, 2003

Space Quest V: The Next Mutation (DOS)

The weakest Space Quest tries to be an all-out Trek spoof.

The Good
Um. Not much. Some of the graphics were pretty. And the space monkey bit was funny.

The Bad
Besides the fact it generally sucked? The humor was all but gone in this one, or at least the sarcastic one-liners which, for me, was the heart of Space Quest. It's left as a rather lame parody of Trek, trying to illicit chuckles with characters like the villianous "Captain Quirk." Har Har. Seeing Rog do the "Picard Tug" once when getting out of his seat is funny. Seeing him do it EVERY TIME he stands up gets old. Gameplay was equally shallow and uninvolving, broken up by some inane pseudo-arcade sequences that are just there to pad out the game. (the worst being one where you have an extremely limited amount of time to pick up a crewman stranded in space)

The Bottom Line
It should tell you something when this was one of the few Sierra games of its time for which they didn't shell out the money to do a talkie CD. Definately the low point in the series, and best skipped by all but the most die-hard Wilcoids.

By WizardX on June 10, 2000

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (DOS)

Possibly Roger's most creative adventure.

The Good
The overall plot was a riot. What happens if a game character is bounced around within his own gaming universe? ("With a glance at the status bar, you notice you're now in Space Quest Twelve") It also has some of the funnier (and sicker) gags of the series, especially if you're inclined to run around using the "tongue" icon on everything you see. Gary Owen's narration (on the CD-ROM) is spot-on perfect. The VGA graphics were very oddly stylizing, as though they couldn't decide if they wanted to be realistic or cartoony, so they tried both at once.

The Bad
The rest of the voice acting was pretty painful, as Sierra was still pulling programmers out of their cubicles to do the voices at this point. It's too short, and while a couple of the puzzles are nasty, overall it's a bit on the easy side. (although better than some of the other icon-based games they wrote) For modern gamers, good luck getting it to work - the timing of many of the bad guys is based on the system clock. In the opening scene, a kills-you-on-sight robot, which is only supposed to show up every 30 seconds to a minute, appears every four seconds on my 300 mhz machine. While it's possible to play it through, that's only if you know ahead of time exactly what to do. First time playing is probably impossible on a fast machine.

The Bottom Line
If you can disable your processor's internal cache (definately a "don't try this at home" stunt) or pull some other trick to slow down your machine, it's great fun to play, and one of the better entries in the SQ series.

By WizardX on June 10, 2000

Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier (Windows 3.x)

Hysterically funny, but not too much fun to play.

The Good
The humor. Period. This is almost certainly the funniest SQ game released, and almost every text box read by Gary Owens is hysterical. Their radio commercial jingle for "Soylent Clear" is an absolute classic. ("Less people too, like me and you, and less reprocessed waste!") There's nary a sci-fi movie (or game) made which isn't lampooned. And, unlike previous adventures, this is a rather lengthy game.

The Bad
The gameplay just didn't feel like Space Quest. The puzzles were way too convoluted for my taste, often with very little payoff. We're talking some on the level of Monkey Island 2, with you having to spend two days, solving a half-dozen puzzles (each with multiple steps), just to turn a lousy dial or something. (which, in turn, is just part of a bigger puzzle) The cartoony graphics sometimes worked really well, and sometimes fell flat.

The Bottom Line
If you can find it for cheap, it's worth picking up JUST for the humor. It's a shame this couldn't be made into a movie; it's far funnier than Spaceballs or any other parody.

By WizardX on June 10, 2000

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 2 (DOS)

If you liked all the others...

The Good
The ship it adds, The Morningstar, ROCKS. It's my all-time favorite ship in the whole of the WC universe. The tactical nuke missile it includes is just too much fun. Plus, Maniac returns, after only hearing rumors about him for the past two games. The final cutscene\cliffhanger was just too evil, and set up a 3-4 year wait for WC3 to finally arrive.

The Bad
Hello, beta-testers? The game appeared to have gone through a rigorous half an hour of testing before release. You know you're in trouble when even the installation program might crash. (note: this doesn't apply so much to the Win95 Kilrathi Saga version, which is more stable and installs just fine) The plot also felt somewhat thrown together, and its climatic mission is a joke - fire off your nuke at the space station and you win.

The Bottom Line
What's to say? Like all the other WC addons, it delivers exactly what it promises.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 1 (DOS)

More Wing Commander 2 - what else could you want?

The Good
It's an add-on disk. All the goodness of the original game, at half the price. Some of the new missions are pretty good. The plotline, involving a bunch of mutineers who (as it turns out) did the right thing, is good. (although I started missing the Concordia)

The Bad
The new ship added, The Crossbow, is absolutely worthless. Sure, it's got a lot of guns, but it couldn't maneuver, and worse, it didn't have afterburners. Basically combining the worst aspects of a bomber and a heavy fighter, it was what made some of the later missions difficult. Give us a Sabre and it'd be easy. The term "sitting duck" barely describes it. Also, like the Secret Missions for WC, it only adds 16 new missions - as opposed to the 32 or so in the original WC2.

The Bottom Line
If you have The Kilrathi Saga, you can download it for free. Why think too hard about this?

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2 - Crusade (DOS)

Yet another add-on disk for Wing Commander.

The Good
Yet more of the same. WC had most of the best and most creative missions of the series, and most of them were in this set. Getting to creep around in a Kilrathi ship undercover, trying to avoid fights, is something no other WC game has done. Plus, it was the first to have any sort of major plotline to it - the first two were rather straightforward affairs. (IE - there's a giant CapShip we have to hunt down and destroy) Finally, they hit a near-perfect balance with the difficulty - more difficult than the original, but not as incredibly hard as SM 1. This was also the first WC to have a speed-limiting function that made it playable on high end 386s and 486s.

The Bad
Same gripes apply to this as with SM 1 - no branching mission structure. Again, if you lose a mission, the game is over. And the cutscene showing a six-breasted Kilrathi priestess was somewhat disturbing. ;->

The Bottom Line
Liked the other two WCs? Get this.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions (DOS)

The first add-on disk for the original Wing Commander

The Good
It gave us exactly what it promised - an all-new 16 mission WC campaign for half the price. Considering the first WC game ran from 18-23 missions, depending on how you performed, it was a great deal. Plus, it upped the difficulty over the slightly-too-easy original.

The Bad
They probably upped the difficulty TOO much. Even those of us who played the original two or three times through before getting this got killed many, many times trying to make it through it. I spent more than 2 weeks struggling through it. The Gwenhyvar mission is probably the most-feared WC mission ever. Also, they dumped the branching plot structure of the first - after the first couple missions, if you lost one, the game was over.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the original, you'll like this. If you come across the Kilrathi Saga CD, it's worth downloading from Origin.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander: Armada (DOS)

The worst WC game made.

The Good
The multiplayer was fun, if you could get the modem routines to work. (which I never managed to at my own computer) The graphics were a revelation, considering we were coming off of the scaled & rotated bitmaps of all the other versions. And the music was good.

The Bad
Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay! The actual dogfighting is the worst I've seen in a flightsim since the NES Top Gun. Due to tweaked recharge rates and different gun powers, it's virtually impossible for a smaller ship to take out a bigger one. His shields will recharge faster than you can shoot him, while he wipes you out in a couple shots. Further, the comptuer only knows one move - the afterburner slide. He'll AB by you, turn, spin, and start shooting, then hit the 'burners, turn, etc. This is bad enough. What's worse is that, as WC fans well know, there's pretty much no countermove to keep him from doing this. Every fight simply becomes a slugging match between the two ships, with no way to stay on the computer's tail for long enough to kill him. The bigger guns win every time. The campaign mode was just as bad. It played like the original Star Control except that, again, it was impossible for a lighter craft to take out a bigger one. Luckily, the strategy AI was even more retarded than the dogfight, or the game would be difficult. Finally, while the graphics were nice at the time, it was painfully obvious the point of the game was more to tantalize you with what was to come - WC3 and it's high-res glory.

The Bottom Line
For the love of god, avoid it. These days, when the chances of getting a modern modem to work in DOS are virtually nil, there's no reason in the world to actually play it.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander Academy (DOS)

Filler to stave off fans who were enraged over the ending of Special Ops 2

The Good
There are times I just want to play some classic Wing Commander missions without mucking about with the storyline or trying to screw around with the debugging codes to find the one mission I want. I probably still play this about once every 6 months for that reason. The gameplay, AI, and graphics are all identical to WC2 - in fact, even the files are pretty much cross-compatable. (it's possible to fix the incorrect Maniac speech if you know what you're doing and have Spec Ops 2) The Gauntlet (which became a staple of future Origin flight sims) is fun, but it gets so challenging towards the end that only a couple ships stand a chance of getting through. Light or Medium fighters are gonna be toast by level 8, no matter how good you are.

The Bad
There's limited gameplay value. As another reviewer pointed out, the missions that can be designed are quite limited. Basically, it's your choice of dogfights. While you can come up with some ludicrously difficult missions, just to test yourself out (and let's face it, if you still have this, you're a WC freak) but that's about it. I agree the lack of flexibility may be to prevent people from designing their own games based around it. Otherwise, it's just WC2 without the plotline.

The Bottom Line
Why bother? It's difficult to find these days, whereas you can still come across WC2 with a little looking. Unless you find it for really cheap, it's not worth the effort.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Star Control II (DOS)

Not just best sci-fi, but possibly best *game* period.

The Good
Where to begin? Probably number one is the humor. For a game about genocide, revenge, misplaced loyalty, and possible galactic anihilation, it features some of the funniest alien dialogue ever seen in a game. Despite having played all the way through it 4 or 5 times, I'm still rolling every time I boot it up. (especially the Thraddash) Then there's the backstory. Few games have ever been given a universe as detailed as this, and it's absolutely mesmerizing the first time you play - especially when it forces you to realize that the supposedly All-Evil bad guys are far more sympathetic than you could imagine. The action sequences are wonderful, the exploration element is masterfully done, and the "SuperMelee" feature is almost too addictive for words. Plus one of the best soundtracks to ever appear in a game.

The Bad
The first portion of the game, building up your ship to the point you can survive combat, takes a little too long. It's not bad on the first try, but rather annoying upon replay. Also, while most would disagree with me, I think your ship gets too powerful by the end - you reach a point that you can basically incinerate any ship in space within five seconds. While, after a couple weeks of playing, it's nice to not have to worry about getting killed in random combat, once the novelty wears off it gets a bit tedious. (plus, by this point, you're kind of feeling sorry for all the Ur-Quan you're having to frag)

The Bottom Line
No matter what you have to beg, borrow, or steal, find a copy and play it. You probably won't play a better game ever.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (DOS)

Great production values, extremely low play value

The Good
The cinematics are great. In terms of style, writing, directing, and acting, they're probably still the high-water mark of computer movies. (that's really not a slight, this one truly is feature-film quality - better than the official movie by far) It's worth playing the game just to watch the film, especially Malcolm McDowell getting to chew the scenery with a glee he hasn't shown since A Clockwork Orange.

The Bad
The gameplay sucked. Period. Just about every mission was dull and generic - just swarms of bad guys all over you again and again. The difficulty level at "normal" is actually quite high, which would make it challenging, but you just can't care about the missions like you could in the old days. Even the new fighters were generally uninteresting. At least it didn't have 5-minute mission loads like its predecessor - I read entire books while playing that one.

The Bottom Line
If you have a chance to pick it up for cheap, snag it, set the difficulty to its lowest level, and spend a few days watching a sci-fi miniseries with brief pauses for carnage in-between. In that respect, it's still more entertaining than a large number of the sci-fi films at Blockbuster.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000

Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (DOS)

We sure waited a long time for this...

The Good
It was a solid game. We all waited nearly four years for the cliffhanger at the end of Special Ops 2 to be resolved, with mostly mediocre WC games coming out in the interim. At the time, the graphics were the best ever made, and the ability to get right up to a CapShip and fly down its length (or even inside it, Anakin-style) were wonderful. Plus, the use of the Strike Commander terrain engine for ground missions added depth that hadn't been there previously. Plus, of course, there were the ground-breaking cinematics with the best bunch of actors ever assembled for an "interactive movie." (and the full-sized anamatronics for the Kilrathi were impressive, even if they moved a bit too much like the Skeksis)

The Bad
It didn't feel like Wing Commander. The missions were fun, and generally had enough variety to be interesting, but somehow the tweak of gameplay that made WC distinctive was lost when they switched to polygons. (and never regained) Also, the script to the movie was more than a bit loose - it felt like they had two possible plotlines, and instead of picking the strongest, they strung them together with an extremely rough transition midway through. And, more bizarrely, a major plot twist (involving a surprise defection) is never explained - they decided to cut out the scene that let it all make sense.

The Bottom Line
Definately a turning-point in the computer industry; the first "interactive movie" style game that anyone took seriously and the first that the actors involved could list on their resumes without shame. Due to the somewhat dated gameplay, it's probably best played for the sake of the movie, but entertaining for that purpose.

By WizardX on June 9, 2000