Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

The Good
As most Wing Commander games, this one makes a technological quantum leap in comparison with it's predecessors. Better sound, graphics (notably the ground missions, which are no longer fought on dull deserts), fmv, faster gameplay, etc...

Better mission design with creative touches that range from good to great, such as tailing enemy ships, sneaking on an enemy base, detaining convoys, etc. completely overshadowing those of WC3.

And most notably of all: the story. WC4 has the best story in all the series, succesfully tackling the "what now?" question made evident after the end of WC3 without the need to resort to another typical bad-alien invasion. WC1 was the typical kill-the-little-green-men affair, WC2 used the same concept but darkened the whole game by adding more character development, and personal crisis to the mix, while WC3 simply was "dark" because the good guys were losing the fight. WC4 takes even more of the character development and personal crisis mantra and adds to that a story filled with conspiracies, political backstabbings, and shows us the fanatical minds of the so-called "heroes". Were do you draw the line between doing the right thing and fanatically following orders? The consequences to your actions become even more somber than in the previous installments, as there is no clear enemy to fight this time, and your opponents cease to be the bad aliens and become either opressed farmers, or unknowing soldiers.

Granted, it's no masterpiece of literary fiction, but it's still a great story and makes a great allegory, certainly raising the stakes when compared to other WC games, after all in which other WC game the final battle is waged not in space, but in a senate hearing?. WC4 was all about making a statement, and bringing a more mature and serious closure to the sci-fi series. The question behind every great struggle: We won...now what? is answered perfectly in this game. And it's that why it's the most memorable WC I've played.

The Bad
There are a lot of flaws in this game, but first of all let me clarify why so many bash this game. WC4 is the most ambitious, over-glorified, expensive and extensive WC ever. No other WC (and very few other games indeed) so proudly presents itself as the "Biggest, baddest interactive movie ever". And tough those last words once meant something good, the shameless exploitation of FMV has brought a karma to anything labeling itself as an interactive movie equal only to the leper or pox. WC4 would have certainly benefited from a more humble aproach, but the reason why most people hate this game is because "it's the most expensive game ever" and "it's on 6 stupid cds" etc.etc.etc. Reasons which are just as legitimate as saying "because!"

Having said that, let's now look at the REAL bad points in the game:

While there are some really good and imaginative missions, the game is filled with what seems to be filler material, the same crappy "patrol/ kill all baddies" missions that plagued WC3 (but somehow nobody ever mentions) are back with a vengueance, and of the 50+ missions, 15-20 are the good ones, tops.

The game balancing is all screwed up, sure we all know that Blair is the super-duper Heart of the Tiger and whatever, and he chooses his own ship, his weapons, wingmen, underwear, etc. But given WC4's ridiculously unimaginative weapons and ships they should have added some sort of restrictions concerning what you get to choose. There's no fun if you always go out with the Dragon stocked with nothing but IR missiles and with the same wingman over and over. Also I've heard complaints (see other reviews) that the game is too hard for newbies. Personally I had no problem playing trough the game, and found WC3's final missions way harder than anything in here, but who the hell am I, right?

Maniac's character is completely over-used. The reason he was so popular in WC3 was because he contrasted so much with Blair, and added a nice color to every sequence he was in. In here Maniac's portrayed as Blair's irreverent buddy, providing comedy relief, and being nothing short of a sidekick while, in order to spice up his character, taken on philosophical trips of epic proportions... essentially, nothing like the guy seen on WC3, or Prophecy, were he mercilessly is seen tormenting your character. I guess I should take this as an opportunity to mention that the story, as good as it is, still falls into the occasional cliché pitfalls, and there are many inconsistencies (ie. why in the hell does Maniac, or Blair, release Tolwyn???) which are just way too convenient.

Last but not least, it's not necesary to see the WC movie to see how bad Chris Roberts is at directing. Somebody should have told Chris that lingering for 10-20 seconds with each character after they have said their thing gives no dramatic effect at all (see Eisen's briefings for example). Thus he regularly kills potentially good cutscenes by making them boring, uninspired affairs. I'm not asking Kurosawa here, but you needn't go so far for comparisons, the average Babylon 5 episode would sufice when it comes to the camera work, etc. especially since this time they had real sets and all.

The Bottom Line
To finalize, yes, Wing Commander 4 is an over-bloated, expensive, and noisy game. But that alone is no reason to hate it. If you are willing to sit through it, you'll be rewarded with a magnificient story and some excellent, if not always imaginative, action gaming. Everyone praises WC3 because it did the interactive movie-thing first, but make no mistake, WC4 did it better. And it's a better game too.

The Good
Be aware, that when you buy Wing Commander IV, you are not getting a game trying to be a movie. You are getting a movie trying to be a game. So let's talk about the movie.

The plot follows Christopher Blair (nee Bluehair) as he is called out of retirement to put down a rebellion by the Border Colonies. Eventually, he winds up joining the terrorists and attempting to stop the mad General Tolwyn, and his secret force of pilots wielding devastating bioweapons.

The game essentially features about 20 minutes of 'choose your own adventure' type interactive movie watching, followed by a briefing, and then a mission. Overall, the transition between movie and game is obvious (no MGS-style smooth cuts here) and it's easy to see where the production values went. A cornucopia of B-list sci-fi actors are assembled, including Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies, and Tom Wilson, all playing the only characters they ever seem to play (weary hero, psycho, well-meaning ally, annoying moron). And while the sound is excellent stereo, the video quality is, well, CD-level.

I must say, the movie is not bad by any means, the plot isn't original and Chris Roberts' direction seldom moves past the 'competent' level, but it would be a good popcorn flick if you didn't have to grab a controller every few minutes to make a decision or fly a ship. And it's definitely better then Wing Commander the movie (that movie NEVER HAPPENED, you hear me?)

The Bad
Game? Oh yes, the game. As I said, it's easy to see where the money was spent, and the end result is a gaming experience that is just plain bad, the console equivalent to Ultima IX. But here it's not bugs, it's simply a very poor engine. The low-resolution of the PSX results in a grainy HUD that could have been done better on a Vectrex. All the ship models are laughably pixilated and have ridiculously low polygon counts, especially the cap ships. And trying to map a game designed for a PC keyboard onto an eight-button controller just does not work. Cockpit communication is almost impossible thanks to the lousy control, very frustrating because two of the game's most major plot decisions have to be made in-flight.

To add insult to injury, invulnerability is not a cheat, but a gameplay option right off the top, which is Origin admitting the only reason we would play through the game would be to get to the next bit of movie, and letting us stroll trough these sections as quick as possible. Ugh.

The Bottom Line
If you want to see Mark Hamill in a B-grade sci-fi movie, save yourself $36 and go rent Guyver. This series peaked in it's second iteration, and it's sad to see another Origin franchise go out with a limp.

The Good
This was something of a watershed - at the time, it received rave reviews and was very popular, without being any good. Basically a cross between a cheap, made-for-tv sci-fi show and a space shoot-em-up, this was inferior to the contemporary 'Tie Fighter' in every way except for the texture-mapped, processor-hogging graphics.

Still, it's nice to see Malcolm McDowell.

The Bad
Where to start? The flight model was no more advanced than that of 'Star Raiders', and it was obvious by this time that the creators were more interested in the FMV than the game, but lacked the skill to make the drama compelling - the end result is a shoddy space shoot-em-up crossed with a cheap b-picture. 'Privateer 2' did much the same, but seemed to understand that it was never going to be art, and was therefore much more fun. And whilst it is the most expensive computer game ever, the budget was still nowhere near that of a proper film.

The Bottom Line
A technical showcase that has no value as a game whatsoever.

The Good
It was a fantastic space simulator and has a fantastic choose your own adventure storyline where every choice can effect the outcome. It has the feeling of both a game and a movie, all welled into one. Much more than it's predecessor. It also has amazing music.

The Bad
Not a thing. It was fantastic.

The Bottom Line
A fast paced and action packed space simulator where you control a fighter wing and a ship's crew, every choice you make effects their lives.

The Good
Actually, not much. The only thing that could justify paying for this game when it was released was the great amount of cinematographic content which was a way to show off your new Pentium back then. The movie sequences were pretty impressive! Some scenes were filmed depending on what you chose to say or do, and I found that nice to finally be able to control a movie character.

The Bad
The action sequences were just too plain hard for me to spend weeks trying to get a hold of them. Since there's no diversity in them, the only thing that kept me going was the tentation to see a new cut scene.

This game is spilled on seven - yes, seven CD-ROMs. Swapping CDs is like going back in the eighties when you had no space left on your 20 meg hard drive and had to swap floppy disks in order to play games which took increasing real estate. If I still had this game, I should try to burn it on a DVD just to get rid of these nasty memories.

The Bottom Line
Origin often surprised us with technological breakthroughs. This one pushed the term "interactive movie" even further by letting us spend more time looking at multimedia content than playing the game. I heard rumors that the game cost a whole bunch of money to create, which is clearly due to the large amount of film in it. The actors must have got as bored as much as those involved in Star Wars as it is obvious that they spent a lot of time in front of blue screens.

While this game is really something the first time you see it considering it was released in 1995, you quickly get bored and the gaming sequences aren't good enough to keep you interested.

Chris Roberts finally had its chance at directing a real WC feature movie in 1998, but you can see that creating a movie, not a game, was his trip with WC4. I can't really blame him as he brought us great games before that.

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.