Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

aka: Wing Commander IV: Mekhir ha-Khofesh, Wing Commander IV: O Preço da Liberdade
Moby ID: 343
DOS Specs
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Christopher Blair, "Heart of the Tiger" had retired to a farming planet after the war, content with retirement, so he says... In the depths of space, a new menace has surfaced. Some unknown attackers are killing civilian ships. The tension between the Confederation and the Border Worlds is at an all time high, as both sides accuse the other of staging the attacks. Admiral Tolwyn has recalled Blair back to service, where he will make the most difficult choice of all... And contemplate action he had never dared before, in the name of justice...

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom is a mix of interactive movie and space sim. The game has a dynamic mission tree, which means the player's behaviour will determine the next mission. The videos feature real actors, like Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson, John Rhys-Davies and Malcolm McDowell. Before the start of each mission, the space craft can be equipped with different weapons. Sometimes the mission objectives change during flight, and the player has to make decisions what he wants to do next, e.g. help out his friend or destroy an enemy fighter.

Spellings

  • Wing Commander IV: מחיר החופש - Hebrew spelling
  • 银河飞将4:自由的代价 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 36 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 80 ratings with 6 reviews)

Better than most are willing to admit.

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.

DOS · by Zovni (10504) · 2001

Is it a movie or a game?

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.

DOS · by Olivier Masse (443) · 1999

This is a game?

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.

PlayStation · by Anatole (58) · 2001

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
How do I run this game in WinME?? Darkon Jan 22, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cast

  • Now well-known actor Casper Van Dien ("Sleepy Hollow", "Starship Troopers") got his first non-TV role in a bit part for this game. Officially dubbed "Confed Pilot #3," he can be spotted during one of the early cinematics as Blair and Maniac first board their new carrier.
  • The non-speaking pilots on the roster are mostly Origin employees on the WC IV project. For example, Anthony "Yaeger" Sommers (QA Project Lead), Frank "Turbo" Roan (Lead Programmer), and more.

Extras

Creative Labs included a special DVD version of this game with their original DVD drives that included higher quality recompressed video.

Novelization

There is a novelization of the game published by Baen Books.

Production cost

As of June 2000, WC IV held the record for most expensive video game ever made. Dissatisfied with the blue-screened video of #3, Chris Roberts decided he wanted to build full-sized sets for the game. The end result was around $10 million dollars spent. By comparison, that's roughly what the original Star Wars movie cost. As of 2002, WC IV is the second most expensive game after Shenmue.

Removed content

One scene got cut out of the final game. The scene, which shows Wilford telling Blair to board a Black Lance Transport was never released in any official form, but can be found around the net. Be warned that since the scene was cut out at the last minute it is already encoded, meaning you'll need Xanmovie to play it, just like any other WC IV movie file (Xanmovie can be found on Origin's Crusader: No Regret).

Story issue

In a rare "script ignore" for the Wing Commander series, if 2nd Lt. Troy "Catscratch" Carter (played by Mark Dacascos, also of several movies including "Le Pacte des loups" (Brotherhood of the Wolf), survives his final mission, he absolutely disappears from the rest of the game. No mention is made of his fate at all and he is no longer available as a wingman. Lt. Velina Sosa, who is his love interest and is quite upset should he die, never mentions his mysterious disappearance from the ship. Also, his name disappears from the killboard. Normally, when a pilot is killed, "KIA" is written next to their name and their stats remain. But Catscratch, for all intents and purposes, is erased from existence if he actually survives the one mission he doesn't complete properly.

Windows 95 Patch

A Windows 95 patch is available that makes the game run smoother and look better when playing under Windows 95.

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Jason Musgrave, John Chaser, Kasey Chang, WizardX, and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

PlayStation 3, PSP added by Lance Boyle. PS Vita added by Charly2.0. Windows added by 80. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz. Macintosh added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Olivier Masse, Unicorn Lynx, chirinea, Alaka, CaesarZX, Picard, FatherJack.

Game added November 1, 1999. Last modified March 19, 2024.