Wing Commander II (PC, 1991)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8/6.5* Control-6.5** Challenge-8 Story-7
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*FM sound
**Mouse+KB
+
Can import pilot data from the previous game
A bit smoother framerate in-game
Voice acting in major cutscenes and during combat
P&C hub interface on the HQ ship (save slots - can add comments to your saves here, score board (behind the bar) and medal screen (in your locker))
RPG/Adventure aspects (well-developed characters for the time, talking team mates, the game continues when a team mate dies during a mission and has NPCs talking about them afterwards and even plays a funeral cutscene)
The game also generally continues if you fail a mission without dying (mission tree system with some storyline variations)
Radio communication with team mates lets you give orders during a mission (stay in formation, break formation and attack, attack my target, etc.)
Basic mission rankings
Good map system (click a location to have a crosshair appear on the in-game radar and main screen)
Can have the camera chase your missiles up until impact (not recommended unless you know you’ll hit and won’t be taking damage)
Pretty nice art direction outside of missions
Nice cutscenes overall (some CGI and pre-rendered elements here but it generally blends in pretty well)
More cutscenes and scripted events during missions
Some enemies will communicate with you in-game
Lock-on missiles (need to be behind the enemy though)
Weapon inventory (cycle with W (missiles) and G (guns))
Skip dialogue on a per sentence basis during dialogue and mission briefings (sometimes a sentence appears for less time though which can make you accidentally skip a sentence)
Switch between targets (T)
Decent mission variation
Your team mates are actually pretty useful (unlike in Star Fox) – not all of them are good though
Auto-pilot (A) triggers a short cutscene in which your ship moves towards the next objective (lets you skip longer distances, can't be used if hazards are nearby)
Can eject yourself from your ship (to surrender instead of dying)
Get new ships and weapons as the game progresses
Somewhat improved animation
Afterburner/turbo boost (costs more fuel) - Spy Hunter, Super Hang-On
Fairly complex story (part of the enemy fleet has joined your side when you begin but one of them later appears to be a spy, main character struggles with his superiors not trusting him)
Can accelerate and decelerate
+/-
Less open-ended structure (fewer mission tree branches and sometimes if you lose a mission it'll end the game, most characters can't die)
Starts off pretty difficult (you’ll quickly die from asteroid hits, need to quickly learn the controls and radio communication + giving orders)
Can’t save during a mission (they’re fairly long)
Pretty low res and pixelated in-game ships
Need to use both mouse and keyboard or steering gets weird while firing using KB only (or you can use a joystick but will also need to use KB shortcuts fairly frequently)
Very limited missile ammo
Some enemies will escape if you don’t kill them quickly enough
A kill isn’t shared if the team mate gets the last shot?
Fuel and power meters
Pretty diverse cast (female and non-white pilots and superiors make up about half of it, one character from another species)
-
No control over which ship you'll use in the next mission (the game often switches craft and sometimes creates difficulty spikes by picking a worse ship and there's no training arcade cabinet in this one)
No bar or equivalent and the NPC interaction is on rails besides combat communication
Interface/control issues (overly sensitive menus - sometimes you'll trigger the next story scene when closing the save menu or go right into save or load when clicking the save menu screen, can't review briefing text during missions, can't skip voice acted cutscene dialogue on a per sentence basis and you need to press Space+LMB to skip an entire cutscene, can't check what the controls are in-game, can't pick restart during a mission (need to die first), can’t quit with Alt+F4 or pressing escape to enter a main menu (need to click the exit door in the barracks or press Alt+X), no sound or control config, KB vertical movement is inverted while mouse movement isn’t, somewhat sloppy hit detection near larger ships and for mines (also inconsistent near regular enemy ships - sometimes you can pretty much fly through an enemy and sometimes it'll kill you), need to manually keep track of victory points (handed out when completing sub objectives during a mission) – need a certain amount per area to get a win in that area (moving you down a different path through the game), no quest log/journal, the alternate views are pretty much useless since you can’t simultaneously view the radar while using them)
No reaction from your avatar when Liz gets shot down in the fourth mission
No tutorial (there is an in-game arcade machine for training but it doesn’t give you any instructions and you easily die, need to use the radio to be able to dock the home base after finishing a mission – might as well have been automated here too since it's you don't even need to target a specific part of the base ship)
So-so draw distance for asteroids
Ship damage is still too unforgiving and random (can randomly take out weapons/take out the radar/break the ejection system/make you slow down a lot/remove parts of the interface (this last one also causes a constant noise to trigger until the mission is over which is very annoying))
The cockpit still takes up most of the view in-game (just a little bit less than in WC1)
Some voice acting could've been better
Very short second mission
Some slowdown with too many enemies on screen (5+; also affects control responsiveness)
Somewhat muffled explosion sfx
Bugs:
-Sometimes crashes (Win10, GOG)
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-6.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*FM sound
**Mouse+KB
+
Can import pilot data from the previous game
A bit smoother framerate in-game
Voice acting in major cutscenes and during combat
P&C hub interface on the HQ ship (save slots - can add comments to your saves here, score board (behind the bar) and medal screen (in your locker))
RPG/Adventure aspects (well-developed characters for the time, talking team mates, the game continues when a team mate dies during a mission and has NPCs talking about them afterwards and even plays a funeral cutscene)
The game also generally continues if you fail a mission without dying (mission tree system with some storyline variations)
Radio communication with team mates lets you give orders during a mission (stay in formation, break formation and attack, attack my target, etc.)
Basic mission rankings
Good map system (click a location to have a crosshair appear on the in-game radar and main screen)
Can have the camera chase your missiles up until impact (not recommended unless you know you’ll hit and won’t be taking damage)
Pretty nice art direction outside of missions
Nice cutscenes overall (some CGI and pre-rendered elements here but it generally blends in pretty well)
More cutscenes and scripted events during missions
Some enemies will communicate with you in-game
Lock-on missiles (need to be behind the enemy though)
Weapon inventory (cycle with W (missiles) and G (guns))
Skip dialogue on a per sentence basis during dialogue and mission briefings (sometimes a sentence appears for less time though which can make you accidentally skip a sentence)
Switch between targets (T)
Decent mission variation
Your team mates are actually pretty useful (unlike in Star Fox) – not all of them are good though
Auto-pilot (A) triggers a short cutscene in which your ship moves towards the next objective (lets you skip longer distances, can't be used if hazards are nearby)
Can eject yourself from your ship (to surrender instead of dying)
Get new ships and weapons as the game progresses
Somewhat improved animation
Afterburner/turbo boost (costs more fuel) - Spy Hunter, Super Hang-On
Fairly complex story (part of the enemy fleet has joined your side when you begin but one of them later appears to be a spy, main character struggles with his superiors not trusting him)
Can accelerate and decelerate
+/-
Less open-ended structure (fewer mission tree branches and sometimes if you lose a mission it'll end the game, most characters can't die)
Starts off pretty difficult (you’ll quickly die from asteroid hits, need to quickly learn the controls and radio communication + giving orders)
Can’t save during a mission (they’re fairly long)
Pretty low res and pixelated in-game ships
Need to use both mouse and keyboard or steering gets weird while firing using KB only (or you can use a joystick but will also need to use KB shortcuts fairly frequently)
Very limited missile ammo
Some enemies will escape if you don’t kill them quickly enough
A kill isn’t shared if the team mate gets the last shot?
Fuel and power meters
Pretty diverse cast (female and non-white pilots and superiors make up about half of it, one character from another species)
-
No control over which ship you'll use in the next mission (the game often switches craft and sometimes creates difficulty spikes by picking a worse ship and there's no training arcade cabinet in this one)
No bar or equivalent and the NPC interaction is on rails besides combat communication
Interface/control issues (overly sensitive menus - sometimes you'll trigger the next story scene when closing the save menu or go right into save or load when clicking the save menu screen, can't review briefing text during missions, can't skip voice acted cutscene dialogue on a per sentence basis and you need to press Space+LMB to skip an entire cutscene, can't check what the controls are in-game, can't pick restart during a mission (need to die first), can’t quit with Alt+F4 or pressing escape to enter a main menu (need to click the exit door in the barracks or press Alt+X), no sound or control config, KB vertical movement is inverted while mouse movement isn’t, somewhat sloppy hit detection near larger ships and for mines (also inconsistent near regular enemy ships - sometimes you can pretty much fly through an enemy and sometimes it'll kill you), need to manually keep track of victory points (handed out when completing sub objectives during a mission) – need a certain amount per area to get a win in that area (moving you down a different path through the game), no quest log/journal, the alternate views are pretty much useless since you can’t simultaneously view the radar while using them)
No reaction from your avatar when Liz gets shot down in the fourth mission
No tutorial (there is an in-game arcade machine for training but it doesn’t give you any instructions and you easily die, need to use the radio to be able to dock the home base after finishing a mission – might as well have been automated here too since it's you don't even need to target a specific part of the base ship)
So-so draw distance for asteroids
Ship damage is still too unforgiving and random (can randomly take out weapons/take out the radar/break the ejection system/make you slow down a lot/remove parts of the interface (this last one also causes a constant noise to trigger until the mission is over which is very annoying))
The cockpit still takes up most of the view in-game (just a little bit less than in WC1)
Some voice acting could've been better
Very short second mission
Some slowdown with too many enemies on screen (5+; also affects control responsiveness)
Somewhat muffled explosion sfx
Bugs:
-Sometimes crashes (Win10, GOG)