Wing Commander (PC, 1990)
Graphics-7 Sound-8/7* Control-7 Challenge-8 Story-6.5?
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-6.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7?
*FM sound
+
Weaves what you’d expect to be menus into a point and click interface (save slots, training arcade cabinet, score board (behind the bar) and medal screen (in your locker))
RPG/Adventure aspects (well-developed characters for the time, manually talk to NPCs between missions, 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 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
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
Switch between targets with T
Some enemies will communicate with you in-game
Decent mission variety
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 eject yourself from your ship (to surrender instead of dying)
Get new ships and weapons as the game progresses
Can accelerate and decelerate
+/-
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?
If you know the mission tree well you can cheat its win/loss system and get to the good ending by skipping most of the game (by ejecting during missions) – you can eject in all Venice/final area missions as long as you get to it
-
Ship damage is too unforgiving (can randomly take out weapons/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 alternate views are pretty much useless since you can’t simultaneously view the radar while using them
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 since you only need to move near its opening after requesting permission to land)
Some control/interface issues (slow mouse pointer in the base, can’t quit with Alt+F4 or pressing escape to enter a main menu (need to click the exit door in the barracks), 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, 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)
Kinda choppy movement in-game and the cockpit takes up most of the view
So-so draw distance for asteroids
Rather limited animation during dialogue scenes
Some slowdown with too many enemies on screen (5+; also affects control responsiveness)
So-so explosion sfx (better on MCD)
No voice acting unlike in the MCD version
Your teammate (Paladin) bails on you before taking on the Ralari battleship in Mission 4 - makes it take a long time to destroy unless you know the weak point (shoot it from behind)
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-6.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7?
*FM sound
+
Weaves what you’d expect to be menus into a point and click interface (save slots, training arcade cabinet, score board (behind the bar) and medal screen (in your locker))
RPG/Adventure aspects (well-developed characters for the time, manually talk to NPCs between missions, 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 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
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
Switch between targets with T
Some enemies will communicate with you in-game
Decent mission variety
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 eject yourself from your ship (to surrender instead of dying)
Get new ships and weapons as the game progresses
Can accelerate and decelerate
+/-
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?
If you know the mission tree well you can cheat its win/loss system and get to the good ending by skipping most of the game (by ejecting during missions) – you can eject in all Venice/final area missions as long as you get to it
-
Ship damage is too unforgiving (can randomly take out weapons/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 alternate views are pretty much useless since you can’t simultaneously view the radar while using them
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 since you only need to move near its opening after requesting permission to land)
Some control/interface issues (slow mouse pointer in the base, can’t quit with Alt+F4 or pressing escape to enter a main menu (need to click the exit door in the barracks), 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, 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)
Kinda choppy movement in-game and the cockpit takes up most of the view
So-so draw distance for asteroids
Rather limited animation during dialogue scenes
Some slowdown with too many enemies on screen (5+; also affects control responsiveness)
So-so explosion sfx (better on MCD)
No voice acting unlike in the MCD version
Your teammate (Paladin) bails on you before taking on the Ralari battleship in Mission 4 - makes it take a long time to destroy unless you know the weak point (shoot it from behind)