For those who don't know much about Wing Commander games, here's the first four games summed up: Like in any good space simulation, peace-loving humans bumped into hostile aliens bent on destruction, hilarity ensues in the form of a a decades long war. The aliens, known as the Kilrathi, were finally defeated in the first three games by Luke Sky-errr...Christopher Blair. Then in WC4, the same Blair averts a bloody civil war (even though he kills many of his fellow officers) and saves the day. Now, ten years later the Terran Confederation's military is being cut back in peacetime, everyone's napping, and Mark Hamill is too damned old to fly...enter the next generation Wing Commander, fresh out of the academy Lance Casey. And wouldn't you know it, on your first mission you get ambushed by even bigger, even badder, even more evil aliens bent on destroying mankind (and the Kilrathi too while they're at it.)

Who cares about story anyway, you just want to blow stuff up, right? RIGHT! Unlike the last Wing Commander game this one actually has good gameplay and well designed missions. There are several ships for you to pilot in the game, all of which lets you kill kill and kill some more. Unlike previous games, the ships are more specialized. An interceptor is great for killing enemies quickly, a bomber kills large ships but stink at killing fighters, and no matter how many times you play the original, you can't kill a capital ship with lasers, no matter how hard you try. With such a wide range of ships, there will definitely be some types of ships that you will love, and some that you will hate, depending on your flying style. Since you are the plebe (rookie) pilot, you don't get the luxury of choosing your own ships in this one, but typically they give you the best ship for the job at hand.

The gameplay in this game is excellent. Keyboard control, although supported, is horrible and I don't recommend it at all. Gamepads are a bit better, but it's a little hard to aim in a flight sim with a digital pad. So naturally, an analog pad or flight stick is the best for your uses. WC Prophecy has fairly intuitive controls, the best way to play it is with a flight stick in one hand and the keyboard in your left. Most keyboard commands that are frequently used are all on the left side of the keyboard. Still, the easiest way is to get a joystick such as the Wingman Force that has more than 4 buttons, then you never have to touch the keyboard.

As for the game itself, Origin once again shows their mastery. Anyone who's played a Jane's flight sim knows how difficult some games can be to control, while arcade-like shooters such as Starfox 64 just don't have enough realism to satisfy your appetite. WC Prophecy is the perfect medium, it's easy enough to to learn but you are doing more than just pointing and shooting. The flight physics is great too, it's perfecty intuitive to tail a Manta and shove a missile up his tailpipe. All of the HUD instruments are just in the right places, and they disappear when you don't need them (or you can choose to keep them on all the time) Also, the difficulty level can be changed at any time, ranging from impossibly difficult to being so easy that your blind dog with the broken paw could beat it. You even get simulator missions for brushing up on your piloting skills.

The missions themselves range from typical patrols to epic battles. It's no longer just you and your bud against millions of enemies, it seems Confed has realized that sending guys out by the dozens is better. You typically fly in a wing of four fighters, with some missions consisting of several wings. The missions really shine when you attack capital ships, epic battles between cap ships, several wings made up of dozens of fighters...and somehow you've got to survive and try to hit something. The missions, for the most part, tie in with the story pretty well, but it's not as dependent as earlier games have been.

The game does pretty well in the eye candy department too. You can play this game without a 3d accelerator and it looks decent, but if you have any kind of accelerator it really shines. Even though the original game was designed around the Voodoo 1 era, the designers looked ahead to know that future video cards would be more powerful. With a 16 meg or 32 meg video card, the game is truly impressive with all effects turned on, all lighting and textures at max. The only downside is that the only resolution you can play on is 640x480, but thats only a minor gripe. Also, the game does play a bit better on an actual 3dfx card using Glide than a Direct 3d card. Playing the game on a Banshee with 16 megs of ram using Glide was slightly better than my current Rage Fury 32 MB card, although the Rage Fury is much better in performance. Ship designs, particularly the aliens, are excellent. Enemy ships have the whole Babylon 5 bio-mechanical thing going for them, while Confed ships look ultra hi-tech, and the megacarrier you fly off of just looks like it's gonna whoop some butt.

No game is perfect though is it? This game is a little weak in the storyline department. While Wing Commander 4 focused on a wonderful story it lacked a bit in gameplay, WC Prophecy did the reverse, excellent gameplay, weak story. Not to say that it's bad, but it's typical game storyline, it just doesn't compare to the stories of Wing Commander 2-4. On a positive note, the story is done with some pretty high quality fmv (stop groaning, it's actually decent.) Like I said, the story isn't great, but the acting is pretty good. With the exception of Mark Hamill and that guy who played Biff in Back to the Future, you've probably never seen or heard of most of the actors here, but they are all good. Actually...the acting in the game is better than the acting in the Wing Commander movie. I just wish Origin had put more effort into the story. They don't need to hire a multimillion dollar staff to make a good script like in WC4, I mean part 2 had the best story of all of them and I'm pretty sure it didn't cost that much to write.

On a more positive note, the sound effects are great, although typical sci-fi laserbeams/machine guns/explosions. The music on the other hand, kicks major ass. The game has two types of music, the classical type which is decent, and the techno music in the simulator. The techno is really great, I have several mp3s of it that I listen to regularly. To play that music in the normal game, type DYNOMITE (debug mode) then use Page Up/Down and Home/End keys to change the music. Just try to do the music justice by having a subwoofer if possible.

I've told you almost everything about the game except for the best part, but no one can tell you about it, you must experience it yourself! The best part is flying in a hectic mission, missles exploding around your ears, your wingmen are dropping like flies, you and the enemy are exchanging taunts as you weave through the furball locking on to your enemy and blowing him to smithereens. Very few games these days can really get your adrenaline pumping, but this is one of them, and I can't describe the feeling of barely destroying dozens of attackers based on pure skill. This occurs even more frequently in the Secret Ops missions, where you typically have a LOT more enemies to fight and fewer wingmen to help you out.

Overall, this game excells in almost every area, and anyone who loves this type of game should pick it up, afterall by the time you read this you can probably pick the game up for 20 bucks. Now that space sims are a dime a dozen on the PC market, go back to the best, the one that everyone else imitates, you won't be disappointed.

"Time to meet the Maniac, uglies!"

· · · Gohan-X