Chris Roberts is back with a bang...

Genre: Space Sim
Developed by : Digital Anvil
Published by: Microsoft

Oohh, I waited soo long for StarLancer, ever since Chris Robers left Origin. Luckily WC Prophecy and Freespace 1 and 2 made the wait a bit easier, but now, the wait is over!

StarLancer, Chris Roberts' newest brainchild, depicts the gruesome war of the Western Alliance and the Eastern Coalition, in other words, the Cold War's back! The Alliance were discovering space even beyond our solar system and have succesfully terraformed Mars. But in doing this, the Alliance has abandoned vigilince… The Coalition strikes with fearsome strength, decimating the Alliance fleet. You're a civilian rookie, freshly enlisted into the 45th Volunteers Squadron. Since most vessels were destroyed in the first Coalition strike, many old and decommissioned (in other words, all the moldy old rustbuckets the Alliance could scrape together) are used, and it is no different for the 45th. Your carrier for example was decommissioned 20 years ago!

After the cinematic intro in true Wing Commander style (it is a Chris Roberts game) you arrive in your bunkroom, from where you also control the singleplayer campaign. Here, you have all the goodies: First of all you have a tv set where you get to know how the Alliance is doing and how the struggle unfolds. A CD player is also available where you can listen to all of StarLancer's battle themes. Then you have the obligatory simulator pod, where you can learn how to control a ship in StarLancer and where you can also jump into Instant Action for some easy shootin'. ITAC (Alliance Intelligence and Tactical Computer) is the online database of StarLancer, with debriefings, written versions of the newsreports, infos on fighters, cap ships, pilots, squadrons, and of course, the infamous killboard.

The bunkroom exit leads to the briefing room. There you get your directives. This is done fabulously, and with a sense for detail. Next, you choose your fighter and armament. Fighters become available as your rank increases. The missile loadout varies from Screamer rocket pods, Havoc missiles whose ability is comparable to the ion cannons in X-Wing Alliance (paralyses any enemy fighter in range) to figher wacking Bandits and heavy Jackhammer missiles.

The first impressions when I launched:
…tap…tap… click… <gasp> <scream> <nervous lauging> <toink!>
The graphics are a sight to be seen, and only narrowly surpassed by Freespace 2. Beautiful space surroundings, huge capital ships, swarming fighters, spectacular lighting and gunfire effects… StarLancer has it all.
Why is Freespace 2 graphically a tad better? Cap ships for example were REALLY huge, Freespace had nebula effects and the special effects were a bit more spectacular. Trade in was the high system requirements and the sometimes chaotic moments, where you totally lost it… StarLancer is a bit more modest, but still fabulous. We all are a bit spoiled aren't we? All that GPU, GeForce and Voodoo 5 violence…

The way a ship is handled and how the HUD is organized, is very similar to Freespace and Wing Commander. Pity that there is no closed captioning with the otherwise fine vidcoms. Most ships btw has a special ability: cloaking, short period of invulnerability, etc. The afterburner fuel runs out very fast in StarLancer, making use of the power management system a must. I think this is good, despite being a detail: this enhances the feeling you're in complete control of your ship.

The missions are very varied, and never monotonous. So it's not just shoot every hostile in sight… A range of the missions: destroy a super carrier under construction, protect bomber wing so it can hull an enemy cap ship, sweep area, protect your own carrier from bombers, fighters, enemy cap ships and enemy warheads, etc…
The course of missions can also change during the action: this is great since it boasts the overall game experience. Really man, from beginning to end, the missions are very intense, and with the adjustable difficulty, even the worse joe pilots among us can kick a**!

The sound & music of StarLancer is as we could expect: very good with a sense of perfection. The screaming of a wingman who's just shot down, the taunts, the sound when you fire guns or missiles, the great music… Excellent.

StarLancer's multiplayer modes are a bit modest. Deathmatch and cooperative play, with a selection of variations. It's very fun, but I miss the complexity and variety of multiplayer in games like Freespace 2 (PXO) and X-wing Alliance. But hey, Wing Commander V Prophecy didn't even have ANY multiplayer play, so, let's not complain…

So what's so special about StarLancer? If you read through my review, you might have noticed the many links and parallells I drew from StarLancer's features to those of other classics in the genre (WC, Freespace, X-Wing series). Fact is that StarLancer adds little to nothing to the genre, but combines many of its best features. Even the obligatory story (Cold War) isn't very original. Some elements are even exact copies of other games, like the power management system in the HUD (or "powerball"): exact copy of the one in WCV: Prophecy.

So what? Many games in the rich gaming world are classics without adding much to their own genre. Quake, StarCraft (with the exception of the brilliant use of the 3 completely different races) and the many sports games of EA Sports and others are good examples.

And finally… StarLancer is a space sim where I get surges of adrenaline and testosterone, and not many games can do that. "Who're you shootin' at boy? - OOH you did NOT shoot that sh*t at me! - That's right punk! - Put that in your pipe and smoke it!! - Yes! Yes! YES!" A range of often pronounced sentences, consciously or subconsciously…
You also feel rotten when a wingman is down ("This is for <wingman> you Coalition jerk…") or when you failed a mission. The atmosphere here is very much like in the Wing Commander series, but now without out-of-the-missions cutscenes. This is a bit regrettable, but since StarLancer has certain significant personalities (your copilot, new and excellent btw, your commander, some leaders of other squadrons, wingmen,…) this is mostly made up. Freespace for example had few or no "characters": your wingmen for example were Alpha 2, 3, 4, Beta 1, 2, …

EP sez:

StarLancer is classic in its genre. Not by its originality, but by sheer class, perfection and atmosphere. Graphics, gameplay, sound & music, all are almost flawless. Chris Roberts is back with a bang…the trauma of watching the Wing Commander Movie (trust me, it sucked bigtime) is completely gone. And now Privateer and Elite fans impatiently await Freelancer…

(c) 2000 Erwin's Pages
Erwin "Reaper" Husin

Score

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound & Music: 9
Addictiviness: 9,5

Overall: 91%

Links

> Erwin's Pages Satellite: StarLancer
> Microsoft's StarLancer site
> Digital Anvil