Be better than Luke Skywalker or Han Solo ever were

Type of game: Space combat simulation

Created by: Totally Games/Lucasarts

Published by: Lucasarts

The Star Wars Empire has given birth to a lot of computer games: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Shadows of the Empire, Rebellion and last but not least X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. In the game you can either fly as a Rebel or as an Imperial pilot.The first thing I noticed was the briliance of the music: You can even hear the Imperial theme banging through your speakers. The music is on Redbook format, which gives the oppurtunity to play it on a regular CD-Player, but it has also the advantage that the music is very clear, especially when you have an AWE 64 card. Second thing that jumped up where the missions. That’s right; missions, and no campaign. Some people find this very disturbing. Well, I was disappointed, because a "Wing Commander style" campaign in a Star Wars universe would be soo cool... The missions are then again very good: there are training, melee, ............,and battle missions available. In the melee missions you can fight against fighters of your own kind: X-Wings vs X-Wings, TIE Interceptors vs. TIE Interceptors, etc. These missions are my personal favourite and in my opinion the succesful singleplayer missions. The ........missions and the battle missions are actually the same, but in the battle mode the missions "hang together" like a campaign. The side who wins a previously set amount of missions, wins the "campaign".

You can fly, as I said before, in Rebel or Imperial fighters. I’ll give a small listing of the different kinds of fighters:

Rebel:

a. X-Wing: Multi-role spacecraft. Main fighter of the Rebels. Armed with quad lasercannons and has a medium missile payload.

b. A-Wing: Offensive fighter. Can also be used as a patrol craft. Fastest and most agile fighter of the Alliance. Armed with dual lasercannons and has a large missile payload.

c. Y-Wing: Bomber. Heavily shielded, very reliable. The least manouverable fighter of the Rebels. Armed with dual lasercannons, dual ioncannons and has the largest missile payload.

d. Z-95 Headhunter: Father of the X-Wing. Very agile, yet weak shields and old design makes it the weakest Rebel fighter. Armed with dual lasercannons and has a small missile payload.

Imperial:

a. TIE Fighter: Standard imperial fighter. Lacks shield system and beam system, relies on its extreme agility. Armed with quad lasercannons and has a small to medium missile payload.

b. TIE Interceptor: Even more manouverable than the TIE Figther. Has a beam system but still lacks shields. Armed with quad lasercannons and has a medium missile payload.

c. TIE Bomber: The main bomber of the Imperial fleet. It can carry a lot of missiles and bombs, but because of the lacks of shields they are usually the prey of the more agile Rebel fighters, such as the X-Wing and A-Wing. Armed with quad lasercannons and a large missile payload.

d. Advanced TIE: First TIE Fighter with shields. Based on Darth Vaders experimental X-1 fighter. Most deadly fighter of the Empire. Armed with quad lasercannons and has a large missile payload.

e. Assault gunship: Multi-role spacecraft, similar to the Y-Wing, yet with better agility. Armed with dual lasercannons, dual ioncannons and has the largest missile payload.

There are many other ships that you may encounter, but not fly, as the Corellian cargo vessel (Better known as the Millenium Falcon). The graphics are good, and they can run smoothly on a Pentium 133. With the 3DFX patch installed, the 3DFX version looks softer, the textures aren’t so "sandy". But if you compare X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter to Wing Commander V, the glorious winner is WC V. But you have to remember that WC V is a half year younger. The music is, as I said, briliant. The sound effects are also superlative, they’re just like in the movies. The strongest point of this game however is the multiplayer mode. IPX-LAN, Modem, Internet, serial cable and null-modem are the ways to play multiplayer. The rush of attacking a Rebel frigate with a wing of TIE Bombers must be enormous.But because I don’t have any access to any multiplayer mode I can’t really give you a personal opinion. I’m however sure that the multiplayer aspect is the "ace up the sleeve" of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.

EP sez:

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is a solid space combat simulation with good graphics and very good music. WC V however beats X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter at every point, except in the multiplayer field. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is truely a grandlord in multiplayer-land. And now the million-dollar question: Should you buy this product? If you have access to a lot of multiplayer modes or if you’re a Star Wars junkie, you should buy it. Everyone else should buy Wing Comander V.

(c) 1998 Erwin's Pages
Erwin "Reaper" Husin

Score

Gameplay: 8

Graphics: 7,5

Sound & Music: 9,5

Addictiviness: 8 (Melee and multiplayer: 9)

Overall: 80,5%

Links

> Lucasarts
> Totally Games