Star Wars game retrospective

[Kekvit Irae]

I love Rebellion

[drone]

X-Wing and Tie Fighter were awesome games at the time. My only complaints were the missions where they forced you to drive a pig like the Y-wing. Sooooo sloooow.

[Geoffrey S]

Dark Forces equals X-wing and Tie Fighter in my opinion. As with the flight sim games, it understood the role games should play in the Star Wars universe: presenting the unseen side of things, the sideshow to the war presented in the movies. Later games, such as Jedi Outcast, focus on being a powerful jedi or a major player in the wars, or create contrived interactions with major characters - but that makes no sense. Those kind of plots reek of bad fan fiction.

Dark Forces really felt like it fit in the Star Wars universe, in plot and in visuals. KotoR did get away with big epic plots, because it took place far earlier and pretty much anything goes.

[frogbeastegg]

There was something worse than the Y-Wing. The assault gunboat. :shudders: Slow, wallowing, rubbish weak lasers, tinfoil shields, and a big fat target.

Didn't like the missile boat much either; one puny laser and rubbish shields meant that dogfighting was a pain. I understood that it was supposed to rely on missiles for most of its killing, yet you simply could not pack enough of them.

Supremacy/Rebellion was a revelation to me back in the day. The few strategy games I'd played until then were turn based, and overall less complicated.

The empire was the side of choice. Cooler ships, cooler troopers, cooler interface, mostly cooler characters ... who didn't love building a fleet with a death star, several super star destroyers, and enough TIE defenders to destroy a solar system?

The AI was a bit ropey, and there were some nasty exploits. I used to stick captured enemy characters on a crappy transport ship and send it to the opposite side of the galaxy. Immediately on arriving I sent it back to the other side. That left the AI no chance at all to rescue them, and the characters couldn't generate their random escape events if they were in hyperspace.

[Geoffrey S]

That's the neat thing. I didn't dislike the Y-Wing because the controls were grotty or whatever - I disliked it as a ship to fly in. They really got the feel right for those ships. Only think they failed with the missile ship, felt completely out of place.

[frogbeastegg]

I dislike flying bombers. My love is reserved for the fast and agile ships. The Y-wing and co are supposed to be wallowing and cumbersome, and they did a good job coding that.

[drone]

Yes they did. Doesn't mean I have to like it though. I had forgotten about the gunboats, those were made of fail.

The first mission I ran with an A-Wing was sublime. "Where have you been all my life?" I used to run that A-Wing training mission, where 3 TIEs of different types would show up every couple of minutes. Loved setting rules and goals for that one.

[Geoffrey S]

Loved that thing about Tie Fighter where you start off in a backwater in a measly Tie Fighter, and through the campaign attract the attention of the emperor and his cronies, rising through the ranks and getting better ships all the time. I mean, really, try playing the first few missions again after getting the Tie Defender...!