Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance

X-Wing: Alliance is a space combat simulation that lets you fly various legendary spaceships everyone recognizes from the original trilogy and some new ones. Like the previous X-Wing games, this one also has a good plot, superb audio and great graphics (at least when this was released). You start the game as a pilot named Ace Azzameen, doing some routine jobs for your family company. But then the Empire attacks your home base and you end up as a rookie pilot in the Rebel Alliance. This is where the game really starts. You will fly various kinds of missions for the Rebels such as attacks on enemy convoys, escort of the fleet, rescue missions and some family missions, where you fly a transporter. At the very end, you are flying the Millennium Falcon against the Death Star, just like in The Return of the Jedi! The missions are pretty easy in the beginning but get very, maybe too hard at the end. Spaceships are the core of the game. They vary from each other, and that makes XW:Alliance interesting. In example the X-wing is a good all-around fighter and the Y-Wing can take heavy punishment and carries lots of weapons but is not very manoeuverable. Then there are the transporters like the Millennium Falcon. They are slow but the fun part is that you can go and use the turret and blast some TIE Fighters while your co-pilot flies. You can use some of the ship controls such as shields and decide where to put your limited energy. Put it on engines but make the craft vulnerable and so on.

Graphics are good even today. Spaceships are well detailed, and lasers and explosions illuminate nearby objects. Cockpits are all in 3D which means that you will be able to turn your head smoothly and track enemies better than in plain 2D cockpit. But sounds are even better. You can hear laser blasts, roaring crafts when they get close and radio chatter with other pilots. "I got one!", "I'm hit arrghhhh!" and "Enemy fighters coming in!". Thats what I'm talking about. And the soundtrack is the superb John Williams' original soundtrack from the trilogy. I could not think anything else than that. Sadly this is the last X-Wing game. The designer of the game, Larry Holland left Lucas Arts which owns the rights for X-Wing, and I think nobody can do a better space shooter than Holland.

The X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, which would be combined later, are the cornerstones of this incredible journey where we step in the shoes of a young boy who dreams of being a fighter pilot. Using an essential element - a storyline - we travel through our own evolution and it's all up to us. The climax is the run trough the death star, which makes it all worth it, but will have you sweating. The graphics are excellent, but require a great computer to be enjoyed completely. The novelties are also great, since we can fly many ships. Unfortunately, there are no imperial ships to pilot, unless we play on-line. Maybe Lucasarts launches "Tie Fighter Empire". We'll have to wait, I guess. Loved this game, which features cutscenes that resemble real movies. Epic and stylish, every Star Wars fan will love it.