Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger

Four words to start this off: I love this game! I had been waiting a looooong time for the video game industry to create a mostly-live-action interactive video game of good quality and high-calibre acting, directing, and production design. Kudos must go out to director Chris Roberts and his talented team of actors, set production crew, and video game production crew. They did something that had never been done before. They not only created a fully realized, highly entertaining live-action video game. The also did it with a style, flair, and acting performances normally seen only in top-notch Hollywood films. Mark Hamill (of "Star Wars" fame) doesn't simply step into the lead role of Colonel Christopher "Maverick" Blair. He allows it to completely envelope him. It was also great fun to see renowned British actors John Rhys-Davies (of "Indiana Jones" and "The Lord Of The Rings" fame) and Malcolm McDowell (of "A Clockwork Orange", "Time After Time" and "Star Trek: Generations" fame) both hamming it up in their respective roles as General James "Paladin" Taggart and Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn. It was also cool to see Thomas F. Wilson (who played Biff Tannen in the "Back To The Future" trilogy) playing one of the good guys for a change, even though his character, Lt. Todd "Maniac" Marshall, and Col. Blair are rivals, and only sometimes friends with each other. This game is great fun, and highly recommended!!!

I have to admit, I was blown away by Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger! I am not usually a big fan of space-sims, I mean I've played some Freespace here and there but never really got into it. But then I played this and oooooh boy was it good. I've put this review in three catagories:Plot,Gameplay and Acting.

Plot: The Earth Confederation has been waging a 10-year war with the tiger creatures, the Kilrathi. But now they face the reality of losing the war and with it losing Earth and humanity itself. You play Colonel Blair(Mark Hamill) a fighter pilot whose made a reputation for himself through his various missions aboard the "Tiger-Claw". Blair has been re-assigned to be a pilot for the TCS Victory in the war. On the ship, he meets various pilots,captains,etc. Through his missions, Blair finds himself in becoming a major importance in winning the war. There are many plot-twists here and there that'll suprise you as they come. Overall a very well thought out plot. Rating: 4.5/5

Gameplay: The space combat in the game is very fun,entertaining, and challenging. One half of the game has you out in space,flying missions and having a Kiltathi in your crosshairs. The other half has you walking around the TCS Victory, having conversations with the various people on board which are usually about the war, their feelings or on their past. In these conversations, you usually have two choices of what to say(this affects your morale with the person your talking to). This ends up being really fun and it makes you care about your wingmen(unlike in other games). The space combat is fun, fast paced, and man ALIVE is it hard in most of the missions. This is the best part of the game/movie of course. Rating: 5/5

Acting: Mark Hamill does an awesome job of playing Colonel Christopher Blair with his smart-aleck lines while talking to the people on the ship to his taunts while in the cockpit(Example:"Say goodnight kitty!").I like him in this role better then as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars(I know I surprised myself). Then theres various other actors(most who don't really have any acting career). From the great Malcolm McDowell as Admiral Towlwyn(he played the bad guy in Star Trek:Generations), John Rhys-Davies as Paladin(hes playing Gimli in the LOTR movies right now), Tom Wilson(Biff from Back to the Future)as Maniac, a up-beat pilot whos a fan favorite. To Francois Chau as the lovable card shark of a pilot Vagabond and Jason Bernard as Captian Eisen in one of his last movie roles. The acting is superior to any "real" sci-fi film and the script is well written. Rating: 5/5

This is one of the best video games/movies ever and any person who enjoys a awesome space sim with a great plot and sweet actors(MARK HAMILL!!!) should try to find this game now and buy it. You wont be disappointed by its sheer greatness.

This "game" actually made a better movie than a game. Some of the combat sequences tend to be a touch repetative, but the wonderful feel of being in "a movie" is really, really quite nice. The mission tree allows for multiple endings, so there's the chance that you'll be the dog of the movie instead of the hero. Odd that Chris Roberts would tap adult movie actress Ginger Allen for such a prominant role... but I'll give credit where credit is due, she did a wonderful job acting. If you want to see how multimedia games SHOULD be done, find a copy of Wing Commander III

Very engaging game! Fantastic space-flight graphics. Two aspects of the game that made it very interesting for me were the fact that you weren't confined to flying the same spacecraft on every mission, and the different paths you can take to reach the final outcome. The video sequences were well done, and actually added to the storyline instead of just adding fluff. It's still a space-flight combat game, but an excellent one at that.

Just (re)watched the cinematics on YouTube. I remember the epicness of playing this game on the hardware of the day back then. Just an amazing experience, as were the Tex Murphy games. Unless you were there, you could never understand how vast the improvements were, which started here. Live video acting? ACTUAL audio? This was so far beyond anything before it, it's not even funny.

I just threw out all of my old software in a "purge", but when I saw this CDROM, it just kind of ignited a fire in me to search these out on YouTube. I thank the individuals who made these so that we can revisit the best of times!