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Star Wars: X-Wing Trilogy
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Graphics & Sound:
Both X-Wing and TIE Fighter are updated versions of old DOS games. The screens have been changed to be higher-resolution, as has the battle engine, though you have to set it up to use your videocard and whatnot yourself. The update was done before the current 3D card boom, however, and as such, the graphics are still quite weak. The ships look nice, but not spectacular, and the destruction of things is pretty weak. And although X-Wing was fully converted to high-res, there are quite a few screens still in TIE Fighter that are 320x200 VGA instead of high resolution. It sort of detracts from the game, but not terribly. X-Wing Alliance, on the other hand, is a more recent title, and makes better use of 3D hardware. I jacked all the settings all the way up, and had a rather nice treat for my eyes and ears. It's not Freespace 2, but it still looks nice.
One of the strong points of most Star Wars games is the sound, and these three games are no exception. Stirring John Williams music plays throughout the games, and the voice-acting is top notch. Explosions are satisfying, the weapons effects are just like you remember them from the movies, and it all makes you feel like you're really in the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter. Even though they don't use environmental audio effects (once again, they came out before that was on the market), all three games have a wonderfully solid sound to them. TIE Fighter is perhaps the best in that regard, but the other two are not exactly wimpy aurally. |
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Gameplay:
And none of the games are wimpy when it comes to gameplay. I can recall many, many, many hours of my younger life wasted playing the original release of X-Wing, and when you've got three excellent titles in a single package, you really can't go wrong.
Fair warning, though: Those of you, like me, who used to use a mouse for control will have to switch to some sort of joystick. The games no longer support mouse navigation, which is something of a bummer. To be certain, you can probably get more precise with a good set of 'sticks, but I preferred mouse back in The Day(tm).
That aside, X-Wing Trilogy offers you not one, not two, but three games for the price of one! Tell 'em, Ron:
- You get a remake of the excellent Star Wars: X-Wing, complete with all expansion packs released for the game (Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing)!
- You get a remake of the superb Star Wars: TIE Fighter, along with the expansion packs for it!
- AND you get Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, the third single-player oriented X-Wing title!
Regardless, all three games stand on their own merits.
The first, and the one I spent the most time playing Back In The Day, is X-Wing. The game has a multitude of options, such as training missions which have you flying through gates as fast as possible, to historical missions meant to teach you the nuances of starfighting, to five full Tours of Duty that are the core of the game. Some of the original X-Wing missions were crazy hard, so they've toned them down and made them... possible to beat. (Believe me -- I lost some nights of sleep over a few of them, way back when.) Even though it's perhaps the least advanced of the three games, it's the one I enjoy the most, for purely nostalagic value.
The second game is TIE Fighter, which has you playing on the Dark Side, controlling various Imperial craft. There's a lot more types of ships that you can pilot, a wider variety of mission types, and four Tours of Duty to engage in. The training missions are a little less dull, the flight mechanics a little more complex, and the things that you can do are more varied. And although the controls seem sharper in TIE Fighter than in X-Wing, the graphical translation from VGA to SVGA seems to be only half complete. The mission briefing screens are still low-res, and it's rather distracting. It's still an enjoyable game, though.
The third title is X-Wing Alliance. Here you play a member of a family engaged in transport services, and eventually you join the Alliance to help thwart the Imperial threat. The missions are more varied than ever, with cargo-running missions in the beginning segueing into space operatic battles. The graphics are also the sharpest of the lot, designed during the 3D accelerator era (although they don't require them.) Although it's the shortest of the three games, there's still plenty of gameplay here to enjoy. The combat engine is even more refined, with some now-standard niceties in the targeting and aiming. Alliance supports multiplayer, which is nice, but it is at heart a single-player game. If you want multiplayer, you should check out X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, of which there's a sampling of on the X-Wing disc.
Although you don't have to play the three games in order, it's recommended. It's not so much that they have a great deal to do with each other -- they don't -- but it's a progression of game complexity more than anything else. Of course, you can just jump right into Alliance and play the older titles later, if that's your thing. |
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Difficulty:
These games were hard when they came out, and they're no different now. Perhaps the hardest of the lot is X-Wing, even post-tuning. You'll fly missions and lose, lose, lose -- but you won't care, because it's all so entertaining. Tight control of your systems is mandatory, and learning all of the keyboard shortcuts (there's a lot, but once you know them, you know them for life) is necessary as well. The AI can be amazingly swift, and there's something absolutely invigorating about tailing a TIE fighter into oblivion. Yee-ha! Thanks, Wedge. Er...
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Game Mechanics:
The controls, once you've got them down, are amazingly simple to execute and use. I miss my mouse controls in X-Wing and TIE Fighter, but joysticks and gamepads work almost as well for me. The menus are usually relatively easy to navigate, using the "concourse" method that was pioneered by Wing Commander. Do note that the menu structure for X-Wing and TIE Fighter are significantly different, and Alliance even more so. The flight model is solid, and although there are a few silly things in the game (like the instant collision stops), there's nothing that'll make you shake your head in disgust.
X-Wing Alliance is a solid title, and X-Wing and TIE Fighter even moreso. The latter two look dated, but play as solid as anything on the market now. Those who value graphics over everything else may want to stay away from this package, but those of us looking for a great time at a fantastic price can't go wrong with this boxed set. With more than 250 missions, which equates to many, many hours of gameplay, you won't be tiring of X-Wing Trilogy any time soon. The entire package is $30, with the separate games selling for $20 apiece, so unless you already own two of the three (in remake form, if they're the old ones), this is a fantastic deal. And even if you do, you can give a friend one of the extras and share the excitement of Star Wars... the way it was meant to be. |
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-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon |
Minimum System Requirements:
Win9x, 200MHz PC, 32MB RAM, 2MB Video Card, 16-bit Sound Card, 4x CDROM, Joystick, Mouse, Keyboard
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Test System:
AMD K6-III 450 running Windows 98, 256 MB RAM, 6x/24x DVD-ROM, Sound Blaster Live!, Creative Labs TNT2 Ultra w/ 32 MB RAM |
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