Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.4 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Desslock
• Reviewed on: 04/06/1999
• Updated on: 04/29/2000
• Released on: 02/28/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC) Review

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was one of the most anxiously anticipated and yet ultimately most disappointing games of 1997. While the addition of multiplayer features was welcome, most players were displeased that Totally Games and LucasArts focused exclusively on providing a multiplayer dogfighting arena and completely abandoned the plot-rich gameplay that made previous games in the series so addictive. The Balance of Power expansion pack responded to most of the complaints that gamers had concerning X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, but by the time it arrived on retail shelves, most players had already moved on to other games. With X-Wing Alliance, Totally Games and LucasArts have at last delivered the game that many players had hoped X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter would be and in the process have created a suitably epic finale to their series of space sims based upon the first trilogy of Star Wars movies.

While the campaigns of the previous games in the series put you in the role of a relatively nondescript fighter pilot and let you participate in some of the key events depicted in the first two Star Wars movies, X-Wing Alliance features a more ambitious campaign. You play as Ace Azzameen, the youngest son in a family of merchant traders who are destined to become embroiled in the growing conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. Just as your character's family and associates have begun to embrace the cause of the Alliance, a rival trading clan, the Viraxo, has sought to ally itself with factions of the Empire. During the 53 heavily scripted missions composing the campaign, Ace Azzameen will heroically progress from being a neophyte pilot of his family's Corellian transports to playing a major role in the culminating Battle of Endor against the Empire's second Death Star. During a prologue lasting several missions, Ace will be limited to flying a couple of Corellian transports, one a kissing cousin of Han Solo's Millenium Falcon. While you'll actually get the opportunity to fly the Millenium Falcon in the game's final missions (one of X-Wing Alliance's favorite marketing jingles), you'll spend far more time in the cockpits of the other transports.

The transports aren't quite lumbering capital ships, but they do handle quite differently from the comparatively nimble Alliance and Imperial fighters, and their formidable rotatable cannons can effectively autotarget and dispatch enemy craft, making them a refreshing addition to the series. After these prelude missions, Azzameen will join the Rebellion and have access to the usual cast of Alliance vessels: X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, B-Wings, and puny Z-95s. For the remainder of the game, you'll mainly fight military missions similar to those in prior games in the series, but occasionally you'll be called upon to hop back in the family transport to help out your kin. As in previous games in the series, the campaign is completely linear, and some of the missions are quite difficult - although not as frustratingly arduous as some of the missions in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter were when flown by a single player - and you can get a few often-helpful hints when debriefing after a failed mission. You must successfully complete each of the "family" missions to continue the campaign, but you can skip up to three of the Alliance missions if you want to quickly pass by a few of the more challenging missions. Apparently Admiral Ackbar and crew don't always need your help after all.

During the missions in which you control a transport, you'll be responsible for docking with and transporting various containers, but otherwise mission objectives aren't particularly original, generally requiring you to escort and defend key ships, eliminate all the fighters and other defenses in a target area, inspect all the ships in a convoy, and so on. The mission design is extremely varied and almost uniformly excellent, as almost all of the missions involve a few unique twists, and frequently your objectives will change in response to unforeseen events. Similarly, instead of inundating you with the same three or four repetitive wingmen taunts, most of the dialogue in X-Wing Alliance is uniquely scripted for each mission. Since the quality of wingmen chatter in space sims has only incrementally improved since the concept was introduced in the early Wing Commander games, X-Wing Alliance's comprehensive intramission dialogue makes each sortie a compelling experience that draws you further into the gameworld. During the course of a mission your wingmen and crew may discuss other occurrences in the Star Wars universe, including events depicted or referred to in the movies, evaluate your mission objectives, or just discuss their personal wants and needs, such as your warmongering droid companion's habit of gleefully encouraging your siblings to stomp any potential enemies in the area. Combat can occur in several different hyperspace zones in each mission, each accessible only through hyperbuoys made active in response to scripted events, requiring you to achieve your objectives in a zone in a timely fashion to avoid being overwhelmed in a subsequent mission zone. While the heavily scripted nature of the missions certainly makes them more immersive, it also occasionally causes problems within the game.

Involuntarily triggering a scripted event too soon can render a mission unwinnable, and occasionally the mission dialogue will progress as if you've completed all of your required chores within an area, although you'll subsequently discover (by reading a "mission failure" screen, if you're not keeping a close eye on the status of your mission objectives in your HUD) that you omitted an important task. In spite of these occasional problems, the game's mission design is definitely one of its strengths, and there are some great new little touches that make the gameworld seem more alive than ever, such as the manner in which escape pods blast from heavily damaged ships, spacefaring luxury yachts and similar civilian craft flee for the nearest hyperbuoy after a battle breaks out, or the way pilots occasionally eject from doomed craft and haplessly float through space as amusing targets. Bye-bye, floaty.

X-Wing Alliance uses a modified version of the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter engine, and core gameplay is substantially similar in both games. Ships are more maneuverable at one-third of their maximum speed, and effectively allocating energy to your craft's weapons, shields, or engine in response to new circumstances is vital to successfully completing most missions. The game's larger battles can now involve dozens of fighters, and since fighters remain quite fragile, situational awareness is more crucial than ever. While charging haphazardly into a wing of five or six TIE fighters could be an effective strategy for accurate marksmen in previous games in the series, in X-Wing Alliance you'll occasionally run into 24 or more TIE fighters, making a direct assault a briefly exhilarating but suicidal ploy.

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