StarLancer

"Great for beginners and veterans of space sims"

Starlancer, released in 2000 by Microsoft and Digital Anvil, follows the engaging story of the war between the Coalition and the Alliance. Though details are sketchy, it seems as if the Alliance represents NATO countries and the Coalition represents Warsaw Pact (Soviet Union) countries. The Coalition's surprise blitzkreig, which started the war, allowed them to take all planets through Mars. In a last-ditch effort to save the Solar System, the Alliance drafts as many people with flight experience as possible. You, one such draftee, are assigned to the 45th Volunteer division. The ensuing war will test your ability to follow orders and competency during the heat of battle.

Starlancer's key strength is its ability to convey story through emotional cinematics. Every little detail of the war is, in some way, either replicated with the 3D engine or with CGI rendered scenes.

Interestingly, the game completely rejects its Wing Commander-esque roots and focuses more on simple and easy-to-follow commands which, more often than not, require little skill. Starlancer is not a sophisticated space sim by any means, but it does throw an impressive amount of options for ship interface. With often-neglected options like Ejecting and Cloaking, Starlancer brings some of the things that most other space sims wouldn't dare use. Ejecting, for example, doesn't necessarily cause the mission to fail. If the majority of enemy fighters have been destroyed by the time you eject, more often than not your ''nanny'' ship will rescue you, and if the mission is mostly complete, your squadron will finish the job without you and you still complete the mission. Of course, the commander won't be too happy that you lost a good ship, but you can still move on to the next mission.

Interesting Features

Cloaking is way too cool. Most space games only allow enemies to cloak, because it might give you a ''fair advantage''. In Starlancer, some missions involve covert operations, and cloaking will do just the trick. You only have a limited time to complete a certain objective before you decloak. Also, your ship cannot fire when cloaked, which adds a bit of strategy to the invisibility.

The ''Power Ball'' is also a neat innovation. By moving the Power Ball in different directions, you can allocate how much power is sent to each section of the ship. Out of shields? Recharge them faster by setting 100% power to shields. Need to blast someone out of the sky but don't want to wait long? 100% Lasers.

Graphics

Starlancer looks like a typical 2000 space sim. Blocky polygons aren't necessarily bad, though. In Starlancer, the ships are well detailed and the surrounding environments are interesting.

A positive aspect of Starlancer's graphics is that it likes to throw particles around. Particles are great, especially when ships explode.

Sound

Starlancer's sound is outstanding. Everything in the game is vocalized, be it your orders or even your squad's snide comments when they down a Coalition ship.

The music is eerie, and sets the mood well. No complaints here.

Overall

Probably one of the best space games in its class, Starlancer represents everything interesting about futuristic settings. The application of Cloaking and Ejecting adds a dimension of ''freedom'' which most games of this type lack.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/03, Updated 04/21/03