"It's Just a Great Game"

There was a time when Wing Commander was among the pinnacle of games available on the PC. Even today, if you can get it to run at a reasonable speed on a modern computer, Wing Commander is still an excellent gaming choice. The controls are good, the story is something close to epic, the graphics adequate, and the challenge varies but is generally tough enough that many missions will require a couple of attempts at completion, but not so many attempts as to be frustrating.

So what is Wing Commander? It's the story of a rookie pilot assigned to the Tiger's Claw, one of the Terran Confederation's premiere fighter carriers. The Terran Confederation is at war with the Kilrathi, and the Tiger's Claw is on the front line of that war. You, as the rookie pilot, will fly combat missions against the Kilrathi in the cold darkness of space, and attempt to foil whatever plans they've hatched.

There are several fighters that you can pilot over the course of the game, ranging from light reconnaissance craft to heavily armed juggernauts that handle only slightly better than a pig in molasses. The controls are excellent, enabling you to play with keyboard, or keyboard and joystick depending on your preference. The game handles fine anyway you play it. The fighters are armed with various combinations of guns and missiles, have different performance profiles, and are equipped with afterburners that eat through fuel rapidly.

There is a wide variety of missions that are run in the game, which take place in varied locales. The most common are patrol missions, where you fly from one navigation marker on your map to another and typically fight off an enemy patrol. Other missions include strikes on enemy capital ships, escorting friendly ships, and such. The missions can take place in asteroid fields, empty space, or even minefields. The asteroids and mines play a role as an additional hazard in the game, as dogfights with Kilrathi fights do occur in them.

The graphics are great for their age, and even today they're quite adequate to get the point across. The sound effects are pretty good too. When you hear that warning klaxon sounding while tangling with a trio of Kilrathi fighters that have you on the run, the adrenaline really kicks in.

One cool thing though, is that the game doesn't have just one set path of missions. The game has a mission tree that it walks you through depending on how well you've fared in a given set of missions. Do terribly and you'll be like me the first time I played and end up with the bad ending. Do well, and you'll triumph over the alien war machine.

Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:

Gameplay: 9

The only fault I can find with the gameplay is that one or two of the missions are a little too demanding and long, without the ability to save mid-mission. Replaying the same long mission six or seven times starts to get a little old.

Story: 7

It's a pretty typical story. Take your average alien war plot and meld it to Top Gun, and you've got Wing Commander. That said, it's still pretty interesting watching the progress of the war from mission briefings.

Graphics: 7

By modern standards, the graphics aren't all that great, but for the time they were almost stunning. They're not hard on the eyes by any means.

Sound: 7

There's no complaints here. Maybe the lack of speech that is so familiar from later games hurts a little bit.

Replay: 7

Multiple endings, multiple ways to get to them, and lots of fun to be had doing it. You'll probably play through this a couple times at least.

Other: N/A

If you want a space sim that has accurate physics, this is not the game to play. Though accurate inertial physics in space might be almost unplayable anyway, so I'm not sure who would want accurate physics. Playability trumps physics.

Overall: 8

Wing Commander is an absolutely great game. Play it at least once, please. You'll be doing yourself a favor. It's a fantastic experience filled with fun and tough challenges.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/06, Updated 09/20/06