X-Wing vs TIE - Review

AN
X-CELLENT WAY
TO
TIE ONE ON

It's head to head snub fighter confrontation in LucasArts Entertainment's newest addition to the X-Wing and TIE Fighter family

Many people have said that sequels are never as good as the originals. As far as movies are concerned, they are often right. However, when you're talking about comuter games, it is often the opposite. As the years go by, technology improves, and the wide variety of games increases, as do their features and realism. For example, X-Wing was a great game, but TIE Fighter was even better. Most players would agree that the graphics were improved, the story line was great, and the ships were awesome; not to mention the fact that you finally got to fly on the side of the evil Empire. Even a couple years after its release, TIE Fighter just won the award as the Number One Game of All Time from PC Gamer magazine.

At the end of April 1997, LucasArts Entertainment Company released the latest installment in the space combat series. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (XvT), one of the most widely anticipated (and agonized-over) games, had been delayed numerous times, from its original release date in November 1996 all the way through to late April '97. LucasArts, however, has never been one to rush games out the door -- or stick to their deadlines. Over the months of waiting, LucasArts and other not-so-official sources had whetted the appetites of fans with screenshots and interviews. And when the day finally came, some were disappointed, but most were thrilled with the opportunity to finally battle real people in LucasArts' first multiplayer-capable game.

The biggest disappointment of XvT, ironically, is that as a multiplayer game it lacks the capability to build a story line. Even though technology improves, there is one thing that must remain to make a game successful: it must be captivating, and that is usually done with a good story line. TIE Fighter is the best example of that, but if you are looking for a good story in XvT, you won't find one. Nevertheless, with XvT, LucasArts has managed to present a game that is still able to captivate you in other ways, and the major method is multiplay. That is what fans had asked for above anything else, and LucasArts delivered.

INTERFACE/MENUS/STARTUP
The game starts out with a very well done, albeit short, introduction. From the main menu you can choose to be a Rebel or Imperial, and to fly by yourself or start a multiplayer game. You can also access a large ship database similar to the 'tech room' in X-Wing and TIE Fighter. A 'film room' is mysteriously absent, because one of the neat features of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, the in-flight camera, is also missing. (On a related note, there aren't any 'rooms' in XvT modeled after a ship; it is all menus, though each menu has a nice picture in the background.) The Rebel ships you can choose from are the X-wing, A-wing, Y-wing, and Z-95. Imperials have a choice of the TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber, Assault Gunboat, and TIE Advanced. (The B-wing, TIE Defender, and Missile Boat came in the expansion mission.)

After you choose a mission, you can then fiddle with a number of options, such as the difficulty level, the time limit, the number of starfighter waves, and randomization. After that your objectives are laid out for you in the briefing room, which is, unlike TIE Fighter, devoid of speech. Finally you get to the launch window, where, for most missions, you can choose what ship to take (regardless of what the briefing said), what type of warheads it carries, if any (and you have mega-choices here, including new suped-up versions of some old favorites), what countermeasures to take (flares or chaff), and, if you are Imperial, what Beam Weapon to load. For some of you, the number of missions may not seem like a lot, but when you take in the above, you can see that there are actually a wealth of possibilities here.

GAME PLAY

It is amazing, but they have managed to cram every major information window onto your flight window in your heads-up display, without being overly distracting. They have placed, at your finger tips, the Damage Control window, the Log window, the Goals window, a new Kill window (which shows how many kills and points everyone in a multiplayer game has so far and who is in the lead), and another new window (I call it the status window), which shows the status of all human players and major targets. Incredibly, all of this on-screen stuff is available in-flight and even in low res.

For those of you who really loved the map, sorry, you can't access the map in multiplay, as that would pause the game - and the other players can't wait around for you to get yoru bearings. However, that statement is deceiving, as LucasArts has added another option, which allows you to take a look at the map while the computer AI takes over your ship! The map now presents you with a lot more information: the status of each ship, heading, speed, etc. Also, when you zoom in close, it displays the craft's actual graphic, instead of a 2D red or green representation, and in great detail, so that you can zoom in on two ships and watch them dogfight.

In multiplay, the map is also where you are sent if all the ships in your flight group are down, but other players are still up. You can get a good view of the situation and still talk to your teammates like a battle commander, giving them useful information about what is going on, more then what they might be able to determine from their limited point of view. You can also still give orders, such as attack my target, ignore my target, etc., to your starfighters, so you aren't left with nothing to do while you wait for the other players to finish (I love sicking all my fighters on the human that killed me when I'm stuck in the map).

Unlike the first two games, which only displayed the radar and the aiming reticle when in cockpit-off mode, XvT displays the Target box, the recharge rates of your cannons, shields, and engines, your shield status, your speed and throttle percentage, as well as the number of remaining warheads in your cache. This means you hardly ever have to switch back and forth between the views! Alas, what was called Target mode is no longer present in XvT, even though it wasn't in TIE Fighter either.

Many of the flight dynamics in the game have been changed. To make things more interesting, your speed now affects your maneuverability a great deal. Moving at 1/3 normal throttle gives you the greatest maneuverability, and is used most when in close dogfighting, when turning rate is essential. Speeding up or slowing down from 1/3 lowers your turning rate, with 0 throttle and full throttle being the worst.

Aiming in XvT seems a little more difficult; the green target box seems a little off at times. The hull strength of the TIE Fighters seems to have been increased a bit; it often takes more then the usual two or three hits to destroy one. On the other hand, shielded ships have been reduced in strength; the shields don't last half as long when under fire. In X-Wing and TIE Fighter, a pilot also used to be able to quickly recharge his shields by shunting power from the lasers. The value of this has been severely lowered in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, to a point that it is almost useless.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter now supports multi-button joysticks and a throttle, unlike its predecessors, which only supported a two-button joystick. Even better, you can decide which buttons do what in the game. Note: the game does not support rudder pedals or rudder controls of any sort.

Another helper is the fact that, not only has the enemy AI been improved, but the whole game's AI has been updated. So not only are your enemies a lot smarter and deadlier, but your wingmen are as well. One of the most common complaints in X-Wing and TIE Fighter was that your wingmen never did anything, and were always dying (especially in X-Wing), but you'll have no problem with that here. Occasionally, on the harder settings, your wingmen will outperform you.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are greatly improved over the originals. Every single spacecraft is texture-mapped in great detail, giving it a much more realistic feel. It supports resolutions of 320 X 200, 512 X 384, and 640 X 480 with up to 65,000 colors. With light sourcing, specular highlighting, and many other graphic effects that have been developed over the years since X-Wing, this game is not lacking as far as visual FX goes.

The Capital Ships look incredible, though it has been pointed out that the scale of the Capital Ships seems to be off, so you are sometimes closer than you think. In other words, the Capital Ships are rendered too small.

For you users that were disappointed as the system requirements of XvT gradually increased: There is hope. XvT gives you full control over almost every aspect of the graphics engine. By lowering the resolution to 320 X 200, and setting all graphic details to their lowest, it is possible to play this game on a 486. I know someone who got it to work fine on a DX/75, and another who was successful on a DX4/100. The biggest problem most users will encounter, something you will encounter with almost any new Win95 game, is DirectX compatibility. If your drivers are not DirectX compatible, something is bound to go wrong.

SOUND
Having CD-quality music in place of MIDI is indescribable. It changes the whole mood of the game. And it is not just CD-quality -- there are actual CD tracks, so you can pop it in your stereo and play them. Hearing the "Imperial March" or the Star Wars theme song crystal clear and life-like as you blast enemy starfighters to dust is great!

XvT also retains the tradition of radio chatter started in TIE Fighter, so there is nothing new there. However, inside your ship there is a whole new slew of small, well placed sound effects that add to the starfighting experience. The first thing you will probably notice is that there is now an engine rumble in the background, similar to the one you heard in A New Hope as Luke and company sped down the trench. Even better, each ship has its own distinctive engine noise, and the pitch changes as you increase or decrease in speed! Also, little clicks and whirrs as you change your shield settings, or activate a tractor or decoy beam, lend to the realism.

3rd PARTY UPDATES
For lots of information on XvT, as well as player-made mission editors, patches, custom missions and other neat goodies, check out http://outpost.simplenet.com/xvt and http://xvt.scorched.com. A mission builder that I recommend in particular for XvT is the new TCS (TIE Fighter Campaign Studio), version 7.01. You can find it at the XvT Outpost.

INTERNET PLAY
For most, Internet Play will consist of going to Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone (www.zone.com), signing up, and downloading and installing the software. The Zone is the official place to play X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and, once you get the software installed (it takes from 15 - 30 minutes to download), it's an easy ride to startup a game. For those interested in hosting their own games through a direct TCP/IP connection, IP server boards are being set up at http://www.jediknight.net. Doing so will probably also yield better results then going through the Internet Gaming Zone, and it is possible to play with 8 players.

Overall, Internet play is great with two players. With four it is still fine if you find others with good latency, and, with some graphic options turned down, you can even do some of the more intense missions. Playing with more then four players is only recommended for players with ISDN or better connections, although it is possible to play with 8 players. Kali can give even 6 players a good game over a 28.8 Kbps modem.

Some may wonder why XvT can only support 8 players over the Internet, and only on high-speed modems at that, when games like Quake can support as many as 32. The answer is that a lot more information is being transmitted. In games like Quake, only the player's position and maybe a couple of weapon discharges are being tracked and sent to all the players. In XvT, not only do you have the human player's positions to be accounted for, but also the position of every computer-controlled starfighter (think of a Star Destroyer's compliment of 72 TIEs!), as well as their speeds, any missiles flying around, lasers, flares, damage to individual fighters, the stats and kills of each player, as well as a million other things no one ever thinks about. In addition, a big station or Capital Ship can sometimes really slow things down. When everyone has at least an ISDN, then maybe we can have more players, but who knows? New technologies are being developed everyday, and future add-ons or updates may increase the number of supported players. We'll just have to wait and hope.

(By the way, and this is important, I recommend a direct connection through an ISP (Internet Service Provider) for playing XvT over the Internet. An online service (such as AOL) will probably have too much latency and will only be sufficient for a two-player game.

MULTIPLAYER SQUADRONS, CLUBS & LEAGUES
Since the public got word of the upcoming release of X-Wing vs. TIE, many squadrons, and Leagues of Squadrons, have been formed. As the leader of one of the biggest XvT 'Leagues', I know that they add even more to an already great game. Joining a squad or League makes you a part of a larger team where you can develop camaraderie and a spirit of teamwork that perfectly reflects what we see in the Star Wars universe. Most clubs, ours included, will put you in a squadron, usually Imperial or Rebel (some have Neutral/Pirate squads), and set you out to fly. Each person is given a rank and someone is set as the squad leader.

Once part of a squadron, you can expect things such as practice sessions, tournaments against other squads, deathmatches, etc. Some clubs even start our own mock wars, complete with a map with bases, planets, trading routes, fleets of Capital Ships, role-playing, intrigue, strategy and planning, and a story line determined by their pilots (that's better than reading a story!).

You can find a pretty complete listing of squads and leagues at the above mentioned websites: http://outpost.simplenet.com/xvt and http://xvt.scorched.com.

SUMMARY
As LucasArts had said when they had only just started the game, the solo missions were basically for practice for the real focus of the game -- multiplay. The graphics are great, the sound is great, the missions are great, multiplay is great; the only real drawback is the lack of story in solo play, but if you don't need a major story, and you want some really fun action, this is a cool, awesome game! And with the campaign disk, this will be the perfect game!

Author Acknowledgements
Thanks a lot to Ron Britz (egen22@ridgenet.net), Matt Perry (MPerry7215@aol.com), and Don Wallace (Gonff Z@aol.com) for some helpful, last minute editing. You can reach their individual webpages through the NetSquads' homepage. Thanks go to Kevin Enser (XW Red 5@aol.com) for moral support, and CrixTarkin@aol.com for being the originator of good news.