Conclusions

Controls, Controls, Controls

Well, as we mentioned, the Roberts boys are trying to make their games more simlike, and you can't do that without a wad of controls. There are a LOT of them implemented so far. Not quite as many as FreeSpace 2, but most of these tend to have a bigger showing in the game than the obscure ones in FS2.

Whoah - a wormhole?

Yep.. and I got sucked in!

The front-end is spectacular. You go through the ship via CGI first-person sequences, assaulted by details that most people just couldn't think to put there. Even your cabin is in CGI - navigate it with your mouse, going to your locker, the news, the simulator, the tactical information display or even the CD player! Sheesh... Now we know why it's been so long in development, with all this content!

Coalition Fleet around Venus

But we got the wormhole generator!

The in-game controls are obviously best with a joystick. A good gamepad with an analog controller works well too. The mouse control is Wing Commander-style, not X-Wing style, so be warned. Keyboard controls aren't actually too bad, but this is 2000, not 1991. There's too much fine-tune maneuvering needed to get away with a keyboard (trust me, for old time's sake, I tried.)

Ships turn based on their speed - the faster you move, the quicker you turn. Still, the combat is fast and abrupt. The ships seem to turn slower, but there's no mistaking that the creators of the Wing Commander games were behind this kind of mayhem.

Well, What Next?

Starlancer looks to be a great game. It's got the content and the buzz around it, that's for sure. Starlancer was playable right now even with the expected bugs. Performance was remarkably good. There were NO slowdowns no matter the resolution, on a Coppermine 600 and Voodoo3 3000 setup. Even with a Celeron 466 the game played great.

Impressive effects... most impressive

HOLY!

Inspired partly by the Cold War and partly by the World War II in the Pacific, Starlancer's storyline certainly has all anyone would need to keep them playing. It is interesting and fast - the moment you get into the game, you're already in the thick of a huge war. There's no slow start here. The gameplay is much the same way - fast, fun and exciting. The final game will have you blasting your way through 24 missions. Depending on what you do in one mission, the next might be easier or harder. While technically 'linear', so far we've found enough variety in missed/accomplished objectives to make us wonder how 'linear' it is.

Read on for more eye candy!