History: Chris Roberts developed the Wing Commander project for the first time years ago, now about five years. Chris wanted Wing Commander to be a cinematic flight simulator game with a decent plot. Chris devised a means to combine the two into a game that became a runaway hit for Origin, who had never had a flight simulator product before that time.
Wing Commander lead to a long string of Wing Commander like games, Armada, Privateer, Righteous Fire, Strike Commander, Pacific Strike, Wings of Glory (WWI), and three sequel Wing Commander games which got better and better each time they came out. Possibly in the future, Wing Commander will film a full length movie at the same time that the game is filmed, and perhaps there will be a Privateer television show inspired by that story, since the animated graphic adventure portion of the game has been replaced by full motion video in Wing Commander III.
Chris Roberts has left Origin since Wing Commander I. I have not spoken with him about his leaving Origin at the time of this writing. Origin officials have assured me that they are going forward with the Wing Commander V project that Chris started. Chris was the director of Wing Commander IV and shows real promise as a director. The movies are remarkable.
Firsts: First computer game to have trailers shown in movie theaters. Budget for the game was $12 million - three times more than that for Wing Commander III. Wing Commander IV used real sets rather than green screen backgrounds turned into sets with computer graphics as seen in Wing Commander III.
Star Power: One thing that the Wing Commander III and IV games have is
star power. Star War’s Mark Hamill plays the dashing Confederation ace
Colonel Christopher Blair, the game player’s alter ego. Blair’s long
time friend and war buddy Paladin is played by veteran actor John
Rhys-Davies who is also an avid game player (He could not be dragged
away from the computer game during the New York press swarey to
introduce the game - Ed.). Malcolm MacDowell of Time After Time and A
Clockwork Orange plays Admiral Tolwin who in a plot twist has turned
into an evil, fascist war monger. Tom Wilson, Biff in the Back to the
Future trilogy, provides the comic relief as Maniac, the pilot who feels
every furball needs him. John Spencer of L.A. Law puts in a good
performance.
Plot: There appears to be attacks in the border worlds air space on Confederation craft. (You are treated to an attack on a Confederation hospital ship by rather high tech stealth fighters in the beginning movie sequence. - Ed.) Admiral Tolwyn is sent to investigate the attacks, and as part of his plan brings Col. Blair out of retirement to assist with the investigation. Blair is assigned to a ConFed carrier ship and as the missions unfold they are embroiled in a war that takes them to the very seat of power the Confederation Senate, where Paladin is now the presiding chair.
Shipboard gameplay: Ship morale is gone and replaced with key personnel morale which affects how they treat you in combat. There are 33 conversations from the star port canteen to the first ship to the assembly floor where you confront Tolwyn. Getting the right answers to conversations increases the morale of your fighters
Ship Automap: makes moving from one point on the ship to another easy.
Combat: Special instrumentation for the flight simulation portion of the game is labeled clearly
Difficulty levels: There are six difficulty levels: rookie, veteran, ace, hard, crazy, and nightmare. At nightmare all of your enemies, ace and normal are skill level 2.
Wing person commands: There are two basic commands ‘ break and attack’ and ‘attack my target.’
Wing person characteristics: Just about all wing persons are invulnerable, save the ones that must die to further the plot. Yes one of your favorite pilots must die. To further the personality of these characters Origin has povided them with seven attributes: aggressiveness, trigger happiness (Manicac), courage, flying skill, gunnery skill, loyalty, and verbosity, which are scored on 0,1, or 2. Each wing person has his own script in battle for 23 different comments and responses which are different then they have low or high morale. There are six special wing persons and 17 not so special wing persons.
Missions: Involve Navpoint patrols where you generally kill everything
you see which is not confederation. Reconaissance and rescue missions
are new for Wing Commander IV. There are 48 total missions in the game,
but depending on what you do at what point you will probably only fly 37
of these missions. Going back and selecting other choices can get you
to fly all the missions, but alas you cannot select the missions from an
instant action or single mission mode.
Weapons are divided into 15 guns from the laser to the fission cannon, 12 missiles of which the image recognition is my favorite, and torpedoes which are the only fast kill on a capital ship.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is improved so that ships can dock, bring supplies to other areas, and avoid being shot down in the space combat sequences not in the cinematic ones.
You Fly: Lots of new fighters including the new stealth fighter that Tolwin has cooked up with his fascists. ConFed fighters include Bearcat, Excalibur, Hellcat, Longbow, and Thunderbolt. Pirate ships include Razor and Arrow. The Kilrathi Dralthi makes a return bid in the game. The Black Lance Heavy fighter, Dragon, is arguable the best fighter in the game that you get to fly. The Border Worlds ships are the Arrow light fighter, Avenger torpedo bomber, and Banshee light fighter.
You fly against: seven capital ships , including the starbase, shuttle, and transport.
Graphics are pretty remarkable when you consider the amount of full motion video (FMV) here and the fact that this movie is a quality high enough to offer in the theaters. The full motion video skips one line of pixels out of four which puts it on fewer disks and lets the FMV run faster and smoother on machines. The Macintosh graphics are much better.
Cheat: The game’s best cheat is included. You can fly the entire game at invulnerable setting without hurting your game.
Reviewers: Kevin says the game play is about half as long as Wing III
and this is to accommodate the video which is twice as long and better
than those in the predecessor. Next Generation called this a new version of an old title.
References:
Next Generation, volume 2, number 18, June, 1996, pg. 125, 4/5 (80%)
Kevin J. McCann, volume 3, number 4, September, 1996, pg. 95, 7/10,
(70%) Macintosh version
John Shaw, Electric Playground, 9/10 (90%)
Kevin J. McCann, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, Computer
Player, volume 2, number 12, May, 1996, 8/10 (80%).
Al Giovetti, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Electronic
Entertainment, volume 2, number 3, March, 1995, pg. 64, 9/10 (90%).
Kevin McCann, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Computer Player,
volume 1, number 10, March, 1995, pg. 42-43.
Peter Olafson, PC Games, volume 3, number 9, September, 1996, pg. 26.
Next Generation, volume 2, number 18, June, 1996, pg. 125, 4/5 (80%)
Kevin J. McCann, volume 3, number 4, September, 1996, pg. 95, 7/10,
(70%) Macintosh version
John Shaw, Electric Playground, 9/10 (90%)
Kevin J. McCann, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, Computer
Player, volume 2, number 12, May, 1996, 8/10 (80%).
Al Giovetti, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Electronic
Entertainment, volume 2, number 3, March, 1995, pg. 64, 9/10 (90%).
Kevin McCann, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Computer Player,
volume 1, number 10, March, 1995, pg. 42-43.
Peter Olafson, PC Games, volume 3, number 9, September, 1996, pg. 26.