Wing commander IV - The price of freedom
This game has been around a little while now, but it's enough of a landmark to make it worth covering. WC4
is described as in interactive movie. Once upon a time this meant a game in which you didn't do much, but
that's certainly not the case here. The 4 CDs of Wing Commander IV combine impressive star pilot missions
with the best game video in the business. The movies are technically brilliant - the closest yet to watching true
video in a game - but even more important, and unlike most of the competition, Origin opted to pay for well
known actors like Star Wars' Mark Hamill, and put them on real sets. The result was acting in a whole
different league from some of the amateur dramatics you see on other games.
On a sensible machine - we're talking Pentiums, ideally 16Mb of memory and a quad speed drive here - the
video is a delight to watch, with a small amount of interaction along the way. The meat of the game is the set
of spaceflight missions. As an X-Wing veteran, I've never found the flying in Wing Commander entirely
satisfactory. Even in this version, the controls and display aren't as clear as the LucasArts classic, but they
are improved, and the accompanying graphics are excellent. What's more, there's been some really creative
attempts to extend the mission format beyond the familiar go out, shoot 'em up and come back to base.
Wing Commander IV is probably one of the last big DOS-only games, but it runs fine in MS-DOS mode
under Windows 95. In fact, on a fast enough machine you can get it to run without the clumsy switch to
MS-DOS mode, but there tend to be irritating hiccups during gameplay. Whatever your platform, though, if
your PC is up to it and you like space sagas, WC4 is a must-have. It will keep you playing for hours. And
hours ...
Overall - A stunning piece of game/movie crossover. The video is superb and eminently watchable; the game play is good enough to keep you involved. Priced around รบ59.99 in the UK. Produced by Origin, the Electronic Arts subsidiary, web site: http://www.ea.com/origin/english/prod-info/pc-cd/current-titles/wing-4/index.html.