A Review of Starlancer
J. Ingram Mrpisca@magiccablepc.com Starlancer
Publisher - Microsoft
Developer - Digital Anvil

System Requirements - Windows PC, p200 or higher, with a p2 300 with a 3d accelerator recommended, 32 Megs of RAM.

Reviewers Machine - Windows 92 se, P3 600, 192 MB ram, NVIDIA GeForce

Similar - Wing Commander
Category - Action / Space Fighter Sim
MSRB- Teen

Review by- J. Ingram
May 22, 2000



There was a time that space sims of quality were few and far behind. Last years release of X-wing Alliance, left simmers in general a little disappointed, and hoping for more. Now the masters have returned with a new license and a great game. Erin and Chris Roberts left Origin and the Wing Commander franchise that made them famous to form Digital Anvil a while back. This flagship release from this new developer is poised to revive the shaky space sim genre. Starlancer promises also to be the prequel of Freelancer. Freelance is to be the “Privateer” to Starlancers “Wing Commander” and from all the pews rises a hearty “AMEN!”

The game is set in 200 years into the future as man has reached all over the solar system. Faster than light drives have not yet come about, so all the action takes place in our own backyard. The good guys, The Alliance has spread itself thin reaching out into the solar system, while the bad guys, the coalition have stockpiled nearer to Earth. As the game begin, the Coaltion is playing friends with the Alliance, but on the day of a big treaty signing they attack and overwhelm the unsuspecting Alliance. Thus begins, Starlancer, in which you play a civilian volunteer in the fight to stop the dastardly coalition. There is a reall World War Two feel that the Robert’s boy have played into the game that really works. Gone are the 14 CD’s of the last 3 Wing Commanders, and in its place are subtler, yet more effective plot lines. You get a real feel that you fighting for your life in the first few missions, as the Coalition spreads and the Alliance scrambles to regroup. Kudo’s to the Digital Anvil for officially burying the ridiculous overuse of Full Motion Video. The cut scenes are brief effective and well done. They communicate the point, and don’t seem staged or gratuitous.
The game is broken up into 24 or so missions, with a random mission generator slash simulator to play around with between missions. If you played any of the Wing Commander games, then you will see some familiar territory here. The game is very much centered on the flight model and not on conversations and discussions with the crew of your ship. The briefing involve what the mission is about and the outfitting of your ship. There are 12 different fighters with over 20 different weapons. The flight model is classically Wing Commander's with some noticeable improvements. Flying your fighter is not difficult to learn, but at higher difficulty it can be a challenge. Most of the storyline is carried out during missions and so there are no dead spaces and thankfully no routine missions. Each mission I have played is varied and interesting. One of the failures of space sim games is that there are only a few different types of missions. These are kill everything, protect the frieghter, patrol, and other formulaic types. This game offers enough variety to keep you playing. I remember on X-wing how frustrating it was to have another protect the frieght mission or nav point sweep mission. It was great in 1993, but in 2000 Starlance delivers more.

Graphics **** ½ - Excellent graphics. Weapon effects are well done not ever the top, but convincing. It has some of the best shield effects I have ever seen. Ships are modeled well, will a lot of detail and moving parts on the ships. On vessel in particular have 4 proton cannons, that sound like a chaingun. When you switch to an external view you can see the chambers on the guns move. It’s little touches like these that make Starlance a very sweet piece of code! Speaking of external views, there is a 3rd person mode that offers specialized crosshairs so you can effectively play the game in 3rd person. Graphically this is the prettiest space sim on the market today.

Interface **** The interface is clean and easy to learn. There are tons of things to configure on your ships HUD. The key commands are intuitive and there is a great laminated keyboard reference card included. Any sim that ships without one of those babies ain’t worth the plastic the CD is pressed on!

Gameplay **** I really enjoyed this game. It has a really “play just one more mission” addictiveness and the story generates real interest in the player. If you have played X-wing or Wing Commander, then this game is easy to learn. I think that it is easher than Freespace 2 to learn and master, with only a little sacrifice of configurability. The game is very fun and quite a rush. Wingman are a little dumb, but they do the job. Mission variety is the key to the success of this game. The Space Sim genre is a little restrictive in the types of missions you ususally get. This game does use some of the old mission types, but somehow makes them interesting and not boring and repetitive. This is an excellent first release for Digital Anvil.

Sound FX **** The sound was great, and voice acting and lip-synching was done well. While there is not a tremendous amount of speaking, it is all well placed and well done. There was one effect that I wish they included. In Tachyon: The Fringe, Novalogic used 3d sound so well, that when you flew threw an explosion, the sound was realistic. Starlance has very good sound, but the attention to detail found in other areas, was not always here. Still sounds ages better that X-wing!

Musical Score *** Nothing to write home about, but not bad. I found myself humming “Imperial March” from Star Wars at times, but it’s fine.

Intelligence and Difficulty **** This is not a hard game to master. It is mentally challenging when 14 torpedoes are heading toward your carrier and you are 100 clicks away. The learning cure in thankfully low and anyone who likes this type of game will feel right at home with Starlance.

There are no impossible missions in Starlancer, but there is enough difficulty to keep you up at night questionsing your tactics. It is the hallmark of good game design that people think about the game when they drive to work or take a shower. Starlance succeeds in getting you interested in its universe

Overall **** ¼ Starlancer is a first rate game. Who woulda thought that Microsoft could begin to produce solid games like this? In reality all Microsoft did was pay Digital Anvil and they did all the hard work, I have heard that Microsoft allows “polish” time on their games. That means that Starlancer may have been sellable 6 months ago, but Microsoft allowed DA to perfect a wonderful game. If that is true then, now don’t get mad, way to go Bill Gates! Get this game!