Feeling like giving some long-winded and possibly controversial comments on my recent LucasArts gaming experiences. I won't talk about X-Wing because I've already mentioned it in another post.
I completed X-Wing Alliance, an experience which got progressively worse as it went on. This is a trend with these games, I've noticed. The last time I played it was almost fifteen years ago with a Sidewinder gamepad, instead the joystick I have now. I had some fond memories of that game but I realise now that it was mostly nostalgia talking and little else. Don't get me wrong, the space battles can be exhilarating and fun, but the mission design is so lacklustre. Those who have played it will surely also remember the absolute trainwreck that is the main story. Similar to Tie Fighter, you're playing a story that is supposed to immerse and involve you. This story develops during the course of the game, even when you're involved in the Rebel Alliance. Then, when something interesting finally happens with it - it ends. Just like that. I must have supressed this memory since I last played it but it is undoubtedly one of the worst fuck-ups in gaming history. For 98% of the game you're immersing yourself in a story and then after a cliffhanger ending to a particular mission you're suddenly playing as Lando Calrissian and the last missions are just poorly done recreations of the final battle in RotJ, with cringeworthy renditions of iconic lines and everything. The main story about family, betrayal and whatnot - that's just gone. Never mentioned again and never resolved. Fantastic. It didn't help either that the mission design royally shat itself during the latter part of the game, as is unfortunately the trend with the LucasArts space "simulators". In Alliance the missions are just too long and the risk of failure are so goddamn high that endless repetitions are unavoidable. It really felt like Purgatory at times. There's also a space Rastafarian in the game...
I can only imagine that were some grave problems with the game's production, as if they ran out of money or time or something. Bear that in mind if you play this game and start feeling attached to the main story. Like Admiral Ackbar said: It's a trap!
I also decided to give up on Tie Fighter mid-game, just like X-Wing. I got pretty damn far before I threw in the towel. I typically give Tie Fighter a lot of leeway because it is a good game, but the game developer's definition of difficulty was tragically so warped that it ruins the experience the further you progress. You go from being a starfighter in a group, fighting other starfighters and possibly larger vessels. Sometimes you must protect something, sometimes you don't. Then the whole Imperial civil war bullshit kicks in and you're suddenly fighting other Tie Fighters and every single goddamn mission is you - only you - trying protect everything friendly on the map, while destroying everything hostile on the map, while trying to survive as you're being "player-aggroed" to oblivion. Even when you do get the rare mission with actual friendly craft on your side they won't really do anything to salvage the mission objectives. Giving out commands to wingmates helps sometimes but in certain missions you're prevented from communicating with others. Oh, and if you somehow fail to meet up to your role as a one-man army, get ready to be chided and insulted by your own command for YOUR failure. Because everything has to be about the player, because these people didn't know how to make these games any other way, in order to make them "challenging". Yeah, just throw out the simulation part and shove in the arcade bullshit. Why not. The mission in which my spirit was finally broken, central command alerts you that there are four hostile squadrons of Tie Defenders inbound. One is attacking a Star Destroyer, one is attacking a corvette, one is attacking bombers and one whole squadron is attacking YOU. Not your fighter squadron but you specifically. Right down to your designation. Well, you just have to engage them, right? Try to destroy them before they destroy you? No. You have to destroy all the other squadrons I just mentioned, before they get their torpedoes off. Won't the other starfighters take care of that, though? No, they won't. I can't even remember when I last got to fly a mission as just a starfighter, in a group of starfighters, engaging other starfighters and not having to stress about everything else in existence. It's always babysitting others and picking up the slack 24/7, while getting chewed out when you inevitably fail to be at two places at once. Had I more patience I probably would've endured this slump, like after a few dozen tries I prevail with the skin of my teeth and move on. I realise now, however, that I can devote that time to something else. That's wisdom that comes with age. The only thing I wanted from these games were reasonable challenge, the kind which makes sense in their own setting.
I also have to mention that I played the inferior 1998 editions of both X-Wing and Tie Fighter. The reason for that is because of they both allow easy remapping of the joystick. When I return to these games some day I'll go with the 1994 editions. Maybe things will be better then.
Lastly and on a more positive note, I finished Dark Forces. It was fine. Good sound effects, fun combat, interesting if sometimes obscure level design with some dodgy platforming sections. Nothing major, though. The hit detection can be a bit iffy as well but the game is old so it's to be expected. It was proper old-school Star Wars all the way through and I had a good time playing it.
