Pedro
Admiral
I've just completed running through all of the main range games (and almost all of the novels/manuals/guides, but I'll touch on those in a separate post).
It had been decades since I'd played/read some of the franchise and thought it might be interesting to touch on how it changed my view of it.
One thing to note is that I started the franchise with Wing Commander IV, then went onto 3, Privateer 2, Prophecy etc and finally the KS.
This time I opted to go through the series in as close to timeline order as I could (so starting with Action Stations, ending with the Arena manual).
Also note that this ranking is based on how much fun I had this time around with them, compatibility issues included.
Old ranking (taken from a 2014 post)
1. Wing Commander IV
2. Wing Commander Prophecy
3. Wing Commander II
4. Privateer 2
5. Wing Commander III
6. Wing Commander Privateer
7. Wing Commander I
8. Wing Commander Secret Ops
This time through:
1. Wing Commander III 3DO
First time with this port, I adored it. I missed the ground missions but the physics was excellent, a real inspiration for the remake as I found myself really wishing the same quality of port had been created for 4. I doubt it would stay this high; but as a new experience it topped my list.
2. Secret Missions 2
I'm including this separately as I played on PC (the rest of WC1 I played with SWC). This was the first WC campaign where I cared about the plot. Reading Freedom Flight in parallel really helped bring the Tiger's Claw to life, which for me had honestly never really happened before.
3. Privateer 2
I was absolutely blown away by the FMV, was it a high budget or did they really make it stretch? It's a shame about the audio as that really let it down at the time, fortunately the future has noise cancelling headphones and none of the dialogue was hard to catch this time around. Still it should have had subtitles.
Downside was the balancing, the guide suggests you stock up on cash before Kappa labs, but that's too late, the game has already bumped up your difficulty. Whereas in Privateer 1 you can mostly just do missions Privateer 2's difficulty often forces you to do trading instead. Jumping rather than autopilot also means you can get trapped at a nav point. The AI was terrible too - but I still had an absolute blast.
Privateer 2 is a testament to how important good physics and a rewarding story are. It shouldn't work, but those aspects saved it for me.
And can I just say how amazing the artists were? Those planets look superb, and it's almost impossible to believe that the CG in the FMV is from only a few years after Wing 3.
Oh and if you do replay it be sure to set it grab patch 3 (not 2 on HCl's site) and set compatibility to XP.
4. Super Wing Commander
I initially tried to play WC1 standard and gave up, not wcdx, nor DOSBOX runs at a sensible speed. I find myself wanting to get some original hardware.
Fortunately SWC doesn't have that issue. Since I came to WC late in the franchise I never had the same attachment to the old visuals. My one real issue with it is SM1.5 - I love SM2 but SM1.5 is almost broken and reuses enough of SM2 that I consider this a (failed) replacement
5. Wing Commander Privateer
Very well balanced, the difficulty curve was far, far more agreeable than the Darkenings. I loved how deep the systems damage could be (not being able to turn at all in one direction was a shame - but reducing speed in a direction is a technique I may nick for the remake to make the systems damage more interesting).
I don't think Righteous Fire was necessary, I'd probably skip it on future replays.
6. Wing Commander II
Oh my god the crashing! I do wish GoG would fix that. Speed wise this seemed to run much better than WC1 and I found the cutscenes to be a real reward at the end of each mission. I was definitely more invested in the crew of the concordia, interactions with them were already starting to feel more movielike.
7. Wing Commander Prophecy
The gameplay is excellent, I was enjoying every moment of going head to head with the bugs. But compared to WCIV and Privateer 2 the FMV is pretty painful. Chris Roberts absence is really felt here. Worst of all it actually pretty much cuts out at the end of the campaign.
Had multiplayer come with it as was originally intended everyone would have just have been grateful for the single player "bonus".
8. Wing Commander IV
This played worse than I remembered. On the plus side it made me convinced it's worth remastering. I had a number of issues whilst playing; I had to fix HCl's DVD patch to work on my super wide monitor, the music kept cutting out (managed to fix this but only once I'd pretty much completed the game). Trying to hit an ace with lasers is maddening, I don't remember that being an issue in WC3 (but I haven't played it this time around). Briefings promised obstacles like asteroids but I never saw them, and the joystick "hopping" now drives me mad, I remember it being there in the original but it didn't bother me so much. Since I played WC3 on 3DO this was by far my least agreeable experience gameplay wise.
9. Wing Commander Secret Ops
There's not too much to say. I think the e-mail needed to be integrated into the game so you got a message or two every mission. And I think e-mail should have been in WCP, it would have helped distract from the lower number of FMVs, and made the switch to mail more palatable with SO (not that they knew SO was coming). It's a reasonable expansion, when you do get the in-flight comm videos you get hints of a format that could have worked for expansion packs in this FMV world.
Episode 6 is where it really falls down for me though, the difficulty is suddenly absolutely mad. Then episode 7 is short and easy.
Overall I had a blast with almost all of it, glad to see it's not rose tinted glassess.
Playing through in order I definitely gained more of an appreciation for the earlier titles, in the later titles I found myself missing features/complexity from them which I didn't know were missing when I originally experienced them. I also am convinced I'd like FMV to come back; even in modern cutscene heavy games they feel sterile. Live action video always feels like a reward, and the subtleties of performance that motion capture never quite mimics make the world of difference.
Anyone else find their rankings changed radically on coming back to the series?
It had been decades since I'd played/read some of the franchise and thought it might be interesting to touch on how it changed my view of it.
One thing to note is that I started the franchise with Wing Commander IV, then went onto 3, Privateer 2, Prophecy etc and finally the KS.
This time I opted to go through the series in as close to timeline order as I could (so starting with Action Stations, ending with the Arena manual).
Also note that this ranking is based on how much fun I had this time around with them, compatibility issues included.
Old ranking (taken from a 2014 post)
1. Wing Commander IV
2. Wing Commander Prophecy
3. Wing Commander II
4. Privateer 2
5. Wing Commander III
6. Wing Commander Privateer
7. Wing Commander I
8. Wing Commander Secret Ops
This time through:
1. Wing Commander III 3DO
First time with this port, I adored it. I missed the ground missions but the physics was excellent, a real inspiration for the remake as I found myself really wishing the same quality of port had been created for 4. I doubt it would stay this high; but as a new experience it topped my list.
2. Secret Missions 2
I'm including this separately as I played on PC (the rest of WC1 I played with SWC). This was the first WC campaign where I cared about the plot. Reading Freedom Flight in parallel really helped bring the Tiger's Claw to life, which for me had honestly never really happened before.
3. Privateer 2
I was absolutely blown away by the FMV, was it a high budget or did they really make it stretch? It's a shame about the audio as that really let it down at the time, fortunately the future has noise cancelling headphones and none of the dialogue was hard to catch this time around. Still it should have had subtitles.
Downside was the balancing, the guide suggests you stock up on cash before Kappa labs, but that's too late, the game has already bumped up your difficulty. Whereas in Privateer 1 you can mostly just do missions Privateer 2's difficulty often forces you to do trading instead. Jumping rather than autopilot also means you can get trapped at a nav point. The AI was terrible too - but I still had an absolute blast.
Privateer 2 is a testament to how important good physics and a rewarding story are. It shouldn't work, but those aspects saved it for me.
And can I just say how amazing the artists were? Those planets look superb, and it's almost impossible to believe that the CG in the FMV is from only a few years after Wing 3.
Oh and if you do replay it be sure to set it grab patch 3 (not 2 on HCl's site) and set compatibility to XP.
4. Super Wing Commander
I initially tried to play WC1 standard and gave up, not wcdx, nor DOSBOX runs at a sensible speed. I find myself wanting to get some original hardware.
Fortunately SWC doesn't have that issue. Since I came to WC late in the franchise I never had the same attachment to the old visuals. My one real issue with it is SM1.5 - I love SM2 but SM1.5 is almost broken and reuses enough of SM2 that I consider this a (failed) replacement
5. Wing Commander Privateer
Very well balanced, the difficulty curve was far, far more agreeable than the Darkenings. I loved how deep the systems damage could be (not being able to turn at all in one direction was a shame - but reducing speed in a direction is a technique I may nick for the remake to make the systems damage more interesting).
I don't think Righteous Fire was necessary, I'd probably skip it on future replays.
6. Wing Commander II
Oh my god the crashing! I do wish GoG would fix that. Speed wise this seemed to run much better than WC1 and I found the cutscenes to be a real reward at the end of each mission. I was definitely more invested in the crew of the concordia, interactions with them were already starting to feel more movielike.
7. Wing Commander Prophecy
The gameplay is excellent, I was enjoying every moment of going head to head with the bugs. But compared to WCIV and Privateer 2 the FMV is pretty painful. Chris Roberts absence is really felt here. Worst of all it actually pretty much cuts out at the end of the campaign.
Had multiplayer come with it as was originally intended everyone would have just have been grateful for the single player "bonus".
8. Wing Commander IV
This played worse than I remembered. On the plus side it made me convinced it's worth remastering. I had a number of issues whilst playing; I had to fix HCl's DVD patch to work on my super wide monitor, the music kept cutting out (managed to fix this but only once I'd pretty much completed the game). Trying to hit an ace with lasers is maddening, I don't remember that being an issue in WC3 (but I haven't played it this time around). Briefings promised obstacles like asteroids but I never saw them, and the joystick "hopping" now drives me mad, I remember it being there in the original but it didn't bother me so much. Since I played WC3 on 3DO this was by far my least agreeable experience gameplay wise.
9. Wing Commander Secret Ops
There's not too much to say. I think the e-mail needed to be integrated into the game so you got a message or two every mission. And I think e-mail should have been in WCP, it would have helped distract from the lower number of FMVs, and made the switch to mail more palatable with SO (not that they knew SO was coming). It's a reasonable expansion, when you do get the in-flight comm videos you get hints of a format that could have worked for expansion packs in this FMV world.
Episode 6 is where it really falls down for me though, the difficulty is suddenly absolutely mad. Then episode 7 is short and easy.
Overall I had a blast with almost all of it, glad to see it's not rose tinted glassess.
Playing through in order I definitely gained more of an appreciation for the earlier titles, in the later titles I found myself missing features/complexity from them which I didn't know were missing when I originally experienced them. I also am convinced I'd like FMV to come back; even in modern cutscene heavy games they feel sterile. Live action video always feels like a reward, and the subtleties of performance that motion capture never quite mimics make the world of difference.
Anyone else find their rankings changed radically on coming back to the series?