Best First Mission (Main Series)

Dundradal

Dundradal

Frog Blast the Vent Core!
...In all the major game releases including add ons.

They are as follows, just in case they slipped your memory. You may notice a little bit of a pattern here. Someone has to go on all those patrols :)



Wing Commander

Patrol All Nav Points - Enyo System

Ship - Hornet

The VERY first mission. 3 Nav points, 5 fighters and asteroids. What a way to say hi. Welcome to the world of Wing Commander. It goes without question this set the tone for missions to come. :D


Secret Missions 1

Patrol/Defend/Escort - Goddard System

Ship - Hornet

This mission definitely lets you know that this is not going to be a cakewalk. SM1 is filled with challenging missions and this one has something special for you at every Nav point.



Secret Missions 2

Escort/Patrol - Firekka System

Ship - Hornet

Escort TCS Perez de Cuellar to Nav 2. Then we get a Ralari later on. A first mission with a significant capship to take out? This set the tone of the remaining missions fairly well. The Kilrathi are coming and they are coming in numbers.



Wing Commander 2

Patrol All Nav Points - Gwynedd System

Ship - Ferret

6 fighters after quiet for years? Uh oh, sounds like a job for a former war hero. Bombers without afterburner madness soon ensues.



Special Operations 1

Patrol All Nav Points - Pembroke System

Ship - Super Ferret

Improved Ferret is fun to fly especially when going against Strakhas and a Kamekh. Origin definitely upped the ante with the expansions as their first missions always seemed to have a little extra spice.



Special Operations 2

Escort Jazz to Alcatraz - Canewdon System

Ship - Rapier II

The bastard has to get away, but we do get to take out 6 fighters in a Rapier to start with.



Wing Commander 3

Patrol All Nav Points - Orsini System

Ship - Hellcat V

4 Darkets in a Hellcat V? Pfft. No problem. The start of the final campaign against the Kilrathi. Perhaps the easiest of all the first missions.



Wing Commander 4

Challenge Maniac/Ship Out for another campaign - Nephele System

Ship - Hellcat V

Who doesn't love to go head to head with Maniac and show him a thing or two? And how about the first time you saw Seether's little trick? Welcome to big budget Wing Commander.



Wing Commander Prophecy

Escort Dekker - H'rekkah System

Ship - Piranha

6 Morays, a trashed Frathli II and a reunion with Dekker. An interesting way of introducing our new enemy. The wrecked Frathli II was something that struck me right off the bat. Our new enemy could easily destroy the Kilrathi, so what was in store for us?



Secret Operations

Patrol All Nav Points - Courage System

Ship - Black Panther

Again with the expansions! Origin had no qualms about making these first missions a bit more difficult then the main game releases. The difficultly of the expansions overall is a bit higher than the main releases as well. 15 fighters in this mission, the most of any first mission in the main series. The next closest is SO1 with 10.




So there's some basic information on each. Which one was the best for you?


My own personal favorite is SM1. First Nav point, hello new transport! A lot of fighters as well as the famous asteroids. SM1 is filled with difficult missions and this first one perfectly set the tempo of everything that was to follow.
 
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I would have to say Prophecy. The way things got quiet during the briefing, and the pilots reactions to the trashed Fralthi were very cool. If it matters at all, I think that the first four missions of Prophecy were among the best in the series.
 
I'd have to give it a tie between SM1 and SM2. SM1 is probably more challenging on paper, due to the strike/escort roles that they have you do...in a Hornet, of all ships. On the other hand, I remember the first time in SM2, when I saw those mass drivers on the Dralthi II. I said to myself, "Wait, that isn't right..." even though Halcyon warned me in the mission briefing. I was probably sucking vacuum a few minutes later.
 
Having played WC1, SM1, WC3, and WC4; out of those I would say WC4 was by far my favorite first mission. Watching the cutscene of the Hellcats taking off with Maniac and Blair together and talking about how long its been was an excellent tie in to the previous game. As a WC3 vet who hadn't played in awhile, that really got me involved and allowed me to relate to the game. It was also full of nice surprises like the battle with Maniac and being jumped by Pirate fighters. You get to watch a new fighter (the Avenger) destroy a never-before-seen Depot and then you get to land at a Station.
 
Secret Missions and Secret Missions 2 get a ding for introducing new ships and then never having them appear again... what teases! I think I'll go with Special Operations 2 - you could fly around and find a whole bunch of different Clydesdales, which was kind of neat. The surrounding fiction was nice and dramatic, too...

Space Point
 
Plus you could actually see a Waterloo cruiser in flight if you chose to continue towards the Alcatraz. :) (Harrassed by some Sartha, IIRC!)
 
Hmm, for the most original first mission, I think I like WC 4 and WCP best because they're different from the feel. Does not mean I had the most fun flying them.
 
The big jump from WC2 to WC3 engine was very impressive to me (even Armada to WC3). Maybe more than to the Vision engine. To this day I think WC3 looks very clean and advanced. The detailed flight deck/briefing rooms/cockpits still look excellent to go along with it.
 
I liked the WCSO first mission - I hadn't played Prophecy when I played it for the first time, and it was pretty freaky. I think the whole thing was well done, the art style, the music, the graphics...having to chase down those nasty fighters to keep them from alerting their brethren...it really got me going in a way none of the other WC games did right off the bat.
 
Enyo mission - the first mission I've ever played. When I started to fly in Hornet I realized that I found great game.. I had to learn everything about fighting, flying and landing :p
 
For me it was SM2 and WC4.

SM2's wingmen hyping about being honor guard and we'd finally have a chance to do something besides impossible campaigns really jived with me when I was a gullable 13-year-old. I just said "yeah! finally." And then they threw ScimDralthi, Gratha and a Ralari at me. Like John McClane in a Die Hard movie, I just knew it was going to be a very bad day.

WC4 was interesting in that it had a feeling that I was a rusty old man roaming through a part of space that wasn't war-front property. The pirate ambush solidified that, harkening back to Privateer. Then the station blew up. All I could think was "That's... not supposed to happen. Is it?"
 
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