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Date |
: Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Genre |
: Simulation |
| Developer |
: LucasArts |
| Author |
: Jin-Ning Tioh |
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In the tradition of Rouge Squadron, players command a variety of starfighters including the Naboo N-1 Starfighter and the Guardian Mantis into furious arcade-style space or atmospheric battles. Several ships are available for your use. The elegant Naboo N-1 Starfighter, flown by Naboo starfighter pilot Rhys Dallows, is fast, maneuverable and comes equipped with laser cannons and proton torpedoes. The Guardian Mantis is piloted by mercenary Vana Sage, and has laser cannons and Ion-enabled sensor tags. Space pirate Nym flies the Havoc muscle ship, with an arsenal of dual triple-laser cannons and powerful energy bombs. Unfortunately, the Havoc muscle ship is slower compared to most other ships. A bonus ship is also available - The Sith Infiltrator. However, you'll have to win gold medals on all missions in order to unlock it.
Craft control in Starfighter is fairly straightforward. Each ship is equipped with a targeting system as well as laser cannons and secondary weapons. Afterburners can be used to close the distance between enemy ships fairly quickly, while brakes have also been provided to make taking out enemy capital ships easier. Unfortunately, the lack of a radar as well as the sparse targeting system make finding specific ships such as bombers fairly difficult. While your HUD will automatically point you at your next target, players are often forced to cycle through about ten to twenty targets in a hectic battle before finding crucial ships to disable or destroy. Needless to say, this flaw can often waste valuable time. Also, the lack of a radar makes it difficult to know precisely how many enemies are in the area. Fortunately, players frustrated with the "invisible ceiling" problem, which limited movement and made loops difficult to execute, will be happy to know that areas are not nearly quite so constrained in Starfighter.
No doubt two of Starfighter's most notable features is the ability to issue orders to wingmen as well as zoom in "sniper-mode". Allowing players to "snipe" at enemy fighters from afar, it also allows for a more enjoyable experience, giving players the opportunity to admire enemy fighters up close before blasting them into little shreds of scrap metal. The ability to issue orders to your wingmen can be very useful at times. Orders include attacking your target, forming up on your wing or requesting help to defend your ship. This becomes an invaluable tool during defensive missions and attacks on larger targets, such as armed freighters and dropships.
Most of the missions in Starfighter tend to gravitate towards defensive missions rather than offensive missions, especially in the first half. Most missions will have players defending bases and freighters, although several offensive missions include raiding a Trade Federation convoy, destroying a massive Trade Federation factory and of course, the final assault on the droid control ship. Each mission usually opens up with a set of objectives, with additional objectives being issued during the mission. A set of bonus goals are also present. When completed, these bonus objectives bags you either bronze, silver or gold medals. These in turn can be used to unlock bonus missions, such as fighter and bombing training, which takes place outside of the main storyline. Each mission also has three difficulty settings accurately named easy, medium and hard. The easy difficulty is cake right up till the last mission, whereas the hard mode is an excellent challenge for veteran players. Unfortunately, the campaign is extremely short, and can be finished in one long play session, although there is some replay value in bonus goals and unlockable missions.
Perhaps one of the best thing to be found in Starfighter is its beautifully rendered scenes and graphics. Improvements were specifically made to the PC version, with fantastic special effects, several pre-rendered scenes, higher-resolution graphics and an increase in texture size on all starfighters, making them appear more refined and smoother. Planets are also equally detailed, with a Federation droid factory scattered throughout a lava-based planet and massive waterfalls on Naboo. The final mission will also feature the interior of the massive Trade Federation station. Besides this, the deep-space missions look amazing, some of them featuring planets, asteroid fields and suns. Most of the environments in Starfighter are simply put - huge. The final mission in which you fly into a massive droid control ship and through a series of its air ducts should give an idea as to how massive the areas can be. Trade Federation Droid Starfighters, tanks and other hostile ships can often be found well over the dozens in these areas. Despite all this, the frame rate manages to stay consistent throughout the game, even during the epic finale to destroy the Droid Control Ship over the planet of Naboo, with hordes of Droid Starfighters inbound.
The soundtrack found in Starfighter is generally good, being made up of the usual music tracks such as the "Duel of the Fates". Sound effects are also quite decent, with all the usual engine whines and blaster effects. Besides this, the voice work found here is also quite well done.
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