Our goal for this mission was to take down the ship killer that we stumbled across in the last mission. Unfortunately, since then, their escort had shown up, which. The Kilrathi are a race of warlike, feline extraterrestrials native to the planet Kilrah. Forming the Kilrathi Empire, they engaged in several expansion and imperialistic wars against other races, including the humans of the Terran Confederation. The Kilrathi refer to themselves as the Firstborn or Sons of Kilrah. Humans refer to them derogatorily as 'cats' or 'furballs'. The Kilrathi were.
// // 6th Aug 2016 — 4 years ago // By Ranking the Wing Commander SeriesWith Star Citizen looming just out of view on some distant otherworldly horizon, I thought I’d take a look back on the series that made both Chris Roberts, and his brother Erin, household names before it gets here.The Wing Commander series always prided itself on pushing the hardware of its time, something that looks to continue with Star Citizen. It also spawned an animated series: ‘ Wing Commander Academy’ that ran for thirteen episodes and acted as a prequel and a movie: ‘ Wing Commander’ starring Freddie Prinze Jr.Sadly, Electronic Arts have let the Wing Commander franchise languish a little, with the last big title set in the universe: Wing Commander: Prophecy, coming out in 1997. This list will just be ranking the main series entries.
Of course this list is just my opinion, let me know yours in the comments!5. Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom Released: 4th February 1996The Price of Freedom built on the foundation of Wing Commander III, improving the game engine and improving the production values across the board, the full motion video being shot on sets rather than being pure green screen sets, for example, whilst also being released with enhanced quality on DVD. It was also the first Wing Commander to remove dedicated cockpit graphics, instead opting for a fullscreen HUD style which would stay with the series in Prophecy.The game takes place years after the Terran-Kilrathi war, with internal politics pulling both sides apart from within. A new conflict has flared up between the Terran Confederation and the Union of Border Worlds, after unarmed ships started being destroyed by mysterious fighters with a weapon that vaporises all a ship's contents, leaving no traces.This change of pace, moving to a more political “after the war” story rather than the more action-film style of the prior games, gives Wing Commander IV a very different feel to the rest of the series.4.
Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi Released: 4th September 1991The second game starts with the player character wrongly demoted after the events of the original; picking up ten years later it introduces us to a new cast with some old favourites returning. Those Kilrathi are again up to no good and the story has some emotional moments this time around.Vengeance of the Kilrathi improved on almost every element of the original titles presentation; graphically and aurally it’s a step up in every way, featuring some of gaming's first voice acting courtesy of a separate Speech Accessory Pack.
There was a heavy emphasis on cinematic presentation, the games amazing introduction sequence setting the bar that the whole industry strived to improve upon.Gameplay-wise it was a little bit of a step back, because the game had specific story beats it wanted to happen it was a little less freeform. Wingmen could no longer die (except in scripted moments) for example.The more structured nature to the plot made it feel more linear and less responsive than the original game, but overall it was far stronger to actually play.3. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger Released: 8th December 1994Heart of the Tiger made waves when it launched, as it utilised over two hours of full motion video featuring prominent stars including Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies and Malcolm McDowell.
The main character was finally given a name: ‘Christopher Blair’, after being player named in previous instalments (although he was nicknamed Bluehair by the development team, it’s clear to see how that became Blair!)Technologically it marked the jump to a fully 3D environment with actual models rather than the 2D sprite-based affair of previous games. This was just before 3D acceleration cards were the norm so it used a software 3D renderer; due to this a new selection of ships were created for the game, with more primitive blocky appearances to aid the games speed on high-end for the time 486/Pentium hardware.It picks up with Blair being transferred to the TCS Victory, a couple of old faces return but it’s mostly a whole new roster. The story this time has you taking the fight to the Kilrathi homeworld of Kilrah, bringing with it new planetary missions.2. Wing Commander: Prophecy Released: 12th December 1997Prophecy is the fifth and final entry in the main series and is set over 10 years after The Price of Freedom. It’s also the first entry where Chris Roberts wasn’t directly involved. It introduces a new alien race to the series in the insectoid Nephilim race that travel to human space via a wormhole.You play as Lance Casey rather than Christopher Blair, again with a new roster of characters, as you take the fight to the Nephilim during their invasion of Terran space.
After the more thoughtful campaign of Wing Commander IV it feels nice to be going back to a more action-packed Space Opera style storylineIt’s the first title to embrace 3D hardware, the new Vision engine designed primarily to support 3DFX Glide. This makes it stand out visually compared to the software rendered 3D of prior entries, with impressive explosions, weapon effects and more detailed ship models.Prophecy arguably also feels the best to play, it’s the most modern engine and the controls feel nice even after all these years. As for gameplay: it clearly builds on all the prior entries but feels polished to a sheen.1. Wing Commander Released: 26th September 1990The game that started the franchise and arguably the progenitor of the space combat genre. It pushed PC graphics of the time featuring spectacular 256-colour VGA artwork and cinematic cutscenes.
The humble flight sim is one of the oldest genres around and one of the major reasons why PC gaming managed to, if you’ll forgive the pun, take off. With a decent flight stick to hand and a system specification that could handle them, PCs back in the day wowed anyone lucky enough to get a chance to play some of the classic flighty titles, and one of the very best was Origin’s Wing Commander.Spanning several instalments and spin-offs, the Wing Commander series is considered by many veteran gamers to be one of the best of all time. Although Star Wars: X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter usually manages to take the lion’s share of nominations for best classic space combat flight sim, Wing Commander was treading new territory in the genre long before the Lucasarts title, and right from the get go the series featured groundbreaking technology and gameplay mechanics.
Not only was the game presented in a truly cinematic manner, a rarity for flight sims, but it featured gripping, accessible play and an absorbing story.The series is perhaps best known to many for featuring Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill alongside Malcolm McDowell in later instalments (not forgetting the awful movie), but there’s far more to Wing Commander than famous faces strutting their stuff in front of blue screen, which we’ll go into here as we look at the series, beginning with the first outing. As a newly graduated fighter pilot assigned to the Confederation carrier, The Tiger’s Claw, you were tasked with flying missions in various star systems against he Kilrathi threat. Missions involved seek and destroy, patrols, and escorts and, as to be expected from the name of the series, you did so with a wingman at your side, who you could order around during the mission.This ability to give orders to your allies, not to mention the ability to taunt your foes, was just one of the novel features the game employed, and Wing Commander really did set the standard for the genre, and for things to come.Although many of the features of the title had been seen in some fashion before, rarely had a game managed to combine so many technical features into one release. It had it all for the time, lip syncing in cut-scenes, impressive AI, branching, open-ended story and a game engine called Origin FX that never failed to impress.This engine, which may look archaic by today’s standards, tricked users into believing they were seeing a fully 3D universe by using rotating bitmapped sprites. Various angles were rendered for each fighter and object, and the game simply selected the appropriate angle to show at any one time to give the impression of 3D.
This allowed the game to avoid simplistic wire-frame, vector graphics, and have far better-looking ships, whilst retaining a 3D aesthetic. It was amazing at the time, and facilitated those Star Wars/ Battlestar Galactica fantasies gamers had wanted to play out.The aforementioned branching story was another key element. The interaction with your colleagues in between missions, and the cinematic briefings and launch sequences only added to the fantasy element, and your progress on each mission affected the flow of the game. Each star system you jumped into had a selection of missions, which you could win or lose, and by lose I mean fail an objective. If you died, it was game over, and your story stopped there. Your success contributed to winning or losing the battle for the current star system, and would then affect which system you jumped into next.
Fail, and you’ll end up in a different system, with a different set of missions than if you won the previous battle. Keep failing your objectives, and you could end up with difficult odds and inferior ships, win and you’d find you’d have an easier time of it.
This flow helped to make the game that much more immersive, as you could actually fail a mission, or have to eject to save yourself, and it wouldn’t be game over. You’d simply have to live with the consequences, and life may become harder. The need to be successful was very real, and made each mission far more tense.This urgency was also enhanced by the mortality of your wingmen. Although AI controlled, these fighter pilots under your command weren’t invulnerable and certainly not perfect. They could make mistakes and even die if you weren’t careful, and sending them into battle without considering the situation could not only mean you’re left outnumbered and out gunned, but that character would be gone for the rest of the story. SubscribeIt’s true that the wingmen in the game weren’t particularly effective anyway, often leaving you to get all the kills, but they could be a good distraction for some foes, and they occasionally helped out. More importantly, they greatly enhanced the immersion as you really did feel like a wing commander, barking out orders, telling them to break and attack, keep radio silence or form on your wing.
Again, this may not sound like much today, but in 1990, this kind of AI interaction was mostly unheard of.For all its technical achievements, though, perhaps Wing Commander‘s biggest success was its simple, but challenging gameplay. Unlike many flight sims, it wasn’t bogged down by ridiculously over-complex controls, and wasn’t concerned with realistic flight physics.
Instead it featured intuitive and enjoyable arcade dogfights, and an interesting sci-fi universe to fly around in. It was both accessible for the layman, and a great breath of fresh air for the flight veteran, and it was no surprise that it would spawn a squadron of sequels and spin-offs. Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991). The controls and general combat feel were better, with less sluggish slowdown, and the combat was much more satisfying, helped along by improved audio and speech of your wingmen.
AI was also better, including more effective wingmen (who could no longer die outside of scripted events), and more variety in enemy types graced the many battles.A major focus of the second game, however, was not so much the core gameplay, but more on story. Here the story took centre stage, helped along by improved, animated cut scenes that featured full voice acting and included scenes featuring the Kilrathi antagonists. The story lost it’s branching progression, but there was much more depth to the events rather than it simply being a vehicle to shunt you from dogfight to dogfight, as in the first game.The player protagonist, now disgraced after the destruction of the Tiger’s Claw, now serves on a space station flying routine patrols.
The top brass blamed him for the loss of the Tiger’s Claw, not believing his story of Kilrathi cloaking technology. Of course, the game sees events quickly escalate, and ‘Bluehair’ (as the protagonist is often called, and eventually Christopher Blair), saves the day once again.Although it wasn’t a major departure for the series, and the game didn’t radically change the original formula, it was still a great release, and gained critical acclaim once again. It was tweaked and improved enough to make it a classic, and a worthy sequel, and we wouldn’t see another direct sequel for a couple of years to come. Instead, Wing Commander expanded its universe with a couple of spin-off titles. Wing Commander: Academy (1993)The first spin-off WC title was an odd one. Instead of using the familiar format of story-based space combat utilised by WC I and II, Academy was a stand-alone training simulation. Rather than a series of pre-set missions, the game instead gave players the chance to create their own.
Up to 24 missions could be created and saved, and these could be traded with friends, making for a nigh-on inexhaustible supply of Wing Commander content.The game utilised another tweaked variation of the Origin FX engine, with improved visuals, but the lack of any story mode, and various other WC staple features were missed by fans. Still, the core action was still top notch, and the chance to create your own missions was a rarity at the time. Wing Commander: Privateer (1993)Also arriving in 1993, Wing Commander: Privateer was the last Wing Commander title to utilise the Origin FX engine, and it was also a big departure from the norm, fusing Wing Commander‘s space combat and navigation with retro classic, Elite‘s trading gameplay.As Grayson Burrows (also known as Brownhair), players were no longer part of the Confederation military, but instead a civilian privateer trying to make their way in the Wing Commander universe. Here the focus shifted from the Human/Kilrathi war to an open adventure that players could explore at they saw fit.The story could be followed, of course, but the player was equally free to go off into the game’s universe and do whatever they liked, establishing themselves as a trader, pirate, mercenary or an amalgam of them all.
This free-roaming continued even after the main game story was complete. Actual flight was similar in many ways to previous Wing Commander titles, but the open map didn’t limit player’s to set missions when in the cockpit. Not only that, but events would unfold around you, with other space travelling parties going about their business. For example, you could be flying along minding your own business and stumble upon a trader being attacked by pirates. Here you can choose to ignore the attack, or intervene, being good or bad.
Likewise, others can come to your aid.Although the game was a radical change from the previous titles, with the open-ended world and total overhaul in story and pacing, Privateer is considered by some to be the best Wing Commander title of them all. It’s certainly a large and replayable title, and the open world nature makes it very appealing to those wanting to get lost in their own sci-fi world, but the series was beginning to show its age, and the Origin FX engine was ageing badly. Super Wing Commander (1994)Released for the Apple Mac and 3DO, Super Wing Commander was a remake of the original Wing Commander on modern tech, and it updated the game’s presentation, complete with full speech. It included the secret missions from WC, as well as another new campaign. It also featured a more in-depth story lead up to WC II.Arguably the best version of the original game, the visuals were very impressive for the time, although the limited formats meant it didn’t exactly sell all that well. The Apple Mac was hardly a gaming machine, and the 3DO never managed to take off. This left Super Wing Commander in a rut, and few gamers have played this interesting remake.
Wing Commander: Armada (1994)Wing Commander Armada was released shortly before the next main instalment in the WC series, and although it took place in the same universe, and focused on the same Human/Kilrathi war, it was more of a stand alone product, so isn’t entirely canon. The main distinguishing features of Armada are the use of the new RealSpace 3D engine and the first multiplayer features seen in the series.
Armada was a kind of engine beta test for the next main instalment, Wing Commander III, and the multiplayer functionality, which allowed two players to fight head to head via modem or Ethernet connected PCs, and later via splitscreen was very interesting. It was an impressive enough title, but what we really wanted was to get back to the main story.
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994)With the Wing Commander series starting to flag a little in terms of technology, Origin needed to reinvent the series without losing all of the hallmarks that had made it such a success, and that’s just what it did with Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.Like Armada, WC III ditched the ageing OriginFX game engine in favour of the new RealSpace engine. This was further enhanced over the Armada version, with full SVGA support and visual improvements. Alongside the new game engine was the move from graphical cut-scenes to full FMV sequences. This facilitated the incorporation of real actors to convey the increasingly important story, and for this Origin enlisted the services of Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies and Malcolm McDowell, along with real-life versions of the series’ main antagonists, the Kilrathi.Sadly, he Kilrathi’s transition from sprite to real life took them from being mean and menacing lion-esque warriors of previous games to Jim Henson-style cute and cuddly cat people, which didn’t really depict them as a fearsome race, and the bane of mankind.
Instead you kind of expect to hear the Fraggle Rock music start to play at any time, or David Bowie to pop up juggling crystals.For WCIII, Origin doubled its efforts on the game’s plot, which had been ramping up throughout the series. With real actors and then-amazing FMV video, this was very important.
Luckily, the game itself didn’t suffer, and although the new engine offered plenty of technical wow factor, the wise move of keeping the core gamplay, right down to the controls, was made. This meant that series veterans could pick up and play the game without even reading the manual. It was as if you’d never left the cockpit, although someone had come along and made it all nice and 3D while you were sat in it.