I managed to get in a good few hours today and made it to the end of CD #2. There are just the 3 CD’s in this game so I guess I’m nearing the climax. I’ve ended up abandoning the DVD movies as I’ve been struggling to get the screenshot capture program to behave when capturing these and its just been a whole load easier to revert back to the original movies. The quality of these is pretty good actually so its not a big loss.

For the first mission we are going up against some cap ships for the first time. I’m supposed to take out the turrets while some bombers kill the ships themselves.

There’s some new ships again on this mission. Squids aren’t particularly interesting except that they fold their arms in when they afterburn away.

This barracuda is a sort of mini cap ship. It doesn’t deal out much punishment but it takes a lot of killing to say the least.

The new capships look good and very alien. They don’t turn into a husk any more when they blow up but just sit there with explosions coming off them all the time.

Zero isn’t too happy when I get back so I get to cheer him up next. He tells me about his father and how he was in intel studying the Kilrathi for 20 years and I tell him about always having to try to live up to Iceman even though he died when I was a kid.

Next mission is a straight defend the midway.

We are in Wasps which are special defense ships. They have a disposable booster which you can use at the start of the mission to rocket into the battle. There is yet another new ship to fight in this mission – a manta. This has lots of little ships swarming around it which break off when you destroy the main one.

The cruiser is a fair size to say the least.

I attempt to work on its defenses while bombers take it out.

When I get back I’m told that Dallas didn’t survive the battle.

Maniac is bragging when he gets into the bar and not exactly sympathetic about the 3 people who died in that last battle. I end up having a go at him and get stuck in the brig for it but Blair talks the CAG into letting me out.

We’re in a new system now as we want to repair the comm relay and send a warning back to Confed ab0ut whats going on out here.

Blair volunteers to be my wingman for this mission.



Dekker and his guys dock at the station and he says Blair should come and see the place as well so I’m left on my own. The place looks like a slaughterhouse.

This wasn’t a good idea as Blair is abducted and the ship that got him jumps off straight away.

I fight off the attack but Blair is lost and I land at the comm station.

Dekker gives me my next mission – a straight defense while he brings the station back online.

The biggest problem with this defense is this Devil Ray which is really tough. Support arrives from the Midway after a couple of minutes though.

The CAG promotes me and I’m also transferred to Black Widow squadron.

I’m not the only one to be transferred and their is a bit of a party going on. Maniac isn’t too happy about never getting the girl…..

In this mission I have to find a jammer in the middle of some asteroids.

There is a new type of ship to fight where 3 stingrays treble up. You really don’t want to be infront of this as it just rips your shields out in 1 hit.

The asteroid field is full of strange devices and I have to scan them all to find the jammer. If I do the sensible thing and kill off the fighters first I fail the mission every time. I have to scan them before and let Stiletto handle the fighters otherwise I get called back to the Midway before I get anywhere.

About this point I start struggling to capture the FMV. One of Maniacs wingmen has ejected and he has been ordered not to go out and get them. I volunteer to go myself.

The CAG isn’t too happy about this but allows it.

It’s an easy mission anyway. The only tricky thing is another of those Devil Rays that I have to break off and attack when it shows or it scoops up the pilot.

Next mission is a straight patrol.

I’m called back to defend the Midway shortly after starting but its not really in too much trouble. I’m getting a lot more routine missions like this in WCP than WC4. There are probably more missions in total but they are usually short and quick and I’m starting to have trouble telling them apart.


We are going to take out a carrier and are getting support from rebel Kilrathi which Hawk does not appear pleased about.

The Kilrathi are useful allies for all that and I wouldn’t like to try this mission without them.

I’m struggling to sleep by this point and having nightmares about what might be happening to Blair. Hawk gives me some glib advice that my father once gave him.

It’s more flying with the Kilrathi next. Hawk tells me about how they butchered my father but it wasn’t reported to spare the family. He is trying to prove to me that we shouldn’t be flying with them.

He’s turned off our flight recorders and wants me to kill off the Kilrathi myself but I refuse.

He’s not happy about this when I get back.

My flight stats are ruined also.

We have a not so friendly chat about it in the bar but I talk him around. I’m sure Blair already did this back in WC4.

Finlay is in the briefing room working on the jamming device we found and has pulled out a couple of messages including a load of tissue samples which may be human.

Another escort mission and another new ship – the Lamprey. These are a strange addition as they appear to be weaker than ships that were added earlier and are extremely easy to hit. They have a nice laser style weapon which fires in circles like smoke rings.

Hawk doesn’t make it back from this mission. One of his buddies is clearing out his locker and tells me how Hawk’s homeworld was destroyed by the Kilrathi when he was at the academy which is why he ended up the way he did.



This is another routine, fly out to a nav point and kill things type mission.

Next up we are sending Dekker in to recapture the Dula 7 station.

The reactor isn’t in good shape and it blows up when we leave but he rescues a prisoner in the meanwhile.

I’m told I’m getting a medal for my efforts and also that the prisoner was Blair.

He’s not in great shape but at least he’s alive. He says they forced him to relive old memories that he’d wanted to forget.

Theres a big congratulations for me after the next mission although it doesn’t feel all that different to any others I’ve flown.

We then leave for the G’Mar system.

I think I can see now why I was let down by this game. In the movie sections, the writers are trying to empasise all the time how the new alien race is pure evil and its just overdone. I seem to spend half my time talking people around from depression and the storyline doesn’t really go anywhere. Its more like WC3 in that sense only worse.  The whole plot is limited to 4 sets also which can’t be a help. I don’t miss the branching video too much although this was a major part of the game in WC4 especially the endgame in the senate. It would have still been nice to see it again. In brief, this game has the worst movie sections of the FMV Wing Commanders but thats not to say they aren’t a lot bettter than most interactive movies (and still better than the Wing Commander movie)

The missions are also getting repetitive. It’s not that bad but they don’t have the variety of WC4.  There is a however a good variety of enemy and the super smooth engine makes for some frantic gameplay which doesn’t give me time to be bored. This really is a pure arcade game and the missions do start to feel like the next wave of enemies in a scrolling shoot-em-up. For all my minor gripes, this is still a nice game and better than I thought it was going to be. WC4 is one of my all time favourites and it just wasn’t going to be able to live up to it but this is still well worth playing and I’m more than a little interested to have a look at the Standoff mod that was made for it.