Wing Commander II - In-depth Written DOS Review With Pics
Wing Commander IIVengeance of the Kilrathi
MS-DOS, 1991
Origin
$79.95 (+19.95 for Speech Pack)
*Alphabetical list of writings
*Game played on DOS hardware, pics of 4:3 CRT monitor
*Some pics slightly altered to show more text
In a dimly lit and dank smelling basement, excreting that unique concrete musk, our Amiga sat in a walled off corner. This was a man made wall consisting of a large and tall computer desk which went 'round a corner, a metallic filing cabinet, and a dresser in which a fish tank sat on top of. Rounding the corner, with perhaps a swing around a support beam (for good luck), I excitedly entered the computing domain. My father sat at his desk reading one of the numerous computer magazines at his disposal. With a sigh he passed it along to me, and I learned that one of my favorite Amiga games would not be getting its sequel ported to our machine.
It was the first time I had gone through this. The Amiga had many fantastic original games, a boat load of outstanding ports which bettered the original versions, and even if a port wasn't so great we usually had a mostly authentic experience, comparable to its home system. It would start happening more in the coming years, mostly with CD titles, though we'd hang on until SVGA (640x480) truly started to impress. Our first PC would be bundled with none other than the third installment in the Wing Commander franchise. I missed out on the second game when new, finally getting to experience it through the Kilrathi Saga, a Windows 95 port of the first three games.
*Game played on DOS hardware, pics of 4:3 CRT monitor
*Some pics slightly altered to show more text
In a dimly lit and dank smelling basement, excreting that unique concrete musk, our Amiga sat in a walled off corner. This was a man made wall consisting of a large and tall computer desk which went 'round a corner, a metallic filing cabinet, and a dresser in which a fish tank sat on top of. Rounding the corner, with perhaps a swing around a support beam (for good luck), I excitedly entered the computing domain. My father sat at his desk reading one of the numerous computer magazines at his disposal. With a sigh he passed it along to me, and I learned that one of my favorite Amiga games would not be getting its sequel ported to our machine.
It was the first time I had gone through this. The Amiga had many fantastic original games, a boat load of outstanding ports which bettered the original versions, and even if a port wasn't so great we usually had a mostly authentic experience, comparable to its home system. It would start happening more in the coming years, mostly with CD titles, though we'd hang on until SVGA (640x480) truly started to impress. Our first PC would be bundled with none other than the third installment in the Wing Commander franchise. I missed out on the second game when new, finally getting to experience it through the Kilrathi Saga, a Windows 95 port of the first three games.
^From hero to zero, starting the game, our place in the universe
Coming out during a time when a large percentage of PC owners were still utilizing graphics cards which had been inferior (for gaming) when brand new (EGA, CGA, etc.), Wing Commander II was one of those games some people would be willing to buy a brand new computer just to show off. Requiring the then new MS-DOS 5.0, as well as 583k of the available 640k conventional memory in VGA, and somehow more in EGA. Version 5 of DOS was recommended due its added ability to load itself into upper memory, something previous versions could not accomplish. While it could run on a 286, and I'm positive quite a few people indeed ran it just that way, there they would have been experiencing something of a slide show. Even on the most capable 386's, this game was sure to have hiccuped during certain combat intensive areas.
Pioneering the use of digitized audio in full (though rare) cinematic scenes, the add-on speech pack inspired many to adopt the Sound Blaster card. The game didn't really take advantage of the Sound Blaster beyond speech, as its music was the standard OPL-2 Adlib variety. The series had also established itself as one that took advantage of the MT-32 synthesizer, and here again that versions music shines. I'd say the music in this second installment is good, while not quite reaching the heights of the original. The space opera sound seems to have been deliberately toned down to give a darker, moodier feel. Time may have also been in crunch mode for release, as select combat tunes from the first game make a repeat appearance here. It accompanies the game scenes and combat perfectly, though it never stands out to the point of being called memorable. I'd still call it a shining star to point to on how other game designers should have been scoring their games at the time, when quite a few didn't bother to score them at all.
^"Action central" finds rare action, combat in the Ferret
Starting off quite tragically, our home for the first game and its subsequent mission packs, the TCS Tiger's Claw, has been destroyed. Many of our friends were on-board casualties, and worse yet we've been blamed for it all! Using new cloaking technology, several stealth fighters destroyed our capital ship, nobody happened to see these ships besides us, and now we've been labeled a traitor. Due to our blackbox recorder having gone missing, a general court martial was unable to find enough evidence to convict us for anything but negligence. It was enough for a demotion from Lt. Colonel to Captain however, as well as a transfer to the backwater of the galaxy, babysitting a space station.
Getting into the nit picky; it is a little hard to accept this series of events. We were not just another nobody pilot, we're a well known hero by this point. Our piloting skill being noted as helping dramatically in our enemies retreat from an entire sector in space, a massive battle fleet being destroyed, as well as saving an entire race of sentient aliens. You might just be willing to trust this guys story given all he's done for you to this point, no? Even if not, somehow I can't believe how a single patrol of many could be blamed for the destruction of an entire ship which was deep within enemy territory! That's why you have multiple patrols, that's why you have ships in far and close contact with their base. Filed under "shit happens", it is a little laughable just how quickly everybody turned against us.
^A mayday from some old friends, sifting through the asteroids
But so wonderful is that magical suspension of disbelief, which the game offers you more than enough reason to activate. Having gotten off to such a dramatic start to our career in the first game, this one is wanting to put you back in your place! Equally hard to contemplate was how quickly we rose to the top of the kill-board in the first game, sky rocketing from 2nd lieutenant through ranks all the way up to Lt. Colonel in a little more than a year. We probably needed to be put in our place! It's a grim tone from the start, our military career appears over.
Ten years pass in the Enigma sector, where you're glad to fly routine patrols just hoping to spot as much as an enemy garbage scow. Alongside Shadow, one of your few friends since the destruction of the Claw, you're suddenly put back in the midst of the action when the TCS Concordia calls out a distress signal. It appears our skills have not diminished quite yet, and here we will meet some of what remains of our old friends. Angel, now a full Colonel and in command of the carrier's flight group greets us. Spirit, our very first wingman in the original game is here as well, along side Jazz and Doomsday, pilots met during the Secret Missions add-ons.
^Meeting some new friends, becoming a bit testy, mourning a loss
Graphically; Well people didn't go out and buy new computers in order to run this for nothing! It was a stunner when released, utilizing 256 color VGA to its full. While technically continuing to use the same game engine as in the original game, Wing Commander II nevertheless received a complete overhaul. A nice challenge while playing would be to find any art assets which have been reused from the first game, you won't find many. It really only took a slight shift in the angle of view to dramatically alter the artistic feel. Off slightly to the side instead of being positioned head-on, we now get a sensation of depth to the games cut-scenes.
Behind the cockpit there's a host of mostly new ships, ten years passing is a great excuse for new technology! The only ship returning from the original is the Rapier, though in a slightly different form featuring a nicer looking cockpit. It's now your everyday medium ship to ship craft. The Ferret and Epee are light craft which feature similar but altered cockpits and payloads. The standard patrol type of fighters, they are breath of fresh air in that position due to their upgraded guns from the Hornet, a light fighter from the first game. Rounding things out are the Broadsword and Saber, both heavy fighters. Featuring a ton of guns and quite the amount of missiles, you should have nothing short of a blast behind the joystick here.
^Behind the scenes of our enemy, an enemy mine field
The sixty year long war with the Kilrathi, an intelligent feline race continues. In the original game we got most of our knowledge of these creatures from the wonderful manual, while occasionally there was a cut scene where they appeared in the distance. For the first time in-game we get to look in on them. Close up and detailed shots give us a great look at their features. These scenes feature the large chunk of the speech add-on's use, most of the kitties dialogue getting voiced. Peering in, we see them conspiring toward the destruction of Earth. There's even a bit of politics, the emperor warning the crowned prince to be careful going to war over pride issues with others, as failure will mean one of his many cousins might become the new heir to the throne.
While these scenes do little in dispelling the notion of evil incarnate who want nothing more than to exterminate us, we do get a deeper look into their psyche via Hobbes, a Kilrathi turned confederation pilot. Witnessing a young human slave being treated badly, he decided to save the human and defect. Some on-board treat him like a hero while others, including yourself, show bigotry. We get to witness the responses as we ask others about him, piloting along his side we develop a friendship. This gives us that first thought of perhaps they're not all so bad. The game starts digging deeper on our enemy. Likewise, as you start showing others you haven't lost your touch, others who know of you only through your reputation as a traitor start digging deeper on you. A tale of redemption.
^Stealth ships return but nobody cares, a murder, escorting
Mission structures remain the same as in the original game. You may be assigned to patrol through several navpoints, looking out for enemy activity and engaging at your discretion. Information is more valuable than lost pilots here, and you can feel free to head for home if things get rough. Many missions involve escorting transports to or from the Concordia, or riding along with various destroyers as they attack larger targets. Similarly you may be assigned to defend stationary installations, and finally the thing we want to do most, blow stuff up in a strike mission.
Defense and strikes have been altered significantly in Wing Commander II because of the introduction of phase shields. Most of the larger friendly and enemy capital ships feature these special shields, in which normal guns and missiles cannot penetrate. No longer can you afterburn in, take a few shots, then run away from attackers, repeating until the ship has been destroyed. Torpedoes equipped on the larger fighter craft, along with larger capital ship guns, are the only weapons that can destroy these larger ships. There's nothing quite like a torpedo run in the second game. The third and fourth installments would keep torpedoes, but not require their use, here they were simply a better way to destroy capital ships. Prophecy would return to requiring the use of torpedoes, but in a different and more strategic nature. Clearing the surrounding area of fighters, locking on to that mother ship, then going in full throttle while hoping your shields don't collapse around you was something wonderfully and uniquely Wing Commander II.
^Breaking in some new craft, torpedo run
I feel the rest of the combat has been made easier in this game. While featuring both simulation and arcade elements, the Wing Commander games have always leaned more toward the arcade. Simulation infusions in the series have long included detailed ship models featuring numerous subsystems which can be damaged, repaired, and destroyed. Missiles might get blown off your ship prior to you ever launching them, a nasty shot to your cannons could leave you with less, or perhaps no offensive capabilities. Will you alter course on your nav point? Can you rely on your wingman to complete the objective? Should you just head home and call it a day?
You can attempt to destroy all that you see around you, but you rarely have to in order to complete an objective. The mission tree, while limiting itself in this game, does allow for failure. That's a simulation element that many full blown simulators don't even have! Your enemies show various stages of destabilization as well. Why put the transport you're escorting in danger by insisting on finishing off a particular enemy pilot, when you've already caused enough damage for him to temporarily or fully retreat? Strategic choices aplenty place Wing Commander II well beyond a stand alone arcade game.
^Good 'ole Palladin, scenic landing
But our goal in the end is to blow stuff up and have fun, not accurately model the behavior of craft in space. It's largely us against the galaxy, your wingmen best described as coming in key here and there, but more often as getting in your way, and at worst outright endangering your life. You're the hero, and you'll be facing at best even odds, and more likely than not they'll be overwhelming. Snuffing out the lives of five, ten, perhaps fifteen kitties per mission. When compared against the original's combat, I feel it's easier to rack in those kills. Countless times when first engaging in combat I lined head to head with my first target only to have him extinguished with not so much as a dent to my shields. I may have even had enough energy in the gun reserves to kill the next in line, all without much evasive action.
This does not make Wing Commander II an easy game. If you're coming into this series fresh you'll undoubtedly be killed numerous times, enjoy the added option to "replay" the mission upon your death. It's easier for me when compared with other games in the series because I've long ago mastered them all. I understand when I can get away with playing chicken, when I need to afterburn and slide to get some shots at its side, and when's the perfect time to come in from behind. I know when to afterburn away, and when it would be best to maintain a certain set speed. When enemies surround my broadsword, which has no afterburners, I understand when to launch a friend or foe missile, hop in a turret, or slow my speed to have them overtake me.
^Emotions well up, an old friend is gone, but love blossoms
Subsequent games in the series would have difficulty settings, and while I feel their default level of difficulty would be harder than this games, there's no doubt Wing Commander II would be much harder than the newer games easy mode. If you're going to win this one, you're going to have to do it the way the designers meant for you to! Actually, apparently the game features a bit of an intelligent rolling difficulty mode. labeled as "Dynamic Intelligence" on the box, it supposedly will adjust the difficulty level of your enemies to match your skill level. I can't say I've ever noticed this system in effect, and if it ever benefited me it would have been many years ago. At this point it would do well to increase the difficulty for me, but I've apparently exhausted its slider.
Gameplay combined with the story is very much a rollercoaster, taking you on one hell of a ride! When coming on-board the Concordia, we see signs there's a traitor among us. Some are pointing our way, as things seemed to have gotten strange since we've come aboard. A murder occurs, pilots ships appear to have been sabotaged, who could be responsible? The story plays central role in Wing Commander II, the combat serving as wonderful accompaniment. This is in contrast to the original game, in where it was the opposite. There was little given in-game about what haunted or motivated your wingmen, you were mostly having passing conversations and sharing tactics or the latest goings on.
^Among the asteroids, coming back to the scene of the crime
Still you managed to feel connected with those men and women. Through the sections on them featured in the games manual, to the quick back and forth at the bar, comments in the briefing room, or perhaps their untimely death on your wing. They were diverse, if not a bit stereotypical, but this was to impart upon you a personality in the limited time available. In Wing Commander II you finally get to dive in. We learn what makes these people happy, angry, the things that haunt them, the things that haunt us. Originally we were mostly a silent protagonist, shyly only speaking when spoken to.
Now we take center stage as we attempt to clear our name. We angrily defend ourselves and others when called for, mourn those we've lost, contemplate our fate and reasons for our decisions. With a fellow comrade and wingmen from the original game, Angel, we even fall in love. So much emotion is jam packed into this game. While perhaps later live actor driven games would give out more drama, none tackled emotion quite like this one, for none had things set up in this way. Building upon the original game where there were but glimpses of emotion, having our accomplishments stripped away with fate bringing us a second chance, this set the scene for the emotions that follow.
^Redemption
The story is what connects us to the other pilots this time 'round. For good or bad, your wingmen can no longer die unless the story has scripted it. If their ship takes enough damage to destroy them, they will instead eject. One thing that connected you with these pilots in the original game was how once they died, you lost out on everything they might have said after that. Sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Here they will never go unless the story demands it, and nothing you do can save the ones which have been destined to depart.
The best games do what they can with what they've got. The original certainly did that, Wing Commander II comes at it from a different angle. I might miss certain aspects which have been ditched in this sequel, but it certainly found its way to make up for it. We get the girl, and there's not much better of a reward to a computer nerd than that right there. Beyond a simple kiss at the end of a game, she was around when we started, she stuck with us at our lowest, we talked and connected, here it felt earned. We'll find out the traitor has been Jazz, and we'll go out and show that hot shot who's the best pilot on this ship!
^Hijacking a ship, we face prince kitty
I don't feel Jazz being the culprit makes a whole lot of sense from a writing perspective. It makes sense from a players perspective as the easy way out, considering he's by far the most loathed pilot to you personally given his antagonism toward you. He's an ass, simple as that. When you look at the way they wrote the character, including in the second Secret Missions pack of the first game, it's obviously being foreshadowed. His motivations aren't really good enough for me. Blaming the Tiger's Claw for the death of his brother can't make sense from a sane perspective. Could such a loss drive a person crazy? Surely, but they'd also be manifesting that pain in other areas, not carefully thought out plans to ruin careers, sabotage ships, and killing others spanning multiple years. I feel others would have had more motivation to be the traitor, including Hobbes or Spirit. With the way they ended up treating Hobbes in the following game, I feel they should have just used that one right here and now.
But hey, it's a ride that's going up and down the entire way, and there's nothing quite as satisfying as blasting to pieces the pilot you hate most on the entire ship without penalty! The mission branching tree, to keep along with the story they're telling, is limited compared to the first game. While you can lose individual missions as well as entire system areas, the path you're taken down is not a diverse one. The story unfolds in the same manor be you on the good or bad side of things. You're thankfully no longer punished for being great at the game, as winning certain areas will no longer skip you further ahead in the game. There's the good path, a middle path, and bad path. The good path will always knock you down to the middle, win or lose. Winning the middle path bumps you to the next winning area, and losing sends you down. An unfortunate change is how every losing path is a do or die situation. In the first game losing a bad set of missions would just continue you along those bad missions, continuing to give you a chance to crawl up. But here you must win to continue on.
^Ending things with a bang
There's no extra story, no different thoughts on the tides of the war. No different wingman or ships to fly. The bad side largely contains the same missions, the same dialogue, just ever so slightly changed to make things a tad more difficult on your end. You can even end up getting the same good ending from the bad path. I find the branching to be a letdown myself, but if it's the price I must pay to be given a wonderful story, I'm alright with how things turned out. And it must be stated just how many games to this very day refuse to let you lose. There's nothing more frustrating than being forced to repeat a level over and over again before you can continue on. While you need to be careful in just how many missions you allow yourself to fail, the fact that you can fail in Wing Commander II is incredible.
There's several Kilrathi aces you'll face along your travels, some are built up better than others. They're not mentioned in the manual, most of them are not mentioned in-game. I feel a lot more attention was given to these special Kilrathi in the first game. But there is one cat in particular that certainly does get the star treatment; Thrakath. Grandson to the emperor of Kilrah, who gets some great treatment himself, Thrakath is your main glimpse into the Kilrathi. Its his plans we end up foiling, and during the final battle it is him that comes out to stop us. All of the Kilrathi aces, including Prince Kitty, are a welcome change of pace and have increased challenge. Beyond the named aces, there are the occasional royal guard scattered about who you'll also find more difficult to take on.
When the dust has settled and you return home, you'll be coming back a hero, even in Admiral Tolwyn's eyes, the flag officer who sent you to rot in the boondocks at the beginning of the game. There's pressing orders given to you at this point, and you had better not brake them; Report to Angel's personal quarters with a bottle of campaign, stat! A fantastic ride, a fantastic game. One I continue to want to relive.
Reviews of the time period were largely positive, the worst they noted were in the heavy system requirements. I noted a review that was not at all impressed with the game, yet still gave it a fairly good rating in the end. It was in the running for the action game of the year from a couple publications, though I believe it lost out to other games. I found it high on several sales charts of the time period, and the readers of Computer Gaming World rated it high enough for a long enough time period that it was given admittance to their hall of fame.
It's a blast! I hope you'll check out my video review, where I packed in as many extras as I could possibly fit. Looks at the aforementioned reviews from back in the day, CGW's hall of fame, and even its most memorable heroes and villains of all time list, in which a couple characters from here make an appearance. They'll be looks at what little manual this game came with, but more in what came with the Kilrathi Saga's manual. They'll be a reading of the history of the war from where I left of in the original game, and there will be much more as well. Readers of this article may also enjoy my looks at the Amiga version of Wing Commander, Wing Commander IV, or perhaps F/A 18 Interceptor.
Great review with some nice screenshots demonstrating the art of the game.
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