Incoming + Incoming Forces

Back in 1990-something, my grandmother bought an HP desktop for her apartment, and bundled with it were two free games. A racing game, and the original Incoming. I have to to say, I think I've spent weeks of my life playing Incoming, and I don't regret a single second now that I'm an adult. It's so much fun! The music is a bit generic (which is why it's only getting four stars), but the shooting is solid, requires skill, and the vehicle sections are top-notch! You will not have more fun in a laser-spewing helicopter! Yes! That is as awesome for me to write, as it was for you to read! Buy this game!

I have been searching for this game for years. I first played it waaaay back when it came bundled with my mom's Compaq Presario. I had no exposure to other games, so I dove into Incoming head first! Its surprising difficulty hardened me into the dedicated PC gamer I am today. Not to mention putting the CD-ROM into a normal CD player played the game's awesome soundtrack! Sweet. My favorite part of Incoming: switching from your standard fighter jet and commandeering a fallen alien spacecraft to give the enemy a taste of their own firepower!! The developers even switch the controls up to confuse you - exactly what one would expect when flying an alien ship with minimal training :D :D :D

I like this game, but mainly cause it was the very first title I ever played with a 3d acceleration card :) It's solid action with graphics which were breathtaking back in the time. Nowadays you can still play it without getting eye cancer (which can not be taken as given for 3d games from that time). If you didn't play it back then you probably won't like it now.

Unfortunately the game didn't pass the test of time. As a kid I had a blast, but now it is visible that this is a crappy arcade game to play for 5 minutes. The mouse doesn't work at all, so the only way of controlling is by a keyboard alone. I bought it because of nostalgia, but it's barely playable today.

Forewarning: I have only played Incoming, not Incoming forces. I remember thinking the graphics were awesome when I first played this game as a kid. Obviously, they are outdated by today's standards, but they are also still serviceable. The game is composed of a series of missions and each mission is composed of a series of phases. In each phase, you control a vehicle -be it a tank, fighter, helicopter, you name it- and must accomplish a critical task for the ongoing war against aliens. Each task is mostly there to spice things up a bit, because at its core each phase consists in the game throwing hordes and hordes and hordes of aliens at you while you mow them down with your futuristic weaponry. Incoming was made in an era in which you were expected to play the games with either a keyboard or a joystick. Still, I found this game to be quite playable with a gamepad, and I found it quite alright for couch gaming. Gamepad support is partial only, and you will need the keyboard for non gameplay related tasks such as saving or loading the game. The main downside of this game is that it is not very replayable. The campaign can be beaten in an afternoon if you put your mind into it, and afterwards there is not much else to do with the game. Playing arcade mode only carries the game forward for so long. Some people also complains that the game is a bit repetitive because 99.5 of it is just killing stuff, but in my opinion that is like purchasing a flight simulator and complaining most of it is about flying. That said, once you factor how cheap this game is, it is great bang for the buck. At less than 3 USD, I found this repackaging of the game to be a great purchase. It was just what I needed to spice up a weekend party with gaming nerds.