STAR WARS™: X-Wing Alliance™

Please excuse me for a moment, I'm going to get a little personal. I never had a family that supported me growing up; I was bullied at school and at home and love was not a concept I understood. I had a difficult life and I retreated into computer games and books to escape the world. I picked up this game figuring it would be a decent sequel to X-wing which I had enjoyed and thus a reasonable distraction for a while. What I did not expect to find was an in-depth story with characters who formed a real family, with bonds that mattered. They affectionately call you, as the youngest Azzameen, "ace" and it's obvious that they want to keep you safe, but also let you spread your wings and help grow the family business. They cared for each other. They cared for -you-. At a time in my life when the idea of being loved by anyone was almost incomprehensible, and to suddenly be immersed in a world where the characters treated each other with love and respect was revolutionary. Was this was families could be like? When the family's fortunes changed and cracks began to form, I felt a genuine wrenching of my emotions. I had come to care for these characters as much as they cared for the character I was playing. The writing had helped me - an isolated and emotionally stunted young person - learn to form bonds and feel like I could be worthy of love. While you might think that this was simply the experience of a broken and traumatised soul, I must give credit to the writers. I've played many other games with families and supposedly representing all the bonds you'd expect... but this one managed to sell it. It made me invest and it made me feel. The characters, the writing, the way the world was written - it moved me in a way countless other games never had. I won't say that X-Wing Alliance saved my life, but it had a profound impact on me. It set me on a path to realising that fundamentally it was my family that was broken, and not my fault. Thank you, LucasArts.

XWA Upgrade download does a check for a physical disk so at this point it cant be used. Shame. Still unmodded game is fantastic in its own right.

Most people downloading this game are already fans and veteran players, but if you're not one of these people and are just checking out new games to play, go for it. This game is so ahead of it's time, even un-upgraded by xwaupgrade.com, that it feels like a recent release to this day. This is only a classic game in name. it is still modern as hell. You do need a joystick, but a gamepad will work just as well. You can get just as used to it and effective with it as a joystick. The fact is, this game has a different feel than any other game. It gives you the feel of having a different life in a different time and a different galaxy. It's not just the gameplay that makes you feel like a real pilot, it's the overall atmosphere you're being placed in. Between missions, your character has his own [fictional] email, and a lovably sarcastic and enthusiastic droid in his room that talks to him and flies with you, as well as nifty trinkets he picks up after [sometimes really hard] family missions. there is a littany of things to do and interact with in the rebel cruiser concourse between the email and the tech room and your droid and the skirmish simulator, so when you actually choose to do the next tour mission, you really feel as though you are going out on a mission. And when you go out on a family mission, you really feel like you're taking a refreshing break [or being pulled away, depending on your preference] from your life as a rebel, going back to your roots and helping your fictional family. Sometimes the rebellion notices your extracurricular family escapades, and it almost feels flatteringly awesome. NO OTHER GAME MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A WHOLE DIFFERENT LIFE AND ARE LIVING IT DAY BY DANGEROUS DAY. Most games throw the story at you mid-gameplay. Call of Duty is a constant drama, GTA is merely storied in short cutscenes when you'd rather be pillaging, every game is soly levels and talking. Here, I love my droid, my fellow pilots and my fake space family.

I played all the older space sims when they were new, including of course X-Wing and the excellent follow-up, Tie Fighter. If you're reading this, I assume that either you've played Alliance in the past and are wondering about the quality of the GOG port or you, like me, were a fan of the older Lucasarts Star Wars sims but haven't played Alliance. I'll cover both scenarios in this quick review. The GOG release: Good, no problems on modern systems. You're going to want to hack the binary for widescreen/highres support, perhaps add some community mods for better textures and/or models, but the game plays fine as-is. The engine itself though is from the pre multi-core era, thus you may experience a bug where the music will loop endlessly under certain circumstances if you don't pin the CPU affinity to a single core or simply disable the music. X-Wing Alliance in general: Though I spent a lot of time with its predecessors, I didn't get a chance to play this game when it came out. Thus, I don't have the same rose-tinted glasses that others may about it; no nostalgia to add that special spark. What it is happens to be a pretty solid space sim in the same vein as the earlier X-Wing games. Like those there is a lot of attention to detail in how the ships look and behave. For instance, the YT-1300 feels exactly how you'd imagine: faster than it should be but bulky. "Just agile enough" to get you out of those tight spots, and it feels awesome while you're doing it. However, this game isn't all sunshine and roses. Some missions demonstrate how poorly it was play-tested and subsequently polished before release. I won't give any spoilers, but there are several missions where you will be expected to perform within certain criteria, which have already been failed before you even have a chance to intervene... through no fault of your own. Many missions are simply poorly designed, and/or rely on the AI to "do the right thing". Many times it doesn't work out that way. Frustrating.

The port works great on my Windows 8 laptop, but YOU MUST HAVE A JOYSTICK to play (a gamepad would probably work too, but why would you play a classic 90s flight game with thumbsticks?). This game really nails the feel of being a pilot in the Star Wars universe. The missions you will fly will vary from combat skirmishes, to hit-and-runs, recon, rescue, and even basic cargo delivery. All the classic fighters and bombers from the original trilogy are there: X-Wings, A-Wings, B-Wings, YT-1300s (think millennium falcon), and much MUCH more. The first few missions start off the game slow with a story about a family business, but the game quickly speeds up once conflict sets in and no mission is without combat. In addition to the campaign, you can also set up your own game scenarios through the combat sim (yes, a combat sim within a combat sim). Want to fly a squadron of TIEs attacking a star-destroyer? you got it! Want to fly a merc squadron taking advantage of a battle between two other factions? you bet! Want a 5v5 with X-wings vs A-wings? why not! The controls are a dream for those who want to know what it's like to fly an X-Wing (or any other star wars craft). The controls available to you include steering, throttle, shield orientation, power allocation between shields and weapons, cycling fire-modes, setting automatic turret defense (for ships that have turrets, mainly the YT-1300 and the Otana), and a hugely extensive targeting system. A word of caution though: the game's tutorials don't teach you nearly everything you need to know. Take the time to learn the controls, especially the targeting system. Specifically, learn how to target craft targeting you, target incoming warheads, target primary objectives, target friendlies, and target craft who are attacking the current target. The game is very complicated, but you will truly feel like a pilot once you master the controls. 10/10, needs an updated remake w/ modern graphics (or a sequel!)