Wing Commander™ 4: The Price of Freedom

Is the unbalanced gameplay. This is one of my all-time favorite games and I think Chris Robert is a genius; the story and full motion video in this DVD version really make it an interactive movie (with proper actors), also because the missions really blend in with that. The gameplay in general is great, still one of the best space combat sims to date. The graphics are good enough to keep you engaged, and the sound is still excellent. If only the missile system and collision (damage) had received a bit more playtesting. Enemies fire enormous amounts of missiles, which you just can't all dodge. And in the ships you fly most of the time, a single hit often means instant death. The only way to avoid this is either the 'Rookie' setting, which makes the game way too easy, or use the built in cheat options (and that can't be the point). I can't remember if the original CD version I bought when it first came out was this unbalanced, but it is a real shame that puts a blemish on an otherwise near perfect game. Obviously still worth way more than the price here on GoG!

I don't want to repeat too much of what others have already said but this is likely the best early example of a game providing player agency within the context of the main story line. Basically, Bioware's been reading the WCIV playbook for their whole existence.

Not much can be said that hasn't already been mentioned in previous reviews. Wing Commander IV is the most epic game/movie of it's time. Even by today's standards it holds up exceptionally well and puts new titles like Mass Effect to shame. For those who want to play Wing Commander IV the way it was meant to be played, stop reading reviews and make the purchase now. GOG is a treasure to those of us who love classic PC games. Thanks be to GOG!!!!

Here we have a real classic. Arguably the best in the Wing Commander series, The Price of Freedom has some good action, great music, a branching storyline and more importantly the finest cutscenes you are probably ever going to see in a game. There were many games with cinematics in the mid-90's, but no other game did it like Wing Commander 4 did. You have a cast that would put many blockbuster movies to shame with Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John-Rhys Davies and Thomas Wilson. And let me tell you, that star power really pays off. It is mainly due to this that the plot is so enjoyable and the game so memorable. What's even better, this GOG release has those cinematics in DVD quality. Frankly that is reason enough to buy this game.

This is a possible fix for those of you unable to run WC4 with Windows 7 - 64 bit: After right clicking on the icon for WC4, selecting Properties, then the Compatibility tab, select: "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings". Items that were already selected after installing WC4 on my computer running Windows 7 - 64 bit were: "Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 98/ WIndows Me" "Disable visual themes" "Disable desktop composition" as well as "Run this program as an administrator" This program died immediately every time on my computer until I added "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" to the items already checked. I have not played the entire game to see how much of the game this fixes but at least it allowed the movie videos at the start of the game to play as well as the first practice flight to function. Love this game! Hope this helps.