This is one of the few perfect games out there. Yeah, it's that good. - Engaging story, which starts you off as a peon in the Imperial Navy, but quickly adds twists and even some backstabbing. I felt like a small but essential part of a big machine. - Great mission design, triggered and timed events, plenty of bonus objectives to chase (and fail). The place feels alive because enemies have their own missions that they'll try to complete. Not everyone is simply chasing you because you're the player. And you better have your target priorities sorted or you will fail. - Great music, at least in the DOS version. The iMuse system dynamically strings short samples together, based on what's happening around you. - Clever game mechanics, it's not just shooting whatever's closest: manage your engine power, shields and gun recharge rate, conserve missiles, play with special weapons, disable specific parts of enemy (capital) ships, I wore out three joysticks playing this and X-Wing. Didn't care much for the later titles, they didn't feel as epic. Highly recommended, but here's some things you will hate: - the bloke you'll have to keep alive can and will show up in an unarmed flimsy tin can. He will want to sit still in the middle of things for 4 minutes. - you can fit about 10 concussion missiles less than you'll need - TIE Fighters don't have shields, X-Wings do - "Mission critical craft under attack! Mission critical craft shields down! Mission critical craft hull condition critical! Mission critical craft destroyed! Abort mission, mission a failure!" Yeah, buy it.
