See? Very pretty! |
Unfortunately, Freespace this ain’t.
Where the stories of Wing Commander and Freespace were epic grandiose tales of tension, challenge, vengeance and retribution, Star Raiders seems to fall short. The story revolves around your character, Talon, being trained as a new recruit in the Atarian fleet alongside his friends, a group of four or five characters who you are introduced to in the opening cutscene. Of course, only two of them are ever mentioned in future cutscenes and you never see any of them in-game, but we’ll get to that in a second.
Which brings me to another point of contention: every mission you fly on, you are always by yourself. Or, to be more precise, you are the only Atarian combatant on the field. There are missions where Atarian cruisers and frigates share the battlefield with you but, instead of putting their supposed impressive weaponry to good use, they sit back and let you, in your lone fighter, take on all the Zylon forces by yourself. It’s a bit frustrating and takes a step back from the squad-based combat of Freespace, especially considering they try so hard to convince you that you are not alone in the conflict.
Check out the space elevator! |
– Nick J
I still think three and a half is overly generous. But that's just me. 😉
I still think three and a half is overly generous. But that's just me. 😉