Starlancer
| Starlancer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio |
 Warthog Digital Anvil
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| Publisher |
Microsoft
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows March 31, 2000 Dreamcast November 27, 2000 March 30, 2001  |
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| platform | Windows , Dreamcast | ||
| genre | Space flight simulation | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Mouse & keyboard , game controller | ||
| medium | CD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
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StarLancer is a computer game developed by Digital Anvil for the PC and the Sega Dreamcast , which was published by Microsoft in 2000 and belongs to the genre of space flight simulations .
To date there is no official patch , although the game is not entirely bug-free.
history
The game describes the conflict between the Alliance (Americans, Australians, French, Spaniards, Italians, Japanese, British and Germans) and the Coalition (Russians, Arabs and Chinese), the two factions of the human race, which are now spread across the entire solar system has spread. When signing a peace treaty, the alliance is betrayed by the coalition; most of the Alliance positions and spaceships are destroyed, and many soldiers and civilians are killed. However, some Alliance ships were able to save themselves and set up a makeshift base from which to take up the fight against the coalition.
At this point, the player enters the story. He plays a nameless pilot who volunteered for the military on the side of the alliance, which represents the “good guys”. During the intro he was assigned to the 45th Volunteer Squadron and transferred to the ANS Reliant carrier . Carriers correspond to today's aircraft carriers and can launch smaller space fighters; the player flies one of these. The leaders of the squadron are Commander Maria Enriquez , who holds the mission briefings and occasionally flies with them for support, and Brad Callan (nickname Viper ), who leads the squadron at the beginning of the game during the missions. Later in the game, Callan's spaceship explodes due to a technical defect and Marc Bannister (nicknamed Bandit ) replaces him. Despite the same names used in the game, Enriquez ranks above Callan and Bannister.
Since the player can ask other pilots to destroy his target for him or to help him because he is being shot at, the player is confused with the squadron commander in many reports about the game. In fact, these are only requests that the other pilots comply with so that the losses during the missions are as low as possible and the mission runs optimally.
Over time, despite its numerical and armed inferiority, the Alliance succeeds in pushing the coalition back further and further and finally (at the end of the game) even eliminating the mastermind behind the ambush when the treaty was signed. Up to this point, the alliance has to accept some losses, for example the player's carrier is destroyed, so that the entire 45th squadron is transferred to the ANS Yamato . The squadron that Yamato already had at this point, the Ronin , was also lost.
In the course of the plot, the squadron acquired a good reputation through numerous difficult, but successfully completed missions, until it was finally renamed from 45th Volunteer Squadron to 45th Flying Tigers and thus became a "real" squadron. Together with the praise (or criticism) that the pilots receive from the squadron leader after each mission, this is intended to reward the player for his commitment and to motivate him.
The story is complemented by reports of events, people and ships that the player can view between missions.
Game flow
The game consists of 24 individual missions. Before each mission, the player and other pilots from his squadron are informed about the next mission in a briefing and can choose a space fighter and its missile equipment accordingly. Only the squadron leader, the player and four other pilots always fly, although the squadron consists of significantly more pilots. These are available for the following missions in case someone is shot down. During the individual missions, the squadron mostly receives no supplies, neither in weapons nor in pilots.
In the course of the game, the player increases in rank, depending on the number of enemy ships shot down, and thus gains access to better ships and missiles. Between the individual missions he can move freely in his quarters and view or use various extras . There is always a new news report on television, a CD player, a box with the medals already won, an aquarium, a flight simulator for training (and as a tutorial) and a computer. In addition to the previous mission results and a text version of all previous news broadcasts, the latter also offers information about your own and enemy ships and pilots as well as the opportunity to watch all previous video sequences.
To a certain extent the player has an influence on what his missions look like. For example, if an important target is not destroyed in a mission, it can make subsequent missions more difficult. For example, a previously undestroyed enemy carrier can suddenly enter the mission area, so that the player has to fight an additional enemy fighter squadron. It is even possible to (successfully) complete a mission even though you have been shot down. The story itself, which contains numerous twists and turns, cannot be changed significantly by the player.
Other versions
The Sega Dreamcast version dispenses with many of the extras mentioned above. There is no walk-in carrier ship, the briefing has been reduced to the mission data screen and language, and many small things such as the pilot and ship database are neglected. However, the missions are completely identical to those of the PC version.
literature
- Official Strategy Guide : Doug Radcliffe: StarLancer from the Strategies and Solutions series. Sybex, ISBN 3-8155-5158-7
Web links
- Starlancer at MobyGames (English)