Wing Commander: Prophecy

Wing Commander: Prophecy
Studio	Origin Systems Raylight Studios (GBA)
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Erstveröffent- lichung	December 16, 1997 (Win) June 4, 2003 (GBA)
platform	PC ( Windows ), GBA
Game engine	Vision Engine (Advanced Technology Group) BlueRoses (GBA)
genre	Space flight simulation
Game mode	Single player multiplayer (GBA only)
control	Mouse & keyboard , joystick
medium	CD-ROM , DVD-ROM , download
language	German
Age rating	USK
information	The lower rating refers to the GBA version of the game.

Wing Commander: Prophecy is a space action simulation by Origin Systems from 1997. It is the first game in the series of the same name that was no longer developed under the direction of series creator Chris Roberts after he left the company. The plot of the game is set after the events of the war against the Kilrathi and opens up a new framework. The player slips into the role of the new pilot Lance Casey, who comes across the insectoid alien race of the Nephilim on board the "TCS Midway". The game was originally released for Windows , and in 2003 the game was adapted for the Game Boy Advance .

action

Wing Commander: Prophecy is set in Wing Commander III - The Heart of the Tiger in 2681, twelve years after Kilrah was destroyed . The introduction of the game begins with an ancient Kilrathi prophecy, according to which a great time of darkness lies ahead as soon as one who bears the heart of the tiger but is not a Kilrathi will subdue Kilrathi. The prophecy comes true when a jump gate opens in the Kilrah system, through which an alien spaceship enters the system and destroys all confederation ships on site. Without knowledge of this new danger, there is still calm in the sphere of rule of the Confederation, which, due to the ongoing phase of peace, has long since begun to reduce and reorganize its military resources. This also includes the introduction of the giant carrier ships of the Midway class designed by Christopher Blair, named after their first representative, the "TCS Midway". Shortly before their maiden flight, the young academy graduate Lance Casey (whose callsign according to WCPedia is probably "Frosty"), the new player character and son of Michael "Iceman" Casey, a pilot of the "TCS Tiger's Claw" in Wing Commander I , and will be Friend Maxwell “Maestro” Garrett transferred to the carrier ship. Also on board are Blair, who has meanwhile been promoted to Commodore, the pilots Todd "Maniac" Marshall and Jacob "Hawk" Manley and chief engineer Rachel Coriolis.

While many crew members initially assume a quiet mission, the "Midway" very soon receives an emergency call from a Kilrathi cruiser from the H'rekkah system. During a reconnaissance flight, Casey and his companions are attacked for the first time by spaceships of the unknown alien race. Unaware of their origin, the attackers are baptized in the name of Nephilim . In order to be able to send a message to the headquarters, the "Midway" approaches an abandoned Confederate relay station. The station turns out to be an ambush by the Nephilim and Blair who ran the station along with a squad of Marines and Lt. Col Gash had entered Dekker is kidnapped by the invaders.

After this failure, the "Midway" goes into the T'lan-Meth system, where it has to defend a Kilrathi colony against the attacks of the Nephilim. She succeeds in retaking a space base occupied by the attackers of the Kilrathi, on which the previously kidnapped Blair can also be freed. This gives the "Midway" knowledge of the aliens' powerful plasma weapon, which the Terran defense technology has nothing to counteract. Casey succeeds in a follow-up mission to secure such a weapon for the "Midway". After the attackers were repulsed in several missions, the "Midway" jumps into the Kilrah system for the final confrontation, where the Nephilim have meanwhile opened a permanent jump gate through which a permanent supply of units penetrates the system. After the destruction of a large Nephilim battleship and the seven control towers of the gate by the player, it is finally possible to seal the jump gate permanently. Blair, who personally leads the infiltration of the last control station, is no longer able to leave the station in time for the explosion. The game ends with the return and the formal reception of Casey on the "Midway".

Gameplay

See also : Game principle of Wing Commander III  and Wing Commander IV

Wing Commander: Prophecy takes over the game principle of its two immediate predecessors and only streamlines the process in a few points. It still consists of a mixture of space combat missions and cinematic dialogues and cutscenes. In contrast to its predecessor, the number of missions has been increased and the film sequences have been reduced in return. The number of locations on board the carrier was limited to three and the numerous smaller options for making decisions in the context of the film dialogues were removed from the game.

Smaller branches of the game result from the execution of the missions. In this way, missions can still be completed even if all of the mission objectives are not achieved. Depending on the situation, however, additional missions are required or the number of enemies increases. A special feature of the enemy design is the ability of the alien ships to combine to form larger combat units. This gives them a higher penetration power. Conversely, an attack on such a conglomerate can lead to the ship breaking up into its individual units after its destruction, which must then also be destroyed again.

At the end of each mission, the player can see an evaluation of his use. This offsets the mission successes with the playful achievements such as damage to one's own hunter and precision when shooting and converts this into a percentage rating. A previously announced multiplayer mode was ultimately not integrated. Only the version for the handheld console Game Boy Advance , released six years later, offers a deathmatch and team battle mode for up to four players.

development

Wing Commander: Prophecy was the first game in which series creator Chris Roberts was no longer actively involved. The directing team consisted of Mark Day and David Downing and Adam Foshko, who directed the cutscenes. The development work on a new story chapter began in September 1996 and should symbolize a new beginning after the Kilrathi topic had ended and Roberts had left. After Wing Commander IV was excessively dominated by films, the new design team for Wing Commander: Prophecy wanted to focus more on the first parts of the series. The number of video sequences has been significantly reduced and the focus has been placed more on the space missions. Meanwhile, the development budget fell to $ 3 million excluding marketing costs. Nevertheless, scenery was used again for Prophecy . If a 3Dfx or Direct3D-capable graphics card was available, gamers could admire hardware-accelerated graphics for the first time in Wing Commander history . Although this was not a requirement for the game to run, it only offered additional graphic effects such as flare effects with this additional hardware .

The well-known industrial designer Syd Mead ( Tron , Blade Runner , Aliens ) was hired for the spaceship design . Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson and Ginger Lynn Allen returned to their previously embodied roles. Smudo , a member of the German hip-hop group Die Fantastischen Vier , also took on a minor extra role as a fighter pilot .

In 2003 Wing Commander: Prophecy was ported from Raylight Studios to the Game Boy Advance. In contrast to the PC version, the cinematic staging had to be dispensed with and the graphics performance was significantly reduced due to the low 3D performance of the handheld console. Added to this were the memory space restrictions of the plug-in modules and the small number of buttons on the handheld. Cutscenes were therefore converted into game graphics in the handheld version and films into still images with on-screen texts. The technical basis was the BlueRoses engine from the Italian developer. The USK gave the GBA version a lower age rating from 6 years compared to the PC version .

Prophecy Gold , which was later released for PC, also included the free download of Wing Commander: Secret Ops .

After Origin's official support ended, the fan community continued to take care of the game itself. For example, unofficial patches have been developed by the community to improve compatibility with newer Windows versions and newer PC hardware.

occupation

role	actor	Voice actor
Lance R. Casey	Steven Petrarch
Maxwell "Maestro" Garrett	Neill Barry
Todd "Maniac" Marshall	Tom Wilson	Jan Odle
Jacob "Hawk" Manley	Chris Mulkey	Reent Reins
Jean "Stiletto" Talvert	Heather Stephens
Terrence "Zero" O'Hearn	Adam Lazarre-White
Aurora Finley	Mindy Hester
Jason "Dallas" Fargo	Joel Stoffer
Captain Daniel Wilford	Peter Jason	Hans Sievers
Cdr. Patricia Drake	Lauren Sinclair	Katja Brugger
Rachel Coriolis	Ginger Lynn	Sabine Falkenberg
Lt. Col. Gash Dekker	Jeremy Roberts
Christopher "Maverick" Blair	Mark Hamill	Frank Röth

reception

Wing Commander: Prophecy received mostly very good ratings. The return to traditional play values ​​and the reduction in film staging were generally positively rated. The graphic and acoustic staging was praised, the missions were classified as a little varied, but entertaining.

The GBA version also received good reviews and was described as a successful port, which is characterized by significant restrictions compared to the original, but transfers the important elements of the template well and is on par with other competing products on the GBA platform. The main criticism was the control and key assignment, which was described as bumpy and often led to incorrect entries due to double assignments.

Wing Commander: Prophecy was also the last part of the main series. Although the plot was originally designed in several parts, the Origin / Electronic Arts series was discontinued. Following Prophecy , Origin experimented in the form of Wing Commander: Secret Ops with the release of a downloadable episode format, which was also included in the later published budget version Prophecy Gold .

Evaluation table PC GameStar 2/98: 86% PC Action 2/98: 90% PC Player 2/98: 85% PC Games 2/98: 90% Power Play 2/98: 87% Computer Gaming World 10/97 PC Zone 01/98: 88 out of 100 GameSpot : 8.6

Game Boy Advance rating mirror Golem.de GameSpot : 7.4 IGN : 7.0

Wing Commander: Secret Ops

Wing Commander: Secret Ops
Studio	Origin Systems
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Erstveröffent- lichung	August 27, 1998 (basic package)
platform	PC ( Windows )
Game engine	Vision engine (Advanced Technology Group)
genre	Space flight simulation
Game mode	Single player
control	Mouse & keyboard , joystick
system advantages preconditions	Windows 95 Pentium 133 MHz (with 3D accelerator) / 166 MHz (without 3D accelerator) RAM : 32 Mbytes Graphics : 2 MB SVGA graphics card with 16-bit color depth, alternatively 3D accelerator card DirectX 5.0 Free hard disk space : 150 MB Sound card
medium	Download
language	German English

The Wing Commander: Secret Ops is a series of free, in several episodes over the Internet published additional missions. After installing the basic package released on August 27, 1998, the game ran on its own and did not require a previous installation of Wing Commander: Prophecy . The other missions were published in the form of update packages. In terms of content, Secret Ops follows on from the events of Prophecy .

action

In order to keep the download sizes low, Origin did not use film sequences to present the plot, which is otherwise the norm. Instead, the framework is conveyed through sequences in game graphics and screen texts in the form of diary entries and e-mails or entries on Origin's official website for the game. There are also some lines of dialogue during the flight missions.

After returning to Earth, Casey and his fellow pilots Max “Maestro” Garrett, Jean “Stiletto” Talvert, T. “Zero” O'Hearn, Karl “Spyder” Bowen and Amber “Amazon” Elbereth will board the newly commissioned battle cruiser “ TCS Cerberus ”under the command of Captain Enoch Murkins. The threat posed by the Nephilim is widely believed to have been averted following its success in the Kilrah system. But on her way into the courage system, the "Cerberus" is attacked by alien combat ships. As a result, the commander tries to find out where the new Nephilim base is.

development

Wing Commander: Secret Ops is an add-on to Wing Commander: Prophecy , the name of the package is similar to the Secret Missions and Special Operations mission packages for Wing Commander I and II .

It is based on the same slightly improved Wing Commander engine : Prophecy . It was distributed free of charge on the Internet; free registration was required in order to receive the activation code required for installation. In 1998, the publication of a game on the Internet was still an innovative project, which presented many users with a challenge due to the size of the download (115 MB with / 65 MB without speech output) and the low download speeds. To ease the burden, the basic package was also published on the enclosed data carriers of many PC magazines. In addition to the basic technical installation, the basic package also contained the first four missions. Another six mission packages (episodes 2 to 7) were published every week in the form of much smaller update packages, the total number of missions was 56. There were problems with the distribution, as a basic package infected with the CIH virus was distributed via a server has been.

Together with Wing Commander: Prophecy , the complete Secret Ops were later published by Electronic Arts as part of the Prophecy Gold budget version.

reception

Rating mirror

• GameStar 11/98: 78%

• PC Player 11/98: 82%

• Power Play 11/98: 85%

Web links

• Secret Ops ( Memento of December 3, 1998 in the Internet Archive ). Official website
• Wing Commander: Prophecy at MobyGames (English)
• Wing Commander: Secret Ops at MobyGames (English)
• Wing Commander News . Extensive archive for the Wing Commander series.
• German-speaking forum with current news reports, an extensive database and download area for all things Wing Commander

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wing Commander Encyclopedia Project - Lance Casey
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Oliver Menne: Wing Commander Prophecy: Revelation . (Article scan) In: PC Games . No. 02/1998, February 1998, pp. 86-90.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Chris Anderson: Wing Commander Prophecy . (Article scan) In: PC Zone . No. 59, January 1998, pp. 70-73.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Wing Commander: Prophecy Review - gamespot.com ( Memento from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Krichel: Wing Commander: Prophecy - Alien Invasion . (Article scan) In: PC Games . No. 08/1997, August 1997, pp. 20-24.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Craig Harris: Wing Commander: Prophecy ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . June 9, 2003. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Christian Klaß: Wing Commander fans watch out! . In: Golem.de . October 22, 1998. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
8. ^ Prophecy Enhancement Pack Reminder ( English ) wcnews.com. May 9, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2013: “HCl's Prophecy Enhancement Pack is an awesome thing. It runs WCP in high resolution, adds online multiplayer, allows DVD quality videos to be patched in and fixes bugs that were part of the original game. "
9. ↑ OpenGL Does DVDs ( English ) wcnews.com. August 27, 2011. Retrieved December 2, 2013: “PopsiclePete reports that Pedro has updated the OpenGL renderer for WCP and SO to version 1.2.1. The new version is designed to work properly with HCl's Enhancement Pack - meaning that it should now work correctly with the DVD upgraded version of Wing Commander Prophecy! The OpenGL package updates Prophecy's graphics for higher resolutions, adds improved effects and even high resolution textures. "
10. ^ Jörg Langer : Bombast Welraumaction: Wing Commander Prophecy . In: GameStar . No. 02/1998, February 1998, pp. 50-63.
11. ↑ ^{a b} PC Games Database: Wing Commander Prophecy - Press Review . Retrieved April 2, 2012
12. ^ Tery Coleman: Prophecy Motifs . (Article scan) In: Computer Gaming World . No. 159, October 1997, pp. 94-101.
13. ↑ Wing Commander: Prophecy Review ( Memento from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Thorsten Wiesner: Play test: Wing Commander Prophecy - GBA space action . In: Golem.de . 2003-09-39. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Maik Wöhler: Wing Commander Secret Ops . (Article scan) In: Power Play . No. 11/1998, November 1998, p. 28.
16. ↑ Christian Klaß: Free Wing Commander Prophecy Add-On planned . In: Golem.de . June 14, 1998. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
17. ^ Christian Klaß: Wing Commander: Secret Ops in the preview . In: Golem.de . August 30, 1998. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
18. ↑ Julian Stiebert: Wing Commander Secret Ops Released . In: Golem.de . August 28, 1998. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
19. ^ Heinrich Lenhardt : Free space battles: Wing Commander Secret Ops . In: GameStar . No. 11/1998, November 1998, pp. 142-143.