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TC sends us a copy of this review of Secret Ops, which comes from the December issue of PCXL -- which has like the coolest companion site...
Just when you thought all those pesky space bugs were dead and it was safe to roam the universe again, they return in droves And they're really pissed at you for kicking their asses in Wing Commander Prophecy. Don't you hate it when bugs hold grudges?
Secret Ops is a free (yes, you heard me right) follow-up to Wing Commander: Prophecy, Origin's flashiest Wing Commander game to date. Secret Ops is a stand-alone game, so you don't need Prophecy to play it, but you better hurry if you want to download it, as it won't be available for free forever (it was featured on the PCXL November CD-ROM). Origin plans to combine Secret Ops with Wing Commander: Prophecy, to result in the typical "Gold" version of Prophecy, which should be available when you read this (almost like magic).
Of course, Secret Ops' core 115MB "starter kit" takes some ii hours to download over a 28.8 connection ... but it was featured on the PCXL November CD-ROM After you've got the starter kit, you'll have to download each of the seven game episodes, which Origin posted on a weekly basis.
Is Secret Ops worth going through all the online trouble to get? Well, if you're a die-hard Wing Commander fan who's yearning for more of the same fly--to.the-next.waypoint-and-kill--everything-in-sight Wing Com-mander gameplay, the answer is a resounding yes. The ~6 total mis-sions hold more seat-of-your-pants dog-fighting action than pre-vious Wing Commander games, and the challenge is extreme on the higher difficulty settings.
If you're looking for something new in a Wing Commander game, you'll likely be disappointed. Secret Ops' story is cliché (but one could argue that's in keeping with the Wing Commander tradition -bugs and a mysterious "other" race likely to appear from a tar-flung corner) and the gameplay is repetitious. It's still largely you against the universe, and your wingmen are still largely useless. Plus, for most missions, you really don't even need to read the brief-ing - just hit "fly," go to each nav point, and kill everything you see.
That said, Wing Commander still supplies the visceral benchmark for sci-fi shooters (arguable, when compared to the effects in Free Space, which was a better all-around game, but perhaps not quite as graphically polished). The fighter and capital ship graphics are still amazing, as are the special effects. The gameplay may be repetitive, but it's amazing how it never really gets dull blowin' up the hordes of bugs you encounter. (However, you'll want to turn off the astoundingly lame in-cockpit pilot chatter. The same four or five lines are repeated endlessly by the same pilots and you'll often hear the same pilot announce he's ejecting many times in the same mission.)
Why's Secret Ops available far free? Not because it's rubbish. On the surface, Origin wants to reward Wing Commander fans for their loyalty over the years, but I say the game should have been named Prophecy: The No Multiplayer Apology. Making Secret Ops avail-able for free is a nice gesture.
That said, if you can get Wing Commander: Secret Ops for free, it's a nice follow-up to a decent Wing Commander game. However, because of its been-there, done-that gameplay, only the most die-hard Wing Commander fans should consider shelling out for the Gold edition.

-STEVE KLETT would rather fly secret ops in a P52 Mustang.

Graphics- Awesome alien ships, stellar explosions - all you could want from the visuals.
Sound- Decent tunes, but annoying pilot chatter.
Depth- Too shallow to skip a stone across.
Design- Classic Wing Commander gameplay - find the bugs, fly down, and shoot the bugs.

Rating - 7

Pluses

  • Lots of missions
  • Challenging
  • It's free
Minuses
  • Too many similar missions
  • Lame story
  • No Ginger

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