Games that are like WC

Kaunisto

Rear Admiral
What games do you think have similar playability and feeling as any of WC games, 1/2 or 3/4 or Prophecy?


I've liked two WC1 contemporaries that despite being completely differently themed seem to have something in common:


Red Baron 1

WWI sim has obvious differences in flight model to space, but somehow RB feels much like WC1, at least in the more advanced planes. Perhaps it's also the variety of possible damage on your plane or the common 1 on 3 or 2 on 4 dogfights that make me find comparison here.


Dragon Strike (that's the PC game, not the very different Nes version)

It seems awfully farfetched to compare a dragon simulator to WC, but it's still a flight simulator and as far as I know the best dragon simulator ever. Set in D&D: DragonLance world, the game has nice atmosphere full of inside jokes... but that's not the point here.
Like with RB the physics may be different, but fighting seems oddly similar. Same as in WC you have to get close; that's because the lance is your primary weapon and dragon's breath is like a DF missile. There's even a magical radar.


So those two are my suggestions for anyone looking for retro flight sims.
 
Microprose's XF5700 Mantis;
Background; an alien race struk the earth and most major cities in an all-out unsespected attact with an advance force, after a few days in desperate warfare, all nations fired their nuclear arsenal at the infected area, including populated big cities, about half of humanity was either killed in the invasion or the nuclear strikes to halt the enemy. In preparation of the Aliens coming back, they formed a new united nations and developing a space navy consisting of only starfighters, and a massive space station in orbit around mars.

The story consists of a young pilot(you) boarding the orbital space station, and you live his live, there is a failure path, however you have to win each "subcampaign"(missions in it differ if you fail to meet certain objectives), or they will send you back to earth to serve as a navy pilot, yet there are bonus objectives for medals and such, . However you do follow his personal life on the station. His girlfriend, his nightmares, things going on with the crew and the progress of the war.

the game had "partial FMV", not unlike Mad dog McCree with real actors. Like in WC3, all is acted out in front of green screens, however the graphic palette is limited because of this animation feature and the technique digitized human characters did not age well. But note that this game was released at thesame time as WC2. On the full speech CD version you are referred to by your callsign, "Viper"

The flight models differs from wing commander, since you simply fly on trusters, and you keep flying in one direction, even when you point your nose the other way, until you fire your booster to gain speed and a new trajectory.

You start of with little more then conventional gatling guns and image recognitions missiles, and as alien technology gets captured your ship gets upgraded with better missiles and energy weapons. Several alien races are involved in the first encounter and the CD-rom version features full speech and an extra campaign with a new enemy race you encounter after beating the first campaign.
 
For some reason, Homeworld reminds me of Wing Commander. Probably because I use primarily fighters and corvettes to fight all of the battles.

I also tend to design Wing Commander type ships in Galactic Civilizations 2.
 
WC mention and similar game

I was poking around the IGN website for good flight sims on a console and ran across this review. Here is the relevant WC mention: "We never see the Angels' faces; we never learn where they are from or anything about them, so how are we supposed to care about them? If the Angels are such a tight-knit group, why aren't there any cutscenes in between missions that give us a reason to care? Heck, why not kill off one of the Angels if you fail to protect him. I remember feeling genuinely sad when I lost a wingman in the old Wing Commander games."

Here is the link for the full review: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/697/697947p1.html The quote is on the second page.

Shame that no one really does a Wing Commander style wingman system so you actually care an iota about them.

Only game that comes to mind right now is Ace Combat 6 in that I believe your wingman can get shot down. An assumption on my part since you do get a medal/achievement for keeping him alive throughout all your missions.
 
For some reason, Homeworld reminds me of Wing Commander. Probably because I use primarily fighters and corvettes to fight all of the battles.

I also tend to design Wing Commander type ships in Galactic Civilizations 2.

Really? Fighters the entire time you say... interesting. I'm usually stealing enemy ships and using those. You should see my fleet of Multi-beam and Ion-Array Frigates. I've also stolen Kuushan destroyers and larger ships. I love taking them. New tech, all for the price of a few corvettes. My fleet looks like a scratch build.
 
I always steal any Multi-beam frigates I see and the Emperor's mothership's defense force at the final battle. I keep a swarm of Defenders with the Multi-beamers at all times.
 
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