caillin's Full Review: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance for Windows
When I first heard about this game on a website I was determined to buy it. My first ever computer games on VGA graphics was X-wing and Tie-fighter. I loved both of these so I was hoping to love this new game as well. My first empressions of X-Wing Alliance was that, I, was in heaven. The beautiful sound and music is the first thing to take your attention and then the graphics come. I sat staring at the introduction movie scene until the very end, and let me tell you, its a long introduction. The game first starts in the cockpit of your families transport. You play Ace Azzameen a young pilot who is trying to help his family against the cunning and devious rival family the Viraxo. Of course during the game you will become a member of the Rebel Alliance and assist them in trying to defeat the Empire. You have a droid called "Emkay" who will help you fly different ships and tell you important details about your missions. The game alternates between helping your own family and helping the Rebel Alliance. The great thing about this game is it takes place just after "The Empire Strikes Back" so towards the end of the game you have an opportunity to fight the final battle against the Death Star, and (wait for it) have the mission Lando had in "Return of the Jedi" and fly into the Death Star to blow up the main reactor.
You will not be disappointed by the graphics, compared to all its predecessors the graphics will blow you away. There are quite a lot of controls you need to learn for this game but the first couple of levels make sure you know what you are doing before it starts getting too hard. If you are familiar with other titles such as X-Wing or Tie-Fighter you will be happy to know that most of those commands apply here too. An option that will enhance the enjoyment is the ability to fly a corellian corvette very similar to Han Solo's "Millenium Falcon", in this ship you have the option to have a go on the Gun turrent which was used in "Star Wars". Other options included in this game is your combat simulator which will let you play already completed missions, a quick skirmish or a multiplayer game. The only down side to this game is how hard it is towards the end. My advice is to stick with it, and finally you will get there. X-Wing Alliance has to be one of my all time favourite games, and I recommend it to everyone.
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