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| Source // MobyGames |
Star Wars: TIE Fighter was a hit in my books, but it was marred by its difficulty. I generally want easy games, I'm not going to lie. When I want a challenge though, I want an honest challenge, and humans are better at that (apparently) than artificial intelligence.
If TIE Fighter was too challenging and full of bullshit/pilot error, then Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is a step towards redressing the balance.
Our only problem is that it addresses it so far in one direction that the game is now a multiplayer-only experience. From the late 90s. With a small player base.
Frustrations
We're not going to experience X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter as players in the past did, that's for sure. Even with dedicated groups of players keeping the game alive, I'm just not interested in a multiplayer version of a game where my lifespan could be counted in keypresses, on one hand.
The multiplayer-only thing caught a lot of people out at the time of its release too, as they were expecting a single-player mode of some sort, and got diddlysquat, having to wait for an expansion, Balance of Power, to be put out before being able to embark on a campaign.
Fun Times
There are two campaigns, in fact, as XvT allows you to play as both the Rebels and the Imperials, each with their own ships to fly and missions to complete. It's not as in-depth as the previous titles. The plot is derived and inferred from mission briefings and radio chatter, and I was barely able to follow it, but at least I was able to take part in it.
XvT is so much easier than TIE Fighter, but then I was definitely playing on the easy difficulty, against bots, doing bot-like things.
Further Frustrations
To be honest, half of the time I was cycling through targets, finding one, flying towards it then watching it get blown out of the sky by a friendly fighter, all the while something plot related was going on in the background, which sounded bad over the comms but was apparently good. I think. I died a few times and the mission finished. Or it kicked me out of it because I'd died too often. Or the mission was a failure.
I simply don't know, because the game is as clear as mud when it comes to the story. Everything is lumped onto a menu, essentially. Missions feel like skirmishes, rather than stories. I've not played a lot of it to know if that was just the feeling early on, but I wasn't brimming with excitement to push through.
Nor were the controls making me giddy. I think I've gotten over the newness of a flight stick. Shame.
Final Word
You'll note the lack of screenshots here. I don't know why that's the case. Probably something simple that I haven't worked out yet. Whatever the reason, it makes for a dull blog, which is almost how I feel about X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
It had so much promise and potential, but it just falls flat. It's probably because of the time, definitely because of the player, but maybe because we want something a little different and this just feels more of the same. Press buttons to target, buttons to cycle, buttons to adjust speed and laser recharge rates and God knows what else. Then, finally, pull the trigger to fire some pathetic-sounding lasers and swat a foe from the fight.
I don't know why this is on the list if it required an expansion to make it more palatable for players, and that expansion - while large - wasn't as meaty as it needed to be. I don't know. I think too much time has passed to really know what was going on with X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
If TIE Fighter was too difficult, XvT is great, but it's let down by the lack of doing anything meaningful.
Kinda sums up this blog sometimes...
Fun Facts
Work on a Millennium Falcon-centric game was cancelled when the developers released they simply could not live up to the hype such a title would generate, so got to work on X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter instead - building on what worked but focusing on multiplayer.
Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, developed by Totally Games, first released in 1997.
Version played: PC, 1997