After that wretched Wing Commander movie, Chris Roberts has thankfully returned to doing what he does best, making great games. And Starlancer is such a game. Starlancer is Chris & Erin Robert’s first title from their new company Digital Anvil, and it’s not too hard to see that the same folks who made Wing Commander and Privateer such successes have also crafted another winner. Starlancer brims with action and realism; it’s packed with hordes of ships to pilot, weapons to fire, and provides a great white-knuckled ride. Unfortunately, there’s not much that’s new here. The gameplay is nothing we haven’t seen before as Starlancer plays almost identically to previous Wing Commander games. But why mess with a winning formula?

Using Direct3D, the 16-bit graphics look gorgeous at a max resolution of 1024 x 768. The playing field is peppered with star fields, nebulae, planets, and other space oddities including tiny nuances like asteroid miners. Taking a cue from Interplay’s Freespace, the capitol ships in Starlancer are immense compared to the fighter ships, yet just as fun to fly around. Textures are on the bland side however, with dark and grimy metal sidings although it does add to the run-down industrial feel of the game. Ship designs are pretty cool, with a variety of machines to pilot, weapons to attach, and special abilities to use. On an Athlon 700, frame rates were consistently in the upper 50s, even with capital ships and hordes of fighters. Spectacular light sourcing and alpha blended effects make for some incredible explosions and displays of color.

Click to see larger image… StarLancer’s Sound effects are equally powerful. The thundering explosions of capitol ships, the rocket fire of torpedoes, and the chatter of your wingmen all come alive in A3D or EAX-enhanced splendor. We wished there were a larger variety of pilot chatter though, as coalition pilots repetitively squeal “I will be avenged” and your co-pilot fawns “You got ’em!!!” We thought the Coalitions’ Russian accents sounded fake, but we were told by Digital Anvil that they were indeed delivered by genuine Hollywood actors from the mother country. It might have been their over-exuberance in certain areas that made their dialogue sound fake, but it also may be the case that our American-tuned ears couldn’t differentiate faux-accents from authentic ones (or just didn’t want to)!

Starlancer contains tons of FMV; at least 20+ minutes of pre-rendered animations and voice acting. While some are good, and others corny, there’s a lot of it you have to sit through, and unfortunately, it’s not as fun to watch Mark Hammill’s weak acting. Starlancer provides almost too much FMV, with certain sequences that seem to drag on endlessly. One of the problems with Starlancer is there are no real characters to latch onto. There’s no Maniac, Stiletto, or Blair here. Everyone’s a talking head with little to no characterization, so there’s no reason to care about the progression of the story.

The plot plays out like a military drama with two factions vying for control of planets across the solar system. You are a part of a volunteer squadron for the “Alliance” (read Western Nations) who fight the evil “Coalition” (read Russians). After several successful missions, you quickly make a name for yourself and climb the ladder of promotions and commendations. Starlancer might as well be titled Wing Commander 6, with the Kilrathi replaced by the Coalition. The setting for the story is pretty cliché, but when you’re dog fighting in swarms of ships and taking out capitol ships, no one really cares about the story anyway.

Starlancer includes multiplayer support where you and 8 buddies can fire torpedoes down each other’s tailpipe all evening long through MSN’s Zone, LAN or modem via TCP/IP. Starlancer also supports a “cooperative mode” where 4 players play through the campaign scenarios. We didn’t find too much of interest here, as the main gist of flight sim deathmatch is flying around in a circle until your opponent goes down.

Starlancer’s great gameplay and superb graphics makes for an exciting ride. Though its derivative of previous space flight sims that came before it, Starlancer delivers enough action to warrant a spot in your software library. If you’re looking for a space flight sim that raises the bar of excellence, Starlancer isn’t it. But it sure is a hell of a lot of fun.

Verdict: 85%

The Good: The Bad:

Great graphics
We’ve played this game before
Damn addictive
Too much FMV

Price: $50
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Digital Anvil, Warthog
StarLancer Website
StarLancer Trailer