StarLancer

Sound

There are no ifs ands or buts, StarLancer's audio is hands-down the best I've heard in any space combat game (maybe even any game) period. The music is highly atmospheric and changes according to the situation. Since the music is in the form of CD tracks, it can be listened to separately using a CD player. This is one of the few games where I actually found myself loading up the game CD in my Discman, if only to listen to the "Warrior's Dance" track, with its fantastic mood-setting.

In terms of the sound effects, the surround sound is excellently done, and every effect is clearly distinguishable. From the awesome bass rumblings of the explosions to the deep "dum-dum-dum" of the gatling guns, from the scream of a dying pilot to the whine of the jump drive, everything is just perfect. My only gripe with the audio is the voice acting. The problem is that the voice acting for the enemies is just too stereotypical. Why does virtually every enemy pilot have to speak English in a thick Russian accent and sneer a lot? This game might be offensive to several nationalities. The Russians and other Coalition countries should be capable of heroism too (or at least plain decency), instead of being relegated to the stereotypical "dripping-with-evil" role.

On a sidetrack here: there are subtle religious undertones in the game, too. The Alliance (good side) has fighter spacecraft called Crusaders, while the Coalition (bad side) has Azan fighters. "Azan" is the word for the Muslim call to prayers (phonetically speaking). While many players will not pick up on this, and indeed I'm not even sure if it was intentional, it is present nonetheless and lends an uncomfortable feeling to the progression of the game for me as the comm link crackles to life with the "Azan leader" screaming "No!" as he dies in a ball of flame. It would have been nice to see a few more Muslim countries in the Alliance instead of the usual negative portrayals. Ultimately it is not that important to the gameplay in general, or the fun of the game. It only made me, personally, feel a deep disappointment as yet another over-the-top accent came on the comm link while an Azan wing was shredded by my comrades. Perhaps I was being overly idealistic in hoping that 160 years into the future, things would be better. I sincerely hope that isn't the case.

In summary, the sound for StarLancer is excellent. The only weakness is the voice acting, and not everyone will perceive that as a weakness either. Once again, hats off to the wizards at Digital Anvil and Warthog for a job well done.


Leaving the carrier.	Coalition, here we come!

Interface and Ship Control

If one is familiar with virtually any space combat game out there, StarLancer's cockpit layout will be fairly intuitive. At most it takes one or two missions to decipher what everything means (if the player isn't the "read-the-manual" type). Each fighter has a slightly different cockpit but it doesn't matter because the HUD is what the player uses to fly, and the HUD remains identical for each fighter. Slick and stylish, the HUD is functional and well designed. There is a targeting reticule for the guns and a tracking reticule for the missiles (unless a "dumb-fire" missile, or rocket, is selected). On the left of the gun reticule is a gauge that shows the current throttle setting in terms of the fighter's speed. On the right of the gun reticule is a gauge that shows the energy level of the fighter's guns. Firing the guns uses up gun energy that takes time to recharge (the actual recharge times vary depending on the weapon). On the upper-right of the screen are indicators for the afterburner fuel level, countermeasures remaining, and number of kills in the mission. The upper-left of the screen is where the faces of people communicating to the player appear on the comm link. Right below the targeting reticules is the radar, and this is the only weak point in the interface. The radar is unneccesarily unwieldy, requiring all sorts of range changes to be of any use. Even when the range is set correctly, it takes a lot of practice to reach the point where one can glance at the radar for a split-second and have some situational awareness. Even when I'd reached the final missions of the game, I was still uncomfortable with the radar.

The rest of the interface is made up of displays that can be called up at will and occupy different parts of the screen until they are not needed (and automatically switch off, a very convenient feature). Displays for power allocation, damage control, weapons, and targeting information are all available. Pressing "C" brings up a communication menu in the upper-left, from which one can talk to wing-members, home base (at times), or the enemy (to taunt). Communication usually gets results, which is a welcome change from the norm in this genre. Taunt an enemy, and watch him direct his fire at you with a retort. Call for backup, and get a quick acknowledgement as a wingman closes formation.

In terms of game controls, the game can be player with the keyboard alone, or with a joystick (or mouse) and a keyboard. Being a Microsoft game, the Sidewinder is the joystick this game was designed to work with, though it should work with any joystick. The ideal controls are a combination of the joystick and the keyboard, and things actually get surprisingly complex for an action-oriented space combat game. Almost every key on the keyboard does something or an other, and a few may have two functions if the SHIFT key is used in conjunction with them. I'd suggest flying training missions in the in-game simulator to get used to things; the manual is no substitute for hands-on flying.

The flight model is simple shoot-n'-scoot; no real inertia effects here. There is the nice option to strafe using special thrusters, and one can execute reverse thrust maneuvers, but that's about it for the inertia. To be honest, who cares? I know inertia allows all kinds of cool maneuvering, but to be honest, straightforward non-inertia controls are far more fun for fast-paced fighter combat. I think inertia would be more sorely missed in a capital ship simulation (Independence War springs to mind).

The various fighter cockpits move smoothly with dynamic lighting; however, there is no option to look around a fully virtual cockpit. Instead there are preset views, such as "left," "right," and "rear." There is no padlock option, which would have been a nice thing to have, but quite frankly I didn't really miss it. The combat is so fast and fluid that I expect a padlock view would probably have hindered things rather than helping. All in all, the interface and the game controls are both stylishly handled and are very functional after the player has gone through a brief learning curve (a few training missions in the simulator).

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