A necessary addition to any game collection.

The Game

Rogue Squadron is a StarWars flight simulator that was released late in 1998. The game takes place after the final StarWars movie. In the game you take on the role of Luke Skywalker, leader of the elite Rogue Squadron.

The Missions

There are 15 regular missions and 3 bonus missions. Missions have a series of objectives which must be met in order to advance to the next mission. Sometimes you must destroy certain targets, other times you must protect a ship or convoy. This often implies a time limit. Many missions are a combination of these things. All the missions are flown right above various planets instead of in space. This means that each mission map has "edges" which you cannot fly past. This is sort of annoying. No two missions occur on the same planet so the scenery is varied. Some missions occur on snow covered planets, one occurs in a volcanic crater, another in a group of canyons. All the locations are cool and exciting.

Spacecraft

You will be able to fly an X-wing, a Y-wing, a Snowspeeder, a V-wing speeder, an A-wing and if you are good enough you will be able to unlock the Tie Interceptor and the Millennium Falcoln. You will only be able to fly certain crafts in each mission. For instance, in one mission where you must destroy AT-AT walkers, you must fly the snowspeeder. In other missions you will be able to fly any craft of your choosing. You can fly these crafts from in the cockpit or from behind.

Weapons

Every craft is armed with laser guns. Most crafts also have a secondary weapon however. Many have various types of missiles, while the Snowspeeder has a torpedo cable which can be used for tangling AT-AT walkers. You will be able to find upgrades in each mission that will make your weapons more deadly and your shields more powerful.

Game Length

Most missions can be beaten in under 5 minutes if you are very good. This means that the game could theoretically be beaten in under two hours; however, you will have to play most missions many times to beat them. Some missions are so difficult that you will be pulling your hair out and screaming. To win the game will probably take about ten hours. To get gold medals in all the missions will probably take three times that long. You will definitely get your moneys worth.

Medals

By meeting certain criteria in each mission such as accuracy ratings and enemies destroyed, you will be awarded medals for each mission:gold, silver, or bronze. By getting enough of each of these medals you will be able to unlock bonus crafts and the 3 bonus missions.

Controls

Unless you want to be turned into space dust I suggest that you use a joystick. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder because of it's extreme precision and large number of buttons. The game menu's allow you to highly customize your keyboard, joystick, or mouse functions. This means that you will be able to find a controller configuration that is right for you. The Spaceships respond beautifully to my joystick. Lucasarts deserves kudos for game controls.

Graphics

People will argue that the graphics are outdated, and they may be, but they are still very good. Dust flies when you fly near to the ground or when you shoot it. Exploding ships produce fire, smoke, and flying debris. When I was given the game as a gift the Christmas of 98, my computer didn't have a sufficient graphics card to handle the game. After I upgraded to a Voodoo Banshee with 16mb of onboard memory, the game played very smoothly on the highest graphics setting.

Audio

As I mentioned before, the voice casting for Luke and his squadron members are good. The music score is solid StarWars. You will love it. The sound effects for the lasers, explosions, etc. are high quality and vary from ship to ship, from one explosion to another and so on. Although the game supports four-speaker surround sound, my system does not so I can't tell you what it's like.

My System

Windows 98
400 MHz
64 Mb RAM
16 bit soundcard
16Mb Voodoo Banshee PCI video card
Microsoft Sidewinder J-stick

My Experience

I have played a lot of video games. My favorite titles have always been from LucasArts and this is one of my very favorites. It played great on my system and I, my dad, and all my siblings got countless hours of enjoyment out of it. I totally mastered it by acquiring all the gold medals with all the most difficult settings.

I recommend this game to all gamers who don't dislike flight games. You should be able to get it on ebay or some other online store for under ten bucks. It is so worth it.