Starlancer Preview Part II

Page 1

We have an update on Starlancer. While we are just shy of half way through the single player campaign, we have done some experimenting with the multiplayer capabilities and have an initial report on how well they are working for us.

The available multiplayer modes in Starlancer are co-operative, deathmatch, and team-deathmatch. We've experimented with all of the above, and so far we are impressed with the tightness of the netcode, as well as the available multiplayer options.

Multiplayer in Starlancer can be played both on a LAN as well as on-line. The available options are MSN Gaming Zone, TCP/IP Internet, LAN IPX or TCP/IP, Modem, or serial port connections. We've been using IPX primarily on our LAN. The multiplayer experience in Starlancer truly makes the game, and if the release version works as fluidly as our beta copy, the Zone room is going to be one busy place.

The Host information panel is in the top left

We played the first three missions of the campaign in co-operative multiplayer mode as a test. While we did experience one crash to desktop in one of six or so test missions, a quick reboot seemed to eliminate any further problems in this area. We observed no visible lag or delay in the weapons or ship performance, and having a couple of non-AI wingman makes completing the objectives much more enjoyable, not to mention a bit easier. When friendly non-AI ships are targeted in the game, a small, bright green circle will surround them and the targeted player's name will be in the target information display. We found this useful for discriminating between the AI wingman and "human" wingman, and this allowed us to focus our attention and render assistance accordingly. Up to four players can play the entire co-operative campaign, and thank god the save game feature works in this mode. We'll let you know how the campaign went once we complete it.

About to pick up a power-up

The deathmatch mode is going to be a bit hit on the zone, and up to eight players can go at it head-to-head or form teams and have 4v4 fights. There are six different types of games, including Asteroid Field, Nuclear Threat and Vampires. Asteroid field is of course set in an asteroid belt, and the larger rocks have laser turrets as well as holes blasted through them that can be flown through. The Nuclear Threat is a game where the player can collect beacons and fry the opponents in a nuclear blast - trust us, this blast effect is one of the best visual representations of a nuclear blast you will see anywhere. Vampires is a game of hot-potato. You can infect other ships with the "virus" yours has by shooting them.

There are small power-ups that can be flown through in deathmatch games. Since your fighter will only have guns when you enter the arena, this is the only way to pick up missiles and countermeasures. There are also such items as Fuel, Invulnerability, and Ship-cloak. There is a catch here: You won't know what item the power up contains until you fly through it. There are some very nasty items such as Reverse Yoke, Half-Max Speed, and Shields Down inside some of them. Flying through the power-ups is a very risky venture, and we think this will add a very new and interesting feature to on-line space combat games.

The host of the games will have a control panel in the top left corner of his screen that shows how many players have joined, and who they are. We wish more on-line sims did something like this, as it makes connectivity issues much easier to deal with.

As we mentioned earlier, we're still fighting our way through the single player campaign, and this game is probably the most addictive space combat sim we've played. The story is immersive and interesting, and the thing we like best is that Starlancer, like the Wing Commander series, makes new ships and weapons available as you progress through the missions.

Once we finish the single or multi-player campaign, we'll wrap up our preview in Part III.

 

Click to join a discussion about this article.

© 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, Inc. All Rights Reserved.