Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

The Good
This was something of a watershed - at the time, it received rave reviews and was very popular, without being any good. Basically a cross between a cheap, made-for-tv sci-fi show and a space shoot-em-up, this was inferior to the contemporary 'Tie Fighter' in every way except for the texture-mapped, processor-hogging graphics.

Still, it's nice to see Malcolm McDowell.

The Bad
Where to start? The flight model was no more advanced than that of 'Star Raiders', and it was obvious by this time that the creators were more interested in the FMV than the game, but lacked the skill to make the drama compelling - the end result is a shoddy space shoot-em-up crossed with a cheap b-picture. 'Privateer 2' did much the same, but seemed to understand that it was never going to be art, and was therefore much more fun. And whilst it is the most expensive computer game ever, the budget was still nowhere near that of a proper film.

The Bottom Line
A technical showcase that has no value as a game whatsoever.

The Good
It was a fantastic space simulator and has a fantastic choose your own adventure storyline where every choice can effect the outcome. It has the feeling of both a game and a movie, all welled into one. Much more than it's predecessor. It also has amazing music.

The Bad
Not a thing. It was fantastic.

The Bottom Line
A fast paced and action packed space simulator where you control a fighter wing and a ship's crew, every choice you make effects their lives.

The Good
The cinematics are great. In terms of style, writing, directing, and acting, they're probably still the high-water mark of computer movies. (that's really not a slight, this one truly is feature-film quality - better than the official movie by far) It's worth playing the game just to watch the film, especially Malcolm McDowell getting to chew the scenery with a glee he hasn't shown since A Clockwork Orange.

The Bad
The gameplay sucked. Period. Just about every mission was dull and generic - just swarms of bad guys all over you again and again. The difficulty level at "normal" is actually quite high, which would make it challenging, but you just can't care about the missions like you could in the old days. Even the new fighters were generally uninteresting. At least it didn't have 5-minute mission loads like its predecessor - I read entire books while playing that one.

The Bottom Line
If you have a chance to pick it up for cheap, snag it, set the difficulty to its lowest level, and spend a few days watching a sci-fi miniseries with brief pauses for carnage in-between. In that respect, it's still more entertaining than a large number of the sci-fi films at Blockbuster.