Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
Origin




Those pesky Kilrathi are back again and are bent on destroying the entire human race. That means YOU. Are you going to let them get away with that? Of course not! So get suited up, pick your fighter, and go blast some Kilrathi out of the sky. If you liked Star Wars, you're in for a treat because Wing Commander III has got all the action, and Mark Hamill too!



Wing Commander III is an interactive movie/space sim. You control Col. Christopher Blair (Mark Hamill), a hot shot Confederation fighter pilot with a great reputation. You start the game finding out that you've just been transfered to another starship, the TCS Victory, in hopes of making it a more successful attack ship against the Kilrathi. By the way, the Kilrathi are a warring race of tiger/humanoid aliens that have had clashes with the Human race in the past. Anyways, you are first greeted by an old friend, Hobbes, a a Kilrathi turned good...



I have to say, I became totally absorbed by this game once I began to play it. The conversational video sequences were great and I found myself finishing my missions just to get the chance to talk to more people. You won't finish this game in a day or two. Maybe not even a week or two. With 50 missions to fly you'll have your hands full of Kilrathi fur for a while. It also contains over 3 hours of digital video on four CD's. Performance wasn't bad but forget about running it in high-res if you own a 601 processor, it's just unplayable.


The graphics were excellent. All of the ships were nicely textured giving them a really believable look not to mention the highly creative design put into each ship. The video sequences were great as well, though Origin could have used a better video compression technique. It got a bit grainy at times. Best of all, the acting was superb! Mark Hamill did an excellent job at making this the most believable interactive film i've ever played. Another highlight included an appearance by Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange, Pearl), a favorite actor of mine protraying the role of the snobbish Admr. Tolwyn. It was a very stable game. Only crashed once on me and I could find no obvious bugs or gliches.


What can I say? The sound rocked! It included an inspiring military type soundtrack which fit this game in every aspect. It gave a deep atmosphere to all of the conversational and video sequences. The sound boasted all original effects and voices. The engine sound was well done and was not nearly as annoying as games like A-10 Attack and FA-18/Hornet. A joystick was recommended, but I didn't need it all. The keyboard worked just well and much better that the mouse (I don't recommend mouse control for ANY flight sim type game). There is no use of me babbling on forever about how awesome this game is. You just have to play it to understand. So if you're into this kind of game, buy it now. It's well worth the price.


TEST COMPUTER: 

601 80Mhz PowerPC Processor
16MB RAM
256k Level 2 cache
Mac OS 7.5.5
Double-speed CD-ROM


REQUIREMENTS:

PowerPC with L2 Cache Card
8MB RAM (5.7MB available) 16MB recommended
25MB hard drive for small install/60MB for large install
System 7.1 or higher


RETAIL PRICE:
Around $35.00




Origin Home Page

NO DEMO AVAILABLE

Rating: 




Reviewed by: Amir Kavehrad