[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_%28franchise%29]The Wing Commander series[/url] is a flight sim series set in space. It has also had a card game, a series of novels, a cartoon, action figures, and a movie.
It's set in the 27th century. In every game in the series the race known as the Kilrathi have appeared, who are basically just biped cats, and in every game before WC4 they have been your enemy.
And now for some descriptions shamelessly copy pasted from Wikipedia.
[h2]Wing Commander[/h2] ([u]1990[/u])
The player begins his tour of duty as a young officer on the carrier TCS Tiger's Claw. Through his heroic efforts, the Confederation is able to destroy the Kilrathi's sector headquarters and drive them from the Vega sector.
Through the course of the Vega campaign, the player can gain numerous promotions and medals and fly in various squadrons, each featuring a different fighter. The game was notable for its innovative and seldom-repeated "campaign tree" structure, whereby the "path" you took on the way to the end would be determined by your performance on preceding missions. In-game cinematics in "newsreel" format reflected the success or failure of the player and the Claw. However, in an infamous design decision, game designer Chris Roberts included an incredibly hard mission along the "victory" track which required you to protect a captured Kilrathi destroyer from four Gratha heavy fighters. Even though it is possible to win the mission, it is prohibitively difficult. Since that mission was a critical victory condition for that system, the player would almost always wind up on the losing path because of it; although the game gives one last chance to return to the winning path afterwards. Consistent victory in that mission (Kurosawa 2) is often taken as a mark of an excellent player in this game. Since the missions in the following Rostov sequence are relatively easy, that is to say-difficult but quite winnable, this is not particularly problematic for any player who has penetrated this far into the game.
[h2]Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi[/h2] ([u]1991[/u])
Shortly after the Firekka campaign, the Tiger's Claw attempts to attack the Kilrathi headquarters in the Enigma sector, but is ambushed by new Kilrathi "Strakha" stealth fighters and is lost. No one but Blair sees these fighters, so they are dismissed as an excuse to cover his cowardice. He is scapegoated for the loss of the Claw, is demoted and transferred to a backwater space station.
Ten years later, he is called back into action when he is able to save the Confederation's flagship, the TCS Concordia. Meeting many old friends there, he continues the fight against the Kilrathi, finally culminating in the destruction of their sector HQ, thus clearing his name and uncovering a traitor on the Concordia's flight decks.
[h2]Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger[/h2] ([u]1994[/u])
The war is going badly for the Confederation. Battles are lost on all fronts and the Concordia is destroyed. Colonel Christopher Blair (the player from the first games, now with a set name), is transferred to the TCS Victory, an old ship from the first days of the war.
In a last-ditch attempt to win the war, Confed has designed the TCS Behemoth, a doomsday weapon able to destroy an entire planet. It is Blair's mission to help end this war for good, by destroying the Kilrathi homeworld of Kilrah. Unfortunately the Behemoth is destroyed by Kilrathi forces. The enemy fighters seemed to know exactly about the weakpoints of the weapon. Later on Blair finds out that his old friend Hobbes, a Kilrathi defector, is a sleeper agent and the traitor responsible for the Confed's losses.
The last hope of winning the war for the Confederation is a secret weapon, the "Temblor Bomb", using the tectonic instability of Kilrah to destroy the planet. Blair is finally able to attack Kilrah, firing the bomb and destroying the Kilrathi homeworld. With the royal family of Kilrah killed and their homeworld lost, Melek, once attaché to the Kilrathi prince, surrenders before Blair.
[h2]Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom[/h2] ([u]1996[/u])
The war with the Kilrathi is over, but not all is well within in the Confederation. Skirmishes in the Border Worlds destroy ships regularly. Both Confed and the Union of Border Worlds assign blame to each other and the skirmishes threaten to lead to all-out war.
Blair is soon recalled to active duty and sent to the Border Worlds to confirm Confed's determination. But he finds out that a conspiracy of war-mongers with members in the highest Confed circles are responsible for the attacks. Defecting to the Border Worlds, Blair must expose the conspiracy to help restore the peace in a galaxy still torn over the events of the Kilrathi-Terran War.
[h2]Wing Commander: Prophecy[/h2] ([u]1997[/u])
Peace has finally come to the Confederation, or so it seems. Still remaining vigilant, they commission the new megacarrier TCS Midway, which is soon needed when Kilrathi worlds are attacked by an enemy whose coming was foretold in ancient Kilrathi prophecies.
The insectoid enemy, codenamed the Nephilim, soon begin attacking Confed space and the Midway is called in to stop their advance. As young hotshot pilot Lance Casey, the player must fight their organic ships to help destroy the wormhole they used to enter Kilrathi space, thereby halting the invasion, at least for a while.
[h2]Wing Commander: Secret Ops[/h2] ([u]1998[/u])
The Nephilim return, this time much closer to Earth. Transferred to the cruiser TCS Cerberus, Casey and his wingmates must repel the invasion once again.
Secret Ops was an experiment in game distribution. It was at first only available as a free download. In regular intervals, new episodes were released, each featuring several new missions with the storyline told through in-game cutscenes. The game was later available in a collection together with Prophecy, and sold as Prophecy Gold.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
