Starlancer - IGN

But before we get the control issue, perhaps I ought to say a little about the game in general. Starlancer is a space action game originally developed by the Roberts brothers at Digital Anvil. You old-timers will remember them as the team behind Wing Commander, one of the most respected games in the genre. Starlancer puts you in the role of a pilot in the 45th Volunteers right in the middle of a 22nd century Cold War. As you progress through each of the game's missions, you'll get access to better ships and better weapons. On the whole, you'll have too much responsibility in the missions and soon you'll begin to wonder what the hell your wingmen are doing throughout the fights.

The missions are fairly linear with a few surprises hidden in each one. Each begins with a short animated briefing and a trip to the loadout computer. Once you've been briefed and selected your ship, the mission begins. From here, it's unlikely that the mission will unfold according to the briefing you got at the start. Most of the missions diverge from the plan right at the start and you'll be forced to improvise. Luckily there are plenty of in-game cues that steer you in the right direction.

But while the targeting computer will point you to your objectives, the targeting system falls short when you have to intercept torpedoes. In almost every other mission, you'll be called on to shoot down torpedoes before they can take out your capital ships. Unfortunately the game doesn't focus your attention on the torpedoes quickly enough. You'll wind up replaying a lot of missions just because you were searching through the target lists while the torpedoes were busy blowing up your carrier.

But like I said the control scheme is fantastic and relies on some pretty intuitive button combinations. For instance the two triggers work in combination to control your speed. One speeds you up, the other slows you down. Pulling both triggers at once matches speed with your enemy while double tapping the accelerator trigger kicks in the afterburners. Two buttons, four functions. Easy enough, right? And the X and Y buttons each open up menus that you can navigate with the D-pad. It all sounds complicated at first, but soon enough you'll be extremely comfortable with it.

Apart from the missions, there is an instant action option. Overall it's a little too limited as you can only rack up kills until time runs out. You can't select enemies or arenas, but it is a nice quick fix. The game also offers some great online options, making it one of the hot new things to try on SegaNet. There are quite a few mutliplayer game types that mix up the standard deathmatch formula. We were a bit bummed by the omission of online multiplayer co-operative play, however, which was a big boost for the PC version, but the 6-player support goes a long way towards making up for that loss..

Finally, Starlancer is a bit too dark for my tastes. A brighter version may have turned off some gamers, but for me, Starlancer should have been a bit brighter. But that won't stop you from appreciating the fantastic graphics in the game. The ship models are beautifully rendered and the weapon effects and explosions are plenty exciting. There's a definitely decrease in the texture quality from the PC version, but since everything runs at a much faster and smoother framerate, you won't even mind.

Ultimately, Starlancer is just a port but it's a damn fine port. The title offers a pretty engaging story, some thrilling gameplay and dresses it all up with some very attractive graphics. For my money, that makes it a title to definitely consider if you're at all into the genre. And since it's a genre that's in short supply on the Dreamcast, it's that much more attractive.

-- Stephen Butts, IGN.com