Wing Commander Saga Has Been Released
Our friends at the Wing Commander CIC are reporting that the long-awaited Wing Commander fan mod, Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn (or simply Wing Commander Saga) has officially been released!
For those of you who were unaware of this mod, it’s actually a very ambitious undertaking. The mod is set in the same time frame as Wing Commander 3, but instead puts the player in the role of a rookie pilot on a different ship, the TCS Hermes. Saga is built with an updated version of the Descent 2: Freespace engine, and features many new — and rather beautifully detailed — ship models, a few of which can be seen in these screenshots:
Fighters...
...aliens?...
...and carriers. Oh my!
I gather that Saga’s development cycle ran close to the ten-year mark, which is…damned impressive, and speaks to the determination of the project team and their love for the Wing Commander universe. At present, only the Windows version is available — the Linux and Apple versions are coming soon — and the Saga website is temporarily running in “low key” mode after being crippled by the initial onslaught of traffic. The Wing Commander CIC has a list of download mirrors, so if you’d like to pick up the 3.4 GB mod, hit them up.
I haven’t played either, but how does this compare to the previous big Wing Commander mod, Standoff? I imagine it’s even bigger.
There are definitely some differences in the combat style. Standoff was like a hybrid of WCP and WC2 while Saga feels a lot like WC3 upgraded to the modern day.
Story-wise, I will admit that it is a little lacking in comparison to Standoff. Very few in-between cutscenes aside from briefings and rarely any text (which is both good and bad). IMO, it doesn’t really allow you to get immersed into the situation like Standoff did. There is a story being told through the briefings and in-mission comm chatter, but it really lacks the more personal perspective into how the war is effecting the characters. Honestly, I feel in this regard, Unknown Enemy did a better job (which was primarily contained in text entries).
In summary:
Gameplay: excellent, Wing Commander combat at its fullest (though the large capship missile barrage is used too often).
Quality of videos/ships/other art: top notch
Story: its good, but its really focused on the fighting and strategies with little focus on the emotions of the characters.
Which has better combat?
Neither is better, they are just different styles. One is more like WC2 and the other is almost like WC3 (except it takes more than a fighter’s guns to take down a cruiser or destroyer in a reasonable time frame)
Where is the link that says what game you need to buy to run the mod on? Descent 2: Freespace engine was mentioned, but what root game is officially compatible with or recommended for the mod? I’d feel better if there was a big Buy link for Descent 2 on their web site for people who didn’t have the game. I have Wine and an XP VM, so I should be able to run the mod if I can find the main game.
Even if the gameplay and ship control were a hybrid of WC2 and WC3 it would be awesome at 60-120 fps with the astoundingly detailed textures pictured in WtF’s photos. If it supports gamepad with dual analog as well as mouse/keyboard controls it is legendary. Big ships, imploding then exploding as fuel ignites creating spherical, concentric shockwaves of gas, heat and shrapnel will silhouette then inflame the space around your ship. You’ll hear the glass cracking and the gas in the cabin exhaust into the void while the batteries in your life support system whine a little higher. Always wear a helmet is a good rule in WC.
It is standalone. The Freespace 2 engine is open source and has seen significant upgrades by the hard light community over the years.
Well, I think I may need to reverse (slightly) my critics on the story. The immersion improves as you continue, and the rapid mission format with no breaks really goes into the favor of the game.
Also, if you played WC3…. you owe it to yourself to play this awesome game. It is a joy ride to the very end.
PS: according to the Saga website, there were 50,000 downloads in a span of 24 hours. That is pretty huge. Websites were falling all over the place, overwhelmed by the response.
The fact that I don’t have to pirate a game to play a mod is a small miracle. AWESOME. 🙂 I’ll be waiting for the Linux version, as I’ve been dying to play a game like this for some time now. ’til then I’ll have to break out the XP VM.
There is a torrent available here:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_87172.shtml
which is heavily seeded. Please use that to spare the mirrors the pain of so much bandwidth and seed to 1.25+. Probably a much faster download as well.
Yeah if you use torrent, download it now. Tons of people seeding at the moment.