SECRETS OF THE WING COMMANDER UNIVERSE by Sybex

Reviewed by Scott Sumner

One of the most successful stories in the computer gaming industry is Origin's WING COMMANDER series. Starting with WING COMMANDER in 1990, the Austin-Texas based company released a string of successful follow-ups: SECRET MISSIONS 1 & 2 (expansion missions for the first game), WING COMMANDER II, SECRET OPERATIONS 1 & 2 (expansion missions for the second game), PRIVATEER, RIGHTEOUS FIRE (expansion missions for the third game), WING COMMANDER ACADEMY, and WING COMMANDER ARMADA. Soon to be released is another set of expansion missions for Righteous Fire and the ambitious WING COMMANDER III. In addition, novels have been released using the Wing Commander story line. All these games follow the same proven format; space combat mixed with cinematic sequences. This formula is one the most successful in gaming history.

As with many games these days, someone takes the time and effort to compile a set of documentation, cheats, mission profiles and information about the game that is not included with the originally purchased game. Some of this information is gleaned by repeatedly playing the game and some is obtained from the play testers and programmers. Still more is obtained from Network News or Forums. These books serve two purposes; first, it provides assistance for those who are frustrated at some key point. Secondly, it provides for those who have played through the game once and would like to get every gram of play value out of the game. Mark Minasi, a veteran author of Sybex computer texts, has released SECRETS OF THE WING COMMANDER UNIVERSE. This book contains tactics, strategies, mission breakdowns, ship and weapon descriptions and troubleshooting techniques. Also, a couple of undocumented features ("Easter Eggs"). The games WC 1 & 2, with their associated expansion modules and Righteous Fire are covered, making this book a pretty good value.

The sections on tactics covers navigating, using your instruments, utilizing your wingmen, and most importantly dogfighting. Reading this section will not allow you to sail through the game with ease, but it does help you get through some frustrating sections. The next section, strategy, really covers how the game is scored and the "Origin Cheating Parameter".

Mission breakdowns list what kind of objectives, opposition, goals and possible rewards you can expect to receive. It also comprises a significant bulk of the book. Weapons descriptions not only includes a description and proper utilization but also charts with quantitative values so that comparisons between weapons can be made. Ship descriptions list physical characteristics like mass, velocity, cargo capacity, weapons and armor. It also provides a paragraph or two on how well the ships performs in combat.

In summary, I liked this book a lot. This is not to say that I think that other books of this genre are of poor quality, but Mr. Minasi does an excellent job of laying out the book in an entertaining and useful manner. Throughout the book is a plethora of illustrations (by Elizabeth Creegan) which are not just enlargements of screen shots (which tend to be bit grainy), but actual artists renditions. My only criticism is that the history of the games is covered a bit sparsely, but I would think that would be covered in the novels.

This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Scott Sumner for Game Bytes Magazine. All Rights Reserved.