Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
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| X-Wing Alliance | |
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| Developer(s) | Totally Games |
| Publisher(s) | LucasArts |
| Designer(s) | Lawrence Holland |
| Latest version | 2.02 |
| Release date(s) | 28 February 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Space simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | CD-ROM |
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance or XWA is the sequel to both Star Wars: TIE Fighter and the multiplayer-focused X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
Superior in most aspects to its predecessors, XWA presents the story of the Azzameen family, a family of space traders. The player assumes the role of Ace Azzameen, the youngest of the Azzameen children.
Apart from the usual badges and medals for winning missions - a feature shared by the other games of the X-Wing computer game series - progress is also indicated by the amount of souvenirs collected in Ace's room. There is also a "mail" delivery between missions that helps to evolve Ace's background story while also providing a deeper look into his personal relationships and his family's whereabouts.
XWA is the first game of the series to offer a full voiceover soundtrack and full in-flight dialogue. Flight control is marginally updated from the previous games of the series, allowing the player to link his or her different energy weapons to fire together, as well as the addition of rudder support. Graphics are also overhauled in this game; high resolution textures, more complex models, and full three dimensional cockpits were added. However, the cockpits are not faithful to the other games; indicators and screens are separated from the cockpit, depicted as floating windows as part of the in-flight heads-up display. The player also has three "mission skips" that allow him or her to proceed through the linear storyline without having to complete a particular mission. "Family missions," however, cannot be skipped.
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[edit] Story
The game's prologue (and tutorial) concerns Ace's "family missions" in which his elder family members and Emkay instruct him in the flying of Corellian transports so that he can begin working for the family.
These missions reveal that the Azzameen family are in heated competition with the Viraxo and are generally sympathetic to the Rebel Alliance. Due to their sympathies, the patriarch of the family, Tomaas Azzameen, smuggles bacta for the Alliance in the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth. This causes them to pay dearly as the Galactic Empire raids their home station for running bacta to an Alliance outpost. The family subsequently seeks asylum with a Rebel task force.
As a Rebel pilot, Ace participates in a variety of missions for the Rebellion while also helping his family fight the Viraxo. During his tour with the Rebel Alliance, he proves himself to be a significant pilot as he participates in missions that uncover new Imperial projects, such as a slew of experimental TIE fighters as well as the second Death Star.
Some events connect the game to the movies Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, such as sequences that track the Rebellion's situation after the Battle of Hoth, as well as the theft of the Shuttle Tyderium. The game also concludes with the climactic Battle of Endor. Several events connect to the Shadows of the Empire story, such as a mission to assist Dash Rendar in the capture of the Imperial freighter Suprosa, which carries the plans to the second Death Star.
[edit] Easter Eggs
During the training level in which Emkay flies for Ace and the latter is in the turrets, the player is at a bustling space station/casino. If the player is quick enough, Boba Fett's infamous Slave 1 can be identified by the targeting system. It launches into hyperspace fairly quickly, before it can be approached by the player's craft. Later in the mission, Dash Rendar's YT-2400 Outrider can also be seen. The Action VI Transport belonging to Talon Karrde, the Wild Karrde, appears in one of the later missions; during which the player attempts to steal the Tyderium.
There is an unconfirmed rumor that Lando Calrissian's Lady Luck can also be found.
The Star Destroyer Chimaera, the command ship of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Gilad Pellaeon in the Thrawn trilogy of books, also makes an appearance at an Imperial Weapons Testing facility during the mission where Ace and his family rediscover their home base being used by pirates.
While not an Easter Egg in itself, XWA offers the only "real" glimpse of the YT-2000 freighter.
A few models are included in the game's data files but are not featured in the game's reference library or missions. One such item is a "booster pack." Custom missions have been made that use the hidden models.
As you take off for your final family mission, the Imperial Shuttle "Tyderium" carrying Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie can be seen leaving a carrier and entering hyperspace towards Endor.
[edit] Modifications
XWA is the only one of the X-wing series to have no expansion or enhanced remake. LucasArts did release a patch that, among other things, adds a flight camera to the game.
The game is modifiable; fans and programmers have created improved textures and models for the ships, new missions, and other modifications. Some modifications are remakes of missions from previous games in the series.
Further Modifications continue even today. Currently a project of modelers and skinners are working on an upgrade of the graphics, this project is located at www.XWAupgrade.com
[edit] Multiplayer
During the peak of Flight Simulation gaming, and during the first release of X-Wing Alliance, the game was a very popular Multiplayer Dogfighting and Clan-Based Game. The support for the multiplayer aspect was discontinued in 2004 by Microsoft as it was hosted via their Zone Gaming Network. After that, XWA was moved to their Direct Play Lobby, until it was disconnected completely in 2005. Many of the clans that once played the game then went looking for another way to play, and one such solution was Errant Venture, a still-used client lobby for X-Wing Alliance.
Further, these multiplayer modes are still supported by some ladder sites such as the XWA Weeks of War at Battlestats.com.
