Rating: 
Summary: Buy it for the Death Star run..
Review: ..And the rest of the game is great too. You get to pilot almost all the different Star Wars craft, including the Millenium Falcon. The action starts off slow so you can get used to the controls but things get heavy very quickly. There is also a custom battle simulator so you can create your own missions. The original version does have frustating bugs in it, so you will need to download the patch and install it before playing.
Rating:
Summary: XWA: Extended fun for all
Review: I don't remember this game when it first came out, but I just recently got it, and it still packs a punch. With a truly gripping plotline that follows from just after the events of The Empire Strikes Back to the end of Return of the Jedi (And yes, you even get to play a scene from Shadows of the Empire), X-Wing Alliance (XWA) is a great game. While the graphics aren't exactly stunning to today's audience, in my opinon, the gameplay more than makes up for it. I came to XWA from Rogue Squadron, really wishing I could take my X-Wing up against a Star Destroyer. Well, I got my wish, and let me tell you, be careful what you wish for: those suckers are hard! And while Rogue Squadron (RS) has beautiful graphics, you never go into space. In XWA, every mission is in space. Also, the controls are more realistic. RS's big kick was the graphics, so the designer's didn't worry about really complex and realistic controls. In XWA, you don't just fly around and fire at stuff, you can control how your shields recharge, how your guns fire, strengthen your shields in one area of the ship, or reroute everything to the engines and fly like crazy.
Another bonus for those of you who liked RS but wanted something more is hyperspace. To get to the areas where your missions take place requires you to jump into hyperspace, which, like in the films, doesn't always work. (Especially when there's an Interdictor Crusier around; you'll learn to hate those.)
So, in conclusion, XWA is a great game if you have a lot of time, there are over 50 missions, not counting the single-player skirmishes you can create in the simulator room (A simulator in a simulator, eh?), and multiplayer options abound.
Have fun. Now get to your fighters!
Rating:
Summary: You can't beat Star Wars space sims.
Review: I have played a lot of other starfighter sims, and nothing comes close to the elegance of Star Wars. The original X-Wing, which I played on my 486 in 1994, was better than most sims on the market today, and Alliance does nothing but improve on the older versions. It still looks great despite the time that has elapsed since its release. And for the price, nothing can touch it.
Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic space-sim brought low by minor bugs
Review: I remember playing Tie Fighter on my old 486 PC and having an absolute blast with it. I also remember how dissapointed I was at X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter - great graphics but average gameplay...and why was there no single player component? X-Wing Alliance is the final entry in Lawrence Holland's X-Wing series of games, and more than makes up for that oversight. I'll start with the minor problems first - mission bugs. About 25% of the missions have minor bugs that make them almost unwinnable. For instance, in one early mission you have to raid an Imperial space station. Even if you succeed in boarding the station, it still blows up, killing the Rebel commandos that boarded it. I had to skip this mission, I'm ashamed to admit. You shouldn't have to use "cheat utilities" to get through a game as good as this. Oddly enough, when playing these missions again in the combat simulator, these bugs never reappear. Worse still, these bugs have never been fixed, even though two years have passed since this game was released. On the other hand, when the missions DO work, they are very effective. There's one mission where you have to save your sister from an Imperial blockade. Imagine coming out of hyperspace, only to be faced by 2 Imperial Star Destroyers and Darth Vader's Super Imperial Star Destroyer - it's quite a shock and a thrill. The graphics are very good, although not as good as Freespace 2 (although they do make good use of lens flare). You'll find yourselves spending half your time gawking at the massive starships. The Imperial Super Star Destroyer is especially impressive - be careful you don't fly too close otherwise you'll get shredded to pieces! The audio is also quite good. A later patch released by Lucasarts makes effective use of 3D-audio, so if you have a 3D-audio card like a Creative Sound Blaster Live!, you're in for a little treat. In conclusion, X-Wing: Alliance is a great game that could've been a truly excellent one. Some advice for anybody buying it though -
- Download the latest patch from the Lucasarts website. The patch adds a film room (with which you can record your missions). It also adds 3D-audio as well.
- There are still bugs with some missions. I strongly reccommend downloading a mission editor from the internet, if you want to do some twiddling with the aforementioned missions.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest space sim saga
Review: I started out playing Star Wars: Tie Fighter, and got addicted to it almost immediately. I even got most of my friends hooked on it. The story and concept (flying for the Empire) were captivating to say the least. I later bought X Wing, the original game in the series and was highly disappointed. One thing I kept in mind, though, was that it was the original, so of course Tie Fighter would have improvements made to it over X Wing. For example, if your ship got destroyed in X Wing, you'd lose any rank you achieved, which didn't make me happy. Anyway, later down the road I saw X Wing Alliance sitting on the shelf, and didn't even hesitate in buying it. The graphics are very smooth with greater ship detail, the story is even deeper, as your pilot persona is given a name and a family history affected in the game. There's far more eye candy to enjoy, such as ships actually taking damage, or a laser shots hitting the shields of a ship and dissipating. The immersion level of the game is great, the graphics are solid, it's a fun game to play while not being overwhelmingly difficult or easy. I purchased Freespace 2 about a year ago, and found it's story and graphics incredible, but the one shortcoming it had was that it didn't have that Star Wars flare to it. For the price of this game, buy it. Trust me on this, you're going to love it.
Rating:
Summary: Totally Awesome
Review: I thought that TIE Fighter was the best SW game ever. Boy was I wrong. ....So much more craft....more missions...funner missions.....JUST BUY IT!
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Xwing & Xwing vs. Tie Fighter
Review: I wish I had known about this game sooner! It is the best parts of X-Wing combined with the best parts of X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter... the single player adventure of X-Wing, combined with the multiplayer ability & better graphics/sound of XvsTie. There 50 single player missions have so far been awesome. You play a young member of a merchant family (running goods, smuggling, fighting rival merchant families). You end up joining the rebellion, and flying the Mellinium Falcon in the Battle of Endor against the 2nd Death Star. Email from Alliance.reb forwards the plot...trust me you do NOT want to email vader@empire.gov! Fully customizable multiplayer missions. Fly ANY ship rebellion or empire. The only flaw I've found so far (w/ the Archive version anyway) is the poor user manual. If you love star wars you have GOT to play this game!
Rating:
Summary: Everything X-Wing vs. TIE should have been...and more
Review: I'll be blunt when I say that this is the finest space sim I have ever had the privelige of playing. A lofty claim, no doubt, but true nonetheless. What urges me to make this claim about X-Wing Alliance? Let's examine. Now I don't know why this game didn't seem to make a bigger impact than it should have. It might be the market is flooded with first-person shooters and cheap StarCraft knock-offs. It might have been lack of proper advertising...I remember seeing ads for it in PC Gamer, but never many. But truth be known I think it was the timing. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter can be blamed for this...it's complete emphasis on multiplayer over plot (it didn't have any, or anything remotely resembling a single player campaign) I think ruined it for a lot of the people who really just enjoyed playing the basic game for it's feeling of taking on the Empire from the comfort of your own house. It could be argued that this came out too soon after XvTF, or maybe noone wanted to give it a try because of it's possible similarities, or maybe there's just so many Star Wars games out there now that are outright bad, noone wanted to put out the money to find out. And what a crying shame...this game is fantastic. I wouldn't call it perfect, but it's very close to it. The plot follows the adventures of a family of merchants, the Azzameens, with you as the youngest son of the clan, Ace. The family has it's internal squabblings which can be a welcome amusement or likewise, an unwelcome development as you play. The first few missions allow you to fly freighters like the YT-1300, along with new ones like the snazzy YT-2000, which looks like the Millenium Falcon on steroids. After these training missions (some of which are surprisingly difficult for "training" level) you're eventually forced to join the Rebellion and begin the standard instruction with X-Wings and the other Rebel starfighter complement. The plot is well paced, excellently scripted, and goes as fluid as a dream. Interspersed within these are the occasional Family mission where you assist your clan in some dilemma or scheme to seek revenge against thier antagonists. Success garners you some souvenir from that battle and I must admit that by the game's end it's nice to see your room practically littered with things you've picked up along the way. And I must admit an affinity for having turret guns...they're just plain handy. The meat and potatoes of the game though is your standard Rebel combat assignments. And they are just a blast. Everything from the voice acting, to the music, to the graphics is all top notch. The ambience is perfect Star Wars. So much so that if one were inclined to experience Star Wars, after the movies I would pick this game as the best way to do so. But every game has it's faults and this one is no exception. Multiplayer is a mixed bag. There's no cooperative missions, but rather built missions in which you use an editor and add/subtract ships, and then hop in a fighter and blow em' up. I wish though that they'd have put in the ability to hop into one of the freighters as a pure gunner. Having a YT-2000 with 2 human gunners in multiplayer would probably give you a ten-fold survival rate. As far as some of the single player campaign missions go, I won't lie. Lucas Arts has always made some levels that noone short of Luke Skywalker can finish, and this game is no exception. However they've allowed the option to skip a mission should it prove too hard to accomplish. Flying the Endor/Death Star II mission I must admit is almost Nirvana, although TIE Fighters die rather quickly in comparison to thier Rebel adversaries. Did I mention what a rush it is to fly the Millenium Falcon? The last 4 missions follow the script of the movie almost (almost) perfectly. Beware though: I'd recommend a fast computer for the last one...unless you like wading through that many Star Destroyers on a P2 300MhZ. I won't lie...this game is such a notable improvement over it's forbears that I cannot understand why anyone who liked it's predecessors wouldn't have this game. I think I'll sum it all up by just saying that this game is simply a helluva lot of fun. Just a real good time. Pick up a copy and see for yourself. :)
Rating:
Summary: KOOL GAME!!!
Review: IN THIS GAME YOU WILL FIND MANY TWISTS! IN WHAT MAY SEEM TO BE A PEACEFUL CARGO DELIVERLY TO THE REBELS MAY INCLUDE A VISIT BY A STAR DESTROYER!! YOU MUST BE ON YOUR TOES FOR THIS GAME. AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE FLING A FREIGHTER IN A WAVE OF TIE FIGHTERS, TOO BAD!!!
Rating:
Summary: What X vs. TIE should have been
Review: LucasArts really should have scrapped X-wing vs. TIE fighter and released this instead. It would have sold millions. Unlike X vs. TIE, Alliance has an excellent single-play plot and truly detailed ships- not just the old TIE fighter models with new textures slapped on. You can fly any of a huge list of spacecraft in multiplayer, including the famed Millenium Falcon and the even better YT-2000 transport. If you're utterly insane or just feel like messing around, you can even fly such junks as the Pinook fighter or R-41 Starchaser. The movies are well done and the graphics are better all around. The engine is also improved over the Balance of Power tweaks, so you won't have a critical lack of memory when a Super Star Destroyer jumps in. Capital ships also fire shots that explode into flak like the movies- a really cool effect that might be a bit too captivating. I remember one particular melee where I got blasted by an SSD while staring at the fireworks. The multiplay is much improved as well, with you being able to assign ships to teams and choosing the type of vessels you fly or fight against. With very few exceptions, just about all the vessels from TIE fighter, X-wing, and many new ones are available for use in multiplay. They even have a lot of ships seen only in tech manuals and novels, such as the Cloakshape and Preybird. Even if you're not much of a pilot, it's interesting to see how the new ships handle, and you can always observe things from a godlike perspective via the map mode. This is definitely what I had wanted out of X vs. TIE, and for all those who were disappointed by that game, I hope you'll check Alliance out.
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