Description
The GTI Sacajawea has been captured by Shivan forces. You must fly solo and gather information about their plans. You will be flying a Valkyrie interceptor fitted with an experimental 'phase shifting' device that will render you invisible to the Shivans in almost any way. UNDER NO CONDITIONS are you to fire your weapons unless the Shivans detect your prescence.

Storyline:
The Shivans have captured a GTI Arcadia and command wants it back. Not that much of a story, except it doesn't explain WHY the Shivans have decided to capture an Arcadia. However, Bonus points go out to the cool panning effects in the Mission Breifing.

Balance:
You fly solo during the recon mission. However, once the real fighting begins, it's just a huge fire fight. Beta Wing (and perhaps other wings) use the default weapons. Doesn't matter too much though, as many Terran Wings are set up as waves. Although I didn't count, I'd say that Terran ships out numbered Shivan ships about 1.5:1. <P> Another bad balance feature is that about every ship is a SF Dragon. These suckers are hard to kill, and having so many is just nuts.

Design:
Although the design isn't the greatest, it isn't anywhere near horrible. One of the best things in the mission is the ship placement. The author makes good use of the X, Z, and Y axises and the initial starting position is one heck of a great starting view. <P> While the design shines in some areas, it doesn't shine as much in others. For example, while the mission has directives, all but one works incorrectly, turning blue before the objective is completed. One other problem is that transport that is supposed to dock with station fires at the station.

Gameplay:
Although the mission is actually fun to play, it took me a good 25 minutes to play. Other than the length, Out of Phase seems like a really good mission. Just a few tweaks to the mission would easily give it a coveted 5.0 rating.

Other Thoughts:
You may want to check out the author's Second Wave campaign, also available at Xanadu's.