Description
An unattended Shivan cargo dump has become a target for the GTA....but something is lurking in the shadows of the asteroid field. Also, a few more surpises to leave you mindboggled.

Storyline:
Most of the story is contradictory: there's a desterted Shivan cargo depot, but it's still guarded by patrols and capital ships. After the depot is destroyed, a massive defense force arrives. The Terrans send in reinforcements even though all of the objectives are completed and the battle is fought over the empty wreckage. This military strategy seems sound only to those following the Phyrric school of tactics.

Balance:
There are plenty of missiles and cannons to go around, but not an excessive or disbelievable number. Pilots can choose from any ship, including the bombers. Since choosing a bomber would be an absurd choice for a scanning misison, it is hard to understand this decision. At most, it gives the player the option to choose to be more prepared for the first or the second stage of the mission. In the first stage, the best ship is the default GTF Ulysses. It handles well against scouting waves of Scorpions, Basilisks and Manticores. However, at the end of the mission, a large amount of Terran reinforcements arrive to fight off a Shivan cruiser. Since the cruisers aren't well-defended by fighters, the Ulysses won't be as useful in this stage as a GTF Hercules or even a GTF Apollo.

Design:
This mission contains a <u>major bug</u>. If you fail to accomplish the "bonus" objective of scanning all the cargo, including those in transport, then the second stage of the mission won't begin at all. <p> In the first stage of the mission, transports will pick up and offload cargo. Both ships will have almost completed their tasks by the time Alpha arrives in the vacinity, so it is difficult for pilots to appreciate their significance during the first run-through of the mission. <p> The mission also contains a few minor annoyances. First, no directives are used. Alpha will have to "wing it" (bad pun, I know) should they bypass the bug and make it to the second stage of the mission. Second, the Shivan and Terran cruisers are horribly placed. The Shivans begin facing their Terran capital ship enemies, who appear as reinforcements only seconds after the Shivans. Are both the Terran and Shivan commands telephathic? I doubt it, more like the mission designer is hoping no one noticed this abberation. <p> It is also strange that all of the ships and cargo containers are placed on a two-dimensional plane (x, 0, z), particularly given the decent size of the asteroid field. However, forcing Alpha to fly through the asteroid field is a nice touch. Assuming that you don't wonder why the Terrans just didn't arrive on the OTHER side of the asteroid field, where the Jump Node is located and the Terran reinforements arrive. <p> I also noticed that more than a few mission sounds are incorrectly named, resulting in a few in-flight messages not being played during the game. No briefing sounds are played at all. Rather sloppy, but just another flaw in the bucket.

Gameplay:
If you end up stuck in the first stage of the mission, this mission simply isn't any fun. Assuming you reach the second stage of the mission, where most all of the action happens, the action isn't too shabby. The Shivans give a good fight and the AI differences are apparent between each wing of fighers. I didn't enjoy fighting the capital ships in a Ulysses without any missiles, but I suppose there are other fighters to choose from in the loadout. Since the two stages in the mission don't mesh together well, however, either the beginning or the ending will be frustrating to play. My repeated attempts to destroy the capital ships in a Ulysses made me think of shooting fishes in a barrel -- but I was the fish and the Shivans were using a shotgun.

Other Thoughts:
This mission received complaints of ballot stuffing designed to place it on Xanadu's Top 10. I don't believe this mission deserves to be on the Top 10, given the major bugs that are easily found. Even if all the bugs are fixed, this mission would still not measure up. Perhaps the author is not to blame for this pathetic attempt to push Left Unattended v.2 to the top. Whoever is responsible should be ashamed, since their efforts were blatantly obvious and only served to harm the Freespace community.