Description
The story of how the Vasudan-Terran War began, 14 years before the Shivans arrival.

Storyline:
The story of the start of the T-V war should be a great plot, but there are two major problems with ITB. First, the idea of the Terran and Vasudan governments disagreeing over a planet to colonize conflicts with what Volition has said about the start of the T-V war. Volition has said that the two were at war from the start, and that the cause was largely a Terran mishandling of the complicated Vasudan social requierments. Second, the plot just doesn't happen in-mission. It's just a defense of a Fenris against several waves of Vasudans - nothing relating to the start of hostilities, really.

Balance:
there is no ship or weapons selection - you're stuck with a pair of ML-16s, some MX-50s, and an Apollo, but given the time period, that's fine with me. Given the low-tech level, the enemies are well-balanced, although they are a bit too numerous at times. Also, if you're caught too close to the freighter exploding, it may do severe - severe being 99% - damage to your ship.

Design:
There are some major design issues. In order to complete the only Primary objective, the player just has to jump out. That's it. Scan a freighter (which goes boom) and run. Of course, you could stay and fight to complete the secondary objective, but it's sad that people are still not making good mission objectives. There are no real messages to back up what's happening, and this doesn't seem at all like the start of a war - more like a clash in the middle of one. There's no hesitation on the part of your troops to fire on the Vasudan craft - who, at the time, are our friends. There are no mistakes with the few design elements in The Beginning, but the timing of the enemy waves is a bit short. This results in an imbalance towards the beginning of the mission when there are far too many fighters at once, and too few at the end.

Gameplay:
If this is treated as nothing but a defence mission, it's not too shabby. A bit tough perhaps, but rather fun overall. But there are better out there....

Other Thoughts:
Ugh. The story possibilities are wonderful, but ruined.