Description
Black Omega wing on the new GTXD EXCALIBUR is undertaking a critical operation to hamper the Shivan armada's regrouping after the Altair incident, flying a new classified Loki class stealth fighter variant, you must destroy a Shivan cruiser wing before it can escape.

Storyline:
The Terran vessel Hawking dissappeared into a Shivan system, Gehenna, traveling through the jump node that spawned the Shivans in the first place. Yeah. That's real original. People, people! Lay off the "Shivan Origin" plot for a while, will you? Besides, the Command Brief is cut short, because the creator didn't account for the fact that there are no scroll bars in the Command Briefing screen. There are some big holes in the plot - supposedly, the sizable force of a Hades (Um, why are we making them?) and three cruisers is leaving you behind after transporting you through the node so you can kill the enemy. Fair enough. But why the hell don't they stay? The enemy can easily lock onto them, so it's clear that they're there. Besides, it's kinda hard to miss an entire armada just floating around... Still, the briefing is pretty good.

Balance:
In a word, nasty. The loadout on the Lokis can't be altered at all. Why? No clue. Look, I love Banshees as much as the next ruthless dogfighting menace, but TWO of them on a ship that has little power to spare in the first place is absurd! I never had cause to use the second, and a little choice would help... especially when the secondary weapons are considered. The Loki, a fighter with a tiny little weapons bay, is given Pheonix Vs. Well, with all the Seraphim, that's nice, but I think some Interceptors would be far more useful, considering the opposition. Or just let us CHOOSE? It is never clear why there is no weapons selection, and if I had but a Distruptor, I might be able to win... The swarms of bombers that arrive upon the death of one of Alpha Wing's numbers can make short work of the first, and heavily damaged, Lilith (has anyone seen a Cain in a custom mission in the past months?), the other two can easily defend themselves from the Tsunamis and Harbingers. Weapons subsystems are well-defended, since the player has no weapons that are the least bit suited to subsys killing, so victory flees quickly. Ugh.

Design:
That's the main problem: Though 6 Ursas and 5 Zeus bombers arrive, they are carved up by turret fire, especially the Ursas, which are rather prone to disabling hits. This means that while only a couple of bombers will fall while killing the first Lillith, the other two can easily pop the hunting bombers like little birdies. And let's not talk about the Basilisks and Seraphim...<BR> Still, CoTS does make excellent use of the up-down plane (finally!), creating a more realistic look. And other than that difficulty issue, there are no major problems. K

Gameplay:
Till one of the Lokis falls and the bombers are called in, CoTS is a fast and furious dogfight, though often frustrating because of the cruisers' turrets. When they arrive, helping them kill the first Lilith is fun, due to the fact that it is POSSIBLE, and the main task is to keep the supporting Basilisks away from them. When the others are up, though, things just get frustrating.

Other Thoughts:
With the cruisers changed to Cains, weapons selection enabled, and the Ursas (which are bad at killing any cruiser due to their vulnerable engines) replaced with, say, Valks, this might be really good... hint, hint.