Description
As a pilot for The Vega Syndicate, a criminal organization, you are to watch over a meeting between The Vega Syndicate and a rival criminal organization.

Storyline:
The storyline continues what was begun in ‘The Vega Syndicate’, although it doesn’t carry on the story directly from that mission. Nevertheless, the mission’s Command briefing and briefing set the tone well through the use of sound and are well written, though I did spot a couple of small errors. Ships and icons also match up nicely. Much of the plot development occurs during the mission, and the messages reflect the tension between the two criminal groups. There are a couple of nice touches to explain the arrival of the GTVA and so on. The sound is a little quiet, though, which can be a problem.

Balance:
While the previous mission was horribly difficult, A Continuation of Politics is actually quite easy – or at least I found it so. You do have to balance the combat on one side of the corvette against the Deneb Coalition with that of fighting the GTVA, but this isn’t too much of a strain as the Deimos can easily deal with a cruiser on it’s flank. The GTVA bombers arrive a little far away to do much damage considering the number of fighters guarding the Optimum. When it comes to dealing with the Vasudan GTVA cruiser, as long as you keep the bombers safe it’s a cakewalk.

Design:
Design is solid, using waypoints well to create the missionÂ’s introduction and including send-message-list s-exps, as well as a lot of protection and goal additions to ships. There appear to be no flaws in the mission, though IÂ’m not sure that all of the events are handled quite as cleanly as they could be. For example, on a few of the events chaining would have cut down on work. However, design is generally good and any design problems donÂ’t impede upon the mission, which is all you could want really.

Gameplay:
The mission is good fun to play and though the design and storyline elements that are almost new ground donÂ’t really affect the way the mission plays, the mission as a whole is very well polished. The introduction is excellent, with the two sidesÂ’ fighters scrapping away for a bit before returning to normal. Much of the mission is rather similar to other missions, but frankly, what isnÂ’t? Besides, itÂ’s rarely been done to this standard. The storyline alone lifts the mission above the rest.

Other Thoughts:
ItÂ’s refreshing not to be fighting those Red-and-black xenophobes the Shivans for once, isnÂ’t it?