Description
Take out two birds with one stone - a pirate group and a lurking Shivan task force left over from the second great war. You'll probably have to tone down the details setting...

Storyline:
The storyline to this mission could have been made a great deal better if it were better explained. As it is you’re just informed that you’ll be striking at the Shivans and reclaiming lost territories, which seem suspiciously like about 90% of the T-V Empire. How the Shivans got there, how the GTVA lost and what the effects of this invasion are seem strangely absent, as is information on how the GTVA came by another Colossus, the GTVA Agamemnon. Spelling is quite good, actually, but it’s wasted by a lack of in-flight messages beyond those informing you of the arrival and destruction of various vessels, and short briefings and debriefings. Icons don’t all match up either, and are horribly cluttered. Finally, ‘fly better’ is not a good recommendation for a failed pilot.

Balance:
If you can survive the first part of the mission, which involves doing a lot of dodging of anti-fighter beam cannons then youÂ’ll find little respite in the second part of the mission, as swarms of fighters chase you down and Terran capital ships are slaughtered wholesale. The Agamemnon could easily obliterate the opposition but remains sat firmly in a place where it can barely fire any of its beam cannons. It would literally be quicker to exit the game and change the starting loadout for Alpha wing than it would be to try to do the loadout for yourself, as the author has left every weapon in the mission. These kind of design errors donÂ’t just show that the author lacks sense or effort in balancing, but shows a total disregard for any testing whatsoever. I didnÂ’t manage to complete this without cheating.

Design:
Design doesnÂ’t exactly shine brightly in this mission, as thereÂ’s nothing here to make it stand out against the rest, but it isnÂ’t a total washout. Most of the directives work okay, though the return to base directive is broken. Messages could have been handled more competently, though there arenÂ’t too many to make it an issue really. Other than this, thereÂ’s no background and most of the action takes place on the XZ plane. Still, the escort ships list is used, which is good. There are no waypoint paths used at all, so capital ships just stand off and fire at one another for the most part. Capital ships could also have had some of their anti-fighter beams deactivated, especially at the start of the mission.

Gameplay:
Gah. Gameplay was terrible, IÂ’m afraid to say, being frustrating and annoying, both in the fact that the mission is so unrelentingly difficult and also because you actually do nothing in this mission. Your actions wonÂ’t help the battle any more than a few points more or less of hull damage on the Agamemnon really. Staying alive is the main problem in this mission, and if you were to just fly backwards (not literally) at the start of the mission and leave the combat to everyone else youÂ’d see little difference, and youÂ’d still be alive. Battle of Endor would seem to be the correct phrase, then.

Other Thoughts:
After a short hiatus IÂ’m back, and just as cynical and critical as ever. I could just copy and paste 80% of this review into the other three retribution missions, but I suppose that would defeat the object of the FS2 review. Bah. See, I told you I was cynical and critical.