Description
A disabled cruiser awaits repairs or reinforcements. This time, though, you're on the other side...

Storyline:
An above average storyline backs this good mission up. While the briefing might not set the world alight, it’s in the mission that most of the development occurs. For once beam combat won’t play a big part in the mission due to some intelligent choices by the author – the GTVA does have Fenris cruisers, and just because they’re rubbish (ooh harsh) doesn’t mean people shouldn’t use them. No noticeable spelling or grammatical errors here, and all the ships and their icons match up nicely. However, the debriefing stages are rather short.

Balance:
The use of the scramble mission feature was definitely well advised. Not letting the player chose armaments once in a while is nice, although the default loadout has to be well balanced. Thankfully, it is here. Overall, the mission is fairly well balanced, though I did find it a little easy. The Aeshma fighters guarding the repair transports do nothing, confirming my belief that they are the worst fighter around. Dogfighting with the cruiserÂ’s guard fighters is fairly tight, although the actual dispatching of the cruiser isnÂ’t particularly hard, especially as it sticks around until the GTC Eris dies, which is easy to prevent. A greater threat to the bombers or perhaps one to the Eris or the science cruiser would have evened it up a bit, and are some missed opportunities.

Design:
The first thing youÂ’ll notice about this mission is the astonishing background. With a 3D card the clarity of some of the planets at such large magnifications is still great, though youÂ’ll have to experiment. The asteroids fit in nicely too. Anyway, thatÂ’s just window-dressing really. As for s-exps, directives and messages all appear to work well. The use of send-message-lists and multiple operators in one s-exp help to keep the number of events down. The beam inhibitor is a nice storyline and design feature and itÂ’s nice that if you destroy all of the beams on the Greyface the friendly cruiser will be able to fire.

Gameplay:
This mission is pretty good fun to play. If you do as youÂ’re told by Command though, itÂ’s not nearly as fun as venturing toward the Shivan cruiser and picking off enemy sentries and fighters. You might sustain a bit of damage, but thatÂ’s all part of the fun. However, Alpha wing (i.e. you) has little to do to aid the destruction of the cruiser during BetaÂ’s attack, and itÂ’s not likely youÂ’ll ever be able to remove the RakshasaÂ’s beam cannons before Beta wing wipes it out. This missionÂ’s one that IÂ’d probably keep on my hard drive, though, if only for a little while.

Other Thoughts:
My faith in the FS2 design community is restored. It looks like the mission contest brought out all the good designers, and more good missions are on their way. More of the same please. Oh, and does anyone else think the Aeshma is the <i> worst </i> fighter ever?