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Description
The Shivans are advancing on Capella in massive numbers with gigantic juggernauts of nearly infinite power. The GTVA has no hope of holding this line of firepower, only a slim chance of being able to delay their arrival.
In one of the longest, hardest fought battles possible, you must hold the line against a Shivan juggernaut by testing the effectiveness of a new and unprecidented plan: Project Road Block.
More details and screenshots are posted at a small site in my FTP (Free To Prowl) space, http://members.aol.com/mike011701/PRB.htm. The screenshots there are in 1024x768 JPG, so expect about a two minute download on 56k.
Storyline: 
If you like your storyline epic, here's one – one of the largest missions I've ever seen, with an equally huge plot. The Command briefing sets it all up nicely, and provides an explanation for the crippled Colossus in 'Their Finest Hour' in the main FS2 campaign. Despite a few spelling errors this is carried off well. The briefing is also perfectly good, and though a couple of icons have incorrect ship I think this has been done on purpose. Inside the mission, however, there are a vast number of messages and while the Vasudans and Command behave somewhat out of character – Vasudans quoting human sayings for example – it's good for atmosphere. Well, I guess that the pilots and Command have lots of character in thisÂ
Balance:
Commendations to the author for making the mission so well balanced throughout. Despite the incredible length and number of enemy ships, (I got 97 kills. 97!!) the mission remains challenging, yet not too difficult – after all, to fail when in the last few minutes would be just a bit annoying. There are plenty of different tasks, from escort, and defence to dogfighting and assault, and there are more than enough targets. Just as well really for my psychotic tendencies. That's not to say that there aren't problems – the mission does lack some intensity due to the number of enemy ships that can and can’t be used. Intensity has been increased by the placement of the bombers nearer to the Koreth, which means you’re constantly defending from every angle and has the knock on effect of making the battle with the Shivan capships less certain, meaning you could be attacked by them. This unpredictability is good. After all, predictable is another word for boring in my book. :)
Design: 
Design remains consistently good; despite the massive scale of the mission itself. The background and the massive explosions in the mission impress, as does the sheer scale. With a mission this large the author has necessarily cut down on the number of events as much as possible, mostly in the best way possible – though turret-locking the Koreth rather than setting the strength of each turret to 0 might have been a better idea. The mission is a little restricted by the sheer size – it really does crash if you add to it. The turret-lock has been done on the Koreth, cleaning things up nicely. The bombers now also appear more logically and the mission appears cleaner for it. Not a lot has changed here, but the design was very good to start with.
Gameplay:
If you like your missions long, this is the one to go for. Totalling over 30 minutes of action, you're not going to be finishing it in a hurry. Almost every one of those minutes is packed full of action, though the end of the mission's repetitive bomber intercept grates a little and lengthens the mission for no real reason. In fact, it's the length that is my biggest gripe – the mission could easily have been broken down into at least 3 good missions and might have been that little bit more intense in each due to the ship limit in FRED2 not being a problem. The unpredictability of the battle with the capships and the increased intensity makes this mission much more challenging and fun now. There’s still a lot of bomber intercept but at least it’s interesting and you have to stay on your toes. Speaking of the length, though it can be bad it can be a boon – there is literally no equal to this mission in terms of epic missions, and so it’s unique and should have a place on your hard drive anyway. It’s also a nice challenge to yourself. One thing of note is that BlueFlames put an excellent walkthrough into the readme for all those of you who’re struggling. Excellent job.
Other Thoughts:
I wonder if this would function as a 3-mission campaign file linked by Red-Alerts or scramble missions? It's almost a 4.5Â
but not quite. However, BlueFlames is considering an update as we speak. Cross your fingers. Updated! Thanks to BlueFlames for waiting for this review (and almost patiently, I might add :)
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