Description
Support a Mentu class cruiser in a strike against a Shivan cruiser and Cargo depot

Storyline:
The briefing in this mission is well done. It all makes sense, there are no spelling errors and all of the ships and icons match up. The briefing is also succinct, but provides all of the information required. If I were being really nit-picky, IÂ’d say thereÂ’s one missing full stop, but IÂ’m willing to let that pass. In the mission, something is wrong from the word go and the storyline is expanded upon through a bunch of excellent messages, and the debrief is incredibly thorough.

Balance:
As with everything else in the mission, the balance is very good. The first few minutes involve hectic dogfighting with the Shivans, before the Menes arrives and the mission turns partly towards defence. This progression is totally natural. Saving the Menes isnÂ’t too difficult if you get your priorities right; the bombers, bombs and cruiser take priority. One nice touch is that in order to engage one threat, the other must effectively be ignored, and thereÂ’s not much choice in which to attack first, as there are just enough bombers. The use of higher AI levels for friendly ships is nice, but itÂ’s still not easy to protect the whole of Alpha wing and earn your bonus objective.

Design:
A big fat score for design here. This mission is absolutely superbly designed. There’s a patrol waypoint path for the depot guards (who only break off their patrol when you near), chained events, fully working directives and – gasp – send-message-list s-exps! All three axes are used well too. The goals are also exceptionally well done, using invalidated objectives and some good bonus goals. The friendly freighters are named Taurus, and there’s little background, but they’re small problems, which don’t detract from gameplay.

Gameplay:
With a good storyline, great balance and brilliant design to back it up, gameplay in this mission is excellent. Above all, the mission is fun, combining assault, bomber and bomb intercept, dogfight and capture into one near-perfect whole. YouÂ’ll always have something to do in this mission. Finally, I loved the fact that at the end of the mission you have the option of watching the freighters come in and pick up the cargo. It just shows the attention to detail the author lavished on this mission.

Other Thoughts:
This is an excellent example to all designers of how to create a great mission from a standard idea. I'll be eagerly awaiting any more missions by this author.