Description
Take Alpha and Beta wings to patrol the Gamma Draconis Station. Keep the area safe until the Aquitaine jumps in to take control of the situation.

Storyline:
The storyline of this mission is probably the weakest part of it, but it’s still above average. It’s basically a simple-looking installation defence mission. The Command briefing and the briefing are well written and include appropriate animations, ships, icons and the like. There aren’t any noticeable spelling errors. The debriefing is also pretty good and during the mission there are plenty of messages which add to the atmosphere. There are, however, some spelling errors in them. The mission is also called ‘Into the Fry’ in the tech room.

Balance:
Balance is actually quite good in this mission. Put simply, you wonÂ’t often have a moment with nothing to do. The Shivans really do pop up everywhere and it gives a genuine feeling that you canÂ’t do everything yourself. ItÂ’s great. The station isnÂ’t too difficult to save, but it isnÂ’t easy either, which is good. The worst thing about the balance is that while youÂ’re shooting down pesky Seraphim bombers lots of enemy fighters arrive and try to take pot shots at you. You might die if you arenÂ’t careful. Kudos for creating an excellent (and accurate for the period) weapon loadout.

Design:
Design in Into the Fray is good. Waypoint paths are used and actually make sense in their usage. I especially like the docking rings and the waypoints used to make the Dahshor clear the ring. The author has used send-message-list s-exps, chained events and the ship-invulnerable s-exp (which seems to be getting popular) to carry off the mission and the y-axis is used excellently. Minor problems: there are no directives at all and the background could be better, though itÂ’s okay as it is.

Gameplay:
The most important part of any mission is gameplay, and this mission is good fun. You never fell totally helpless and your wingmen will help out a lot. However, your actions will resolve the battle – if you don’t intercept the bombs, the station will be destroyed. It’s a fun bomber and bomb intercept mission. The Aquitaine makes a timely arrival to save the day, thankfully. Beam combat doesn’t have too much effect on the battle, which is pleasing.

Other Thoughts:
Can you believe that IÂ’m writing this on Christmas Day (even though I posted it on Boxing Day)? I must be mad.