Why We Still Play X-Wing and TIE Fighter

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

Star Wars: X-Wing/TIE Fighter

The section actually covers two different games, the latter being a sequel to the first. 1993 marked the release of Star Wars: X-Wing, the very first LucasArts PC game set in the Star Wars universe. Instead of placing the player in the shoes of Luke Skywalker or allowing them to become a Jedi - a common theme for latter Star Wars games - X-Wing had you as a neophyte pilot in the Rebel Alliance. Despite that, if you slipped in that floppy disk and installed Star Wars: X-Wing, you had the chance to play one of the finest Star Wars games ever, a game only surpassed by its sequels.

LucasArts followed the success of X-Wing with the much-improved TIE Fighter only a year later. It built upon X-Wing with a revamped 3D rendering engine, an expanded ship roster, an improved HUD, and new flight options. Some of these improvements would find their way back to X-Wing in updates to the original, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance. Once again, TIE Fighter was critically-acclaimed and the series as a whole rivaled Chris Roberts' Wing Commander franchise in the hearts and minds of fans.

Kat has already written deep introspective looks at TIE Fighter and X-Wing, so if you want to read the USgamer perspective on the series, that's the place to start. But why are people who aren't Kat booting up X-Wing or TIE Fighter in 2014?

I'm not sure what's up with the X-Wing series and thoughtful answers, but I received my two most robust and eloquent answers by asking about X-Wing and TIE Fighter. I've presented those answers here in full.

GOG member FastEddieLB:

My story in particular is kinda complex, but to address your point on the evolution in technology and space sims, there really haven't been any in the last 15 years. A few here and there, but nothing with a rock solid community until Star Citizen popped up. X-Wing and Freespace 2 were the last and best space combat sims, the end of an era for a reason I can't fathom. The only game I've seen that even comes close to being a proper space combat sim in the meantime is Evochron Mercenary, but the game is kinda difficult to really get into and the mechanics are very different from X-Wing and Freespace.

With that out of the way, this is actually my first time playing X-Wing, so it doesn't hold the same value to me that it does everyone else. What it does have is the fact that it's the first in a series that lead to the first space combat sim I ever played, X-Wing: Alliance.

Alliance came to me at a particularly bad time in my life and offered me an escape that I desperately needed, dropping me into one of my favorite universes and making me feel like I actually was this character that the story centers around. The level of immersion created by the writing and the presentation are second to none, and little variances in the voice acting strike just the right note to really sell some of the most emotional moments in the game. It made me feel like I was actually part of this family who ran this little shipping business, and when the betrayals happened it weighed all the more heavily. The single player firmly established itself as one of my favorite games of all time, and once I got broadband internet I decided to take a look at the multiplayer side of things.

"The [New Republic Navy] became a major part of my life and is a key part of who I am today. All thanks to the X-Wing series."

GOG member FastEddieLB

I took a little trip over to what was at the time the only place to go, Microsoft's now defunct Gaming Zone. This was sadly right on the brink of the Zone shutting down, but I was very fortunate in that I met a member of the New Republic Navy, a gaming clan that had its roots in the original X-Wing. I became a prominent member of this clan and participated in X-Wing Alliance tournaments both internal and against other clans for many years to come. The NRN became a major part of my life and is a key part of who I am today. I met my three closest friends there, and we still speak regularly today even though none of us are active members any longer. All thanks to the X-Wing series.

I play X-Wing now for two reasons: First, it's a stop-gap until the glorious return of X-Wing: Alliance, which I can't get working properly on my system thanks to my modern hardware. Second, I finally get to see the original story created by Totally Games that set everything in motion. When X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and X-Wing: Alliance come out on GOG, I will buy both immediately with a massive grin on my face.

GOG Member D2Junkie:

I still play X-Wing because it's fun. Plain and simple.

Many games don't age well. The "newest" and the "best" games usually end up revealing themselves to be nothing more than glorified tech demos over the course of a decade or so. Usually, what once impressed the player ends up being a disappointment returning to it several years later.

X-Wing is not one of those games.

Yes, there is the nostalgia factor: I played this when I was growing up (literally: I was 4 when this game was released on floppy, and I was 5 when my family bought the MS-DOS CD-ROM). But unlike some of the other Star Wars games I played then, such as (to a certain extent) Dark Forces and (in every conceivable way) Rebel Assault, X-Wing is not a disappointment, even 20 years later.

It all boils down to gameplay. A game like this never needed increasingly complex control schemes, a more slavish adaptation of Newtonian physics, or shading, antialiasing, high poly counts, and HD resolution options. While perhaps in some games graphics actually do significantly affect the gameplay (I can't imagine Dead Space being terrifying if all the necromorphs looked like they stumbled out of Crash Bandicoot), in a space sim, all you need is good weapon balance, some nice craft to fly, good mission structure, a smooth difficulty curve, and just enough graphical fidelity to ensure the player isn't looking into a muddy and confusing mess.

X-Wing provides loads upon loads of content (especially with the added Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing tours and historical missions), a clever menu interface, detailed and persistent pilot logs, rewards for accomplishments, a replay mode, and even a challenging training course system. It absolutely nails the control scheme and requires constant management of shield, weapons, and engine power, as well as directional shield priority. Each craft's HUD contains valuable information in a clear and uncluttered manner. Damage is persistent, with parts of the HUD cracking and frying with successive blows to the hull, often rendering the player unable to quickly identify necessary systems integrity.

It also doesn't hurt that the missions are varied, frenetic, and fun. Voice acting is of unusually high quality for a game of this kind, and the plot lines through each tour of duty are well-paced and make the player feel like an important part of the Rebel campaign against the Empire. Missions usually fall into the categories of reconnaissance, capture, escort, or offensive bombing run, but the game rarely makes you feel like you're doing the same thing twice, since levels are often paced differently or place set-pieces in different ways to force the player to adapt and strategize differently. It also doesn't hurt that X-Wing contains one of the better playable renditions of the Death Star Trench Run (it's actually perfectly straight! Like it should be!).

I'm partial to Descent: Freespace and Freespace 2 as the very best the genre has to offer, but in direct comparison to X-Wing, even those games feel somewhat bloated and over-produced. X-Wing is as pure an action game as the genre will likely ever have, and, while the graphics may look pretty gross by now, the gameplay itself has stood the test of time. After 20 years, X-Wing is every bit the penultimate Star Wars game it was when it was released. On it's own merit, it's also one of the best action-shooters ever made. There are richer titles, but there are none purer.

When I feel like a Rebel pilot, when I feel like I'm in an (admittedly preposterous) galactic civil war, and when I feel like a true ace after a particularly grueling battle - that's why I play X-Wing. I just don't get those feelings from other games.

Like both of these respondents, you can pick up Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter on Good Old Games right now.