Battlestar Galactica

And I really thought about giving up, but I just felt like any gaming addict, to draw enough resolve to get through it. "Frak!"

Once I figured out that you need to hike up the Viper missle power and kill the Raider Leaders, and in the next scene to find the sattlite quickly and blow them up, take down the asteroid hot spots, then finally, I made it past the first save level.

My advice would be for any buyer or fan: stick through level 1 and once you pass it, it's worth it! better than the easy fortunes at Caralon.

The next levels are quite good. you've got several levels with Cylon BaseStars, one with the derelict old spaceship, another flying the cylon raider, one as the Galactica gunners having a battle while in lightspeed, and many others.

Two particularly difficult ones:

Riding the comet- you gotta blow as many asteroids so it wont damage the galactica, and when the cylons appear, try to blow as many Cylons, and if anyone wants the tip of how to survive, well, all I can say is "run away".

The penultimate level was the absolute hardest, destroy the Cylon leeches, then the hardest thing of all, destroy the basestar and hope paulus dosen't get killed, then a couple of cleverly hard obstacles which i finally figured out, and then the last level is a breeze. but I had fun in that penultimate level.

The cutscenes are first rate, though I wanted to see more full screen Adama character moments. After all, the game revolves around him.

all in all, great game. I recommend the game.

By Your Command.


Aggrivating first mission, but the rest is a joy.   January 16, 2004
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I think we all now agree the first mission is rediculously difficult... so Im not going to repeat what others said. I will however offer another hint: If you target the "cylon leaders" and kill the leaders only.... the rest of the cylons will bugger off. So.... learn how to use missles and learn how to target.... and it will be a breeze.

Now... for the rest. This game has some beautiful cut scenes and great acting for a video game. The in flight graphics are fantastic as well... from the vast beauty in space, to the debree, to the planets, right down to the fighters and explosions they cause when you destroy them. If you are a fan of the wing commander series and the freelancer game (on PC).... these graphics match that quality beautifully.

Flight controls are simple, although they may seem a bit intimidating at first (almost every button has a secondary function as well). After about 1.5 hours.... I had the nack of it (thats how long it took me to beat the first mission).

All in all.... after the first mission.... the game is simply awesome. I almost gave up on the game when I couldnt beat the first mission. Im defintily glad I didnt.

PROS: Graphics, Flight control, Cut-Scenes, Bonus Material, Story line and "did I mention" Graphics.

CONS: First mission is much too difficult and frustrating and save areas are few and far between causing alot of repeat play (but the game is only 15 missions long... they had to make it last somehow). If it wasnt for these two CONS, the game would be a "5".

All in all... expect to be aggrivated by the first mission. But dont give up... you will be glad you didnt.


So its not easy   January 5, 2004
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Yeah, there are some flaws (can't always save when you'd like, no tutorial missions), but if you like Battlestar Galactica this game is for you. It took me a while to beat the second mission, but thanks to the other reviews here I was ready for that. I just stayed patient, used each attempt to learn something and tried to have fun even when I failed. The game really is fun. I highly recomend it.


Saving your (lame) wingmen so you can save   January 2, 2004
I was stuck for a long time on the same part in the 1st mission as another rewiewer, where you have to (try and) save your wingmen from dying (right after you blow up the small satellites).

I finally succeeded at getting through that stage by noticing that if you pump up "speed" vs. "power" on the missile tweaking menu, you get more missiles. So, after blowing away the last small satellite, try and turn towards that big asteroid where your wingmen cluster around so that you can get a head-start when the interim movie clears. Then Turbo (note, as we die-hard fans know, that big white button was labled "Turbo" not "Afterburner" in the original series :) over to your (incredibly untalented) wingmen and when you get close enough for missile lock, fire off a full spread.

It seems like if you start annoying the pursuing raiders, this distracts them a little so you have more time to kill them off, even though pushing speed vs. power means multiple missile hits to kill each one. Fire at the ones closest to your wingmen first.

Other notes, once, after the initial missile salvo, I overshot and the raiders were actually shooting at the wingmen from behind me (I was too close to the wingmen). I tried to back off to be able to shoot the raiders when they passed me (too late). Also, that big asteroid really gets in the way sometimes. Try and make sure your initial beeline to the wingmen gets you way to the same side of the asteroid as the wingmen are on. It's worth a slight detour.

After that, there's just a couple more (much easier) things to do before the game offers you the opportunity to save.

Overall: 3 stars, all for nostalgic sounds and graphics! -2 stars for frustration (mainly about the save points as others have mentioned) and I agree with the earlier poster, I would have really liked to be able to launch (why were there three switches AND three buttons required to start the engines in the series, anyway?? :) and land!

On to Mission 2! :)

GC.


Frustrating game   December 30, 2003
As stated, the graphics in the game are pretty good however there are several flaws with the design of the game that have really turned me off. There is no sort of tutorial section to help you learn about flying and fighting, it simply throws you into the first mission and you are on your own. The levels are extremely challenging but you can be playing successfully on a level for 15 minutes and get killed and have to start all over again. It is pretty true to the original series which is confusing seeing how the game was released to coincide with the new mini-series because the vipers in the game shoot lasers compared to bullets in the series. I love the concept of a Battlestar Galactica game but this one could have been done better. One other thing, I had always wanted to launch from a tube off of the Galactica, which you do on one level but it is all automated, you have no control in launching or landing in a landing bay. I became stuck on a level where you had to shoot ice chunks to keep from hitting the Galactica, I was stuck there for several days became frustrated and haven't played the game in over a week.