When you think of future combat simulators, games like Decent, Allegiance, Tachyon, Starlancer, and Independence War come to mind. But with the exception of Decent, all of the games are all set in space. While that is good in some aspects, it gives me an impression that all of the developers who make these kinds of games think that all epic battles will happen in space. Granted, most of these developers have grown up on Star Trek and Star Wars. But one company in particular has approached the genre from a non-original, yet refreshing perspective. The company named Buka Entertainment, along with Bethesda Softworks, has produced the next game in the long list of flight combat sims titled Echelon. Equipped with some delicious eye- candy, excellent control, and a nice single player mode to boot, Echelon has what it takes to dance with the big boys. Unfortunately, Buka left out some of the little things that may ultimately cause big problems for the game.

The story begins back in the in the early 23rd century, where the collapse of the Galaxy Empire was caused by a civil war from within. During a period of approx. 150 years, the main group of colonies throughout the sector joined together to form the Galaxy Federation. Twenty years after the federation was formed, contact with a species only known as the Velians was established. For the next 30 years, the Federation and the Velians would establish good trade and technology relations. But soon the Velians would use some of the technology to harbor fleets for a surprise attack on the Federation. That's where you come in as part of a squadron dedicated to stop the invasion of the Velians.

Gameplay:

It usually takes a couple of sittings for gamers to get completely comfortable with a flight sim. But Echelon manages to provide a plethora of tools that will get you more comfortable with this game a lot faster. The tutorials are very well laid out, and achieve what all tutorials are designed to do. After you have warmed up on the tutorials, it's time to head on out to the battlefield and do some real damage.

The mission's structure is laid out so that you are not bound to a liner path. As you progress in the campaigns, so do your options to choose which battles you want to engage in. The missions themselves are a mixed bag. Some missions are just way too easy, then there are some that seem designed for you to fail. There are times will you will notice that you really do not have to do anything to complete the mission, because the AI bots has the ability to complete the objectives without your assistance. That is not to say that the AI is pre-scripted to accomplish an objective. In fact, the AI can be very random. Playing a mission several times will always produce different results. A lot of the missions will have you doing A LOT of flying to reach your targets. So much that you can probably grab a sandwich and a brewsky, come back, and still will have not reached your destination. While flying, interaction is somewhat limited and repetitive. You can issue orders to your fellow pilots, and for the most part they are carried out without error. But there have been times where the orders seemed to not have been received by the pilot. While not great, the AI is very good.

The controls' interface is phenomenal. In fact, I would go as far as to say that controlling the aircraft in this game easier than anything on the market. While Buka does have a setting that will give you "real-life" aircraft controls, most of the nuts and bolts in typical combat simulators have been stripped out so that you can really focus on taking out enemy fighters. Turning these fighters on the dime is a breeze. But that doesn't mean that there is no real physics implemented in the game. Gravity and inertia are active forces working against you all the time, so you still need to be conscious of your elevation and speed. The easy controls really come in handy when you hit those canyons. Finally a game gives you the opportunity to recreate those scenes that you see in action movies, turning corners in canyons at top speeds and pulling up to avoid imminent danger. The game packs in 14 different ships that while available in Multiplayer, must be earned in the single-player campaign. Each ship is very distinctive and unique, so learning the ropes with one particular aircraft does not qualify for all of the aircraft. Some aircraft vary in sheer size, while others are faster or can equip more weapons. While the ships are diverse, the weapons on the other hand are not. Weapons for the most part are slightly enhanced versions of the primary weapons that are in the game.

Graphics/Sound:

When it comes to flight combat/sims, just about all of the games within their respective genre have showcased some graphical splendor. Thankfully Echelon is no exception. The aircraft in the game have been beautifully rendered in 3D, sporting some cool, metallic-like textures. The level of detail on these airplanes is incredible. You will definitely spend a lot of time watching your fighter in different camera angles just to admire the beauty. I do have one little gripe about the planes though. While the planes are modeled and textured nicely, the actual pilot models are atrocious. I mean they look like one of those life-size buddy dummies that elderly people put in their car. This is not a strike against them, but it is a minor graphical to a robust engine.

The environments in the game also provide some eye candy. The cities are scaled so that you have the ability to fly past buildings. There are also bridges that you can fly under, as well as canyons. The canyons will the part where you will spend a lot of your time in this game, because they are very deep, protecting you from antiaircraft devices. But traveling through all of these places will reveal a chink to the amazing graphical armor that this game possesses. It's the ground that is a serious graphic flaw. The textures are plain and boring, and offer no flavor except when ground tanks are on it. I know this is supposed to be futuristic, but that fact that except for the cities and units, there is nothing occupying the land. The water textures are nice and reflective, but they are not the blue oceans that you would see on those "wish you were here" postcards. Instead they are blue with a lot of greenish-brown color added in to represent pollution corrupting the waters. That's right. Pollution is live and well in the 23rd century contaminating the waters and the skies. As you scale in altitude, you will notice a very thick layer of smog blanketing the once blue skies (If you have ever flown to Tampa or Los Angeles, then you have seen this before). This game makes excellent use of lighting, sometimes too much. The times of day that you will fly in are accurately represented with dynamic lighting. But when the sun sets, you won't even be able to see your hand, let alone the mountain that you are about to run into.

All of this atmospheric beauty does not come without a price though. Expect framerates to dip significantly, even on high-end systems. On thing that I noticed was that the screenshots posted on the Echelon website were that the framerates shown were in the mid-to-lower teens. Now call me crazy, but I don't think that showing pictures with a bad framerate can actually be positive for selling the product. Nevertheless, I found that disabling shadows can offer a significant boost in fps department. As with most games, do not expect to experience a pretty but smooth game if you barely meet the system requirements. With some minor graphic tweaking, you can go from low teens to 30+fps.

The sound is quite good, if not repetitive. The sound of an actual aircraft flying has been translated to the game without flaws. Nice little effects like lasers striking the hull of your plane brings you into the environment somewhat. The computer and the other pilots can bring you back into reality though. The in-craft computer is very repetitive and leaves a lot to be desired. After the mission is given to you, the pilots' speech is limited to a few phrases. This area could have been more interactive with the player. Instead you are left with some pilots and a computer telling you things that you really can't do anything about or have any interaction with what they are saying. Overall an average attempt.

Multiplayer/Devices:

In the year 2001, if you are going to attempt to create a successful Multiplayer to go along with the single player mode, there are certain "standards" that need to be in place for the game to have any success in what is an already crowded area for PC games in general. One thing for sure that needs to be in place is some kind of server browser support. Whether it is an in-game browser, or a 3rd party browser (i.e. Zone, Kali, Gamespy ) so gamers will not have much difficulty in finding games. After saying that, I was fairly disappointed in seeing that Echelon has no server browser at all! I mean there is nothing. Well I shouldn't say nothing, because you can use the forums like many gamers have done already. But you shouldn't have to go to such great lengths just to find someone to play with online. If you do decide to find players through the forums, then you must manually input the ip number to connect to the game. There has been talk about a possible dedicated server/gamespy support, but nothing has been officially announced.

Once in the game, my experience for the most part, was fairly decent. But decent soon became unbearable with a bug that is plagued most players. It is a warping bug similar to the bug that was found in MechWarrior 4. One second, the enemy is within firing range, the next he/she is miles behind you. I thought this might be due to lag, which is common, but after pinging my connection and the server I was connecting to, that would not be the case. This bug happens randomly, and it is very hard to duplicate so that the developers can isolate and eradicate the bug. But as I said, this is random, and when working correctly, then Multiplayer game flows pretty well. When you are actually playing as a team, the experience can be somewhat fulfilling. Scoring is unique as well, where you get points just for helping destroy an enemy while not applying the fatal blow. Even though Echelon has some serious Multiplayer flaws, some of the people who have this game, seem intent on keeping this torch from blowing out. There are actually some guys who are actually going out of their way to rectify these annoying bugs. Kudos to you guys, because you make me proud to be a gamer.

Now on the voice command devices. Playing with the Sidewinder Game Voice, the result was somewhat mixed. Using the GV to issue commands in single player mode, the commands were quite responsive. So responsive in fact, that it became almost second nature to play in this fashion while going through all of the missions. However, playing online was a different experience altogether. When using GV software, I have found that either it works well with online with a game, or it doesn't work. With this game, it has worked on some occasions, then other times it would not. Hopefully this gets fixed with the GV 1.5. Using the Game Commander 2 was very exciting. Because I am able to record a command several times to give the program a better chance of recognizing it, my single-player and online gaming was a blast to use with this software. With no delays, I was able to focus on my targets rather than the keyboard. Excellent Job.

The Wrap-up:

If there was ever a game that has potential to become great, then Echelon is that game. But in its current state, it is not yet ready to go up against the big boys in the industry. As we all know, when you see potential, you have to nourish it and guide it greatness. If Buka cannot do what is necessary to nourish it, the potential becomes nothing more than a dream. And they should know better than anyone that it's really hard to sell a man a dream. Overall though, I like it, and I will like it for some time. I encourage anyone who may be hesitant to at least try out the demo. Then you too will get a glimpse of what the future holds for futuristic air combat games.