The game concludes in one of two ways:

1.) The player character encounters the mysterious "stealth fighters" with Jazz on their wing. Upon landing, the flight recorder is FINALLY recovered and working fine, which means the only logical conclusion is that Jazz is the traitor. The player must fly through the space lanes for some 1 on 1 combat, after Jazz steals a Sabre upon being uncovered (physically assaulting Angel in the process-now it's on). When the player character wins the duel, Jazz begs for leniency out on the space lanes. The player character is not keen to oblige the request, but is stopped from committing murder by Angel, who opts instead for court-martial.

By this point in the game, my target didn't stand a chance in the 1 on 1 mirror match. After having fought my way through the previous three games and all the missions in VotK, I didn't even break a sweat.

The Duel (SPOILERS)

What are the reasons behind these actions? Major spoiler ahead! Click here to find out!

Afterward, the player character disobeys orders to fly a simple patrol and goes after the main attraction: the Kilrathi base at K'Tithrak Mang. The player's dogfighting skills will be tested as we come face to face with Prince Thrakhath himself in a specially modified custom (very nasty) fighter, called the "Bloodfang."

The Bloodfang definitely has the speed and armament advantage, though not by much. However, the more heavily armored Sabre is able to take more punishment, and when flown by a capable pilot, can win this old school slobber-knocker without having to worry too much about being pounded out of space.

I love the list of taunts you can send him.

But he isn't invincible!

2.) The player fails, and is reassigned back to Caernavron station, thus losing the game.

Did I mention the part about the Concordia being destroyed, with all aboard (including Angel) being killed?

That second to last pic is you putting your face into your hands, which transitions to the last scene, where you're either just sitting there with your head in your hands, Al Bundy style, or covering your face and sobbing with your head hung low, whichever comes to your mind first. Jesus, talk about a double whammy. What a depressing ending! This game's got every kind of depressing, punch-you-in-the-gut plot twist there is.

Best features:

Missions: VotK re-established the famous “mission tree,” with a slight change: there was not an extensive “losing track.” Each new system to which the Concordia jumped offered a series of winning track and losing track missions. When players failed a mission or series of missions in any particular star system, they would then play through that system's one series of losing track missions that offered the chance to get back on the winning track. Of course, should the player fail at both a regular series of missions and its subsequent chance at redemption, the player would then see a “losing” ending, which is being reassigned back to Caernaveron station, losing the entire main campaign, and Angel.

Though this does not give the player as much of an opportunity to claw their way back to victory after a series of losses due to some bad luck, it’s definitely better than the “all or nothing” approach of Secret Missions and Crusade. Of course, most players never see the losing ending, because VotK gives you the option to immediately replay a mission after a loss, or to "continue script." Which do you think the majority of players are going to choose? I had never seen the above losing screens, in point of fact, until I lost intentionally just to get the screen grabs.

Story: VotK expanded the Wing Commander universe substantially, as well as adding elements of uncertainty, doubt, and fear into the game by using the human traitor subplot; the reveal for which is done very well, keeping you guessing as to who the traitor may be the entire time. Of course, the scripted deaths added just the right element of suspense and impending doom. Developing a relationship with Angel over the course of the game only added to the fear that "anyone can die."

New Game Mechanics:

VotK changed the whole combat mechanic by introducing torpedoes. A torp was your only hope against a Kilrathi capital ship, as the development of "phase shields" has effectively stopped your ship's guns from being of any use against one. This is explained in the game relatively early on, and the player must then become skilled in the art of the "torpedo run." Coming upon an enemy destroyer was loads of fun. Take out the fighter cover, lock on with a torpedo, and afterburn in for the kill. Ka-bloo-ey.

Yes.

Missile decoys, named "Chaff pods" were also added to several Terran fighters as a way to deter enemy missiles. The previous three games had nothing like this, so if you weren't able to evade a missile with your afterburner, it was going to hit you unless it ran out of steam first. Chaff pods made life a little easier in the cockpit.

The Broadsword-class bomber came equipped with the a specific type of jump capability, the ability to "jump." This was the ability to traverse extremely long distances between different star systems.The Broadsword was the only fighter capable of jumping between different star systems at the time, which was an ability that, until recently, only carriers and the like possessed.

Also, most all of the Terran fighters came equipped with the Inertial Targeting and Tracking System, or ITTS, which appeared on your screen during combat as a little dot that was always in front of your current target. ITTS is designed to help a pilot lead his target, the little dot being approximately where you want to fire in order to hit your opponent. When your crosshairs and this dot intersected, the dot would turn red, and this indicated optimum firing times. Ill-placed shots would fall behind your target and miss, and thus ITTS took a lot of the guess work out of where and when to fire.

Ships: VotK introduced new ships for both the Terran and Kilrathi space forces. All the ships the player had been used to fighting in or against were gone, replaced with either close replicas or entirely new ships. The only ship that retained its original name is the Rapier, and even then, the ship is upgraded and renamed the Rapier II. VotK also introduced bombers as ships available to the player character. These gunboats did not offer much in the way of speed, but usually carried heavy armaments, as well as the capital ship-killing "torpedo."

However, this also adds a new challenge to the game: tail guns. Several Kilrathi heavy fighters are equipped with "tail guns" that can fire at you as you are tailing the craft. Gone are the days of pulling up on the enemy's six and blasting him straight to hell; the tail guns on the few fighters that do sport it are NASTY. Of course, this is balanced out by some Terran ships being equipped with tail guns, too. However, the Kilrathi receive the advantage here: a couple of their heavy fighters receive tail guns, while only Terran bombers sport mounts for such guns (fighters are more nimble and quick than bombers).

Shoot, even bomber launch sequences are cool!

Worst features:

Of course, asteroids and accidental crashes still apply. It would take the franchise until its third installment to get these things right.

Shield recharge: When using the auto-pilot feature in the first three games, the player's shields would recharge during the journey, which makes sense; the player is flying from point A to point B on auto, and the shields would naturally recharge during this time of no combat. In VotK, this is not the case. Using autopilot before shields were completely recharged meant coming out of autopilot at the destination with still-depleted shields from the previous engagement. This means a lot of sitting and waiting until your shields are good to go again, unless you don't mind fighting three quarters of a mission at less than 100%.

Friendly fire: Never had I been so annoyed with the franchise until this. In VotK, the friendly AI (IE: your wingmen) have a glitch of sorts that cause them to fire through you when firing at an enemy target. Many, MANY times, I was pretty much assured victory on a particularly difficult mission, only to die because my wingman tore me apart in an attempt to destroy the last fighter in a wave during an engagement. I have flown some pretty darn frustrating missions, but this takes the cake. I am more frustrated with this aspect than I had previously been with anything else.

It got to a point where I had to leave the last one or two fighters alone during an engagement, for fear my wingman would blow me to kingdom come. Either that, or it would happen during combat with a swarm of enemy fighters, and I would be SEVERELY damaged by my wingman; the remaining enemy fighters would then proceed to finish me off, when I would've otherwise come out unscathed. This was especially frustrating when flying long missions against wave after wave of seriously hard enemy fighters. Seriously, the "friendly fire" aspect is enough for me to deduct one star from the game by itself (whether or not that is fair). This was not a problem so that I recall in the first three games. Why now?

Favorite/Least Favorite Sequences: Honestly, even the sequences where NPCs are talking trash to me doesn't really rate as a "least favorite" sequence. The game is, overall, fantastic all the way through. Going through all the sequences in the story is a really cool experience.

Most memorable mission: It's a tie between dueling Jazz and taking out the base at K'tithrak Mang after dueling Prince Thrakhath.

Most frustrating mission: Honestly, there is no "most frustrating mission" in VotK. Every mission is challenging, but winnable without being too easy or excruciatingly difficult. Well, so long as your wingman or wingmen don't shoot you to Hell for your trouble.

Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5 possible.

Note: the game would have received 5 stars if not for the friendly fire aspect. To be fair, it is an otherwise AWESOME game.

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