Written by: Rik
Date posted: April 18, 2005

In the original Wing Commander, you didn’t actually get that much in the way of cut-scenes. Instead, at the end of each mission you got to go to the bar and chat to the barman and a couple of your fellow pilots about how the war was going and all that. To be honest, they added relatively little to the storyline and mainly served to reflect the different personalities of your various wingmen, along with a few combat tips thrown in for good measure. In Prophecy, the storytelling aims are more ambitious, but nevertheless it pretty much all takes place in the Midway’s bar area – which means there’s a quite extraordinary amount of drinking involved.

And this isn’t watery space lager either, it’s some toxic-looking spirits, glugged down with gay abandon after every mission. No-one’s on mineral water because they’re running a patrol later – are they all half-cut when they’re flying with you? Booze even makes it into the game’s opening scenes – when Maestro smuggles aboard a bottle of liquor and gets you in trouble with Stiletto. But why? Everyone else is going for it between missions. It’s funny how the cartoonish violence of GTA and Carmageddon causes controversy while these scenes of men turning to drink to get them through the day, rolling out of the bar and into the cockpit to defend our planet, pass completely unnoticed. Won’t somebody please think of the children?