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X-Wing TIE Fighter Star Wars PC Game Series Review | Grand Admiral Thrawn's EU Origins

STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition

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Grand Admiral Thrawn's Legends origin. The old Star Wars X-Wing and TIE Fighter DOS PC games series introduced us to Star Wars Rebels villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn.

The X-Wing Star Wars PC game doesn’t contribute much to Thrawn or the Expanded Universe, rather it just tells the story of a rebel pilot flying campaigns against the Empire. The events in Star Wars X-Wing PC culminate with the trench run to blow up the first Death Star. Star Wars X-Wing's two PC game expansions put you back in the pilot’s seat, flying missions which lead up to the establishment of Echo Base on Hoth.

The second Star Wars PC game in the series is TIE Fighter and this is where LucasArts started to really put effort into their Expanded Universe. The TIE Fighter Star Wars PC game and Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire books form the origin of the greatest villain Star Wars has ever had, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Star Wars TIE Fighter defines the X-Wing PC games series for this; It’s the first time we see a character from the Expanded Universe in a starring role, it’s the first time the books and the video games interact and it helped to establish a connected, Expanded Universe of stories across multiple formats. Star Wars X-wing PC game captured the essence of A New Hope, but Star Wars TIE Fighter PC game broadened that scope.

Star Wars TIE Fighter's game story is about an Imperial pilot, Maarek Stele, part of a special task force put together by young Vice Admiral Thrawn to root out rogue admirals who are no longer loyal to the Emperor. TIE Fighter DOS PC game tells us there could still be stories like this happening somewhere else at the same time. Admiral Thrawn's Empire isn’t outwardly evil; you’re playing as the baddies, but you’re preserving order, dealing with power struggles. Something which makes sense with an Empire this big and showcases Admiral Thrawn’s tactical genius, which is what makes him such a great Star Wars villain.

The TIE Fighter PC game and the Thrawn novels established a precedent for the Star Wars Expanded Universe: attention to continuity across multiple platforms. Combining the books, the video games, PC games, films, comics and TV turns what was previously a hearty meal into a banquet. Of course, that’s all optional. You don’t need to read the books to play the games, you don’t need to do either to enjoy the movies. But if you want to go Hyper-Nerd like me, well it’s a blinding experience, and there’s nothing else quite like it.

Star Wars X-Wing vs TIE Fighter was a dodgy multiplayer-only flop, and a costly lesson in what Star Wars fans wanted out of their video games. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter’s one Star Wars PC expansion incredibly supported 8-player online co-op, something which is still yet to be beaten for a game of its type. Despite the lack of story, LucasArts were investing in emerging game technologies, something which would later define the studio.

Star Wars X-Wing Alliance overhauled the game engine, making the game-play more realistic and added the ability to switch between crew members on bigger ships. More importantly, X-Wing Alliance game made up for the XWing vs TIE Fighter’s cock-up by further cementing its game story into events from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Like TIE Fighter PC game before it, X-Wing Alliance Star Wars PC game threads into the Star Wars Shadows of the Empire multimedia project and one mission crosses over with a level from the Shadows of the Empire Star Wars video game, which as far as I know is an industry first and is certainly not something you see every day.

If you’re up for trying one of these old Star Wars PC games, be aware that they’re HARD. These are relatively realistic Star Wars spaceship simulators. This Star Wars PC games series uses nearly every key on the keyboard and this is part of the reason the franchise isn’t around any more. The rise in games console revenue ushered in an age of multi-platform development, and complicated keyboard layouts became impossible to port onto a controller.

Factor 5’s Star Wars Rogue Squadron game series did trim down the complexity into a console-friendly experience. A fourth Star Wars Rogue Squadron game was revealed, called Star Wars Rogue Squadron: X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. TIE Fighter games established Grand Admiral Thrawn and showed how effective marrying up the games with the Expanded Universe could be. We could still see a modern TIE Fighter PC game set during the reign of Grand Admiral Thrawn.

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X-Wing PC game released for DOS in 1993
TIE Fighter PC game released for DOS in 1994
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter PC game released for PC in 1997
X-Wing Alliance PC game released for PC in 1999

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"Resonance" and "Oort Cloud" by Midwest Collective are licensed  under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://midwestcollective.bandcamp.com/album/odyssey

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