|
MISC is an amazing space combat simulation game made by three computer science students at Karlsruhe University. It tells the story of an alien invasion into our solar system. Humanity is unprepared for a war in space but is adapting fast. New ships are developed and alien technologies integrated. The player starts by flying a single ship, but quickly advances to controlling wings and then whole fleets. The story is told during the missions and in the films in-between. You can plan your missions before the battle, giving initial orders, telling ships where and when to join the battle. The ships can be modified and pilots with different characters can be assigned to your ships. During the battle you can still give orders to all your ships via the real-time map. Any ship under your command can be flown by hand. This means you can fly anything from space-suit to battleship. There are two flight models supported in M.I.S.C.: the realistic newtonian flight model and the more dynamic air combat flight model. The player can pick the one he likes best. The Heads Up Display (HUD) features a new idea we call MAUS (Multiple Auto-Updating Screens): Each corner of the screen is occupied by a display screen. Each screen shows the result of the search function executed in this display. There are ten different functions to choose from, like: attacking enemy, enemy in view, danger to protected,... The search functions are looking for objects fitting their criterions and update their results every frame. Thus the player is always well informed, which is necessary since he still has to keep an eye on the rest of the battle and give orders to his other ships. A few of its features are: massive space fights, capturing alien ships and using their components to improve one's own ship, giving commands to other ships, and Newtonian vs Air combat flight model. The sound effects (the pseudo-surround) and the destruction models are very nice. The dogfights are epic. This is an innovative tactic/action space-sim for Windows 95/98. Special features: up to 40 ships and several hundred objects (shots, debris,...) on screen; orders can be given to whole fleets via the real-time map; any ship can be flown by hand, from space suit to battleship; player can construct ships by sticking modules together in the 3d-editor; ship parameters are derived from the (sometimes more than 50) modules from which it is constructed; multiplayer (there are two sides to choose from, if two players are on the same side, they can fly different ships or one can fly a ship and the other can control its weapon turrets); truly innovative HUD, using Multiple Auto-Updating Screens (MAUS); newtonian / air-combat flight model switch. |
