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An arcade aerial shooter,
and the first game from Yager Development. It puts you
in the boots of Magnus Tide, a mercenary pilot armed
with a high-tech fighter craft, who indiscriminately
picks fights against Pirates, aliens, and other nasties.
 In
the world of Yager, the superpower governments of today
are replaced with power hungry trade corporations, each
fighting for resources and territory. Our friend Magnus
works as a freelancer for the Proteus corporation, which
is essentially your average western government. Against
Proteus are the Pirates, an ill-equipped and unorganised
group of idiots, and the DST, a militaristic German
group. Throughout the course of the game, you learn
more about Magnus, and get to meet some of his old buddies.
The core game mechanic
involves blasting the crap out of anything that strays
into your crosshair. You are armed with two laser cannons
as your standard weapons, which drain as you use them,
forcing you to be conservative and accurate in dogfights
or risk having to wait for them to recharge (which takes
forever in a dog fight, though more like three or four
seconds). Additionally, you can pick up missiles, machine
guns, railguns, and flamethrowers, which are stashed
around the levels. Your ship is capable of entering
either hover mode or jet mode with the press of a thumbstick,
the former allowing to remain stationary whilst sniping
and also affords you the ability to strafe. The inclusion
of these to flight modes works surprisingly well, as
knowing which of the two modes to use in a certain situation
becomes a valuable skill.
 Most
of Yager's missions consist of flying from one corner
of the map to the next, blasting everything in between.
Luckily, your mission objectives can change as
you play, keeping the game unpredictable and helping
to break the tedium of flying from one fight to the
next. The missions are varied enough to keep you more
than entertained, including rescue missions and assaults
on enemy bases. Additionally, some missions require
you to mark targets for allied bombardment, and stealthy
infiltration of enemy bases and installations.
 Graphically
speaking, Yager does pretty well. While the land is
mainly a flat green, the water effects are fantastic,
and luckily most of the game takes place on or around
lakes and oceans. The animations and other effects are
generally good, and most of the models are pretty well
detailed and textured. Furthermore, even in massive
battles, slowdown is barely noticeable, and the game
generally manages to run at a good 60 fps. Yager's sound
effects are spot on, with missiles, laser impacts, and
enemy flybys sounding as they should. The music, while
tending towards repetition, is altered by various game
events and triggers, and manages to capture a sort of
cinematic feel.
 Yager's
biggest problem is longevity - a seasoned player will
complete all the missions in a day or two. The only
real incentive to replay mission is to earn 'stars'
used for unlocking information in your Ships Database.
The lack of a multiplayer or cooperative really bites
hard. However, after owning it for a few months, I still
find myself playing the odd forty minute Yager session
between Halo and Splinter Cell marathons. For most gamers,
Yager is the perfect rental game, but fans of the genre
will love it.
| PROS |
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Intense,
varied. Well-thought out. Good graphics and
sound. Consistent frame rate. Cool story. |
| CONS |
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Too
short, no multiplayer or coop. End feels unfulfilling.
Too much aimless flying. |
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| GRAPHICS |
85% |
Great
environmental effects, generally good textures
and models, but let down by poor terrain. |
| SOUND |
90% |
Beefy
explosions, fantastic flyby sounds, though
music can be somewhat repetitious. |
| GAMEPLAY |
79% |
Frantic
dogfights and varied objectives, though a
little to much uneventful flying in many levels. |
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| OVERALL |
84% |
A
genuine polished effort from the developers,
though too short and lacks replay value. |
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