By Sean Ewing
Yager has been a long time coming. The game, originally developed in Europe, was released to critical and commercial success. However, no one picked it up for American distribution for almost a year and a half. Even with a year and a half of dated technology, Yager is here to bring the flight shooter to the Xbox.
In Yager, you play freelance mercenary Magnus Tide. He’s just acquired a wonderfully designed ship and a contract with one of the major corporations that rule this world, Proteus. You are dispatched to investigate various scientific sites and protect company assets. You’ll be doing plenty of both as the DST tightens their stranglehold on the planet.
The plot is typical action game fare, but the characters are what make this world come alive. Magnus is a cocky, skilled and unlucky fighter pilot. If you think Han Solo, you’re on the right track. The DST enemy pilots are all very reminiscent of the Third Reich soldiers and personnel from WWII, making them pretty easy to hate and fun to shoot down. Your liaison with Proteus and love interest is a frosty British woman named Sarah. It’s pretty obvious they’ll get together from the first ten minutes, but the dialogue is so well written that you actually look forward to the cut scenes.
Of course, the meat of the game is the dog fighting, which controls perfectly. Your ship, in addition to looking intimidating as hell, has two modes: hover mode and jet mode. In hover mode, your ship doesn’t move, but you can activate a very slow thruster, and hover up or down. This affords you better aim and is great for ambushes and picking up items. The jet mode, while tougher to get used to, is where Yager comes alive.
Your ship is very maneuverable and has a wide array of armaments for you to unload on your unfortunate target. Yager is at its best when you are flying through a narrow canyon at high speeds, trying to get a lock on an enemy pilot while the orchestral soundtrack swells to a crescendo. The action scenes really convey excitement and tension very well, and are a total blast to play. It’s just so satisfying to chase down a DST pilot then finally nail him with a six-missile launcher pod.
The pacing of the game could use a bit of work, though. In the middle of the game, you are sent to a barren wasteland, and instead of fighting the stellar AI, you are stuck fighting waves of gun drones. These levels are different, and not too bad at first, but they just go on a bit too long. If you stick it out though, you are rewarded with a return to the high-speed chases and action packed war zones that make this game so much fun to play.
The music is very well done, with a blockbuster feel to it. There are no real standout tracks, but as a whole, it provides a good backdrop to the furious action going on all around you. The graphics are a bit dated, but have an absolute ton of polish to them. The water effects are nothing short of stellar and the environments are generally colorful and lush. The ship design is very strong, with a lot of very cool and unique enemies to annihilate. Your own ship, The Sagittarius, takes the cake. It has six mounted laser cannons, a sniper rail cannon, speed rockets, a napalm launcher, and looks like an absolutely fierce machine.
The game rewards you with various ship profiles if you meet a set of goals for each stage. While a nice touch, they don’t really warrant a second look. The replay value comes from the spectacularly staged dog fights and the great boss encounters. Boss ships are enormous and intimidating as hell. When you finally bring it down though, the exaltation is real, and as long as no one else is around, it’s ok to feel like blasting the Top Gun soundtrack and buzz the tower at your base.
Pacing issues aside, Yager is a fantastic ride and more than worth the price of admission. The fights are great fun and the story is engaging. If you have any affection for flight shooters at all, you can’t afford to miss Yager.
Final Grade: B+
Yager is an exciting space shooter game with killer graphics and an immersive atmosphere.