Academy

Copyright : CRL | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

After an incident on 61 Cygnus in 2197 when a rookie pilot selected the wrong gear when docking with the main central reactor and reduced half the planet to molten lava, Gal-Corp decided that a special training facility was needed to provide an elite corps of pilots for the advanced military skimmers used in colonisation and reconnaissance work.

The Galcorp Academy for Advanced Skimmer Pilots (GASP) was founded in 2213 to meet this requirement. With an intake of over a hundred would be skimmer pilots a year, only a few meet the exacting requirement of flying and combat skills.

In order to graduate from the Academy cadets must complete 20 missions, grouped in five levels of four, successfully.

Graphics

Although bound to be familiar to veterans of Tau Ceti, Academy expands upon the already fine graphics engine and adds some good details of its own.

A vast array of differently designed robot drones and enemies move quickly towards you and although fairly primitive by today`s standards, have a rugged charm to them.

Animation is super smooth and never slows. Even in the midst of a highly pitched battle, youll still know exactly whats going on as ships blow up around you in a rain of pixels.

The colour scheme changes on each mission but never becomes garish or hurtful on the eyes and the various instrument panels and displays are all well designed too.

Sound

All the bangs and whizzes youd expect from a space combat game. In truth not the greatest effects every employed by a game but Ive heard far worse.

Gameplay

An intriguing mix of strategy and shoot-em-up, Academy follows on from Tau Ceti beautifully and takes an already good game to the next level.

The missions are tough but varied enough to keep you coming back for more and its the kind of game that suits many moods. Feel like a quick blast em-up? Academy is smooth, fast and adrenaline pumping. On the other hand, fancy puzzling over the best way to take out an entire army of robots by yourself? Academy rewards players who can think tactically and outwit your robot enemies.

Rather than just be a novelty, the option that allows you to build your own skimmer lets you create a ship that is perfect for your mission and increases the depth of the game immensely.

A worthy predecessor to Tau Ceti, Academy is similar enough to its predecessor to be familiar to fans of the first game, but has enough individuality to stand as its own game.