Echelon

by Bethesda

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000056VGY
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: May 18, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,967 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Echelon is an outer-space shooter in spirit, only it doesn't take place in outer space at all. It takes place in narrow twisting canyons, where you fly futuristic fighter jets. The story essentially concerns a single planet and the aerial war to control it. The Velians are the bad guys, and you fly for the good guys, meaning you pound the heck out of radar and other base installations, and fight in-canyon dogfights reminiscent of pod races from Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace and the particularly thrilling canyon chase in Independence Day.

To that end, developer Buka has given the game an admirable physics engine to make flying feel more realistic. If you drop a bomb or fire a missile, it affects the way your craft flies. Same with damage--the game really gives you a good sense of how much you're hurting simply by how the planes fly. But as admirable as this system is, it feels out of place in such an arcadelike game.

Part of the problem is that while you're subject to the whims of gravity and physics, the enemy is not. You can blast an enemy ship to 90-percent-plus damage, and you'll note no degradation in his or her maneuverability. Another problem is the control scheme. There's too much information on the screen (and a lot of it seems useless), and the mouse combat probably should have been scrapped, as it feels overall unresponsive. This is a joystick game and the box should say so. Also, the missions suffer from a certain sameness and a lack of inspiration: navigate canyons, dodge antiaircraft guns, kill bad guy fighters, repeat.

But that's also the bulk of the game's charm. It's a fun arcade shooter, and the graphics are simply stunning to behold. Explosions are thrilling and the low-altitude aerobatics induce an adrenaline rush. It's genuinely fun to turn and burn through a narrow gap in a wall in order to lose a missile on your tail, and, thankfully, you'll have to do that a lot. Sure, there have definitely been deeper and more intelligent flight shooters in the past, but that genre is neglected these days. This is the one you can buy right now. For adrenaline junkies it's a smash hit and a hell of a ride, but it won't please the simulation crowd it also seems strangely aimed at. --Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics
• Great physics
• Intense, nonstop action

Cons:

• Somewhat awkward controls
• The physics don't seem to apply to the bad guys

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but has flaws.., July 5, 2001

By 

H. A Huffman "haumf" (Mt. Prospect, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echelon (CD-ROM)

Echelon reminds me a lot of another "Space Combat Sim", the old Psygnosis game "Tellurian Defense". Before I bought this game, I played the demo for a while. I enjoyed the way the game tried to simulate realistic flight but I did notice that the demo had some clipping problems. I said, "well, that's just the demo..."

The game has the same problem: enemies fly through mountain tops but slam into you with the force of a meteor. Depictions of landing at your base looks like you're landing through it. Also, check your game's Gamma setting before engaging in a "night mission", if the setting is not adjusted correctly then you will be blind despite activating your plane's night vision system. But I can forgive this sloppy programming because the rest of the game is so good (maybe Bethesda will release a patch).

What is good? Actually, I liked the way the planes handled, you have to deal with each plane's flight characteristics. Some, like the Interceptors, were very fast but could not handle low altitude dogfighting. Conversely, other craft were very nimble but not very fast or powerful. The weapon selections are pretty good too, I prefer using the machine guns but there are the more exotic "plasma" weapons and missiles available.

Another good thing, there are very few "one shot kills", for you or your enemies, once in a while you might get a clean missile hit but that's it. Your plane can take some hits before going Ka-Boom or crashing to the ground. That makes the game more fun. I like the way the game looks too, if you have a decent video card then Echelon is a real treat.

This game is not an arcade-style flight sim but it is not a Jane's Sim game either. I enjoy playing it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Sci-Fi Shooter, August 22, 2001

By 

Henry E. Parmer (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Echelon (CD-ROM)

Speaking as a die-hard flight sim junkie, this is a great game despite some annoying flaws. Besides the enemy's startling ability to fly through solid matter -- hint: watch out when you're close on their tail -- and the target lead indicator telling you it's ok to shoot when the target's on the other side of a mountain, the most aggravating thing I've encountered so far is the less-than-user-friendly menu system: Considering how often you fly into the ground or get shot down while learning the game, it really would have been helpful to have a replay or restart game option instead of making you back up several levels to start over. The graphics are indeed what makes this game. Night vision mode is unbelievably cool, and the explosion effects nicely varied: Sometimes you shoot off the enemy's wing and watch him spiral out of control into the canyons. Other times, your opponent goes up in a blinding flash of light. There are some very Star-Wars-like touches: If you use energy weapons (my favorite: the Medium Particle Cannon) they recharge faster the slower you go. Overall, though, weapons-selection and handling are fairly simple. Each of the ships has different flight characteristics and customizable loadouts. Although you can configure them with an impressive array of weaponry, the most difficult part about using the assault ships is that they don't pull out of even a shallow dive very quickly. Until you get the hang of it, then, going after ground targets can leave you smeared all over the landscape.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great graphics, challenging gameplay, July 9, 2001

By 

H. A Huffman "haumf" (Mt. Prospect, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echelon (CD-ROM)

I have been playing this game all weekend, Echelon very addictive and I am having a lot of fun playing it. It's not perfect and gamers should make sure that they have updated their video card drivers before playing this game; you will encounter serious clipping problems if you don't do this.

Controlling your fighter is very challenging, you have to keep one eye on your target and another on your HUD (Heads Up Display). Ships don't handle like X-Wings, which I liked; you have to give them time to respond to joystick commands. This time factor varies depending on the type of plane you are flying. Fighters handle differently from Interceptors. My main beef with the game is that it does'nt let you pick your fighter for every mission. There were a few missions where I was forced into an Interceptor (good speed but useless overall) when a simple fighter would have been a better choice.

Weapons are pretty standard with few exceptions. I liked them but I was surprised that ships were not equipped with some missile counter-measure. Well, at least the damage and blast effects are pretty awesome.