Star Wraith: Shadows of Orion

Star Wraith III: Shadows of Orion (also known as Star Wraith 3) is the third game in the Star Wraith series. It is the successor of Star Wraith II. It is now freeware.

Star Wraith IV: Reviction is the successor to Star Wraith III: Shadows of Orion.

Story

It has been 10 years since the Federation tried to invade Earth, only to be pushed back by the Alliance. For nearly 8 years, peace between the two powers existed. But in 2285, the Federation's flagship, the Richton, was attacked on its way to a peaceful colony establishment meeting, carrying many elite leaders of the federation. The ship was heavily armed and was close to Alliance space when it was attacked, so the Federation blamed the Alliance for the ship's destruction. The Alliance denied this and pleaded an immediate investigation. War was then declared by the Federation. Over the next 2 years, small battles took place with few or no casualties. Forces from both sides spread into the Orion system.

As this happened, the Alliance carrier Becker approached from the Rucker Asteroid Field. Shortly afterword, the Becker was attacked, and apparently destroyed in a matter of seconds. 48 hours after the attack, survivors of the battle were reported seeing a massive grey vessel attacking the Becker from the side. Apparently, it fired a series of energy blasts that were so powerful, they penetrated both shields and the heavy armor plating of the Becker. The Becker then exploded without a chance to fight back.

The Becker's destruction raised suspicions of a new race with advanced technology. The flagship of the Alliance, the Lexington, has been sent to the Orion system to investigate and hold back any advancing federation forces.

Gameplay

Star Wraith III is a 3D space combat simulator for Windows. The campaign mode is dynamic, featuring two endings depending on the choices the player makes. The player's choices also decide the levels available to play. There are also some extra game modes:

Instant Action

Random mission

This uses the same random mission generator that Star Wraith uses for the random campaign. It generates random mission parameters and the player then plays the randomly generated mission.

Create mission

This allows the user to set the basic mission parameters to effectively create a mission which is then instantly played. Mission parameters that are not chosen by the user are randomly generated.

Import mission

This imports a mission that is premade and saved. These missions are more controlled by the creator than the in-game mission generator. For example, the creator chooses where a planet is placed.

Multiplayer

Star Wraith III is the first Star Wraith title to support online multiplayer games. There are several modes of multiplayer including dogfight, team vs. team, and cooperative battles.

Ships

Star Wraith III was the first Star Wraith title to feature multiple ships. It features 4 different ship types: Shadow, Quasar, Raven, and Star Wraith. Different ships have distinct advantages and disadvantages:

• Shadow: Good speed and agility, not as fast or agile as the Star Wraith, but faster than the Quasar; weak shield; 4 weapon slots. Easier to fly than the Star Wraith.

• Quasar: Medium speed and agility, not as fast or agile as the Shadow, but faster than the Raven; Medium shield, not quite as good as the Star Wraith, but better than the shadow; 6 weapon slots. Easier to fly than the Star Wraith.

• Raven: Slow speed and bad agility; Excellent shield; 8 weapon slots.

• Star Wraith: Excellent speed and agility; Good shield, not as good as the Raven, but better than the Quasar; 8 weapons slots. Difficult to fly.

Differences between Star Wraith II and Star Wraith III

Many changes were made between Star Wraith II and Star Wraith III.

• The campaign was changed; In Star Wraith II, the campaign was linear. However, in Star Wraith III: Shadows of Orion, the campaign is dynamic.
• Freeflight was removed; In Star Wraith II, it was possible to play a mission that had no objectives and no enemies. This feature was removed in Star Wraith III: Shadows of Orion.
• The Mercenary Mode was removed; In Star Wraith II, it was possible to act as a mercenary. This was taken out of Star Wraith III: Shadows of Orion and later reappeared as a whole game simultaneously with Star Wraith 4, called RiftSpace.

Shareware to Freeware

Originally, Star Wraith III was a shareware game, but has been re-released as freeware as of December 15, 2006. Star Wraith III is now the most widely available freeware Star Wraith title.

External links

• Official SW3D website [1]
• StarWraith 3D Games Downloads [2]