Part 2: Let's play Training Missions 1-3

Let's play Training Missions 1-3

First up we've got the training levels. If you're already familiar with the game, or don't really care about every gauge on the screen, you can skip this update without missing any of the story.

One little note on these training missions: the instructor's voice is really poorly recorded or something, and the volume fluctuates wildly. At some points, he's hard to hear even with the voice setting maxed, and then he'll suddenly get very loud. This does not continue the rest of the game, so just bear with me for this video...

Click the exciting cargo to watch on Viddler!

Or use the official Viddler player or the
backup on Dailymotion

As you may have noticed, not everything on the screen has yet been explained. Could this be foreshadowing to even more training at some point? I can't wait.

Let's meet the menu!

Starting off slow to match the pace of those exciting training missions, let's have a look at the main menu.



That big door on the ground floor starts the next level. Others go to the options, to change player, to pick a different campaign (like a user-made one), and to the info database. We'll be seeing more of that last one in future screenshot segments.

So let's have a look at our medal chest and see that awesome pair of wings we earned.



There they are in the center. The rest of these slots are reserved for medals earned, generally for completing bonus and hidden objectives, though a few are unavoidable. Some also can be earned multiple times, which slightly changes their appearance.
Up top is our current rank. Rank is not at all tied to the story, but changes based on your total points. Each type of ship has a point value you earn for beating it. In the course of the normal campaign, we'll probably get about 3-6 promotions. Actually reaching the top rank would take a huge number of playthroughs.

Lastly, let's look at the options screen.



I'm playing on medium. This is the lowest difficulty you can get some of the medals on. I've played on harder, but you don't want to watch me die over and over. I personally find medium to be the best difficulty. On the lower settings, enemies often just run away from you, making it actually take longer.

And the control setup. There are a LOT of controls.







Really, a lot.



Thankfully, the vast majority are pretty unimportant, or can be accomplished through menus way easier than memorizing this many key combos.

One last note. If you're watching on the Viddler link, the logo may be covering up the very corner gauge:



It's nothing important, just how long you've been playing. Below the clock is the time compression factor. Yes, the game has a built-in fast forward for boring sections.

With all that out of the way, how about we move on to the actual game?