Yager

Published by THQ
Developed by Yager Development
Platform: Xbox
Released - Out Now
Price : £39.99

Not many Xbox titles have pushed the console to its limits so far. One of the latest titles to attempt to do so is Yager. Yager is basically an airborne shooter set over 20+ missions. The developers claim that this game could have only been done on the Xbox out of the current crop of consoles and after taking a look at it's wonderful graphics it's not difficult to see why they feel that way. However, good graphics are not enough on their own and there has to be a game of substance underneath the eye candy to make it worthwhile. Let's see if Yager cuts the mustard.

Yager puts you in the role of Magnus Tide, a Freelance Pilot. The game takes you through many locations including the Proteus Base, which is where you start the game, The Free Trade Zone, The Pirate Fjords and Bitterfield. Although there is a fair amount of dialogue between Tide and over 20 characters, the game is primarily concerned with combat. Some of these characters don't even like Tide very much and in particular Sarah, the 1st Lieutenant for Proteus Communication Corps, who has a rather zealous dislike of Tide and blames him for ruining her career. The game features a wide range of enemies with a wide range of abilities. The AI of the enemies is good and quite a few of the missions will offer quite a stiff challenge. Tide's ship is upgradeable and throughout the course of the game there'll be plenty of chances to earn upgrades. These chances are not always obvious though. Sometimes you'll be given the chance to receive an upgrade as a thank you for helping someone who is under attack (which is what happens when you first enter The Free Trade Zone).

The one area of Yager that initially feels awkward is the control system. The game requires you to make use of all the gamepad and at first it seems cumbersome. The right analogue stick controls your elevation, can perform rolls and also by pressing can activate the jet mode. The left analogue stick controls your direction. The left trigger enables you to move in hover mode whilst the right trigger fires your lasers. Landing your craft has been made easy by requiring you to press the black button when you are close enough to the landing pad, which is signified by a landing icon appearing on the lower right of the screen. You can lock on to enemies during combat but it's not the permanent kind of lock on that you would experience in a Zelda title for instance. You'll still have to keep your targeting reticule within the red square around the locked on enemy. The controls are not bad but it's fair to say that they have a learning curve attached to them and are not as immediate as some gamers would prefer.

The big thing with Yager was supposed to be the quality of its graphics and after seeing the game in action you'll begin to understand why. The game looks fantastic and is easily one of the better-looking titles on the Xbox. Distance fogging has been used, although it's not quite as obvious as in Morrowind. The fogging is excusable though because the game looks so good. Bearing in mind the technical limitations of the Xbox when compared to a high end PC the game looks incredible and the framerate is mostly smooth. All the pixel shading abilities of the Xbox are on show here. The water effects are amazing as indeed are the displays from inside the cockpit. The landscapes have to be some of the best ever seen in a console game and even if this turns out to be a straight port to the PC they will still look very impressive when compared to the best the PC has to offer.

By default Yager isn't subtitled. Subtitles can be enabled though and when this is done all the important speech is shown in text. The text is displayed on a dark overlay at the bottom of the screen and it's very easy to read. Not all speech in the game is subtitled though and comments that Tide makes during combat for instance are not shown. These are not important comments though; they are usually some derisory comments about the enemy, so there isn't really a problem with this omission. Occasionally you'll receive objectives, in text, in the centre of the screen and these can quite often be difficult to read as the text is in a light coloured font and if it's against a light background, such as the sky, it isn't clear to make out. What was nice to see though is when you've had a homing missile fired toward you a beeping sound can be heard. This is shown in the HUD by two icons flashing red so you'll have just as much warning as a hearing gamer.

Make no mistake about it Yager is an enjoyable game. The action is somewhere between arcade and simulation. The battles are challenging and rewarding. It will take skill to progress in the game, which is the way it should be. Importantly though Yager fills a gap in the Xbox catalogue because at present the console has no other game like this. The controls take a little time to learn and to some degree the small tutorial at the start of the game makes a decent attempt to introduce you to the control scheme. Anyone who likes games such as Freelancer or other space combat games will surely enjoy Yager. The setting may be above land rather than in outer space but the nature of the game feels very similar and that can only be a good thing.

Overall Game Rating: 8.3/10
It looks stunning and it plays rather well too. Great to see an original game that pushes the Xbox for once.

Deaf Gamers comment:
No problems for deaf gamers as subtitles can be enabled and warning noises are shown visually.