Save the galaxy
The original Echelon was a potentially interesting but ultimately dull piece sci-fi gaming that played like a very boring version of Wing Commander with all the story taken out. Although this sequel adds in a bit of narrative thrust to deepen the interest, it remains a similarly shallow experience that gets boring pretty quickly. The game is set in the distant future and finds the player in the role of hotshot pilot, Jason "Wolf" Scott who gets caught up in the usual "aliens invading the galaxy" type of plot and who happens to be the only person who can step in and save the day. What this means for the gameplay is that this is a light planetary combat simulator where you must complete over forty missions during the course of the main campaign. Most of the time you're just flying around shooting stuff in similar fashion to the first game but this sequel adds in new weapons, new units and ground-based objects to interact with. There's even the option to call other craft and ground units to act as support in an attempt to give the game some depth. In theory, this could all have been a fun experience. However, in reality this is pretty tedious stuff. Although there are new elements, this remains a very shallow experience with missions that are very run-of-the-mill and lacking in variety and excitement. As such, you're likely to get bored very quickly something which isn't helped by the lack of any real storyline. The visuals are okay but when it comes down to it, this is less than average stuff.
