Editor Reviews:

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

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

Amazon.com Product Description:
Echelon puts the player in white-knuckle combat over lush alien landscapes and towering cities as a member of an elite fighting force. Featuringseveral branching campaigns and a well-wrought storyline, the player willhave the ability to advance from lieutenant to commander during battles andassume greater control over how each mission plays out. A broad range ofplayer craft are included and each type features its own unique flightmodel ranging from traditional fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters toextraordinary gravity-defying, futuristic hovercraft. These varied flightmodels allow for robust and challenging tactical combat in bothsingle-player and multiplayer modes, yet offer intuitive controls forkeyboard, keyboard/mouse, and joystick.

Echelon has hardware-accelerated 3-D graphics allowing for spectaculareffects, such as dust and particle effects, realistic water environments,beautiful landscapes, detailed building models, and over 50 types offriendly and enemy craft. Multiplayer options include deathmatch and co-opmodes in a variety of game types, including Capture the Fort.

Rating : - Somewhere between Falcon 4 and WC: Privateer
First of all, forget everything you've learned about how a fighter plane responds. This is closer to flying a helicopter. You thrust forward and are kept in the air by a seperate hover mechanism. It will take the ship some time to stop moving in one direction and start moving in another.

Enemy AI is basic: try to get far enough away from you to turn around and take a good firing run. Some will fire missiles as soon as they can. A hard turn to one side will fool some missiles, but a more foolproof way is to put a hill between you and the missile.

I only have the demo, so I can't speak for the single-player missions, but the Instant Action is entertaining by itself. It's definitely worth a look, and as old as the game is, it's usually worth shelling out the bux for.