Wing Commander II: Special Operations 2

Wing Commander II: Special Operations 2 closed out the pair of official add-on disks that Origin Systems released shortly after the successful second installment of the space series. While the base game built the Confederation's fight against the Kilrathi race on cinematic cutscenes with live actors, the add-on focused purely on new missions and expanding the existing campaign with another chapter of the story, continuing on from the first Special Operations and pushing the war conflict a step further.

In the second expansion, players continued in the role of a fighter pilot in new battles that tested the skills mastered in previous installments and offered another set of missions with its own climax. The add-on again required an owned copy of Wing Commander II and did not bring a standalone installation - it was purely a content expansion, mission after mission, as was common for space simulators of the early nineties, when publishers offered add-on disks as a cheaper alternative to a full-fledged sequel.

Even so, it managed to keep players interested in the series between the release of the second and third installments, the latter arriving two years later with an even more ambitious production, more cinematic sequences, and a more extensive story. From today's player's perspective, it's an interesting glimpse into a time when publishers were still figuring out how to monetize a successful game between its major installments - an add-on disk with a handful of new missions was then a common and cheap answer to the question of what to keep fans occupied with until a full-fledged sequel arrived with a new engine and a budget for cinematic scenes.

Why play: For players who have finished Wing Commander II and the first Special Operations and want the complete experience of the second installment's whole campaign. It's a fitting conclusion to one of the most distinctive space simulators of its time and a pleasant bridge to the later, even more ambitious sequels in the series.