Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2: Crusade

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2: Crusade is the second expansion to Wing Commander, released by Origin Systems in 1992, which picks up where the previous data disk, Secret Missions, left off and so gradually builds a complete three-part story arc around the defence of the Vega sector. The conflict with the Kilrathi gains a new dynamic in Crusade: the Confederation faces the deployment of enemy technology that takes the space battles up a notch, and the player, as a fighter pilot aboard the Tiger's Claw, must face increasingly dangerous opponents while it is revealed just how far the Kilrathi are willing to go to reverse the result of their earlier defeat.

The game system stays true to the original: it is a fighter-combat simulator seen from the cockpit, where scripted dialogue aboard the ship alternates with action missions in space, and the outcome of each mission affects which mission is offered to the player next and how the overall story line shifts. Crusade adds new craft and scenarios that demand better handling of the wing and better shooting, and so keeps the pace of the campaign somewhat harder than in the first expansion, with the player having to choose more often between offensive and defensive tasks depending on how the front develops. Technically, it is still a title built on the engine of the base game, that is, with ship sprites over a starry sky and support for the sound cards of the time, which let the voice recordings and musical themes accompanying the individual missions and the cutscene conversations aboard the ship stand out.

In the context of its time, it was further proof that Wing Commander could keep fans glued to their screens even between the major instalments of the series, and Crusade is therefore still seen today as a worthy conclusion to the storyline of the first Wing Commander before the arrival of a direct sequel with its own engine and graphics. For players returning to the series today, it represents the logical final step toward finishing the complete story from 1990, as well as a demonstration of how the ambition and scope of the individual expansions gradually grew.