Echelon is an adrenaline pumping combat flight sim set during a futuristic war over rolling alien landscapes and towering cities. In the single-player missions, you take the role of a fresh cadet out to help save the Federation from Velians - a race of aliens. The Velians have a highly advanced technology called the Zero-T, which lets starships zip all over the galaxy with the greatest of ease. Z-Transports proliferate the galaxy, and for awhile Velians and the rest of the galaxy get along; that all changes, however, when the Z-Transports reveal themselves to be Trojan Horses and the means for the Velians to launch an invasion. Really bad guys these Velians :) Echelon features wide variety of player craft types, each featuring its own realistic and distinct flight model, spectacular 3D graphics allow for highly realistic environments and photo realistic landscapes, detailed building and vehicle models, and special effects such as dust, particle, and lighting effects, continent sized game environments feature more than 200 different types of vehicles and structures deployed on a massive scale, powerful command-and-control function that allows you to call in other craft for support in completing mission objectives, outfit 14 player controllable craft with over 16 different weapons, branching campaigns allow for a different experience each time you play, and multiplayer support for up to 16 players. Like most flight combat sims, you control your craft from within the cockpit that includes different indicators for airspeed, altitude, heading and the like. But it's really easy to learn how to control your baby. A series of tutorials does very good job of helping you master the numerous controls and the somewhat unusual flight model (though the flight model is completely realistic, similar to F14, F22 flight sims). The most stunning elements of this game are the graphics. The futuristic fighters are incredibly well rendered, the environmental elements are stunning, and the lighting effects will probably fascinate you. When you're flying along over the beautiful sunny terrain and you glance over at your wingmen it can look just amazingly photo realistic with sunflare dazzling you though your cockpit window, lush cloudy skies drifting overhead and rolling landscapes passing below. However I found a few clipping errors, such as flying through a telephone pole (weird future with telephone poles on alien planets isn't it?). Also weapons (pulse cannons, missiles, blast cannons...) are well designed but lack originality. The missions themselves are the usual mix of shooting air and ground targets, many of them  have you flying great distances to and from your mission objectives and this gets a little tiresome at times. That mean you'll spend a good amount of time flying around all by yourself, but such a life...  The missions are scripted so that they largely play the same way each time, so I don't think you will want to play the same mission again :(  The enemy AI is all right for single-player, and combat is fast-paced and pounding though can be insanely difficult at times. Download playable demo (51.3MB) to find more about this game.