Reviewed: 2021-08-28
This one is worth playing; fun and plenty of room to be more challenging on hard for more advanced players. 100% do-able on medium. For reference, I was able to beat it on medium in about 12 minutes.
As others said, it's a good blow-stuff-up mission. You get a few options for how you want to load out your T/D, so you can try out different strategies in a single mission. The briefing is fairly representative without going into too much detail and spoiling surprises. If you want to fly a mission with a briefing that tells you what you have to do in detail, this one might not be for you.
On hard it is quite a challenge, even when giving yourself all the advantages with your load out. I can't say that I've completely figured it out. It's a good opportunity to practice using wingman orders. It can get pretty hectic in the middle, so it also gives you the opportunity to practice prioritizing what is important vs. what is directly in front of you.
One thing that could be improved, if you want to see it as a 'bug' rather than a 'feature,' is behavior at the end when going for a high score, at least on hard. ... POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD ... On one play through, after about 20 minutes, while I was trying to mop up ... some unfortunate things happened, which was a little annoying. That said, it was kind of my fault because I was playing around, trying to get the high score, instead of following orders.
If you are starting to learn XWA mission creation, this would be a good example to play around with in a mission editor. It's a good example that shows how various things are set up.
Overall, well designed, fun, and not a huge commitment if you want to just knock out a mission.