I played the early WC games back in 1990s:
+ more animated cutscenes
- which consist mainly of talking (subtitles) faces
+ asteroids
- that usually kill you after a successful mission
- sprite-based targets (no vector graphics) are harder to lead
- you fight furry cats
I also got the feeling I'm on a modern USNAVY carrier... it can be considered as + or -
I had more fun with WC:Privateer.
Only WC3 outdid TIE Fighter (both 1994) with its textured vector objects.