Star Wars: Empire at War -- Page 2

"I Have a Bad Feeling About This"
Empire at War's weak ground-based game offers you a pre-built base with several nearby structures already situated. Scattered around strategic zones are generic "build pads," which allow you to choose from among six different emplacements, including defensive turrets, repair stations, and reconnaissance nodes.

The story-driven solo campaign follows the rise of the Rebellion and continues through to the construction (and subsequent destruction) of the first Death Star. The campaign offers some interesting variations and challenges that require smart tactical decisions, but skirmish modes or multiplayer battles will usually end decisively in favor of the player who pits the proper units against each other. Rebel rocket launchers, for example, cut through an Imperial AT-AT faster than a lightsaber through Wampa flesh. But anti-infantry turrets can take out entire squads of footsoldiers in a heartbeat. With so few variables in construction, layout, and research, there are even fewer variations on warfare.

Empire at War's multiplayer games are disappointing. With bland maps and virtually no opportunity for base customization, the land battles are really only interesting when hero characters join in on the action. It's cool to see The Emperor blow through squadrons of soldiers with his force lightning, or corrupt enemies to fight for the dark side.

Empire at War's visuals range from impressive to dull. Eye-popping combat and environment effects are complemented by awesome little visual flourishes, like repulsor engines warping the surrounding air. The bland map design and building models in the land-based battles, however, will quickly mute your inner Star Wars geekgasm. The battle cam, which takes you instantly to a cinematic viewpoint, is a great idea that is stunted by dumb A.I. The camera slowly pans to catch interesting shots, but often misses or obscures the best action.

Space Wins the Race
Thankfully, Empire at War's space-based warfare is a far more compelling and strategically satisfying experience. During combat, you're able to target specific systems on capital ships and space stations, like missile launchers, shield generators, and engines. This gives the game a tactical aspect not seen since the X-Wing series. The ship-to-ship combat is also far more visually impressive, although the game forgoes the majestic wonder of those gigantic capital ships by never letting the camera get down to fighter level, even in battle cam mode. And oddly, some of the TIE Fighters tumble through space in a manner more akin to the new Battlestar Galactica than Episode IV's World War II-inspired dogfights. Nevertheless, the space combat is viscerally thrilling, and inadvertently a sour reminder of this game's full potential.

Empire at War's standard RTS interface works well: It's intuitive, responsive, and clear... although, frankly, it's never put to a truly demanding test because there are simply so few functions available. Similarly, the utilitarian soundtrack trumpets all of the familiar Star Wars themes in all the right places, but neither the music nor the sound effects are ever more than serviceable.

This Will Be a Game Not Long Remembered
Ultimately, Empire at War isn't just RTS-lite--it's RTS extremely lite. Hardcore RTS fans will rapidly grow bored, and even fans of the franchise are better served with Battlefront for its galactic conquest games, or Galactic Battlegrounds for a Star Wars RTS experience that's actually an RTS. This game squanders much of its potential and, in the end, is simply unmemorable.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment