thepremier's Full Review: Star Wars: Empire at War for Windows
Star Wars: Empire At War Lucas Arts: 2006
Star Wars: Empire At War is a brilliant culmination of previous Star Wars titles that successfully incorporates the best aspects of previous titles leaving you with an extremely satisfying Star Wars gaming experience. If you were confused by Force Commander, disappointed by Battlefield, and thought Galactic Battlegrounds just didn't FEEL like Star Wars, prepare for a wonderful surprise here.
Premise A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
You will take a side in the burgeoning galactic civil war embroiling the Star Wars galaxy. You will either lead the Empire in securing order and complete rule or you will lead the Rebellion in liberating it. The time frame of the game begins shortly after the events of Star Wars Episode III and continues through the classic trilogy.
Gameplay
SETTING If there's a bright center to the galaxy, you are on the planet that it's farthest from.
Although the battles, both land and space based are why you are playing, your quest in conquering or liberating the galaxy begins with the galactic map. This represents the Star Wars galaxy, and in it are various star systems and other points of interest that must be controlled. You have the ability to build ground structures on planets as well as space stations to defend them in orbit. In space locations, there are only space stations to be built. Winning the game doesn't necessarily involve acquiring EVERY system, but by eliminating the opposing side's forces from the galaxy - there is a non-playable neutral faction to each system that hasn't yet been acquired by the Empire or the Rebellion.
Systems are not only the key to winning but are required to generate "credits", which are the currency you use to purchase units and upgrades, and they also increase your "population limit" which refers to the amount of units you can physically support. Each system can support different levels of both space station size and the number of ground buildings you can build. Some planets can become sprawling mining planets (read: cash cows) while only being able to support a small station. Also, each system has a special characteristic: some systems grant cheaper or faster production of a certain unit, some make units stronger, while others have more varied characteristics.
Capital ships (specifically Imperial Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers) can only be built on certain systems which have the necessary resources and facilities to build them (Kuat, Mon Calamari, etc) so controlling those is important.
Finally, traveling to and from systems isn't that straightforward, you cannot simply go from any system to any system. Some systems are on "established hyperspace routes" which facilitate easy planet hopping, while others are more isolated and take longer to get to.
These are all pros and cons you must weigh in deciding how to go about winning the game. All of the systems from the movies and many from the expanded universe are yours to use as you see fit.
TECHNOLOGY This battle station is now the ultimate power in the universe and I suggest we use it.
You will not rule the galaxy if you do not advance. The Empire researches technology (which costs credits) and enables you to build bigger stations, get more hero units, nasty units, and big, bad, Imperial class Star Destroyers. The ultimate goal of research for the Empire, is of course, to build the Death Star and simply destroy rebel planets without the need to conquer them in land battle. If you are like me, you will squeal with delight when you destroy your first rebel planet, and there is something wrong with me.
The Rebellion, on the other hand, steals technology, using their hero unit of R2D2/C3PO, which also costs credits. This also gets them access to a wide array of specialized ships, more heroes, bigger stations, and ultimately the hero unit "Red Squadron", which is the only way the Rebellion can destroy the Death Star if the Empire succeeds in building it.
BATTLE General Veers, prepare your troops for a ground attack.
Battles between units can either be space based or ground based.
Space battles are, firstly simply beautiful to witness, and occur either in an important piece of space (The Vergesso Asteroids, for example) or in orbit of a planet and involve combat between squadrons of fighters and bombers, frigates, massive capital ships, and frequently space stations. The map or playing field of the space battle often involves "terrain" such as nebulae and asteroids, and sometimes capturable facilities that let you build orbital defenses and such or sensor pods, which reveal the entire field to you.
Many players feel this aspect of the game is its strongest and I tend to agree. Visually it is a feast for the eyes, squadrons of fighters weaving in and out, frigates blasting each other, Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers ripping away at each other. You are free to direct every single unit in play and in the later part of campaigns; this becomes fantastically challenging and thrilling. Attackers achieve victory by destroying the space station and any ships that may have been stationed there. Attackers may also retreat - barring any technological obstruction - though sometimes this still results in casualties. Defenders win by repelling the invaders or by making them retreat. In the process, their station may be destroyed or downgraded because of significant damage. Defenders have one edge; space stations have certain "garrison units", fighters and small ships, which are able to reinforce you. The larger the station, the more you have access too. They are expendable - lose one and another will join soon - as long as your station's hangar is still intact. There is an equal "population limit" to both sides to limit the amount of units you can have in play.
Ground battle is the aspect of the game, I feel, that wasn't tested and balanced out fully. I feel the invader has too much advantage over the defender, though this has been greatly balanced in the expansion to the game.
You must build ground structures on planets not only to produce units to conquer other planets, but to defend the one's you have. Barracks and factories can produce "garrison" units just like space stations. You can also build shield generators and massive turbolaser towers to help you.
Every planet has a different map in layout, terrain, and size. Weather conditions can affect certain units. Many planets have indigenous inhabitants, citizens, colonists, etc. that can fight with you or against you depending on your side. Some even have dangerous rancor roaming around. Defenders and attackers can both capture build pads and construct helpful structures, and can capture other random structures that may be on the planet like bunkers, abandoned facilities, etc.
Unlike other real time strategy games like Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds you cannot build units at will. Once a battle begins, you are only left with your garrison units and any units you may have already built or stationed there. Once gone, except for the slowly replenished garrison, they're gone. The attacker is hampered in one way only, each planet has "landing zones" that must first be controlled so that the invader can land more forces. The invader can keep landing reinforcements to replace losses as long as they control a landing zone.
Finally, the invader can call in "bombing runs" if they have bombers in orbit. This is a devastating blow to the defender without anti-aircraft defense - and which curiously causes no collateral damage to the invader's units in the bombing zone! The invader wins once all defender buildings and units are eliminated.
UNITS What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me.
All units for both sides can be categorized under certain types. Each type has a rock/paper/scissors effect on other types of units. Fighters destroy bombers. Bombers destroy capital ships. Capital ships destroy frigates. Patrol frigates and cruisers (and superior fighters) destroy other fighters. Ground based units have similar groupings.
Larger frigates and capital ships have "hard points" representing weapons and systems that can be individually targeted and taken out in the order you wish. Example, taking out a Star Destroyer's hangar first will infinitely help a Rebel player.
Each units have a "population point" attached to them, another form of balance for the game. Rebel Corellian corvettes have a population cost of 2 for example. Imperial Star Destroyers have a cost of 4. All units also have a "special effect" that they can use for a limited time to help them.
Heroes are special units, and represent the major characters of the story. They often have incredible special abilities. They also cannot be "permanently damaged" to use Vader's language - if defeated on the battle field they will return to play after an extended period of time.
PICKING SIDES You must learn the ways of the Force, if you are to accompany me to Alderaan.
The Empire and the Rebellion go about playing and winning very differently; this is part of the fun of the game.
Imperial strategy is all about overwhelming numbers of disposable units, especially in space. Star Destroyers themselves are simply launching pads for fighters (they should really be called star carriers), the bigger the class, the more they have, which is why defending their hangars against rebel bombers is crucial. They let their fighters do the work and then just loom in the background.
The rebels have smaller, specialized ships, and must also build and bring in their fighters with them into battle squadron by squadron. Rebel ships are often faster, but only the Mon Calamari cruiser with some fighters for support can ever hope to survive long against an Imperial Star Destroyer.
The Imperials have some very nasty tricks at their disposal. Besides simply blowing up planets with the Death Star, Interdictor Cruisers, which are indispensable once you gain access to them, can be used to prevent rebels from retreating - or more effectively - interfere with the guidance systems of missiles and proton torpedoes - effectively eliminating that advantage. There is also a sick, twisted pleasure I get using General Veers in his AT-AT to destroy rebel ground forces, as well as using Palpatine himself to lightning kill troops, and Vader to force-crush a rebel tank. Paying Boba Fett to first take out a Rebel hero - like Admiral Ackbar or Obi-Wan - before attacking also makes things go much easier.
The Rebels are not without their tricks, including planetary ion cannons to render star destroyers temporarily defenseless and most importantly the ability to land "strike teams" on Imperial planets and take out their ground forces without having to first gain orbital control (Obi-Wan and his healing and protecting abilities are crucial for this).
Technical Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.
There is nothing original about the music, it is the exact movie scores creatively edited to provide the correct atmosphere for the setting. The sounds are rich and many, and actually important because they will give you clues to something going on that you will probably not see right away. The voice acting, while obviously not the original actors, is spirited and convincing most of the time. The technical requirements are readily available, I can say that the game can be played without a graphics card, but is nowhere near as enjoyable as you lose the beautiful graphics and the hundreds of tiny details that are too numerous to go into here. There are some bugs with the game, patches and the new expansion have for the most part repaired them. The game is also nicely compatible with Vista most of the time. It does lock up occasionally for me, requiring a reboot, with my 256 video card and Windows Vista. Fortunately the game auto saves before every battle in a campaign in case you forgot.<p>Multiplayer is available online in skirmish mode, but the game has many hours of solo replay.
FYI: The hero units Mara Jade and Kyle Katarn are only available in skirmish mode, not in the campaigns!
In a sentence, Star Wars Empire at War delivers one of the most satisfying Star Wars gaming experiences yet to be crafted and fans of the series will not be disappointed nor will amateur and hard-core gamers alike.
Cool Links
The trailer for the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ukLJbOadIoT
ESRB Rating: T - TeenGenre: StrategyFeatures: From the dirt of the battlefield to the depths of space STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR and STAR WARS EMPIRE A...More at Newegg.com
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