Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"Alternative missions include your ability to change history, and see what would've happened if you were in charge of the Empire's raid of the Rebel Base on Hoth, or if you were in charge of fighting those pesky Ewoks on their way to the shield generator ...When based on the fun of the original films, this game is a thrill."

---from the review

-----------------

Also Available: Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: The Clone Campaigns (expansion pack). Click above to order, or click here for review.

-------------

Sidebar :

-------------

That cool Star Trek Game... Admittedly, I mention Armada 2 a lot in this review. However, can anyone who played that game blame me...? This game could've had unique abilities for each army. In Star Trek Armada, for example, all non-borg teams can research cloaked ships, while the borg have the unique ability to assimilate opponent ships, aquiring all the technologies of that spacecraft! Starfleet has a secret weapon that freezes enemy ships dead in their tracks; Romulans have a secret weapon that sends an energy pulse through a whole shipyard, destroying everything in its path. This may lead to shorter games, though they're much more fun to play! What about a "death grip" in this game, exclusive to SITH masters? What about Jedi controlling the weak-minded, temporarily pitting enemy against enemy? This is just some of the additions this game could've had, yet didn't. It's fun, yet could've been a thrill.

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds is LucasArts' answer to Star Wars fans, who see all the Trekkers having so much multiplayer fun with Star Trek Armada 2. You create garrisons of stormtroopers, SITH masters, and TIE Fighters --or rebels, Jedi, and X-wings-- and battle it out to the end. This is hardly a flawed game, even if Armada 2 proves how much better it truly could've been....

Using the exact same game engine as Age of Kings ("Age of Empires 2," in particular), your mission is to choose one of 6 possible armies, and help them create a powerful army to defeat the opposition. It doesn't entirely matter which side you choose; while it is cool to use ships from the films, all races are with equal strength, technology wise. Whether training 50 stormtroopers or 50 wookies, they'll perform just as well in battle. Similarly, the Galactic Empire can opt to wait a while until a dozen AT-AT walkers are created, though the Gungans can create a water tank that's just as ominous, yet takes the same extended time to build. It's all strategy, and it's all up to the game players.

Single-player offers a roughly 6-mission battle saga for 5 of the major races, to get you accustomed to what their command centers look like, what ships are the most powerful/vulnerable, and so on (good information, for both allies and enemies in multiplayer). There's the Galactic Empire, The Rebel Alliance, Wookies (Chewbacca in particular, whose race is used as additional tutorial missions as well), The Trade Federation, and yes (groan) even the Gungans. Why Gungans, and not the Naboo? They're available in multiplayer, yet oddly, not playable in single-player. Furthermore, I can hear the arguments online already: "You have to play as the Gungans."..."No; you be the Gungans!"..."I was the Gungans last week; it's your turn to be the Gungans!"..."Awwww!"

Not that the Gungans, admittedly, couldn't have been cool, if the game designers of Star Trek Armada 2 helped design this game as well. You see, in that Star Trek game, strategy is similar, and yet unique as the game progresses. Each alien race --Borg, Romulan, Klingon, and Starfleet/Earth-- have unique secret weapons for their finest starships. This is perfectly fair, when a secret attack of a science station can disable this secret technology, equaling the odds all over again. In a nutshell, the strategy of Armada 2 is far more alluring than it is here, where every army is the same, except for the graphics used. Let's apply this flaw to the already-flawed Gungans, where a Trade Federation mission implies that the Gungans have underwater settlements that can only be seen by watercraft. This is intriguing, yet unfortunately isn't available in the actual game; the seafarer Gungans must instead create swamp-looking settlements above ground, further reducing their appeal. How disappointing.

Not that people will be playing as the Gungans long enough to care. There's the cool Galactic Empire to command, complete with AT-ATs, AT-STs (those mini AT-AT's from Return of the Jedi), TIE fighters, and yes, even the ability to make a SITH temple, and train your own legion of Darth Vader apprentices! Rebels are similarly cool, with X-Wings, Y-Wings, and of course Jedi temples to train your own "padawans." Create scientific labs, and research weaponry that looks no different, yet is stronger just the same. I think the best multiplayer game would be a 2-on-2 battle between the Trade Federation and Empire on one side, and the Rebellion and Wookies on the other. How cool is that?

It's even cooler in single player. Alternative missions include your ability to change history, and see what would've happened if you were in charge of the Empire's raid of the Rebel Base on Hoth, or if you were in charge of fighting those pesky Ewoks on their way to the shield generator. Rebel missions are similar reenactments of classic movie battles, as well as some inspired new ones. When based on the fun of the original films, this game is a thrill.

Perhaps the flaws with this game are due to the game engine chosen, not the game per se. Doesn't Age of Kings' game engine offer the ability to use FMV video, and/or in-game cutscenes? Unlike the cool in-game animations that link all levels of the Star Trek Armada series, every mission of Glactic Battlegrounds is introduced and concluded via slow-as-molasses slideshows (and monocolor, at that!), which often have very cheesy narrations accompanying them. It doesn't help in the least that their voice actor for Princess Leia sounds nothing like Carrie Fisher, and their voice actor for Boss Nass sounds too much like the real thing! Mind you, Lando sounds so much like Billy Dee Williams you'll wonder if "Obba Baba Tunde" is a surname (after all, he is slated to be Lando's actual voice, in the upcoming Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Knight Outcast). However, his narration is only heard in the Wookie missions, so you'll have to wait a while to hear it. With these "log entries" as your only reward for a job well done, let's just say the single player missions are a "thankless" job, no matter how much fun it is playing them.

However, there's all the fun of the multiplayer missions to enjoy. Yes, this includes "bot missions," so to speak, where you can set as many as 6 AI controlled armies against yours, with any parameters you like. Pit all races against each other, or a whole garrison of Empirial teams against your rebel forces, or Wookies against Gungans; it's all possible, with replay value galore. Better yet is the speed of the game, which may have merely "average" isometric graphics, yet works with no slowdowns, even when the screen is filled with a dozen of each ship type on both sides. That's nothing to scoff at.

So, what to rate this game? Well, it's not a bad game in the least; the ability to build a dozen AT-ATs and set them against 100 Jedi is an intriguing enough experience for a thumbs-up. Yet the superior entertainment value of Armada 2 keeps me from giving it a similar grade. Why no "secret powers" for Jedi or Sith, or special weaponry for the Rebels/Empire? Here's an example: a scout could locate a group of soldiers far away from camp, and Vader could use his choke hold on them from clear across the game map. That would've been cool. While ceratinly fun, this game could've been amazing...

[ed. note: some --yet not all-- of these limitations were answered via the expansion pack, Star Wars GB: The Clone Campaigns. Click there for the full review!]