Reviewed: March 12, 2006
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
LucasArts

Developer
Petroglyph

Released: February 16, 2006
Genre: RTS
Players: 1-8
ESRB: Teen

8
8
8
8
8.2

System Requirements

The boys at Petroglyph know how to put on a show and after a semi-private screening of the game at the 2005 E3 we immediately crowned Star Wars: Empire at War the Best Strategy Game of the show. Almost a year later, the game looks and plays almost as good as it did at E3, but after playing both Rebel and Empire campaigns I came away just slightly underwhelmed.

Empire at War does everything right when it comes to following the rules of making a quality RTS. You have excellent units, interesting battlegrounds, and you can’t really miss when you encapsulate all of this within the vast Star Wars universe, but once the childlike delight of stomping through rebels in an AT-AT or blasting a planet into space dust with the Death Star fades away, you quickly realize this is pretty much the same RTS game we have always been playing.

Empire at War is more than just winning a series of missions. You are going to want to rule (or defend) the galaxy, and to that end you must look at the big picture. Not only do you need to win those small battles, you need to win the war, and that requires strategic positioning of forces around the galaxy so you can take and hold entire planets and sections of space.

There is a whole level of “thinking” gameplay that is working behind the scenes of the traditional action elements. You’ll need to manage resources and build the appropriate structures and manufacture the necessary units. You start off with a few base planets, a small selection of units, and some credits to build more, but the fate of the galaxy depends on what you do next.

Structures play an important part in the game. You’ll need to mine for resources to convert to credits, barracks generate troops and factories generate vehicles. In orbit, you can build space stations to start work on that fleet you’ll be needing to storm the galaxy, and there are dozens of specialty units you can build for both offensive and defensive tactics.

Of course the first choice you have is who to fight for - Rebels or Empire. That not only dictates the goals of the campaign but also how you play. Each faction has specific missions as well as specialty units that only they can build. Some units are even planet specific - you'll never catch a Hutt off Tatooine.

You can play the Campaign mode, which offers a scripted sequence of missions for each faction that covers the events from the end of the first trilogy up to A New Hope. It’s always nice for us (and safe for the designers) to cover new territory where they aren’t restricted by established events. There is a minor subplot involving Darth Vader hunting down a traitor, but it comes across more in dialogue and com chatter than gameplay.

For those looking for more dynamically generated gameplay, you can jump into the Galactic Conquest mode, which sets up various parameters and requires you to take over the galaxy playing either the computer or another human. Skirmish Battles are shorter bursts of combat, either in space or on planets, and can be played against the computer or with up to seven other humans in versus or team modes. This mode is probably the most familiar to RTS veterans.

The Campaign and Conquest modes are like a giant game of Risk. You try to take over neighboring planets by first taking control of the space around that planet then landing your forces and extinguishing any opposing presence. Once that has been achieved you can setup shop and increase your resources and overall power.

It’s a careful balancing act because you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, but you don’t want to let the other side establish any significant presence that might be too powerful to overcome later on. The more planets you own the more influx of money and resources you have, plus many planets offer their own specialty perks like bonus units or cash. Bespin gives you extra mining revenue while Naboo offers those cool rebel tanks, and if you want to hire a bounty hunter you’ll need the Hutt Palace, which can only be built on Tatooine.

I was impressed that the designers were able to actually balance the two opposing forces. In most strategy games you are usually going up against opponents that share the same numbers and technology, but in this game the Rebels are at a clear technical disadvantage that they more than make up for with guerilla tactics and databanks full of enemy intel.

The Empire certainly has the manpower and units to squash the rebellion, but they first have to find them. Once they do it’s quite easy to overpower them in head-on warfare, so both sides have very unique gameplay styles that are fun to explore and exploit. The biggest challenge is in finding out which unit on one side counteracts and balances an opposing unit. To that end you almost always have to make sure you have at least one of every possible unit available for each encounter.

Units include just about every vehicle and soldier you can find in the movies. Each unit has a select list of unique skills making them all fun to play around with. Rebel ships can redirect power to weapons or shields and the X-Wing can even close its S-foils for a burst of speed. Imperial ships have tractor beams to grip the enemy and the Death Star can blow entire planets off the galactic map.

Heroes have become a staple of the RTS genre and Star Wars has its own cast of favorites ranging from droids like C3PO and R2D2 to Chewbacca and even the ultra-powerful Darth Vader whose Force Crush can crumple buildings like an empty soda can. Hero units also come in the form of ships, more specifically, the Millenium Falcon, Slave 1, and Vader’s custom Tie Fighter to name a few.

Heroes are a huge part of Empire at War and can turn the tide of many encounters. In some levels heroes can totally dominate the battle. Early missions with Darth Vader were pretty much a commando run and I had to wonder why anybody else even showed up. Vader is a one-man wrecking crew until the rebels can muster up some big guns, but the only real threat for most heroes is when you hire a bounty hunter to take them out.

There are two main styles of gameplay at work here. You have the plodding strategic side of things, mostly done in the galactic map and various menus, then you have the fun and terribly addictive action part where you actually get to fight somebody. And whether you are fighting on land or in space, the action is amazing, almost as engrossing as the movies.

The space battles are particularly impressive and the sense of scale is massive. I haven’t had this much fun since playing Rogue Squadron III on the GameCube. There are hundreds of ships zipping about and giant Star Destroyers and Rebel Cruisers dominating the screen all set against gorgeous backdrops of planets, asteroids fields, and nebulae and it really is quite cinematic.

Battles consist of one side trying to hold the territory (land or space) while the other tries to capture it by either taking over all the control points or wiping out the enemy entirely. The invading force has the luxury of adding reinforcements as offered by the reinforcement point system. These points are earned by capturing certain points or having your existing troops die. You can then call for a dropship to bring in more troops and armor at designated locations.

Structures built during the galactic map phase of the game are shown during the ground battles but most are insignificant other than key structures like power and shield generators or laser cannons. These structures allow for some specific strategy in coordinating both ground and air strikes to take them out.

The battlefields are visually striking and always unique. Each planet seems to have its own climate and theme that is passed on to the surface battles. There always seems to be some natural (forest, mountains, water) obstacles or manmade constructs to keep you and your men on a linear path to the various reinforcement points. It keeps the battles more controlled, but also restricts your ability to craft elaborate traps or ambushes.

Most of the game consists of all-too typical landscapes, and blocky unit models. Animation is primitive and humans walk with the robotic precision of an AT-AT. The game can also get a bit cluttered with a large interface along the bottom, frequent pop-ups, and health bars over each of the units as well as control rings below selected ones.

Space battles work much better with gorgeous scenic backdrops and all sorts of ships zipping around. The large capital ships sport impressive texture details and are modeled to blast apart into huge burning sections that float through the space debris like manmade asteroids. Of course nothing can top the devastating blast of the Death Star. The visual reward is worth the effort of actually getting to use this prized Imperial unit.

The camera system is extremely friendly and you can pan, rotate, tilt, and zoom in to near action-game perspectives. Of course getting that close will only reveal the game's more subtle imperfections in unit design and details. But at zoom levels more attuned to RTS games, the game looks good. I especially enjoyed the Cinematic camera option you can invoke to watch the battle unfold from what the game perceives to be the best view of the action. Often it is, but other times it fails to capture the action at all.

Sound effects are ripped right from the Skywalker archives so every laser blast, lightsaber hum, explosion, and ship engine sounds just like it did in the movies. With so many multiple layers of sound the audio presentation can quickly become as overwhelming as the visuals.

There is a great selection of authentic sound-alikes used to recreate the voices for the Heroes, so Vader, Han Solo, and the rest of our favorites all sound like we remember. The supporting dialogue is all just as well done and even the narrator turns in a commendable performance.

If you need more than that there are also plans for a map editor to allow you to create your own custom skirmishes using a sandbox editor similar to what the designers used for the main game. That should keep the game alive for a bit longer and we can always hope for a future expansion pack or full-on sequel later in the year.

Sure, the game can get bogged down under the weight of its own complexity, and yes, the game does get a tad repetitive after your 20th planet assault, but there is always some new unit or hero just waiting to get added to the mix, and it’s these moments of discovery that keep you coming back for more.

At the end of the day, this is an RTS game designed for Star Wars fans, and those fans will flock to Empire at War like it was the seventh movie. But hardcore strategists will likely see through the sci-fi façade and move on to bigger and better battlefields. I can only say it is their loss.