Star Wars: Empire at War
I played Star Wars: Empire at War last
week.
A lot of Star Wars games have
obvious glaring flaws. Empire at War doesn't. There's nothing really wrong
with it. It's a pretty typical RTS set in the Star Wars universe. Animation's
good, sound's good, and it's
playable.
So why am I less than
enthusiastic? Somehow the game lacks life. In the space battles, the key is to
pile up sufficiently overwhelming forces, then pretty much let the ships fly
around and fight on their own. The land battles tend to be tedious, and require
lots of micromanagement, retreating wounded vehicles for repair constantly as
they get wounded.
The scope of the game
roughly parallels the first Star Wars movie, and includes rescuing Princess
Leia, the destruction of Alderan, and the raid on the Death Star. Somehow these
events make my strategic decisions feel meaningless -- such as when my giant,
massively defended Alderan was destroyed in a meaningless cut scene. And when
major characters (like Han Solo and Chewbacca) get killed, they just reappear a
few turns later, ironically making them the best choice to take the brunt of an
enemy attack.
The AI felt stupid, and
seemed incapable of dealing with my large single fleet -- it would have been
simple for it to counterattack all my undefended
planets.
I like licensed games best
when they give new depth and meaning to the story they're based on. The old
Avalon Hill board game "Dune" does this wonderfully, making every game feel like
a fresh writing of the novel. Erick Wujcik's "Amber" role playing game is
awesome in this respect as well -- playing the game makes you understand
Zelazny's novels better. I'm trying to think of a computer game that truly
succeeds in this regard, but nothing's leaping to mind. Empire at War, while a
competent RTS, feels like Star Wars was grafted on. You could change the
graphics and make it Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica or Pirates of the
Caribbean without significant
changes.
Still, Empire at War is
competent, and kept me amused for several hours -- not many games do that for
me.
Filed Mon - May 29, 2006, 11:19 AM in
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