Star Wars: Empire at War for Windows

Star Wars - Empire at War is yet another real time strategy game set in the universe of the all known Star Wars movies.

Like in most games today, you can play the good and the bad guys. So in this game, you get the chance of playing the rebels or the evil empire. The game includes two storyline driven set of missions (Rebel/Empire), a skirmish option if you just want to play a quick round, the multi player game of course and a conquest mode, in which you can try to conquer the galaxy outside of the regular storyline of Star Wars. I will explain all the different game modes later, first, lets take a closer look at the story lines in the game.


Background - A long time ago in a Galaxy far far away...

The game starts between Episode III-Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV-A new Hope. The evil Empire has almost finished building the Death Star and the galactic civil war is at it's height. From this point on, you can either play the empire and try to crush the rebel scum once and for all or you can take lead of the brave rebel army to free the galaxy from the imperial oppression. Depending on your choice you will field different army units and heros to battle.


The game play - how to rule or free a galaxy 101

The game has two main parts you play in. In the first part, you will be in the control seat of your empire. A galactic map shows all the planet systems to conquer. This part is a little like "Masters of Orion" (if you can remember that classic). In here, you are able to select individual planets to build star bases in the planets orbit or ground bases on the planets surface. Depending on the planet, the number of building slots for surface buildings is limited more or less. In the planets view, you can also organize any star fleet which might be orbiting the planet. Each planet under your control gives you credits, the only resource in Empire at War. Every planet is unique and has different stats for credit income, bonuses on building armies, war machines or space ships or other bonuses. The more planets you control, the more credits you get and the bigger your whole army can be in numbers. At some point later in the game, you will discover that certain space ships or field units can only be constructed on certain planets (not every backwater-world can host a shipyard for an Imperial Star Destroyer for example). In this view of the game, you basically manage your fleets, armies and resources and decide where to strike next. Every planet has an orbit to attack and a surface to conquer (unless it's only an asteroid field). Therefor, your battle fleets need to be made up of star ships and ground forces.

You have the option of accelerating time in this view.


The second view is the one you have when you enter battle. That is the actual real-time-strategy part. You will either fight in the orbit of a planet or on it's surface. Battle in orbit is still two dimensional though, so you don't need to worry about being confused in space battle.
In space, you fight with numerous types of star ships. From the classic X-Wing to the Tie-Fighter, from a rebel blockade runner to the Imperial Star Destroyer, all the star ships of that time line are present. Every unit has different characteristics and a specialty. For example, while Y-Wings make excellent bombers they are more or less useless in dogfight. Because of that, using them against a Star Destroyer is wise, using them against a bunch of Tie-Fighters is suicide. The specialty of a unit is activated over a small button and needs to recharge after that. Depending on the unit, the specialty can range from boosting firepower (at the expense of shields) or using a tractor beam. Some units even have two special powers.
Once you won the battle in space, it's time to send in the ground forces. Only if you conquer the orbit and the planets surface, you will get all the bonuses and credits.
On the ground, you will deploy your army and any battle machines you might have (like tanks or AT-ST's and such). Eradicating the enemy entirely is your goal most of the time. Like in space battle, each unit has different strengths and vulnerabilities and a specialty (or,again, some units have two). AT-AT's might be awesome against ground forces, but beware against (Snow)-Speeders.


Building your army

Unlike other strategy games, you don't have the option of building units in battle. You only have at your disposal what you bring with you (in case you are the attacker) or what you have stationed in space or on the ground. In addition to that, only a limited number of units can be brought on the battlefield at the same time. In space, that number is fixed. On the ground, if you are the attacker, you need to take and hold drop points which are spread around on the map to bring in a higher number of troops as reinforcements. Once a unit is destroyed, you can replace it from the pool of units that attack (or are stationed) until you have none left. The only thing that can be built are gun turrets and repair stations in ground battle. For that, you have to take and hold specific build points.

You can either fight to the death or retreat, in case you see that you cannot win. Retreating takes a little time though and for that amount of time, your units are very vulnerable.

While it is technically possible to omit the ground battle (or take it at a later time), a planet will only become of full use when it is completely conquered. After you fought a battle (space or ground) the game will go back to the galaxy view for you to plan the next step.


Heroes (and Villains)

Another feature is the use of heroes (like in Warcraft III). Depending on the side you choose, you either get famous imperials like General Veers, Captain Piett, Darth Vader or even the Emperor (powerful, grumpy little old man) and others or, on the rebel side, Captain Antilles, Luke Skywalker and his squadron, Han & Chewie or trusty R2-D2 and C-3PO and some more. Each hero has different abilities and weaknesses. Some of them can be used in space or on the ground. In addition, having a hero stationed on a planet grants certain bonuses. The Emperor for example gives a 20% production boost to whatever planet he is on (did I mention he is one grumpy old man?). Like in Warcraft III, Heroes cannot permanently die. When they get killed in a mission, you have to wait a certain time (in galaxy view) until they respawn again.
You also have minor heroes, which are nameless special units that can utilize special abilities. For example, the bounty hunter who can sneak past defenses and kill a hero on the other side without space or ground battle. And the smuggler will steal credits from other worlds not under your control.


following the storyline

When you play in story mode, your special units and characters talk to each other via little holograms shown in the galaxy view to tell you about changing events and missions to follow. There are only a few cut scenes that show what happens, mostly the events unfold in the galactic view's hologram viewer itself. That means you always see holograms of the individual characters talking "to each other" and the story gets relayed mainly in this way.

In this game, the mission is usually to attack and conquer a specific planet or a group of them. Some special missions are available (more on the rebel side than for the Empire) that need special units to fulfil. Special missions include space battles as well as ground missions.

With "regular" attacks on a planet, you have the option of letting the computer calculate the outcome. That is faster but usually costs more units. Battles which could be close calls should be fought by the player as the computer would probably lose them for you. Storyline missions are different as you cannot "skip" them by letting the computer fight for you. Don't worry 'though, if you lose a storyline mission, the game isn't lost. You will get the opportunity to fight the battle again. The only way to lose the game permanently is to lose all planets under your control.


The movie view

In the battles you have the option of switching to "movie view" in which computer controlled cameras (complete with cuts, zoom and movement) take you right into the fight. While you are unable to give orders in this view, it's nice to just sit back and watch a particular battle situation as if you were in the theatre. Be careful to use this option 'though, because you do not only have no way to give orders, but your view of the battle is rather limited. It's good to watch a Star Destroyer shoot Ackbar's Calamari Cruiser to pieces when the battle is won anyway, but using it when the battle is undecided yet might make you miss important events, like reinforcements of your enemy.

Game Modes

As mentioned in the beginning, the game has multiple modes of play:

Storyline: Here you conquer the galaxy as either the empire or the rebels. While doing that, you follow a general story that will unfold throughout the game via special missions.

Conquer: Basically the same as above, but without the storyline. Different sized galaxies can be chosen, so you can roughly decide, how long your conquest will take. Also, things like technology level and starting amount of credits can be entered.

skirmish: Play a quick ground or space battle. Some are fictitious (for the Star Wars universe of course) and some orientate themselves after battles from the movies. Again, setting for the individual missions can be changed.

Multiplayer: Conquer and skirmish are also available as multiplayer games so you can enjoy a short (or long) battle with your friends.


The technical side - graphics and sound

The graphics are very good. I would give them an eight on a scale from one to ten. It's a strategy game, so you forgive the minor lack in detail that the objects bring in comparison to a modern 3D shooter for example. Only when you make extensive use of the movie view feature (especially in ground battles) and in the few cut scenes that get told with the game engine (no pre-rendered movies) you will notice some lack in details. But it's not really taking away from the Star Wars feel.

The sound is just simply awesome - as in most Star Wars games actually. Of course Lucasarts uses the original John Williams score for the background music and they also managed to get convincingly good "copies" of the original actors voices. Yeah, a die hard fan of Star Wars will notice differences in the voice of Darth Vader (I mean, who really could speak like James Earl Jones?) or some others, but again, it does not take away from the Star Wars feel.


Hardware requirements - What computer do I need?

The official hardware requirements are:

- 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer with at least a 1GHz Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon. Lucasarts recommends 2GHz for each CPU.
- 256MB RAM is required, 512MB is recommended
- Your Graphics Card needs to have at least 32MB and hardware Transform and Lightning (T&L) capability. That means it will run on older graphics cards too. Lucasarts recommends a 64MB card with Pixel Shader capabilities 'though.
- A 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible PCI, USB, or Onboard Audio Device is required
- You will need at least a 8x speed CD-ROM drive, 16x is recommended (or a DVD-Rom drive)
- of course, keyboard and mouse for input
- And, last but not least, Microsoft's Direct X 9.0c needs to be installed and is of course included on the CD.

The installation will take away about 2.5GB of hard disk space (actually only slightly above 2GB on my computer). Lucasarts also recommends having an additional 500MB free after installation for save games and file caching.

My personal experiences with hardware requirements:

The quality of the graphics is adjustable. I was able to play the game on a PIII 900 Mhz with a Geforce FX (first Generation) and 256MG of RAM on the lowest setting without any problems. On my personal Centrino 1.6 Ghz Notebook with a built in ATI Radeon X700 (64MB) and a gig of RAM the game runs in it's highest detail setting without any problem. One thing that I noticed on both systems was a slow down of the game in the galactic view after you conquered a higher number of planets. Seems like the game engine has problems computing all the background stuff after a certain size of your empire and army. The battles themselves ran fine on both systems 'though.


The good, the bad and the final verdict

Finally, Lucasarts managed to deliver a good Star Wars real time strategy game. You get a game that basically features three different genres in one (space and ground battles and galactic "management"). Still, with limiting resources in the game to only one (credits) and rather expanding on the bonuses that particular planets bring, Lucasarts managed to keep the game accessable. But because of that, it also lacks the depth that individual games of those specific genres have. The galactic part is not as complex and gripping as Masters of Orion. The ground battles are lacking the possibilities of Command and Conquer and Warcraft, especially since you cannot build stuff in the missions. And the space battles lack the building part per definition and are therefor a little superficial too. Still, it's halfway realistic... you just simply don't built entire bases in the course of a planetary assault on one enemy base. And putting in numerous ground missions to conquer one planet would stretch the game endlessly. In my personal opinion, it's a good trade off. But if you are looking for extensive base building and resource management, you will be disappointed.

The storyline on both sides is rather short. It only gets lengthened because of the fact that you have to expand your empire while you are following the story. So basically all the planet conquering is just a "filler" to get to the next actual storyline mission. And because of that, you will find yourself using the "skip battle-let the computer fight for you"-option a lot. Especially later, when you have so much resources at your command that it doesn't matter of you lose one or three Imperial Star Destroyers. I found myself only fighting missions that where critical, for example when the computer attacks you on a planet with only minor defenses. Or I fought the ones being utterly easy and fun...like blowing up a couple of corvettes and blockade runners with a huge armada of Star Destroyers.

The heroes are expendable too. I found no real bonus in having them (other when they are required to stay alive in a mission) and especially the minor heroes are pointless. In some battles though, the heroes are rather overpowered (which can be fun). Having the Emperor at your disposal in a ground mission can spare you a lot of AT-ST's (I remember mentioning that guy being a really, really grumpy old man). But still, it matches the Star Wars universe... remember that "The power to destroy a planet is nothing against the power of the force", or something like that.

The space battles are really fun. Different space ships have different traits and you can really come up with a lot of tactics, depending on your choice of ships. The ground battles are not as fun in my eyes as I found the ground forces to be less inventive than the space counterparts. Let's face it: The only ground battle in the classic trilogy was in Empire strikes back and the rebels didn't really field much ground equipment there. So I couldn't really connect to the ground missions that much, as all the rebel stuff is rather foreign to me. Maybe players who know the entire expanded universe will find some familiar vehicles.

The interface itself is easy to grasp and makes for quick gameplay. Battles can get hot, but never really out of control. Hot key functions and not-to-big battlefields make the battle part of the game easy to manage (do not confuse with easy to win).

So who is this game for?

If you are looking for an easy to access, good and solid Star Wars experience and/or some quick Star Wars real time strategy battles, this game is for you. Good graphics, awesome sound, a good story line (albeit short) and a decent mix of strategy/battle games make Star Wars: Empire at War a good game for the casual strategy player that wants to show the rebel scum the real power of the empire. Or free the galaxy from the evil, evil (and grumpy) Emperor...whatever you prefer.

If you are a hardcore strategy player and you want a combination of Masters of Orion and Age of Empires III...you will be disappointed. Star Wars: Empire at war simply doesn't have the depth of both of them.

I belong to the first group, so I really liked the game. Also keep in mind it's available for under $20 now at Amazon for example...for this amount of money, you can't go wrong. Also, an expansion pack is out which lets you play the "criminal side" of Star Wars. It's called "Forces of Corruption".