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Lucas Arts brings us, this time, the most acclaimed strategy game made for the Star Wars series, fulfilling all the expectations fans and video gamers have of a great tactical game. There’s a lot of real time action in this fabulous PC game, dividing all these great installments in two different scenarios: the strategic one and the tactical one including the fights you will handle in space and on land.
The strategic step takes place on a 2D galactic map, which shows all the planets in the galaxy. Most planets can support space stations and land buildings such as barracks, mining facilities, factories, or even planetary defense systems like turbo-laser towers or massive ion cannons that shoot up into space.
The important thing to remember is that the action takes place in real time, even on the galactic map. So if you spend too much time considering what to build or where to send a fleet, you may invite the computer to attack one of your systems. The second part is the real time battle (the tactical scenario) where you confront the computer to fight with different fleets to see who wins for the control of the galaxy.
The graphics and sound in Empire at War are uniformly breathtaking. The land battles are impressive, as you'll see huge AT-STs and AT-ATs lumbering around while dozens of infantry scurry about underneath their feet. The weather effects look great, and there's a good variety of different tile-sets.
There's even a neat cinematic camera that you can switch to in order to give you a more movie-like view of the battlefield. You lose control of the game in this mode, so it's not something you're going to be using a lot, but when you do steal a peek, it can show some great perspectives of the battlefield, even if the texturing up close doesn't look so hot.
Also the weapons all look and sound as you'd expect them to. By now, the noise of a laser gun firing in Star Wars is ingrained into the psyche of just about everyone in the world as the way a laser "should" sound, and Empire at War doesn't disappoint in the weapon-effects department. The voice acting in the game is also quite impressive, Petroglyph did a great job at bringing in soundalikes to handle all the major roles in the game, like Darth Vader.
As a strategy game, Empire at War delivers a true Star Wars experience. If you're into AT-ATs stomping around battlefields, Darth Vader knocking over 20 soldiers with Force push, or space battles thick with dozens of fighters swarming in between gargantuan capital ships, Empire at War will deliver all that in a fun, compelling package.
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