IHC Online review of 'Empire at War'

Chao · 18-02-2006, 02:55

It was early, on the Thursday morning above the Mon Calamari shipyards. Admiral Ackbar had stopped off to inspect the new cruisers, as well as let Luke Skywalker and the rest of his flight squad a chance to get out and do some maneuvers. Luke was out flying through some asteroids when suddenly a few wings of TIE fighters came screaming in at him. Their screeching engines shattering his focus, and their green turbo blasters relentlessly chasing him and his fellow pilots. Of in the distance, he could see another ship coming in at him fast.
Slave 1, Boba Fett was here. Luke saw some A-Wings heading him off, trying to bait him into coming after them into the asteroid belt. Boba turned in pursuit, and the rest of Rogue Squadron turned to follow him. The battle was starting to get intense, and Luke fought for control of the Force to make it out alive. Moments into the battle, Boba let out sonic blast charges…Almost all of the ships were damaged, systems failing, it was not looking good. Luke turned to flee, he had to meet back with Ackbar and get the fleet out of here. He was almost to the ship when he saw it. Imperial Interdiction ship. No ships could hyperspace out now, and even worse, more Imperial cruisers were approaching. All hope was looking dark.

I love Empire at War. Yes, that is how I want to start this review. I find it amazingly complex while fairly simple game play. I’m not even sure where to start, but I want to finish this so I can get back to playing it.

Single Player Campaigns:
There are over 40 planets to fight for control, a vast map of trade routes, and strategic defense. You use each planet to build construction points, defensive structures, or mining facilities. You have 10 land slots for ground troops that will be used for defense. You also have 3 space slots. This is great so you can move your ships around into other fleets, and separate ships to move later.

Down side, Bases are pre-designed; you don’t really get to say what goes where. And for Galactic Conquest battles you only have the troops available to you there, you do not have a way to build more in battle. The computer opponent however can build more troops, so you will have to disable their factories in the battle.

Multi Player Maps:
In addition to 1 on 1 conquest there are also multi player maps for both ground and space. These can go up to 8 on 8, where 8 Imperial teams will fight side by side to wipe out the pitiful 8 Rebel armies. What I like about this is all teams on your side share 1 base, so if one player upgrades a factory, all players benefit from this. On these maps you must find and hold mining facilities to make money, and build your troops up from that. You will be able to build in combat here, so have a good strategy in mind.

Down side, if your team is not careful, they may leave the enemy an opening to come in and destroy you, so use good tactics to not only watch yourself, but keep an eye on your team as well. Your AT-AT may be the difference in their battle.

Hero’s are very cool in this game, as each has their own ability on the playing field. Boba Fett has a small ship in space, but the bombs he can drop are very powerful on other small fighters, he can also be used on the ground with a jet pack for high mobility, and a flame thrower to wipe out a large area of infantry.

Some hero’s are only good on ground or in space; Grand Moff Tarkin for instance flies in a very weak lambda shuttle in space.

All in all, this game has a TON of cool little things that make it worth every penny. The Cinematic View in combat takes you to ground level of the fight, as the camera pans, dives, follows, and cuts to battle scenes around the map. Very stunning in space.

The controls are pretty straight forward, drag across the troops you want to command, click on what you want them to shoot. Enjoy the carnage.

Warning, there are some bugs in the program you will need to fix on your PC before you can fully enjoy the game in Multi Player, Network something rather that wont sync up your PC with others in large battles. The fix is very easy, and you can find more info on the Empire at War website.

There are a hundred more things I could say about this game, but I want to go back to playing it.

For IHC Online, this has been
((Changed color for you sensitive humans))

__Thor__ · 18-02-2006, 03:10

Annoying color, but not a bad game

Gaijin · 18-02-2006, 15:13

the colors make my eyes bleed

^sFw^ · 17-03-2006, 20:23

The game is good but not as Good as rebellion\Supremacy, what rebellion lack in spacebattles and invasion of planets this game has,(meaning the GFX and the fact u can control the planetary battles when invading or defending), on the other hand: this game lack all the cool stuff u can do in rebellion, like having alot more type of ships\units and heroes, certain heroes can be used for combat,some for diplomacy and incite uprising etc, spcial units for assasinations etc. If they had made a game in this style where u had the best from both these games it would be the best lucasarts game to ever hit the market imo:)

Bluko · 29-03-2006, 22:18

Yep this is a great game.

I simply love it, but it really isn't anything that new, but finally there is a good Star Wars RTS.

The AI isn't to smart, and that's about my only complaint, but it doesn't need to be, since I have had to fight a fleet of 25 some Corvettes.

One of my great little victories was on Alderaan, playing as a Rebel, yes I know I'm a bad little boy, anyways with 6 Inflatrators, or 3 Companies, a Raiding Party. I destroyed 2 Barracks and about 7 or squads of Stormtroopers, along with many Scout Troopers who kept doing suicide bombings, and an AT-AT. I also blew up 3 Mining facilities. I only lost 1 Inflatrator. Since I captured the ground I also got rid of their Space Station.

I tried to do the same on Ryloth, I killed Boba Fett, killed another 7 squads of Stormtroopers, blew up 2 Twi-Lek structures, some more Scout Troopers, but then Veers came in his special AT-AT and used Maximum Firepower, and well my guys were all together so they went bye bye.

I've done lots of great stuff with the Empire too. Had one Acclamator Cruiser take out some 8 Corvettes by it self. Oh and Darth Vader is damn near unstoppable unless 20 or so tanks surround him.

I've used Barracks to great effect since once the Rebellion invaded with about 60 or so units, yea a lot, I had 3 Barracks and two Factories, so I kept sending in the automatic squads it spawns. Every Barracks and such facility has an unlimited number of units that it can spawn, but each facility only gives you an additional unit. So I just kept sending these squads to bottle up their forces, and every time they died I got a new one and sent that one in, and I just alternated like that.

Always, always take out Barracks and such, otherwise you'll just keep having to fight an endless supply of the enemy. But hey this is what bombing runs are best for.

Great game, and AT-ATs are sweet, but take forever to build sadly.

Icewolf · 30-03-2006, 01:12

I must admit I didn't like it too much, it was like a strategy light game, the space and planet fights are fast - too fast and too easy imho. The universe economy is fun, but very limited as well. Must admit I liked Lord or the Rings II more, has a lot more options with levels for heros, power points from won battles and the chance to create your own heroes as well.
Don't get me wrong, not a bad game at all, but it feels like it's missing something.

cu starside
Ice

DeEvil · 31-03-2006, 15:14

i have to agree with icewolf.. a good game indeed, but there is something i miss in it.. dunno really what.. but something to make it great..

hmm something wrong with my org copy or so ? cause i cant make my own "maps"..

Chirnovnik · 31-03-2006, 20:54

i was disappointed by it. It seemed to me like 3d graphics slapped over a second class 2d engine. Homeworld provided superior space strategy.