Vader vs. Chewie and Leia vs. Trade Federation?



Genre: RTS
Developed by: Lucasarts
Published by: Lucasarts

With Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Lucas Arts has once again put together a fairly decent game. After some recent failures as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and
Star Wars: Bombad Racing I certainly lost my faith. It is even more surprising Lucas Arts tried the RTS path again: one would think they learned something from the Star Wars: Force Commander debacle.

But this time no special engines; on the contrary: the used engine is exactly the same as the one used in Age of Kings! That made sure no big changes had to be made, which explains why this game took so short to develop. No bugs or errors however, which was the case with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

As Age of Kings used some 12 different races, not much difference could be seen between them. In fact: the only difference between two races from the same region was their special unit! This is solved in Galactic Battlegrounds: using only 6 races enables greater difference. Thus the Empire will have Walkers and the Trade Federation will have droid starfighters. Every race keeps its special unit: the Gungans have possession of portable shield generators while the Rebellion has the ability to develop snow speeders. This is a major adjustment, since that was virtually the only flaw in Age of Kings. It also adds to the durability and looks of the game (e.g. Star Craft).

The game features 6 campaigns varying from Chewbacca's father's rebellion against the Trade Federation, over the crushing of the rebel uprising after Yavin 4 with the Imperials to the fight of Han Solo and Chewbacca against the Empire on Kashyyyk (sic). Even some main characters from the books appear like Mara Jade and Attichituc (Chewbacca's father).

Also one other important adjustment: you do not have to kill animals for food. In Age of Empires you could only hunt animals, in Age of Kings you had sheep and turkeys which you could herd but in Galactic Battlegrounds you have the ability to put these animals in a nursery where they provide continuous food.

But in short: Galactic Battlegrounds is a game for fans. There is apart from the graphics no big difference with Age of Kings. The player has all the time the feeling that he has done this before. But the real fan will have a field day playing with imperial walkers, Darth Vader or the rebel X-wings.

Pros and Cons

+ That 'Star Wars-feeling'
+ Great soundtrack (John Williams!)
+ No bugs, no install problems, heck this must be a dream?
- I've seen this before…
- Why don't they make a mod for this?
- Those graphics sure could have been better

EP sez:

Galactic Battlegrounds is a strategy game but there are better games on the market (the unforgettable Star Craft!!!). Also it does not come cheap for just being a mod, so if you're not interested in Star Wars, this won't be your pick. Let's all just hope for future Lucas Arts Games such as Star Wars: Galaxies and the cool shooter Star Wars: Jedi Outcast, which are both coming around quite nicely.


Score:

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 6
Sound & Music: 9
Addictiviness: 5

Overall: 71%

(c) 2002 Erwin's Pages
Steven "Hobbie" Raeymaeckers

Links

> Official SWGB Site
> Lucasarts