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Great Game for its time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was one of the finest Star Wars game storylines I've ever seen. It rivaled that of Jedi Knight I: Dark Forces II. The graphics are fairly decent for being from 1998. The gameplay is great. It is really an awesome RTS. The Campaigns are really challenging and very fun. Although it isn't that fun to play more than once, there are some very challenging missions that will make your head spin. Also, the story, the rise and fall of Brenn Tantor and then his redemption. Then he even lives to see the fruits of his labored redemption. The story is great and it is vaguely reminiscent of Darth Vader's storyline.

A very good game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Do not be decieved by the other reviewers. i am a hardcore starwars fan and i found this game to be most entertaining. it is like Command and Conquer Red Alert:Yuri's Revenge. this game is in the third person and it shows the whole battle field. the game has a limit on the number of units so that it requires strategy instead of brute force. you can play as the rebels or the imperials. i found the imperials to be better than the rebels. the easiest way to win is to draw the enemy out with a squad of stormtroopers and crush the rebel scum from all sides with air attacks and AT-AT's. It was one of Lucasarts best games created.

Great Game Often Gets a Bad Rap

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Of all the early Star Wars games sporting improved graphics (compared to polygonal gems such as X-Wing Alliance) Force Commander ranks among the most fun to play. Like its modern twin (Galactic Battlegrounds) Force Commander requires the player to think strategically and be able to keep track of many battlefield units during multiple real-time conflicts over variable terrain. This game is for the more intellectual Star Wars fan so it isn't full of flashy lightsaber fights, alien shoot-outs, or fast-paced fly-bys in Incom T-65 X-wings; you'll actually have to use your noodle to enjoy it! And for these reasons the game often gets poor reviews, with "unengaging gameplay," "dated graphics," and "poor AI" among the common remarks. But nothing could be further from the truth. If you go into the game knowing what it is, you'll find Force Commander enjoyable and engaging with a high replay.

In short, Force Commander is Lucasarts' version of extreme battle-chess: it is an interactive 3rd person set of real-time 3D strategic missions that span the original Star Wars Trilogy. You can play in either Campaign mode, Skirmish mode, or Scenario mode and depending on the mode (and your progress), you play either as an Imperial or Rebel commanding officer Brenn Tantor, a hero with a dark past. Using a unique tactical screen that Lucasarts calls the 'Battlefield Holographic Control Interface' (BHCI), you control up to 60 seperate battle units, including Imperial ATSTs, ATATs, Mobile Artillery Units, and TIE Bombers, as well as Rebel Hover Tanks, Mobile Proton Torpedo Launchers that lay mines, Mobile Missle Launchers, and Rebel Troops with grenades. There are tons of other units available. You requisition additional units with your command tenure using a system of "command points" which work as currency. You earn tenure/points by controlling the battlefield, destroying or capturing enemy units, keeping your units alive, and preventing the capture/overrun of your planetary base. The max command point total is 5000.

On worlds including Tatooine, Serapin, Abridon, Endor, and Coruscant, you control your central base, ground, and air forces via the BHCI from your Star Destroyer or Rebel Command ship, orbiting the planet. Half-way through the campaign, or at any time in a skirmish, you have the option to leave your command ship and go to the planets' surfaces in a Tracked Mobile Base (TRMB). What you see on the screen for most of the game is intended to be a "holographic 3D representation of the battlefield" and not the actual battlefield, thus the battlefield units are *supposed* to look like 3D models.

Frequent cutscenes with a few dramatic twists provide excellent backstory and keep the player engaged throughout the campaign mode. You start the campaign as Lt. Brenn Tantor of the Empire, commanding a team of sand-troopers on a search for an all-to-familiar escape pod on Tatooine and (without spoiling the details) end up with the Rebellion by the end of the Campaign, storming the Imperial Palaces of Coruscant following the destruction of the Death Star II which you directly have a hand in. The Scenario Mode gives you a chance to go back and replay cutscenes or missions that you've already completed in the campaign.

In Skirmish Mode, you choose from a wide variety of worlds and environmental conditions in which to battle, you choose your side, and you start out with at most 2000 command points. The skirmish is over when you succesfully control the enemy's base and command bunkers and then mop up all additional enemy units on the battlefield. A skirmish is basically an annihilation exercise.

In all modes, the game is designed to limit available units & command points to force you to use strategy to win and not brute force. Each world/terrain presents specific tactical advantages & disadvantages which you must balance in your strategy, and each side (Empire/Alliance) has advantages over the other for different battlefield units. For example, Imperial units are inexpensive but have no shields, so most opening Imperial moves must be won by numbers. On the other hand, while Rebel units are a bit more expensive, they have shields which regenerate and so they last longer in head-to-head combat. Prior to each mission in the campaign, you load your battle units in the command ship's landing bay where you have the option to store and save critical units for later missions.

There are some disadvantages to this game: the AI has only one setting, making the harder campaign missions almost impossible to win on the first try. The BHCI, which you can toggle on/off, takes up a full 1/3 of the screen. If you fully use the tactical advantages of the BHCI this is not a problem, but if you rely solely on the view of the battlefield then you'll choke in a fight. Also, manipulating the camera takes some practice but if you combine camera manipulation with the weapon-grouping feature (shift + 1-9), you will actually have a tactical advantage over the AI. In addition, there are several shortcut keys which make quick work of frequently used features.

Going into any Force Commander battle requires strategy and if you combine the features of the BHCI with the tactical advantages of the particular battlefield terrain, this game is lots of fun. P.S. In a skirmish, the Empire always uses the same set of battle units for its opening move. Good luck and enjoy!

A good idea, a bad execution

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I can't help but laugh a little bit. LucasArts, once known for the very best in computer games, has within the past few years begun to decline in product quality and originality. Once upon a time they made actual non-Star Wars games too, ones that were really outstanding (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam and Max hit the Road, and The Dig come to mind), but as of late seem to be focusing almost entirely on the Star Wars motif itself. There's nothing wrong with that...since the release of SW Episodes 1 and 2, there's a much higher demand for Star Wars related games, and they're simply trying to fill in the demand.

But so many of the games are just terrible! And Force Commander is a good one to pick out of the bunch to illustrate this fact. The idea behind it I'm sure is that the guys at LucasArts saw how popular StarCraft was, and knew that Warcraft III was coming. So why not beat the boys at Blizzard to the punch? Thus became FoCom.

The plot is actually quite good....LucasArts never skimped on many games as far as that goes, and a great deal of effort went into the storytelling side of this game. You start out working for the Imperials, following the path of a certain Astromech droid who happens to have Death Star plans in it's memory banks. The graphics really aren't that bad either. The details on some of the units you have is quite good depending on what unit you're looking at.

The problems with the game almost outweigh the good things though. The camera control can be likened to strapping a camcorder to Tarzan's head and having him swing over the battlefield on a vine. And you can never seem to focus just right on the units.

But let's head straight to the single biggest gripe anyone who's played this game has. The music!...or should I say Muzak?
From the moment that extremely unique combination of classic John Williams gets blended with 2nd rate elevator music disco, you feel like screaming. The scary thing is that it grows on you as you play, and after 4-5 hours of it you'll start beebopping your head to certain tracks of the stuff.

The game isn't overly difficult to play, but there's some imbalance to it. An earlier post said you can win solely with infantry...and he's right. You need only build those to win. But make sure to mass them before you do attack, as your transport shuttles will only deliver 6 of the guys at a time. AT-AT's are still fun to run around in though, I won't lie, although they do have a tendency to get quagmired easily.

These are all overlookable problems in themselves, namely because of the price. You'll not find a better deal ..., and if you stick with it you'll find the game is fun, just a little hard to get into at first. Oh, just remember to turn off the music ;)

To many bugs to deal with

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm a pretty adament Star Wars fan, although i'm not to crazy about episodes 1&2, but that is for a different review, so naturally i went out and bought this game when it first came out. Unfortunately it is riddled with problems that even it's impressive graphics couldn't overcome. In theory it is a good game, but in theory utopia is possible. I can see how the creators envisioned it, and i'm not angry with them, just disappointed they put out an obviously defective product. Game crashes, and controls that get impossible to use the more units you have destroy all enjoyment of this game. I got only a little bit into the Missions before i couln't take it anymore. By the way, i have a Athalon 1.2, 400 Megs of ram, and a 128 voodoo 4 card, so there should be no problems, but for some reason there are. Overall i'd have to give this game:

Graphics: 4.0 (nice at the time, a little dated by this point)
Sound: 4.5 (some nice music and the such, but repetitive after a while, and some slight skipping)
Gameplay: 1.5 (this is where it loses a ton of points, it's an impossible game to play, even with overwhelming odds on your side, it's next to impossible to beat the computer)
Replay: 1.0 (I must admit, i tried numerous times to play this game, i just can't make it though an entire game it's to tedious.)

This game was good in theory, and from my understanding, Lucas Arts has made a much better one, so i recomend buying that.

Okay, for 9 bucks, I might say it's worth it...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It's a stretch, but I might recommend this game for 9 bucks. Why the 1 star then? Because the current rating is way too high for such a lousy RTS. I feel an obligation to warn any potential buyers that you're not likely to enjoy the game even as much as I did, since I happen to be a hardcore Star Wars fan.

Force Commander made waves when it was due for release, since it was highly anticipated as the first Star Wars real-time strategy title (Rebellion doesn't count). It made even more waves after it did come out, but not because of record sales. Let's just say that it fell a bit short of expectations. Here's a few reasons why:

Clunky interface- The camera controls are terrible and the terrain following camera does its best to put hills in your face instead of what you really want/need to see (i.e. the fighting). Issuing directions and forming teams is much like the Blizzard Warcraft/Starcraft style, but the icons that represent your units give little indication of their status. The camera rotation is more a detriment to play than anything else, as clicking around the minimap is more likely to disorient you than actually focus on what you want to see.

Lousy pathfinding- This is something that just HAS to work in an RTS. It doesn't work in Force Commander. Units will get stuck for no apparent reason, especially when navigating steep terrain or narrow valleys. You'll often have to back everyone up and send them through one at a time- that is, if they CAN back out without getting stuck again. Needless to say, this isn't something you want to do if the enemy is waiting on the other end or, even worse, above you.

Weak AI- All right, so if the enemy has the high ground, no problem right? We'll just blast them from where we are. WRONG! The AI is stupid enough that if you target units with an obstruction in between, your forces will just sit there and shoot into the blockade. Usually you'll have to maneuver around and up and right on top of what you want to kill before they can even hit it.

Mediocre graphics- All right, you would think they at least got this part right. After all, what is Star Wars without the special effects? While the scaling does look better than your typical RTS, Force Commander's graphics are obviously outdated (I'm saying this from when it was released, let alone now). While the units are decently modeled, the problem is that if you zoom in enough to see the detail, you pretty much give up your command privileges. That said, the weapon effects and movement are uninspiring and repetitive. It looks like something you'd expect out of a lesser 2-D game, and in fact I'd argue a lot of 2-D strategy games do a better job.

Soundtrack- This is a serious problem. I don't know what the folks at LucasArts were thinking, but the John Williams soundtrack is as much a part of Star Wars as the Force. They did something based off it, and the result is an assault on your ears. Don't listen to it.

Stupid resource model- Or more appropriate, NO resource model. Points to LucasArts for thinking up something new, to keep the battle going rather than worrying about mining resources. And negative points for making it so stupid. I would almost say it's unworkable, but it might actually work as long as you stick to single play.

Balance issues- So what's the real reason this game is tempting? Let me guess... AT-ATs right? Sorry to rain on the party, but AT-ATs are lousy. They get stuck more easily than other units and cost too much. You're much better off building stormtroopers. Yup, just those will do it. In fact, you can win any fight with just infantry, and pretty darn quickly too.

Since I've put in all these words deprecating the product, I'll also say that it does have some strong points. First off, the story is decent, which is better than you'd expect from a typical RTS. The movies are also worth seeing at least once, and at the moment FoCom remains the only 3-D Star Wars RTS (Galactic Battlegrounds is the other, based off the Age of Kings engine). Lastly, it's dirt cheap now, so it might be a worthy risk if you're a very bored person. Just don't expect to be blown away.

Good game, hard to play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game has great graphics/sound/music/story line, just hard to play.I reccomend it to any star wars gamer though!!:)

Force commander is awsome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

lets cut to the chase this game is one of the best games out there because of the STORY you're Brenn Tantor
A stormtrooper that gets promoted to a luitenent in the Imperial army the first level has you looking for the escape pod from episode
IIV and ends after episode V the graphics are cool and so is the music But I still Really like the STORY.

Excellent story, pretty good gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a good game for people who like Star Wars and also like good stories. If you want just a hard-core game with excellent graphics, you can get some of that here, but that's not the best part of this game. Also, Force Commander is unusual in strategy games in that you have to destroy enemy units to get "command points" which you can use to call down units from orbit in transports. Overall, a pretty good game that I've played quite a bit.

A Good Game But Still not as good as I hoped

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Like I said in my title, a good game but still not as good as I hoped. First of all to make the game perfectly smooth, you have to have a brand spankin new computer. I have a 450 mhz pentium 2, 128 mb of ram, and an excellent video card. If your comp is anything less, I recommend upgrading your computer befor purchasing this game. The game play is good though. The mission and skermishis are fun, but the game is very limmiting. It's imposible to have as many units on the front intro all at the same time. And the fighters can act stupid sometimes. And something weird is on the back of the box, it shows A-Wings, yet there are no A-Wings in this game. The camera buttons are also very hard to learn, so playing the tutorial is a MUST if you don't know them by heart. The graphics and sounds on this game are remarkable. I mean Even the smallest Stormtrooper, or the largest AT-AT is detailed to the bone. I think this game is supposed to be a recovery for the not so great game, Star Wars Rebellion. (I also have a review about Star Wars Rebellion) Next time, I hope they make a game more like rebellion but much better. With Rebellion a good idea back fired. This game also doesn't hold your intrest very long, at least it didn't for me. Final Verdict: 3.5/5

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