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Wow is just about all i can say....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: February 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is just about one of the most fun times i've had with any recent RTS games. The only other ones that i would consider as good as this one would have to be Rome: Total War or Empire Earth II. Very fun game with a unique system of play.

Will you save the galaxy as the Rebels as in the movies? Or will you change the fate of the galaxy by taking it over as the Empire?

You in some battles will be expected to fight on the ground and build a variety of different troops. Battling with the help of the local population (and maybe even a small hero from a local Cantina!) or in your effort to destroy the galaxy destroy both of them and take the planet for you alone. The other method of play is space battle which would have to be my personal favorite. The space battles do not have a whole lot of contruction to it. You build units at another planet then send them to attack a planet that may have a space station with a few star destroyer or even the death star. Heh now that machine is fun =)

Pros
-Grahpic are very good and there is another fun and a little bonus is a button called movie mode where you will be able to view your battles from a perspective a movie might be. Very unique.
-Methods of fighting in game that are somewhat unique. Retreat, call reinforcement (when you press this a small bar will appear on the side of your screen showing what reinforcements your are able to summon to your aid) which does have a type of population cap on it, bombing run (if you have bombers above the planet), and various other specials that ships and vehicles have
-Gameplay will last a long time with all of the different planets to conquer or destroy at your leisure.
Cons
-i thought movement was a bit sluggish from the units but maybe its just me
-Not really too much of a story line considering we all know whats going to happen lol.

Overall one of the most fun games i've played and bougt in awhile. A+ material.

A good Star Wars RTS

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: February 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is fairly good. There is a galaxy wide risk style game which plays simliarly to Total War strategic map. Unlike Total war, it is played in real time. From this level you build fleets to invade other star systems. You than choose to fight or auto resolve, this can be done with both space and land battles.

The tactical game is fun, since you get to fight with units from the star wars movies. This includes hero units, like Boba Fett, Han Solo, Chewie and Darth Vader, which are just a few. The counter system used, for space and land units, is pretty rescritive. Other games may use slight modifiers to damage based on armor or unit type. Empire at War takes it a step to far. Sometimes playing the game feels like Extreme Paper, Rock and Scissors not Empire at War.

Land maps are small and cramped. With an overt amount of land features, making them feel even more confined. Control of building pads, which you can build turrents or healing stations, adds some depth. Controling the space above the planet, and having bomders in orbit, allows you to use bombing runs. If placed right, they can destroy scores of units, or whole builds.

Space battles feel slighty better. Movement of capital ships is restricted by asteriod belts and nebulaes, but can be traversed by fighters and bombers. They can also hide in them, which is great for the rebels, with there powerful fighters and bombers. Its great seeing star destroyers and mon calmari cruiser duke it out. You can also target individual systems, like sheilds, hangars and engines, allowing you to destroy systems you know will give you problems. Space battles are the best part for me. It would have been nice to move the units in three dimensions but I like it as is.

Overall this is a great game for star wars fans. Any one expecting another Dawn of War or Total War. Should look elsewere.

Enjoyable Lucasarts product

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 231 / 240
Date: February 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was looking forward to playing this for awhile. I pre-ordered a copy and when it arrived I leaped into it. It is a decent game overall. The graphics won't wow you. They aren't top of the line, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing because it will play on a majority of computers out there today. There are little things they did add in like when ships explode and the men and pieces of metal will come tumbling out into space...nice touch.

I think I was expecting a bit more...there isn't a whole lot of tactics/strategy to the game that can't be solved by a quick mouse hand. If you excel at Warcraft/Starcraft type games then you will be right in your element. The space/land battle maps are very small and claustrophobic where there is no room for manuevering or flanking. It's basically move in and slug it out clicking all over the map to ensure victory. It's not completly dull, but it's awful close. In it's entirety however, they play pretty well and enjoyable.

One misperception I had was that the space battles were in 3-D similar to Homeworld or Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. They are very 2-D, but will appear 3-D if you switch to the cinematic camera which is pretty cool when you are in a big space battle and you have everything under control and can watch the battle unfold other than from a isometric top-down perspective.

The gameplay itself is entertaining, but I really did not like where time continued to advance on the strategic map. You can slow the time down a lot and of course there is pause, but time continues to advance and you need to stop and really slow things down immensly on the Galactic Conquest games. Speaking of pause there is no hotkey for it which makes pausing the game during land/space battles annoying especially when the battle is very busy and costs me a few units. I really would have prefered a turn-based strategic level similiar to Star Wars: Rebellion. On the massive Galactic Conquest map it's almost unplayable on a normal speed because it is so daunting managing 30ish planets. I highly recommend putting the speed to lowest and then just hitting the fast forward key if you need time to speed up a bit.

The tutorial and voice acting are very good. They explain the game pretty much without having to crack open the manual with a few omissions. I wasn't sure how to build Imperial Star Destroyers until I realized i needed to upgrade my Space Station as well (To build these big boys anyway you need to be on a specific planet as well.)

The game is fairly balanced between the Rebels and Empire. The Star Destroyers are definately the kings of the skies and tough to beat. The rebels have a lot of little tricks though to help them out like the annoyingly frustrating Raid tactic where the Rebels can bypass your defending fleet and land directly on the planet with a army to wreck havok. This forces you to overfortify a lot leaving little for offense at times if your borders cover many worlds. However, the AI isn't outstanding so you can bend a bit. For example, there seems to be a definate lack of building the big Mon Calamari cruisers or Imperial Star Destroyers on Galactic Conquest. I give the other side breathing space to get a big battle but the AI seems to only like to build average frigates and waaay too many missile boats which have the armor plating of a Pinto.

There is a cap on how many units can be on a Land/Space battle at one time. For space battles it is 25 points for the Rebels and 20 points for the Empire. Big capital ships like the Mon Calamari Cruisers and Imperial Star Destroyers fill up 4 points each with most frigate types taking up 3 points and your corvetters will fill up 2 points. Fighters like the X-Wing and Y-wing take up one point. The empire never has to build fighters because they auto-launch from Star Destroyers with the exception of the TIE scout (which sucks).

It's almost impossible to lose as the Empire. You can setup your fleet with five Imperial Star Destroyers (which puts you at a cap of 20 units out of 20 units) and fight a Rebel fleet 10 times your size and you will win everytime because the AI does not concentrate all their big capital ships and instead brings in lesser missile boats and corvettes which get chewed up by a few salvos from your Star Destroyers and you can focus on their Nebulan and Assault frigates one by one. The AI won't wait and concentrate, but send them in piecemeal to get smushed. One of the good parts of the AI is that it is very choosy where to attack. If you have fortified all your border planets with Level 5 space stations and a decent fleet the computer won't attack unless it has a big force. It will go on the defensive mostly and wait for you. It's not that much more challenging playing as the rebels either when I built up a large invasion fleet to combat Coruscant which was heavily defended and when the two Fleets engage I see the AI has decided in it's wisdom to build 39 TIE Scouts. Errr?

The heroes and villians are on a spawn timer with the exception of the Emperor and Mon Motha in most Galactic Conquest maps and campaigns. For example, that grrrr Han Solo you can kill with a Bounty Hunter or in battle but Shazam! in no time at all he's back up and kicking leading more forces past your fleets.

System stability. Well, I really don't have much to comment on this other than Lucasarts is definately paying attention to this release and there have been TWO updates i've downloaded from their site via their auto-updater when the game is launched. I guess the widespread negative reaction to their abysmal failure of a MMORPG prompted a lot more pampering to the latest Star Wars products.

Is it worth your time and money? Sure..why not. It's fun and there is nothing bad about it, but it's not going to knock your socks off. It's not the Total War engine (which honestly I was hoping for). You will enjoy the battles if nothing else. Just note there is nothing turn-based about this at all. Overall a 4 star game.

Pros
- Fun
- Cinematic camera angles are immersive
- Addicting gameplay
- Good voice acting
- Good tutorial

Cons
- Sub-standard AI
- Too easy even on Advanced.
- Cramped Land/Space battle maps.

It's everything REBELLION should have been

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 80 / 100
Date: February 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Lucasarts made their first stab at a Star Wars real-time strategy game in the late 90's with REBELLION (released in the UK as SUPREMACY), a mediocre game hidden beneath an absolutely horrendous interface. They followed that up soon after with FORCE COMMANDER, which was also disappointing. 2002 saw the release of GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS, the 3rd Star Wars RTS (real-time strategy) game, but it was essentially just an AGE OF EMPIRES total conversion.

This time, however, they got it right. This game is what REBELLION should have been. The concept is the same, however the interface is intuitive, the ground battles played out in real time, and with a much better space battle system. I'm not sure how fans of traditional RTS games will approach this one, but as a Star Wars fan I love it. It strikes the right balance of strategy and action. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of this game, but I've played enough of it to know that if you're a Star Wars fan, and you have any interest in a Star Wars RTS game, you're probably gonna love this.

Great RTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: February 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Star Wars Empire at War is a great RTS, one of the best in the last 5 years. Some basics about its game play are that it can be compared to such games as Comman and Conquer Generals and C&C Red Alert. It is basically the exact same game as Generals with just different units. In my opinion no RTS has lived up to C&C Red Alert and it's fast paced interesting gameplay, however this game is the best RTS since Red Alert came out around 2000.

My grades are...

Graphics B+

It's hard to expect great graphics from an RTS game but these graphics are hardly special. Some RTS's from 2000 even have better graphics. The units are not as great as they could look and the terrain is fairly boring because they apparently didn't put much time into detail.

Storyline/Campaign A+

Thanks to the Star Wars movies, the storyline is strong and interesting and will keep you glued to it to the very end. There is a lot of detail in this section of the game

Diversity A

There are a lot of units and vehicles that can be trained, as well as upgrades, buildings, and special attacks and weapons like bombing runs.

Accessability B+

The game takes a long time to understand the basics. I recommend the tutorial if you want to grasp the concept of the game quickly, however the tutorial is extremely boring and tedious and very time consuming, it can take upwards of 2 hours to finish. The game play can be hard to understand at times and it is not something that you can go right into and be a pro at.

Fun A-

It is fun and has great replay value, however most RTS's have a good replay value, this one is nothing special.

Overall A

The game overall deserves an A and is worth the money to buy, it definately is not the best RTS i've seen. It isn't very advanced either and easily could have been made many years ago. The thing I don't like the most is the speed of the game. It can be so slow at time, just like C&C Generals. I Might be used to the fast paced play of the red Alert RTS's but this still bothers me a bit.

Just plain fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: February 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've always loved strategy games, real time and turn based. Warcraft, Age of Empires and Civilization. But I'm not going get into whether Empire at War is better or worse than any of these. Because this game is just so much fun, period.

If you're strapped for budget, don't agonize over this one. Buy it and be glad. If money's not a concern, you've probably already got it. And if you don't, get it for gosh sakes. What are you waiting for, Richy Rich?

Elements I particularly enjoy.

- No time consuming micromanagement of resources. Build a mine and you're done. No creating villagers to gather from it.

- Unique units and abilities. Same concept as other games, but more intuitive and easy to use. Darth Vader has an effective attack for both machines and humans, Boba Fett's ship can drop bombs, bounty hunters counter smugglers. Etc.

- Skirmishes are challenging. You build up your land and space forces beforehand, which means once you start the battle, you have to win with what you have. Can't be careless with what forces you send in. If you're successful, you get a great feeling of accomplishment.

- Best of all, everything Star Wars. Sound effects, units, story line. Haven't you ever wanted to control a platoon of AT-ATs to take out a rebel shield generator? It's all familiar territory, but the experience of that territory is unique.

Lots of fun. Hope you enjoy.

The Force is strong with this one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. The only real problem is that it takes a little while to adjust to the revolutionary real-time system and the different battle system. It's main strength is that it doesn't have tedious resource gathering and you can jump into the action by building your army and attacking immediatly. But that doesn't mean you can spend, spend, spend. You still have to pick and choose carefully what units you need. The best part is that the factions are different. With the Imps, you have your trademark star destroyers and tie fighter while in the rebellion you have your X-wings and Y-wings as well as a few units not shown in the Star Wars movies. The cinematic mode actually makes it feel like you're watching Star Wars movie.

Too chaotic no strategy

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: February 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Horrible gameplay. This game has absolutely very little tactics, it's all about who has the most units. I was hoping this would be more like C&C Generals, but instead its more like a crappy version of Warcraft where its all about rush tactics. I would strongly suggest trying the demo before wasting your money.

Great game for Star Wars fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was a heavily anticiptated game for all RTS and Star Wars fans out there. The game takes place during the era betwen episodes III-IV and features decent graphics with an average AI.

What prevented me from giving this 5-Stars is the omission of Super Star Destroyers, Tie Interceptors, and B-Wing fighters. Surely they could've added these ships into the game. Perhaps they will feature it on an expansion pack.

If you like RTS games or the Star Wars saga, get the game. The graphics wont wow you, but nonetheless it's fun to take control of either IMPERIAL or REBEL units and change the course of Star Wars history.

May the force be with you...

JUST WHAT THE FANS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: February 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is so AWESOME!!!!! I have been waiting for this game for a very, very long time. It was everything I hoped for, and more. There are two things I didn't like: One was the single player campaigns were too short. What about Episodes 5-6? What about the Battle of Endor? What about a Super Star Destroyer? Another thing I didn't like is: why couldn't the Death Star move, and fire on capitial ships? Why couldn't it have the thousands of tubrolasers it was meant to? I hope they inprove this in a sequle or an expansion. Anyway, for any Star Wars fan, this is a must-buy game.

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