Star Wars: Empire at War
February 27,2006 -

Star Wars fans have been clamoring for a decent RTS since, well, the proverbial “long time ago.” Galactic Battlegrounds doesn’t count: it was Age of Empires in Star Wars clothing, barely worth the trouble. Now, Empire at War sets out to rectify the situation, and all in all, it does a very good job of doing just that. It isn’t without its problems, such as unremarkable ground skirmishes, but the tactical galactic map and some stunning cinematic space battles raise it above those annoyances. It’s also surprisingly difficult, requiring a good amount of real strategy and relying less on sheer numbers of units to make a dent. There’s a lot of game here, and it’s solid enough to stay on your hard drive for a while.

Two campaigns are on tap: Rebellion and Empire. One of Empire at War's greatest strengths is how differently each one plays, and which heroes they bring along for the ride. Boba Fett, Palpatine, Obi-Wan, Mon Mothma—all of these familiar characters appear in the struggle, and each of them bring a unique component, whether it be economic, offensive, or subversive. Empire at War breaks down to two basic modes of play: the galactic map and land or space skirmishes. The galactic play is where all of your pre-battle planning and resource gathering take place. Unlike in traditional RTS’s, where you create a number of worker units to gather the resources you need to build units and apply upgrades while still managing your battles, the galactic map adds a TBS-style tactical feel for these elements, even though it actually functions in real time. Any planet you own generates currency, and you can spend this currency to create new buildings or units outside of skirmishes proper.

It all takes place in the context of the galactic map, where you can then move around your units to other locales, or perform other acts, such as subversively stealing Empire technology. The upside is that you manage all of these pieces outside of combat, and can make defensive and economic choices in a more comfortable atmosphere. The bad news is that the navigation in and out of the planets and menus is somewhat convoluted, and could have benefited from some additional streamlining.

Once you’re prepared for battle though, you drag the battalion you wish to take into battle into the appropriate location, be it in orbit or on the planetary surface. This doesn’t mean you begin the battle with every unit chosen in advance, however. The unit cap limits your number of available reinforcements, which can be dragged into the designated area until your cap is reached. To increase the cap, you capture and control reinforcement points, much like the control points in Dawn of War and Ground Control 2. Capturing these points doesn’t issue you new units, but it does increase your unit cap and bring in extra resources, allowing you to being in more reinforcements from your starting battalion. You may also bring in reinforcements when you lose units during battle, but they can only be dropped near a reinforcement point. In ground battles, a dropship brings in the ordered backup; in space, they zoom in with a whoosh, apparently from hyperspace.

The traditional RTS skirmishes work best in space, even if you don’t have full 3D camera control as we did in Homeworld and its sequel. Empire at War does a good job of glossing over the essentially 2D map with a fantastic 3-dimensional presentation. Squadrons of X-Wings and TIE Fighters use the space wisely, implementing the vastness of space in a more limited set of controls. Don’t let it sound disappointing, though: Homeworld is not everyone’s cup of tea, and Empire at War earns its wings by combining ease of control with the awesomeness of the cosmos. Using the space bar moves you to a cinematic view, which removes the HUD and focuses and zooms on various pockets of action. It actually works really well, and should you not like the current view, just press space again and the camera moves to a new one. You also have free camera control in space battles, although frustratingly, the option must be turned on in the game menus. On the other hand, you are limited to zooming and X/Y axis rotation in ground battles—and the cinematic views aren’t as spectacular.

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