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Star Wars: Empires At War (quick review)
Norlion
Earthforce Officer
in Zocalo v2.0
The Good
This game has great graphics and sound. Everything is pretty Star Wars-like. The cinematic view is totally awesome. I like the various units and diversity of environments.
The Bad
This is not a 4X game. If you like command and conquer then you will like this game. I prefer the sandbox as opposed to...Sheridan lost that battle against Clarks forces...care to fight again. NO NO NO. The story campagins follow this thread. The galactic conquest is a sandbox environment but all the maps are pre-formed. One map might have all the planets on it but the rebel and empire each start off with a third of them rather than building from the ground up.
The Ugly
The diversity of units is pathetic. You can only build a few structures per world. The heros are monsterously powerful and the ground battles are long gruling experiences. There is an auto-resolution that penalizes you horrifically. Strategy is very limited due the lack of diverse units. The graphics, awesome as they are, sacrific gameplay.
Comparison with other 2006 4X:
Galactic Civilizations and Space Empires V will blow this game away in strategy but SW: EAW will win in graphics.
Originally I imagined that this would be a SW: Rebellion II. Nope. It moves in the right direction, but the lack of, B-wings, TIE Interceptors and Super Star Destroyers screams expansion in the works. It almost seemings like an incomplete package. Still I expect it will sell well since it your only option, besides Rebellion, for conquering the Star War galaxy unless you count mods.
Entertaining as it is, I cannot endorse the Babylon 5 clone of this game, even if it has William Shatner in it.
This game has great graphics and sound. Everything is pretty Star Wars-like. The cinematic view is totally awesome. I like the various units and diversity of environments.
The Bad
This is not a 4X game. If you like command and conquer then you will like this game. I prefer the sandbox as opposed to...Sheridan lost that battle against Clarks forces...care to fight again. NO NO NO. The story campagins follow this thread. The galactic conquest is a sandbox environment but all the maps are pre-formed. One map might have all the planets on it but the rebel and empire each start off with a third of them rather than building from the ground up.
The Ugly
The diversity of units is pathetic. You can only build a few structures per world. The heros are monsterously powerful and the ground battles are long gruling experiences. There is an auto-resolution that penalizes you horrifically. Strategy is very limited due the lack of diverse units. The graphics, awesome as they are, sacrific gameplay.
Comparison with other 2006 4X:
Galactic Civilizations and Space Empires V will blow this game away in strategy but SW: EAW will win in graphics.
Originally I imagined that this would be a SW: Rebellion II. Nope. It moves in the right direction, but the lack of, B-wings, TIE Interceptors and Super Star Destroyers screams expansion in the works. It almost seemings like an incomplete package. Still I expect it will sell well since it your only option, besides Rebellion, for conquering the Star War galaxy unless you count mods.
Entertaining as it is, I cannot endorse the Babylon 5 clone of this game, even if it has William Shatner in it.
Comments
Which is exactly what it is.
I'm glad its possible to skip the ground battles, as they're not much fun. I still play them from time to time (it was nice to see that Korriban has a very similiar layout to how it appeared in KOTOR1 and 2).
It's the space battles that the real fun can be found, espeically when the Rebels attack a planet that only has a Tech 1 space station and a handful of TIEs to defend it.
Worf
Correct me if I am wrong but GalCivII and Space Empire V (SE5) are the only space 4X games coming out this year that we know of. I also expect the Babylon 5 mod for SE4 will translate over to SE5. Not that it is hard and fast but Space Empire V will come out in June.