I know, I know. The last Star Wars strategy game, Force Commander, wasn't much good. So why should you be interested in this game?
For a start, it uses the Ensemble's Age of Empires engine and allows you to take command of Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Wookiees, Gungans, Royal Naboo and Trade Federation. Although it should be pointed out that the engine is taken from AoE 1, but it has been enhanced by LucasArts to catch up to today's standards.
The dated engine isn't such a bad thing however. Hundreds of units can be on the screen without any visible slow down, and as long as you can tell the difference between the units there should be any problems.
The game goes through the entire Star Wars saga, from Episode 1 to 6, with loads of landscapes to conquer in the galaxy. The battles will be over land, sea and air, and it's looking likely that there will be maps for every conceivable place in the Star Wars galaxy.
There will be plenty of resource management and upgradeable technologies to further complicate your strategy planning. You will also get to command X-Wings, landspeeders, AT-STs, Jedi Knights, droids and anything else you can remember from the films.
You'll also get the compulsory feature to all RTSs, a scenario editor. You'll be able to create battlegrounds only limited by imagination, for single and multi-player use.
It'll be interesting to see how this game is taken when it is released. Basically it's a MOD for AoE. While I'm sure this game is perfect for fans of both Star Wars and RTSs, it may not be good enough for true RTS fans and won't catch the interest of the the casual gamer. We'll just have to wait until Christmas to find out.
Star Wars Galactic
Battlegrounds
LucasArts
Winter 2001
PC Windows
