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Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga

Score: 80%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Media: CD/2
Players: 1+
Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

The concatenation of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and its expansion pack Clone Campaigns into one package, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, comes with no direct changes or additions. The two games are pretty much left completely intact, which is both positive and negative. Since there are no changes, the graphics are still embodiments of the age of empires engine, and while those graphics are dated by quite a few years, the imagery of tiny Storm Troopers and Jedi running around brings a tiny smirk to my face each time I load the game. The maps are nice, making representations of the worlds prominent in all of the Star Wars movies, but can appear shoddy at times. By personal preference, I enjoyed wandering through Tatooine watching the Banta scurry for lunch, but felt slightly ripped off by some of the building and scenery representations. It really is hit and miss.

Cut scenes leave more too be expected since the only full motion video appears in the beginning of the game. Campaign details and discussion are left to fixated images and scrolling type.

Although the graphics are problematic in places, I was still impressed by the believability of the Star Wars universe. Furthermore, the sound effects and music quality score high marks in all aspects. Extended hours of play may lead you to notice repetitiveness in unit speech, but there are interesting narrations by main Star Wars characters, and the score is top-notch, grade-A John Williams. A pleasant mixture of tunes from the movies link together in a harmonious eternal soundtrack that is always interesting and pertinent to the situation inside the game.


Gameplay:

As previously noted, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga contains the same features as the two games that it supplements, Galactic Battlegrounds and Clone Campaigns. Instead of simply mixing the expansion pack and the original into one synchronic title, Saga allows you to play inside of the original or inside of the expansion. This way, gamers who never played the game before get to taste exactly what those who own both packs experienced.

Galactic Battlegrounds is an RTS set in the Star Wars Universe. Packed with familiar faces from the movies, you'll perform campaigns, which follow events portrayed in each film. Clone Campaigns expands the basic Galactic Battlegrounds with two full campaigns featuring events from Episode II.

The overall goal in Galactic Battlegrounds is to accomplish a list of objectives advancing you through the campaigns. Objectives include setting up trading posts, seeking specific objects, building certain structures, or an array of other possibilities. Buildings and unit production is executed by conserving and using four main resources, and as production counts rise, you will need to supply ample base housing.

Clone Campaigns features the same set of game play design as Galactic Battlegrounds, with a few small tweaks. Some changes include the addition of more characters, the inclusion of 'remote power druids' and additional unit and building upgrades.

If the campaigns just get too tedious or boring, a scenario editor lets you create your own scenes. Giving you maximum control, it is slightly difficult to manage but could be interesting if you put in enough time to create your maps correctly. Multiplayer games are also supported, though it is nothing revolutionary.


Difficulty:

Each level of the campaign becomes increasingly difficult as objectives stack up and requirements get tougher to control. Generally each campaign starts you off with a small fleet of units, and your enemies are usually equipped with a multitude of forces. Ultimately Galactic Battlegrounds turns into a 'create as much as you can and storm the enemy base' type game. Defeating the enemies with strategic warfare simply does not work when they typically outnumber you. I found myself generally building up large forces and moving in through the enemies' bases one step at a time.

Game Mechanics:

Both entities, Galactic Battlegrounds and Clone Campaigns share the same control set up. Capable of playing entirely via mouse interface, a number of hotkeys are also provided for advanced gamers wishing to have more control over their units. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen indicates the operations currently pending, and also acts as a menu of possible commands.

Most hard-core Star Wars fans probably already own a copy of Galactic Battlegrounds and the Clone Campaigns expansion. This multi-pack will not be of much use to those, except that the games are packed onto one disc set. If, however, you are a mild Star Wars aficionado and you do not own a copy, there are hours upon hours of play to be enjoyed inside this miniaturized Star Wars Universe. Fans of the RTS genre will appreciate the unique appearance to standard genre architecture, and in general will enjoy playing, at least until the 'newness' wears off.


-==Boy, GameVortex Communications
AKA Kyle Prestenback

Minimum System Requirements:



Win 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, 100 percent DirectX compatible, 233Mhz CPU, 32MB RAM, 2 MB graphics card, 4X CD-ROM, Keyboard or Mouse, DirectX 8.0a
 

Test System:



Windows 2000, AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 128MB RAM, 75GB HD, nVidia Vanta TNT2 video card, on-board sound, 40x CD-ROM

Windows Star Trek: Bridge Commander Windows The Partners

 
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