| Product: |
Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire (N64) |
| Date: |
04.04.07 (150 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The piloting levels, the sound
Disadvantages: The rest of it is really quite unexceptional and frustrating
The Star Wars franchise and videogames are a frustrating combination. While George Lucas’ tale of a Galaxy Far, Far Away has inspired some thoroughly fantastic videogames, for every Knights of the Old Republic there seems to be at least 3 Rebel Assaults. Likewise, what has become known as the ‘expanded universe’ of Star Wars, the many books, comics and side-stories licensed by Lucasfilm but not considered canon is notoriously hit and miss in terms of quality. Shadows Of The Empire is a bit of an oddity, in that while technically an expanded universe property, was actually instigated by Lucas himself.
Shadows is actually not 1, but 3 separate projects, all parts of the one story. Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The JedI, a novel by Steve Perry covers the main story, introducing the evil Prince Xizor, a reptilian-like human who intends to oust Darth Vader from the Emperor’s side by killing Luke Skywalker, but also introduces Han Solo’s old smuggling buddy Dash Rendar as, on order of the Rebellion, he tries to track down his carbonite frozen buddy and wrestle him from the clutches of Boba Fett. There was a Dark Horse Comics series, which mainly focused on Fett and the tribulations he faced in getting Solo to Jabba the Hutt, and finally today’s subject, the videogame produced for the then fresh Nintendo 64.
The idea behind the project was that you needed to read/play all 3 to get the full story, and the game thrusts the player into the role of Dash Rendar, from his first run in with the Rebel Alliance, as they take on the Empire at the battle of Hoth, right through to taking on Xizor at the Battle of Skyhook. The plot of the game doesn’t have a great deal of depth, while I’ve never read them, I’m certain the book and comics will go into more, but we basically have a decent enough plot to take Dash through all the familiar Star Wars locales like Ice Planet Hoth and Desert Planet Tatooine, as well as the obligatory space battle. Dash is basically Han Solo 2, your swashbuckling mercenary with a heart of gold, who pilots the Outrider, a similar ship to the Millenium Falcon, which Dash believes superior. Needless to say the game focuses more on the blasters and battles aspect of the series than the Force and Lightsabers, we don’t even see Darth Vader.
The game has 2, technically 3 modes of play to it. The first, where you start off, is in control of a ship, starting with a snow speeder on the icy planet of Hoth, is arguably the highlight of the entire game, and I recall playing it on a pod in a shop upon the game’s release and being blown away by it. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars, I mean I grew up with the original trilogy constantly on in my house as a kid, so I definitely appreciate it, but I can genuinely say I’ve never tried to use the force (well not often), with this said, zipping about in a Snowspeeder, tripping up AT-AT walkers with a tow cable is the kind of thing I dreamed of in a Star Wars game since I played the JVC NES game, and by god it doesn’t disappoint. Sure you’ve got to blast some droids and AT-ST walkers, but let’s be honest, it’s all about the tripping up of AT-AT’s. Further flight levels put you in the seat of Dash’s Outrider, first of all under the control of his droid-companion Leebo, with you taking the Gunner’s seat, and in full control in the climax as you try to take out Xizor’s Skyhook space-station and destroying his Star Viper forces. These levels also pack an enjoyable punch, especially the finale, as you make runs on the core of the Skyhook, dodging obstacles and launching missiles. It’s probably the most enjoyable depiction of space combat the franchise has seen since the marvellous Star Wars Arcade.
Sadly, these sections only take up 3 out of 10 stages in the game. Boo. 6 of the others see the player take control of Dash himself, in a Third-Person Adventure style affair (shockingly, often referenced as a Doom-style game…and while you can adopt a First-Person-View, you certainly couldn’t play the entire game like that) where you basically run around, flip some switches, jump across platforms and shoot robots, Stormtroopers, Wampas and so on. Dash can shoot, pick up a variety of weapons, such as seeker missiles or stunners, jump, strafe, and generally act like any other Third-Person-Adventure game hero of the era, only with the addition of a jetpack in some levels. Sadly it’s these stages in which the game falls apart a bit. You see, in theory, it’s a playable if thoroughly by-the-numbers adventure game for it’s time. Granted the enemies get very repetitive (sand wampas? Come on, you can do better than that), and it has some lame touches like all Dash’s attacks coming from the same pistol, but where it falls apart is the looseness of the controls. See the response of the fire, jump, jetpack and so on are simple to pick up, and respond fine…but the actual analogue control of Dash is at best workable, and at worst infuriating. Jumping and sliding right off an edge isn’t uncommon in the game, which makes me wonder if the entire Star Wars universe is coated in Teflon. The enemies are repetitive, and in the worst possible way, with the small, spherical, droids being the most frequent, and worst of all, the most deadly. I swear the average one of these inflicts more damage than the majority of bosses. Speaking of bosses, they start off really cool, dodging around an AT-ST Chickenwalker and taking it down, fighting the robot bounty hunter IG-88 and the infamous Boba Fett and his Slave-1 spaceship, but end up taking a turn for the lame in the latter part of the game, fighting generic robots that could have come out of any lame Sci-Fi shooter.
What rounds off the game’s 3 game types is easily the worst of them all, where you take control of a Swoop speeder bike, and pursue and have to defeat swoop-pilots through the streets of Mos Eisley. In theory this could have been a neat little stage, but if I thought the controls were bad in the Dash mode…good lord, nothing prepared me for this. If you can beat this level…there shouldn’t be much in any game, ever you can’t achieve. It’s easily one of the most painful things I’ve ever endured in a videogame.
So of the game’s 3 gameplay modes, one is very enjoyable, one is passable yet annoying, and one is thoroughly disgusting, put together it doesn’t make for an altogether enjoyable experience. It’s far from the worst game, or even Star Wars game, out there, yet at the same time, I’m not sure why anyone besides the biggest Star Wars fanatic, would want to try it, especially in this day and age, and even the biggest franchise fanatic probably couldn’t bring themselves to really enjoy it, the 3 piloting levels aside.
Graphically the game is sound enough for a first-generation N64 title, and still holds up decently, naturally the piloting levels being the stand-outs, but they are the ones that require the least work graphically, being set to backgrounds of either an icy wasteland or outer space. The other stages really vary from one to another, the indoor, space stations and so on look good, and really capture that Star Wars ‘feel’, though the outdoor levels can leave quite a bit to be desired, with the limitations of the N64 really showing up. The character models aren’t the worst I’ve seen, yet they do move in a fairly stiff manner, especially Dash’s hilarious dull manner of holding a gun and shooting.
Sonically, the game is actually very impressive. I’m not sure if it’s actually John Williams’ score, but it sounds a great deal like it, and contributes to the atmosphere greatly. What’s also impressive about it, is the implementation of it. The game doesn’t have music consistently ongoing, which can actually add to the atmosphere when in a desolate setting like the desert. Sound effects seem ripped straight from the movies, which keeps up an authentic feeling.
If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t say I regret playing through Shadows Of The Empire, I’ve endured much worse, but at the same time, I’ll probably never play it again, and certainly wouldn’t go as far as ever recommending it to anyone else. The only people who’ll really take much out of it will be the true Star Wars fanatics, who have/plan to play the game on virtue of license already anyway. For the common gamer, the N64 has better action titles, you’d be better looking elsewhere.
Review also posted on Epinions.com
Summary: Star Wars fans may enjoy the 'experience', but it's really not a very good game.
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