abba has gathered the scum of the galaxy to fight for his prize, and lucky players can be that scum in Star Wars: Demolition, the game that invites players to shoot up and smash through large sections of George Lucas' universe. Games based on the Star Wars license tend to reach for the high-minded ideals of the series, to put the player in the place of heroes or would-be heroes of the rebellion, fighting the pivotal fights that will determine the fate of the galaxy. This tradition is not in any way continued by the latest installment, Demolition.
In Demolition, players fight for Jabba the Hutt's pleasure and profit in a variety of arenas, but even the term gladiators is too glamorous. Prize-fighters is closer to the mark. Characters have life histories that land them, with a vehicle in which to fight, on Tatooine in the period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. These include: a Wookiee mechanic trying to be his own best advertisement by winning in a restored tank; a failed Imperial Walker commander who escaped Lord Vader's displeasure and wants to buy a condo on Bespin with his winnings; teen-age twin-sister snowspeeder pilots whose crush on Han Solo led them right into Jabba's lecherous clutches; and on and on up to the cream of the crop, the as-yet-uneaten Boba Fett, riding high with his rocket pack, just to prove that he's the best of the worst.
The goal of the game is to defeat all opponents in a series of battles. The first battle will be against one opponent, the second against two, the third against three, the fourth against four. Victory yields a victory animation, defeat a defeat animation. Decisive victory unlocks new characters.
The fighting is done from an over-the-shoulder perspective as the contenders swoop and snoop around a variety of arenas (Dagobah, Mos Eisley, Yavin, Hoth and more) where Jabba has somehow gotten permission to hold his contest. The ground is littered with power-ups and secondary weapons. These secondary weapons are the key to victory, as the primary weapons that come with the vehicles are for the most part pretty useless. The ensuing game of cat-and-mouse rewards patient strategy and the wisdom to know when to run away.
Light-hearted death and destruction
Demolition can be exciting, with even the most damaged craft just a couple power-ups away from becoming a fearsome engine of destruction. The interactive battlefields provide hazards that can interrupt a fight or even destroy a contender at any time. Not even the butchest craft can ignore being run over by a Sandcrawler or sucked into the Sarlac pit.
The graphics are good: detailed, dynamic and authentic. In a clever touch, objects are scaled to the size of the player's vehicle, so everything's much smaller when you drive the walker than when you fly the rocket pack. The audio effects are vivid, and the weapons sound convincing. There are some in-character voice clips as well, which work but are far too sparse and repetitive.
The same could be said of the entire "role-playing" part of the game. The winning and losing animations look good (especially when depicting non-humans) and interact with each other and the larger saga in surprisingly clever ways. But there's no "campaign," no sense of leading a character on an ongoing quest. On one hand this fits the characters perfectly: They just want to win, grab the purse and get off Jabba's barge in one piece. On the other, this means there's no reason to keep playing a character after scoring a decisive win, and as there are only so many characters, the game becomes "solvable" in a relatively short period of time. Once the few additional characters are unlocked, it's pretty much over.
One solution to this could be playing against other humans, but there are two problems. One is that the screen is divided between the players, which can lead to a lot of frustration because of the players' limited ability to see obstacles on a split screen. The other is that competent humans are so good at evading each other that fights can literally last forever.
So Demolition is a fun action game with a lighthearted take on the Star Wars mythos, but with repetitive play that could put the game on the shelf permanently after just a few fun-filled days.
A nice surprise is how elements of Phantom Menace are reasonably incorporated. For example, the Naboo arena is a historical monument to the great Gungan battle, the Jawa character remotely controls a salvaged "roger roger" robot flying on a STAP, and the Pod Racer is piloted by Sebulba's lowlife grandson.
-- Bob
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