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tar Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds jumps Microsoft's popular Age of Empires II real-time strategy game into hyperspace, blasting away the game's historical roots and replacing them with the familiar trappings of a galaxy far, far away. The hybrid game allows players to control six civilizations: the Rebel Alliance, the Wookiees, the Galactic Empire from the original trilogy, the Gungans, the Naboo and the Trade Federation from The Phantom Menace.
Fans of Age of Empires II will find that its stand-alone Star Wars iteration plays exactly like the original. Players gather resources from the land—including food and different kinds of ore—and then use them to erect structures and research new technologies. Civilizations pass through four distinct ages, gathering technological and tactical might as they do so.
Warmongers can construct dozens of units, from droids to stormtroopers to snowspeeders, and then use them to pummel their opponents into submission. For those who seek to follow Yoda's advice about using the Force only for defense, other victory conditions are possible: Players can gather up all the Jedi holocrons (relics in the original game) and hold them for 100 turns, or build a massive monument and hold it for an identical period of time.
Many of the units in the game are straight conversions of those from the original, with Rebel Alliance tauntaun and stormtrooper dewbacks replacing knights, various troopers replacing bowmen and assorted mechanized units succeeding siege weapons. Galactic Battlegrounds offers innovations as well, though, particularly in the forms of a mutated technology tree, shield technology and airpower.
The game is controlled from a top-down, isometric view of the battlefield that allows players to easily flip from one side of the map to the other. A simple menu that changes based on the unit or units selected allows players to set tasks or assign marching orders. Randomly generated and campaign-style single-player games are available, as well as a multiplayer version that lets up to eight people play over a local area network or the Internet.
Old-style strategy revisited
A year ago, LucasArts' own real-time strategy game, Force Commander, received a lukewarm reception among gamers who disliked its three-dimensional, free-form perspective and aggravating gameplay. This time around, the company decided to build its game on top of a proven industry winner, producing a game that isn't groundbreaking, but is certainly entertaining.
Galactic Battlegrounds offers incremental improvements over the two-year-old Age of Empires II, many brought about because of its science-fiction milieu. Air units represent one of the game's biggest changes. X-Wings and TIE fighters negate obstacles like forests and city walls, allowing deep strikes into enemy territory; if they can evade their opponent's anti-aircraft defenses.
The warped technology tree offers some cool new tricks, including an animal nursery that lets players gather and then raise livestock (including the Leia's favorite: nerfs). Power generators improve the efficiency of buildings within their range, while shield generators offer defensive bonuses. The six galactic civilizations have numerous special units: the Empire's Dark Troopers pack as much firepower as armored units, while the Gungans can field a giant, shield-generator-carrying lizard that is remarkably effective in protecting front-line troops. The game also introduces new "space maps," which are similar in theme to water maps, but rely on spacecraft to move from asteroid to asteroid. There are also civilization-based special abilities, like the Trade Federation's ability to forgo housing for its druid armies and the Gungans' knack for building underwater structures.
Galactic Battlegrounds' reliance on the tried-and-true Empires engine means that the graphics—while nice—are not cutting-edge. The game doesn't offer any major enhancements over its source material and shares its more annoying traits, such as infuriatingly basic diplomacy options. This is the game's strength and weakness—those who enjoyed the earlier game or who want a solid, old-style real-time strategy game will find Galactic Battlegrounds a worthwhile purchase. But those looking for major innovations or cutting-edge features will need to wait for another LucasArts release.
I expected Galactic Battlegrounds to simply be a rehash of Age of Empires, but there's enough new twists here to inspire a few all-night gaming sessions. — Ken
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