Edsel Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 So did anyone run right out and buy Star Wars: Empire at War (it was released 2/17/2006)? I am very interested in this game since I really enjoyed Star Wars Rebellion which was released about 10 years ago (although I think not too many other people did). This game is rewrite of that one but with the much improved graphics and computer wizardry of nowadays. The problem is that I know this will be one of those enormous time-eater games. The sort you sit down to play and suddenly the entire evening is gone. I am also wondering about the learning curve involved. In other words I can't decide whether I want to take a gamble and buy it. If anyone here buys it please let me/us know what you think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War What I'd much rather see is a new Jedi "X" game. Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are two of my favorite games and I would really love to see another one or twenty in the series. Of course, I would also love to see any video game successfully integrate flight sim with first person shooter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boll Weevil Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I for one LOVE Star Wars Rebellion. It is the only game on my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Thrawn Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War the games not that great my friend bought it and its like a toned down version of RA2. RA2 was good but this one took all the main aspects but left out the ones that made it all star material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I love, love, love Rebellion. Every now and then I break it out again to play for awhile. Looked at the site for EAW, wasn't terribly impressed. The increased RTS elements actually turn me off a bit...I'd rather have more emphasis on the grand strategy stuff, than "look at how Darth Vader blows up those tanks!" stuff. I really liked the missions from Rebellion, and balancing fleet needs vs diplomacy, sabotage, protecting your own assets, eliminating enemy operatives, intelligence, inflaming local insurgencies, etc etc. Wonderful, wonderful game, my main disappointments with it were 1 ) I never got to play if head-to-head, only vs computer, and 2 ) Once you got to a certain point, it's real hard for the computer to make a comeback, so the last part of most games devolved into mopping up operations. I'd have to read some glowing reviews before I buy EAW. From first glance, seems more like a version of SW: Battlefront turned even more into Starcraft rather than a true successor to Rebellion. edit: for those who like grand-strategy games and aren't too concerned about glitz, I recommend Hearts of Iron II, game of WWII by Paradox games. A bit of a learning curve, but shouldn't be too much of a problem for any HERO gamer. "Real time" in the manner of Rebellion in that you can set the speed, and better in that you can easily pause, give orders all over the world, then resume. Can play essentially any country in the world - some of my favorite games in both HoI and HoI II have been as Rebublican Spain, Romania, and Nationalist China, but the major powers are great fun as well - more of an impact on the course of the war, but require more attention. This would be another dream multiplayer game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War Always wanted to try HOI as Mexico, cheat like crazy and invade the US:eg: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War Always wanted to try HOI as Mexico' date=' cheat like crazy and invade the US:eg:[/quote'] Could be fun. Even just turning Mexico towards the Axis and trying to get enough help to fend off the Gringos could make for an interesting game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted February 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War "Real time" in the manner of Rebellion in that you can set the speed' date=' and better in that you can easily pause, give orders all over the world, then resume.[/quote'] That is good at least. One of the things I absolutely hate is "real time" strategy games. I hate it to the point that I usually refuse to buy any strategy game that is "real time." I much prefer turn based strategy games. Rebellion worked since you could set the time passage so slowly that it might as well be turn based. When I play a strategy game, if my army is supposed to take two days to travel somewhere, I want up to two days of actual time to think about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War Could be fun. Even just turning Mexico towards the Axis and trying to get enough help to fend off the Gringos could make for an interesting game. yep--send a force south to attack Panama as the opening move, after firming up the border defenses. Bingo--big logistical problem for the Allies. Similarly, if one could attack in the M.E. from two sides by getting Turkey and Spain to join the Axis, then the Suez can be taken, and another logistical bottleneck created. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucian Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I found SW Rebellion to be an excellent game once I managed to get past the horrific interface. It has an enormous amount of depth and playability. Whoever designed the interface has a lot to answer for though. Im looking forward to playing Empire at War but Im not holding my breath. Similar to many other people, RTS games just dont do it for me. I dont like any game where the computer can win by clicking faster than I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War some RTS's have a pause button you can hit, and still select and command units(Sudden Strike for example). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhamin Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I've been playing Empire at War for a few days now.... The Galactic screen reminds me a bit of the old Rebellion map display, and you move forces around in a similar way. Your ships get there pretty quick however, there is none of this "in tranist for 92 days stuff". Given how quickly folks get around in the movies, the increased speed is probably fine. There doesn't seem to be a way to control time, but the campaign is pretty forgiving so far. (IE, the Rebels have only challanged me a couple times, but it is early yet). land Battles are a grind, a boring grind. Heros backed by Storm Troopers w/cover can tackle every land war I have encountered so far. The At-Ats, At-Sts, Tie Tanks, Hover Platroms, and Speeder Bikes seem really fragile given how expensive they are. Every land battle for me has turned into a "Vader kills everything while the Storm Troopers crawl behind to back him up". Maybe it gets better later...... Space Battles on the other hand are alot of fun. Lots of capital ships slowly maneuvering while Fighters swarm everywere and Corvettes zoom by with blasters blazing. You can target individual subsystems and ships begin to break apart as they are damaged. One interesting thing is that there are unit caps on what can be present in a battle, but not on what you can bring in your re-enforcements. You warp in with a mix of the best ships in your fleet and call for Re-Enforcements when you have suffered losses. Big fleets have an advantage vs. Small fleets in that they can call for help longer before depleting the reserves. At the same time even if you have 5 times the number of ships your enemy does you only fight with relatively even numbers. This avoids the "Untouchable Monster Stack" syndrome that is so common in strategy games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucian Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War some RTS's have a pause button you can hit, and still select and command units(Sudden Strike for example). Yeah, SW Rebellion was kinda like that. You couldnt issue orders while it was paused but you could slow it down so much that it might as well be paused. I agree that being able to issue orders while an RTS game is paused makes it a lot more palatable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inu Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War Yeah, SW Rebellion was kinda like that. You couldnt issue orders while it was paused but you could slow it down so much that it might as well be paused. I agree that being able to issue orders while an RTS game is paused makes it a lot more palatable. It turns it into a game, instead of a coordination exercise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucian Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I hired this game the other day. Unfortunately it tends to suffer greatly from being "Real Time Tragedy". Even the galaxy view is real-time. There isnt much in the way of strategy, but the eye candy is quite fun for the first few hours. The game *can* be slowed down enough (in single player) to allow thinking to prevail over reflexes, which is a big plus for me, but the lack of tactical depth means that there arent many decisions that will make much of a difference. I also found the game's extreme dependance on "Rock, Paper, Sissors" tactics to be very irritating and shallow. The game is actually quite dumbed down in complexity even for an RTS game which is pretty scary when you think about it since most RTS games are not exactly rocket science. In general its mostly just flashy graphics with very little substance. Not a very worthy successor to "SW: Rebellion" unless you value eye candy over game play which sadly, many people do. Lucian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperKlaus Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I'll agree with the general consensus here and elsewhere: 1) It's good, but not great. 2) Space Battles for teh win, Land Battles need serious re-evaluation. 3) Should have been Master of Orion with a different coat of paint. Now to tie this in to HERO (or RPGs anyhow). I'll state that I like the game for its general concept in the way that it makes the Rebellion feel like more of a serious force, one with a distinct, respectable military and the ability to control worlds that actually matter. I have never liked the "ragtag farmboys with hearts of gold" schtick that is so blasted common in fiction (I groaned openly when the start of EaW's Rebellion campaign referred to a corvette strike force led by a badass Reb officer as "ragtag"). Empire at War gives me, a potential GM for a Galactic Civil War game in the future, some sort-of-canonical support for a conflict of much grander scale and greater intricacy than the handful-of-insurgents-versus-enormous-death-machine setup the original movies provide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War I did buy this game but as I feared I haven't had much time to play with it. I have too many other things that I want to do with my free time. In two weeks I have played through all the tutorials once, and the first tutorial twice. That's it. From what I seen so far I tend to agree with the review that Lucian posted. The graphics are pretty but the overall tactics and strategy are lacking. So far the game has made me think about loading up Rebellion again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow_walker Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 Re: Star Wars: Empire at War land Battles are a grind, a boring grind. Heros backed by Storm Troopers w/cover can tackle every land war I have encountered so far. The At-Ats, At-Sts, Tie Tanks, Hover Platroms, and Speeder Bikes seem really fragile given how expensive they are. Every land battle for me has turned into a "Vader kills everything while the Storm Troopers crawl behind to back him up". Maybe it gets better later...... Thats the feeling I got from the previews I seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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