| |
 |
|
Date |
: Dec 3rd, 2001 |
| Genre |
: Strategy |
| Developer |
: LucasArts |
| Author |
: Jin-Ning Tioh |
|
Similarly to the popular Age of Empires II, many missions will also be available, such as treasure-hunt missions, monument-building missions, resource-collection missions and search-and-destroy missions. However, your goal will typically be to wipe the enemy forces off the map by building up your own forces, researching new technology, expanding your territory, and laying siege to the opposing bases. Advancing through the tech levels are also important to keeping your forces armed with the latest in technological weapons. For instance, deploying the Galactic Empire's devastating AT-AT walkers requires you to advance all the way up to tech level four. Thus, powerful units won't be available to generals until late into a match.
Age of Empires II featured huge skirmishes between hundreds of opposing militias and champions. Similarly, massive, diverse armies of powerful troopers, mechs, starfighters and naval ships will clash in titanic battles. There will also be a 200-unit limit during multiplayer sessions between opposing generals and warriors.
The introduction of air units changes the game dramatically, as it adds another dimension to think about when fielding armies. Walls can no longer be used to shut out invaders long enough to marshal your defenses. A general who builds up only his ground forces such as repeater troopers and strike mechs is courting defeat. Armies such as these only need encounter a squadron of TIE Bombers, Y-Wings, Z-95 Headhunters or TIE Defenders to be wiped off the map in a matter of minutes. However, all is not lost. To defend your armies against such aerial assaults, one must employ the services of anti-air troopers or anti-air mobiles. All it takes is a blast or two from these nasty troops to reduce starfighters to shredded pieces of junk metal. Attacking a base defended by anti-air turrets with a squadron of fighter or bombers is nearly as good as suicide. Still, players will have to be mindful of an enemies' air capabilities.
Power stations also add a new twist. These stand-alone stations are required to power up various facilities in a large base. Upon constructing a station, a blue circle displays where your power is maximized. If you build a structure outside of your power base, it will operate at only 25 percent efficiency, causing your troops to be trained slower, starfighters and mechs to be constructed slower, and your research to proceed at only a quarter of its capabilities. Thus, building up several of these power stations is essential to keep everything running at maximum efficiency.
Animal nurseries are also crucial to the survival of a colony. Housing creatures such as nerfs and banthas, these supply your troops with a steady amount of food. Each animal nursery houses up to ten nerfs or banthas. The more nerfs in a nursery, the faster your supply of food increases. Of course you can kill a nerf or bantha for a quick supply of food, but in the long run, housing them in nurseries prove to be more beneficial.
Troop centers and mech factories are also crucial to the war effort. From here, armies train regular troopers, mounted troopers, grenade troopers and anti-air troopers. As you advance through the tech levels, troopers are better trained and generals gain access to new types of units entirely. At the mech factory, you can assemble strike mechs, mech destroyers and assault mechs. For game balance purposes, each civilization's units, despite appearances, are meant to be roughly equivalent. It would be frustrating to have to flip through the manual to see whether a Gungan Faamba is a mech-type unit while in the middle of a pitched battle. While the more basic naming convention sounds uninspired, we can see the logic in going this route, especially if it makes the game more balanced and easier to play.
The interface has changed somewhat compared to Age of Empires II. LucasArts has brought the top banner of information, detailing the resources, down to the bottom interface bar. And there is now a section just above the unit and building information display that shows relevant information about the selected unit or structure, such as whether the object has shields, whether it needs power, whether it has stealth technology, and whether it is a detector unit. While these changes and minor additions aren't big, they do serve to make the game a tad more user-friendly and intuitive. Also, the interface bar changes ever so slightly with each different race.
Also worth a mention is the Data Bank found in the main menu. It contains a wealth of information for the die-hard Star Wars fan on the history of several key planets, the heroes and villains including Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Vader, as well as the development of unit types over the centuries and the six civilizations.
|
|
