The sights that can be found in Battlegrounds are extremely detailed and smooth. The graphics look good, and you'll have no trouble discerning the many familiar units who populate the game worlds. From the smaller stormtroopers to the hulking AT-AT walkers, a full range of different-sized units are offered. Obviously, a lot of hard work and effort had to be spent on the artwork for the game, as the concept artists and modelers have outdone themselves. In addition to the more than half a dozen terrain tiles, there are hundreds of units and six civilizations, with every civilization expressing its beliefs and history in the looks of each and every one of their buildings or units. Each has a distinct visual style. The Royal Naboo, for example, have buildings that are beautifully carved and sophisticated, with gardens, columns, and intricate arches. The Wookies, in contrast, are a more utilitarian race who live in trees, and their buildings are propped up on stilts and constructed of a hodgepodge of metal and wood. The Gungans have buildings that are bulbous and glowing, with glassy bubbles similar to the underwater Gungan city of Otah Gunga. Each civilization also has a unique siege weapon, known commonly as cannons, which looks different, and even operate a little differently, although they fulfill the same role. And these sets of unique art don't even include the dozens of campaign-specific artwork being created just for the single-player missions.
LucasArts also felt that it was important to make each civilization easy for players to adept to. To that end, the designers made sure that even though the art for each civilization was unique, the buildings still shared the same silhouettes and shapes so that you could always tell what each building was, even if you were playing a certain civilization for the first time. Thus, the troop centers for the different civilizations will have different skins but similar shapes. If you move from playing as the Rebel Alliance to the Wookies, you won't have to relearn a whole new set of buildings. While they might have different textures and shades, they'll still have the same outlines.
The different terrain tile sets, representing homeworlds of the six civilizations as well as other neutral worlds, are also varied and unique in their own way. There are the spice mines of Kessel, the icy snow world of Hoth, the forests of the Wookie homeworld Kashyyk, the sands of Tattooine, the cloud city of Bespin, the Naboo capital of Theed, the forest moon of Endor and even an imperial held asteroid known as Hanoon. These worlds each have a unique look, emphasizing the diversity of the Star Wars universe. The Naboo tile set includes green fields and toppled statues on the ground, while the deserts of Tattooine feature, well, a whole lot of sand and rocks, punctuated by roaming herds of bantha. Bespin has a metallic and polished look to it, with great spires and floating metal platforms. In addition, these worlds are populated with indigenous creatures, such as rancors and bursas.
The sounds are also presented very well. There's a lot more speech in comparison with the Age of Empires series. As the team producer stated, "We explore more parts of Star Wars in this game. We're able to explore things that went on with the Wookies and Gungans. There is a lot more epic story here, bigger stories. We have a lot more voice. Age of Kings had like 800 to 1000 voice lines. We have over 5000." Each empire has a set of characters from the movies that are used in the campaigns. From the Dark Lord of the Sith to the noble Luke Skywalker, each character has a distinct audio set. Granted, you can tell that James Earl Jones wasn't used to record Vader's voice, but it sounds good enough. Just hearing Vader say, "All too easy" when ordered to attack a Rebel encampment is enough to bring a smile to your face. The atmospheric sound effects are also very good. The lush forests of Kashyyk is supposed to be filled with native wild live. Thus, players can hear the sound of crickets and other denizens of the forest crystal clearly. Each unit has distinct audio, as well. Again this makes sense, as a Rebel Trooper shouldn't sound like an Imperial Stormtrooper. Also, the entire collection of music from the Star Wars saga is included and adds tremendously to the game's overall aesthetic value.
