SW: Empire at War Released

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-02-18 04:51am

When I saw the screenshots, somehow I immediately thought of Emperor, which was technically nice, but the tactics were crap.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-18 07:18am

No way I'm going to buy it (unless someone makes a more strategic mod)

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-02-18 12:27pm

My impression of the game from playing the demo is as follows:

Space Combat: Stripped down version of Conquest: Frontier Wars, with one new option - subtargeting.
Ground Combat: Stripped down version of Ground Control/Total War.
Galactic Mode: A strange permutation of Star Wars Rebellion, much better interface, but less to actually do. It's also much smaller, from what I can see.

The one saving grace of this game is a result of it's limitation. The real strategy seems to come from later in the game, when you are fighting battles on planets where you simply cannot land all of your troops or fly in all your fleets at once, and you need to bring in reinforcements.

That said, I'm rather disappointed by the demo. It's a pretty game, to be sure, the destruction animations are very nice, and it has good visual effects, but it just feels too limited. If ever a 4X game would benefit from huge maps, huge fleets, and huge armies, a Star Wars game would.

Also, the visuals, while technically nice, are very flawed. Sure, there are tons and tons of turbolaser batteries on each ship, but it looks like, instead of having any sort of focused fire, the lasers appear to be manned by drunk lemmings. I don't really see how they could miss firing at a space station at point blank range. The fighter squad selection tags are a godsend, but watching the fighters in combat just feels wrong. They move much too fast and have issues with clipping (infantry have some clipping issues as well, but meh).

To be honest, when it comes to 4X games, this one doesn't really strike me, and when it comes to RTS games, it's okay, but I'd rather play Ground Control 1 or 2. I suppose a mod may make this game better, but I don't think I'm going to hold out hope of that.

I will say, however, that to date this is the only 4X game I've seen with a ground element as strong as the space element. If they're going to make a sequel, I hope the seriously improve what they've got. It's a decent start, but it's not enough for my money.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-02-18 09:11pm

Well, the sequel will likely be based on the Clone Wars. Maybe they'll get their ass in gear then and fix it.

I asked my brother what he thought of it, since he bought it the other day- he said it was shit and he was returning it.

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2006-02-18 09:53pm

Ace Pace wrote:Whats wrong with that? It was a very nice RTS, nothing special but definetly better then the rest of SW games, EaW included.

It was a good game because they based everything in it on a good game.

All the fundamentals in that game were straight out of AOE2. Instead of wood, you had carbon. Instead of stone and gold, you had two different types of crystal which just so happened to function exactly like stone and gold. Hell, the special units and trebuch-I mean torpedo launchers are even built out of castles- I mean fortresses.

Please, it was a mod, pure and simple. And not even one that was that original.

Edit: Oh, and based of playing the demo, I'll likely pick up EAW when I have the money. Sadly, I'm a little strapped for cash right now.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-02-18 11:34pm

Ace Pace wrote:Whats wrong with that? It was a very nice RTS, nothing special but definetly better then the rest of SW games, EaW included.

Sorry, that Galactic Conquest is a game that makes me proud to be a hater. It looked like shit the day it was released, it had laughable race selection, it RTS-ified *everythng*, right down to the aforementioned unspeakable resourcing animations, and to top it off it's a mod for another horrible game. The addon? Deary me. Flicking through the guides for GC was always a laugh at EB: stormies vs gungans! Whoops, crap.

I'm sure it's possible that hidden in there is a neat fun game, but it is in no way a good SW game. I'm not sure I can argue things like GC > FC, however.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2006-02-19 05:04am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I'll wait and see what Game Revolution has to say.

Game Revolution gave EaW a B-:

Game Revolution's Empire at War review

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-02-19 06:07am

Well, as for me personally, after KotOR 2 and Lucasfilm's unveiling of their new company policy (which goes roughly along the lines of, "hey, being anally raped to death sounds like so much fun, our customers should pay us for it!"), I resolved not to buy any of their games ever again.

Oh, sweet is the vindication.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-02-19 06:32am

It's interesting that the SW (and ST) licenses have been attached to such piles of shit even casual gamers are sick of it: I remember the days when thinking FC stank was quite unfashionable. Now most people condemned EaW before it even came out.

Remember X-Wing? Remember how cool it was? It had stupid ideas, but it was fun. It wasn't just a flight sim with SW things attached. Now we get AoE-SW and C&C:SW and Conquest:SW and CoD:SW and that horrible, horrible Clone Wars console game. And Tekken:SW. Ugh. And WoW:SW! All thoughoughly unimaginative license-cashins. I don't like KoTOR, but it's certianly a better game than most of the titles I describe.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-02-19 06:50am

I loved Knights of the Old Republic, myself. KotOR 2 was horrific because it had such potential, began with such promise. It stood on the shoulders of Knights of the Old Republic, from where it boldly strained farther toward its summit... which turned out to be one of the most epic betrayals of characters, story and player in the history of gaming.

Pax Britannia · Post by **Pax Britannia** » 2006-02-19 07:31am

Im quite suprised how poor the graphics are. The screenshots I saw for the game seem to have been very misleading. I'd say its like a crappier version of Command and Conquer: Generals.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-02-19 08:17am

What the game COULD have been...
http://warlords.swrebellion.com/gallery/

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2006-02-27 10:43pm

Yeah, I was expecting a Warlords-esque space combat style, strung together with the campaign mode, so no building cap ships in the middle of battle but building a few replacement fighters, with the ground combat of CnC: Generals.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2006-02-27 11:06pm

I'm not happy with the ground battles. I was expecting something along the lines of Imperium Galactica ground combat (and hell planet managment) not this silly put shit where the computer wants to put shit and if you really want to build something, we'll let you build a bacta tank in combat....but only where we want you to.....shit.

I wanted some freedom to build my system defenses. I also wanted to name my fleets and ships. I also want some fucking sw ships out of the hundred that exsist and they make brand new ones for this game?

Where are my Venetors? Where are the Dreadnaughts? Executors? Bah, I almost feel ripped off. Talk about pansy ass, for kids, combat. I don't want to draw a fucking circle around the troops I want to command for a second. I'd rather have TW like groupings, so you know, I could do some 'tactics' rather than my blob rushing to their blob to attack.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2006-02-27 11:27pm

Knife wrote:Executors?

To be fair, this is mostly set pre-ANH.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-02-27 11:30pm

While I haven't paid for the game, I have been playing it all afternoon, and I gota say, it's pretty much crap. It gave me the same feeling I got playing Deus Ex 2; the game I'm playing has better graphics, but that's about it, the world is poorly put togather, very close, and it feels like it's been dumbed down considerably. I gota say, Rebellion is still my number one star wars stradegy game.

With some serious modding this game could be great, but it's got a long, long way to go.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2006-02-27 11:41pm

Sharp-kun wrote:
Knife wrote:Executors?
To be fair, this is mostly set pre-ANH.

considering that the rebels can have Awings and Mon Cal cruisers toward the end game, I don't see why a SSD can't be in there too. Mostly I'm pissed because they created some 'new' ships that didn't need to be created with all the actual craft to choose from Lancers or Carracks could have served nicely for level one ship building.

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-02-28 12:41am

Knife wrote:I wanted some freedom to build my system defenses. I also wanted to name my fleets and ships. I also want some fucking sw ships out of the hundred that exsist and they make brand new ones for this game?

Wait, wait. You can't name your own ships or flees? How is it that a low grade game like Rebellion was able to do it?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-02-28 01:11am

Fire Fly wrote:
Knife wrote:I wanted some freedom to build my system defenses. I also wanted to name my fleets and ships. I also want some fucking sw ships out of the hundred that exsist and they make brand new ones for this game?
Wait, wait. You can't name your own ships or flees? How is it that a low grade game like Rebellion was able to do it?

Rebellion wasn't low grade, it's simply old(8 years!). It was, and really still is a sweet game (and better than this game, as it turns out).

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-02-28 01:13am

Oh I don't dsagree. I still find Rebellion fun to play with. But, how is it that EaW cannot allow you to name your own ships?

Edit: "Oh I don't agree." What the hell was that? Changed for propper gammar.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-02-28 01:20am

Fire Fly wrote:Oh I don't agree. I still find Rebellion fun to play with. But, how is it that EaW cannot allow you to name your own ships?

Because it's a shitty game? *shrug*

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2006-02-28 03:00am

Basically has no replayability, once you get your VSDs+, it's rinse and repeat, every battle is the same. Never had trouble with income/ship building.The only reason you don't roll over everything in your way is you can't land all your troops, but towards the end you just click auto-resolve because you know each ground battle goes the same way. They didn't make it the scope they advertised.

Fighters are set to auto hunt etc, sure you can force them to attack enemy bombers they might have missed, but that's about it, one command, some units have 2 at the most for special abilities. The rest is issue general attack command and wait it out especially in ground combat (where artillery rules, towards the end I would just land Vader and Veer's AT-AT along with shit loads of artillery, if they managed to push through air strike their ass since it doesn't hurt friendlies). The AI even on hard pretty much stinks. Haven't tried multiplayer, but with air strikes I imagine all the invader has to do is last long enough between each bombing run while sending in fodder to get a target for it.

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2006-03-01 11:20am

WHAT?

This is the best Star Wars strategy to date.

Okay, it's a bit off-balance, but just one little mod fixes it.

Maybe you're all playing on "normal"?

That's the wrong level to play it. The only possible level is "HARD". For all recent SW games, since they are just too easy any other way.

Basically has no replayability, once you get your VSDs+, it's rinse and repeat, every battle is the same.

O RLY? Try playing for the Rebels. It will be very funny when the Empire blows up a handful your main planets. I agree that the Empire is a bit off-limits, especially with that Death Star...

They didn't make it the scope they advertised.

Play on hard and never use auto-resolve.

The AI even on hard pretty much stinks

It does, but frankly it does so in almost any RTS game. "Starcraft" is a VERY good game, but the AI is uh... nothing. So lame AI doesn't really mean the game sucks. It means the game is no better and no worse than other strategy games. It's better than any SW RTS to date and is OK as a general RTS.

I must say that a EaW for a modest price of $10 is not the worst bargain.

After all, I don't buy strategies to play with the computer - he's too damn dumb.