Star Wars: Empire At War Impressions at GameSpy

[Naked_Lunch]

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<p>Title says it all. <a target="_self" href="http://www.gamespy.com">GameSpy</a> took a <a title="dd" target="_self" href="http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/star-wars-rts/689149p2.html">good look</a> at the Star-Wars themed RTS and apparently liked what they saw.
</p><p> </p><blockquote>
You're limited to a small number of units, so skirmishes are rarely
about overwhelming the other player with superior numbers or a better
economy. Instead, it's about matching his rock with your paper, his
scissors with your rock, and his paper with your scissors. In this
regard, Empire at War is very much like the original <em>Ground Control</em> or even <em>Myth</em>.</blockquote><p> </p><p>I always dug the <a title="dd" target="_self" href="http://www.bungie.net/">Myth</a> and Ground Control games for there focus on tight small-squad combat, rather than managing resources and other junk like that. Myth II is one of my favorite games and any comparision to it is a good sign in my opinion, even if it comes from *shudder* GameSpy.</p><p>Apparently, this game was released today, so I might have to scratch up some dough and buy it. I never got a chance to play the demo, but for those who have, impressions please. </p><blockquote><p> </p><p>

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[Jason]

The demo is on the DVD of the PC Gamer March issue. You have it.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Well... Star Wars fans are going to get a kick out of it, especially the space battles. Capital ships and space stations all have these nodes or points on them representing some part of the ship: like engines or torpedo bay or shield generator. You can specifically target these areas and take them out, giving space battles a bit of strategy.

Ground combat (at least in the demo) was terrible. It goes overboard with RPS style combat. Most RTS gives counter units a significant edge, in this game the Paper is beaten by the Scissors in seconds. Furthermore, heros like Bobba Fet wiped out entire divisions of my infantry in seconds. Plus, a well defended planet needs to be captured by a large advantage in numbers and seems to demand heavy losses. Plus, it just wasn't any fun.

As for the Strategic portion, the demo only gave you 3 planets to experiment with, but it seems like it could have been done better. I'd have to see the full thing in action though to form a definite opinion though, and my impressions from the demo were enough to convice me it isn't worth $50.

 

[kingcomrade]

I was playing the demo. The space battles were really cool to watch (tons of cannon shots flying around everywhere, and it runs really smooth on my comp) but hard to control. I was wishing for a pause button. The unit AI is fairly good at keeping your units from killing themselves though.

Ground combat is crap. Period. It's poorly balanced, it's the worst type of paper/rock/scissors (so is space combat, but it didn't seem as bad).

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I hate paper / rock / scissors in RTS games. I hated it in Empire Earth and I think I'll hate it here (if that's the type of system they've implemented). I never got why a caveman couldn't thump some archer or something just because "Oh, see, the archer has magic anti-thump protection because, you know, they do. You need a squirrel unit to take those guys out". It's just lame.

 

[Jason]

I didn't think it was too bad (the demo). It's an average RTS wrapped in a well done Star Wars setting. Should be a safe bet for any Star Wars fans and/or any RTS fans just looking for a decent diversion. Plus, it scales down to run smoothly on low-to-mid range systems.

Bottom line: Worth $20 or $30. SW haters should steer clear.

 

[Smiffus]

Bought it yesterday and got a solid evening of playing and I must agree with most that was said.

Spacebattles are nice, cool to look at but not too involved it's just a question of massing your ships and duking it out with the opposition, not much room for maneuvering (map areas are too small for that). It boils down to kill the opposing ships till you get near the spacestation, wreck the shields, the hangar and then go for the kill.

Landbattles get boring quickly, thank god for the auto resolve.

The meat of the game (for me) is in the galaxy map conquest mode thingy, the strategic part. What to produce and where,searching for the right planets to conquer (to get that nice bonus to fighter shields or the reduction in cost for star destroyers) but most of all the fog of war, searching for the rebels/empire, finding out their strength, getting a large enough force to counter them and then getting blindsided when they attack a system you thought safe (or fogot about).

Don't know about replayability or how the AI will hold up after I get the hang of the game, we'll see.

 

[kris]

I played the demo with the hack that extend it yesterday. altough the extension is most likely far from the real game due to several things working and I would wager a guess the time in the game can't possibly move as fast as in the demo. With that I got a bit bigger impression on how the gameplay work (but speeded as said).

I really dig the space battles. Will be more interesting when I get to try one in another map than the demo default. They managed to make most spaceships useful, but I do suspect some are far more priceworthy than others. (At least in the demo ships where instantly repaired after a battle) I am impressed in how they made the different fighters stand out from each other and have their own role.

I do have some complaints though (could possibly be due to the demo but...) The empire seems to have a eternal supply of fighters from their space stations and capital ships. Gamey and it could be questioned why no rebel ship have a hangar. Another one is the "fighter-killers" that can withstand concentrated fire from three of my Mon Calamari cruiser long enough to take out several wings of my fighters if I don't hide them behind my fleet which makes no sense at all.

Ground battle. Even in the extended demo I was forced to try all ground battles on the default map. I would not want to comment that much on this part before I tested the full game. It could be quite fun defending a planet, but I suspect that defending may be overpowered (but I defend on the same map I attack which meant the free extra tatooine troops). In general I would fail in planet attacks if I didn't have the artillery.

Strategic part. Again I must mention I am not sure all was in... but if all in the building phase was in then I would say this part is not particulary deep in that aspect. Not much variation and the most exciting thing you will buy would be the nice ion cannon. It took me some time to realise I could take over planets by simply sending over ground troops to them. the fleets was only needed against the empire and some few "pirate planets". The Star Wars nerd in me would want Mon Calamari druiser to be exclusive to that planet, but I understand the balance issue. All planets have some kind of bonus, problem is that some seems to be a bit overpowered where others barely is beneficial.

 

[kris]

Smiffus. Questions.

1. How is the pace in the retail game?
2. How many buildings/different troops are there?
3. Is the unlimited hangars for the empire in the game? do the rebels have the same in at least their spacestations?
4. Are ships insta-repaired after spacebattles?
5. Is there at least some nice variation on the land battles?

 

[Smiffus]

Smiffus. Questions.

1. How is the pace in the retail game?
2. How many buildings/different troops are there?
3. Is the unlimited hangars for the empire in the game? do the rebels have the same in at least their spacestations?
4. Are ships insta-repaired after spacebattles?
5. Is there at least some nice variation on the land battles?

1. the pace gamewise is ok, I don't get the feeling of being overwhelmed (ie. no clickfest) though I do use the pause to make a tour of all planets and fill my build queues, you can't issue move orders when paused however. What is completely silly is the timescale, the game runs in ‘days’ and you can build a star destroyer in 1-2 days… that doesn’t mean you can build insta fleets or armies, the money you get per day is balanced enough for that.
2. I’d have to check when I get home. Didn’t make it past tech level 2 in the time I played and I didn’t read the manual
3. yes and yes (that’s why I go for shields first and then the hangar, to get rid of those pesky fighters)
4. sadly, yes
5. there is variation in the maps, you can find deserted buildings which give bonuses (to tech, money, extra troops) whether it’s nice is up to you. I had my fill of land combat after a couple of planets I conquered.

 

[kris]

Thanksus.

Well, the insta-repairing is retarded. But otherwise I am also a bit worried about the pace, as it sound like the demo or possibly slightly slower. Building up entire fleets in days. but I had bigger problems getting my armies into the air to conquer planets, the empire had taken half the galazy before I sent my first men away. That whoel concept where I can't reshuffle the fleet/armies while paused is the big problem really as you are basically screwed against the AI in a stressed situation and fleets almost inst-travel between planets...

 

[Jason]

Here are some of the mods for the demo that kris might've been refering to earlier. They mostly unlock units and planets and things of that nature.