Star Wars: Empire at War Review (ShelLuser)
I cannot believe how well this game has aged.. even today, time of writing (May 2023), this game can be a blast to play with on Windows 10 and all I had to do was install and play... Even my "potato laptop" which somewhat struggles when playing Minecraft (Java edition) has little issues here.
Emerge yourself in the Star Wars galaxy!
Empire at War is an RTS based strategy game where your goal is to take control of either the Empire or the Rebel alliance in order to try and either dominate or free the universe. You can gain control over planets by placing your fleet in their orbit, followed by landing your troops in order to take full control.
If a planet is occupied or already under the control of your enemies then a battle will start: either in space or on the ground.
It's RTS, but not as we know it ;)
When people mention RTS they often refer to base building games that usually also involve resource gathering. Although 'Empire' also uses those game mechanics they don't apply during a fight: instead of relying on troop generation you instead rely on reinforcements which you need to hold back at first in space because you can only have a certain amount of active units on the planet. If you can manage to occupy more so called reinforcement points then this unit cap will increase which will allow you to bring more forces into the fight.
However, if you're on defense then the structures on the planet, like the barracks, will sporadically provide you with new units to command.
In other words: there is a bit of base building involved, but that only happens outside of battles, then you'll need to decide what structures and troops to build.
The atmosphere is mind blowing, even today!
As one could expect from an RTS-type game your troops will say specific lines when you select them and/or give them orders. And to me it never gets old when I ask Darth Vader to use the force to destroy an incoming enemy ground vehicle and he tells me "All too easy...".
But what I appreciate the most is that it gives you a much better impression of the real strength of both the Imperial and Alliance fleets alike. In the movies we get the impression that the Imperial fleet is Star Destroyers only and well.. they don't seem that tough, do they? So when you start playing as the Empire you may be a bit disappointed that: no star destroyers yet, but other ships which are also deadly themselves.
And then it happens: you unlock a higher tech tree and can now get a Star Destroyer and omg... you'll realize soon enough where it got that name from ;) But at that same time you will probably also quickly learn to appreciate all the great achievements the Alliance manages to achieve with the little resources that they have available.
Then there's the story line.. here you follow the path of either the Empire or Alliance as it's plaid out between the original movies. And I really enjoyed to experience the obvious tension that's building between Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin as the story goes on.. Tarkin almost mocking Vader for his pursue of some space pirates who "obviously pose no threat to the Empire" ;)
Of course.. you don't have to play things that way. You can also go for a total free for all where your only goal is to conquer or free the entire galaxy.
All in all I can highly recommend this title, even all the way in 2023. This is a classic.