Star Wars: Force Commander

"Use The Force, Commander!"

For years, Star Wars fans around the world have been waiting for a Star Wars strategy game similar to the hit game, Age of Empires. Well, that's why Force Commander came out. Strangely, although Force Commander was superior to Age of Empires in nearly every way, it was rejected by a fairly large portion of the Star Wars community. I simply can't understand why. Well, I guess I'll start moving on to the actual review now.

Gameplay 10/10: This is the part of the game everyone seems to hate, mostly because of the camera controls. The ability to move the camera is one of the reasons why I enjoy this game! Complete control of the camera means that during a huge battle, you'll be able to zoom in really close and witness the battle firsthand. The camera itself really isn't that hard to control, especially after you go through the training sequences for the game. Now that I'm done talking about the camera, I suppose I'll talk about the other aspects of Force Commander. Force Commander is an RTS game like Age of Empires. Basically what you do is you build up your society and your military, then you go and attack other people. Although that sounds relatively simple, the game is really far more complex than that. There are a variety of different attack forces that are in your arsenal in Force Commander, ranging from Probe Droids to the nearly unstoppable AT-AT walker. In Campaign mode, you can get the opportunity to control characters from the movies, like Darth Vader!

Challenge 10/10: Force Commander is surely one of the hardest Star Wars games I have played, although not as incredibly difficult as Super The Empire Strikes Back. In campaign mode, the first level itself is unbelievably hard. Trust me, Don't play Campaign mode unless you're REALLY good at RTS games. Fortunately, the is a less challenging Skirmish mode that can help prepare you for the Campaign.

Story 8/10: When playing campaign mode, the story begins to unfold. The whole thing is about an Imperial Officer who is betrayed by the Empire, and forced to join the Rebel Alliance in the Galactic Civil War. It goes much more into much more depth in the game, but that's pretty much what the whole thing's about.

Graphics 10/10: The game Force Commander has some of the best graphics for a Star Wars game I have ever seen. Everything in the game, even the stormtroopers, are highly detailed. The levels are huge, and very diverse. The cutscenes have special effects that rival the ''next-generation'' systems of today, which is pretty impressive, considering this game is quite old. You can tell Lucas Arts put all of their effort into this one.

Sound 9/10: Like all Star Wars games, Force Commander has great sound effects. The explosions, blaster shots, and screams are well done, as usual. The voice overs in this title are fantastic too, adding to the realism of the game. The music is quite interesting as well, since not only do you occasionally hear the traditional John Williams Star Wars music, but you can also listen to a remix of it, which incorporates the Imperial March with rock music in an S&M fashion. Very cool.

Playtime/Replayability 9/10: Well, if you're a fan of RTS games, then this title should keep you interested for a long time to come. If you're not, then go play Demolition or something, because you'll get pretty bored of Force Commander fast. After you beat this game, one thing that will keep you drawn to this title will be the online multiplayer. that's all I can say about the replayability.

Rent or Buy? Well, since this is a computer game, the chances of you finding a place to rent this title are pretty slim. I'd recommend only buying this if you like strategy games, or if you're a huge Star Wars fan who doesn't care what the game's like, as long as it's Star Wars, otherwise stay away.

After Force Commander failed to be as successful as planned, the people at Lucas Arts decided to make a Star Wars game much more like Age of Empires than Force Commander was: Galactic Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds was a pretty good game, but if you were to ask me, I'd still consider Force Commander to the better of the two.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/03, Updated 06/06/03