Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds

"Brilliant, but only if you like RTS."

I bought this game because I heard it ran on the Age of Empires 2 Engine, and I was a big fan of the Age of Empires series. Most of this game plays the same as Age of Empires except with the addition of aircraft which make a nice touch to the game.

Graphics 9/10

Well the actual units and buildings are in 2-D but a lot of detail has gone into the buildings, and unlike Age of Empires each unit and buildings looks different depending on what civilization it is from. The scenery is also amazing to look at, although it is randomly generated each time. Explosions look amazing, there is nothing like attacking a base and seeing them explosions. Therefore although the terrain is in 2-D the graphics get a 9/10 due to the amount of detail gone into them.

Sound 8/10

It uses all the original Star Wars score and adds a some more on top of that. There is nothing like playing a game and hearing the Star Wars theme tune, it just gives you a real buzz. The explosions sound realistic although they are cut short so you don't hear a full explosion, the weapons do not sound good either it is just a short, repetitive zap that will annoy you. Therefore sound gets 8/10 because although there is the classic Star Wars music there are some also let downs in the sound department.

Story 8/10

Although most of your time playing the game will be spent playing the standard game there is also a story mode to play through, well 6 of them. Each civilization in the game has their own story to play, which will keep you entertained only if you are a Star Wars fan as they follow the plot of the films in some parts, so being a fan will help you to know what is going on. Although the objectives can get very repetitive it is always "Destroy an Enemy" or "Find Allys" which will get boring for you after a while. Therefore story gets 8/10 because although it is very well thought out it is also very repetitive.

Gameplay 9/10

The controls seem easy to learn at first, it is basically point and click, but that is only if you are a casual game player. If you want to be a hard core player you
WILL have to learn all the hot keys to actually play well, and there is a lot of them. There are basically two game modes for this, campaign and standard. Campaign follows the story of the 6 civilizations in the game. Standard mode is where you will spend most of your time, it can take up to 6 hours to play a game in it, and there will rarely be a moment of boredom as you will always be doing something. Although the gameplay can get repetitive as whenever you start you always send your workers to work and have to wait a while before you can build things and defend yourself. One thing that stops you from becoming too powerful too quick is the Tech Levels, there are 4 of them and you will have to research each individually before you can build some buildings. There is multiplayer mode, but most people on there are life long addicts of RTS which means you will lose most of the time.

Replay Value 6/10 or 9/10

The 6/10 is if you do not like RTS games, there will be some fun in it but you will be bored quickly. 9/10 is for more hardcore RTS players as they will have a lot of fun in standard mode.

Rent or Buy???

It is roughly the same price to buy as it is to rent so you might as well buy it as you may end up enjoying it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04