Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

"A huge improvement."

Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3 (hereon referred to as Rebel Strike) is easily the best in the Rogue Squadron series, and a huge improvement over Rogue Leader. With more gameplay variety, much more balanced challenge, and tons of unlockables this is the ultimate Star Wars game.

Story:
We're all familiar with the story of Rebel Strike. It takes the story of the Star Wars trilogy and focuses it on the Rogue Squadron. As Luke or Wedge (usually) you must lead the Rogue Squadron in battles against the evil empire. You'll recreate and expand on scenes from the movie as you lead your squadron through epic battles.

Gameplay:
Rebel Strike is a mission based shooter. On foot or piloting many different ships and other vehicles you'll go through many missions with very unique objectives, ranging from destroying bridges to stop imperial attacks to going through a platform style area in your jedi training. Although there are many different things you can take control of, control is simple and easy to understand since the game prompts you when you need to perform an action you might not know the button for. There is also a very in depth tutorial you can take.

As stated, the missions pack lots of variety. You're always doing something new. Even late in the game you'll have completely new gameplay styles introduced to you. The missions are easy to understand, you won't waste time trying to figure out what you're supposed to do. I don't want to spoil all the different mission objectives you complete, but believe me that they're ingenious.

The on foot sections of the game have caused much controversy. While they are not perfect, they are far from horrible. The targeting could be handled better, and it would really help if you could control the camera, but the sections are still very enjoyable.

The challenge level is the biggest improvement over Rogue Leader. RL had a very unforgiving challenge level, which made the game extremely frustrating. Rebel Strike has a much more balanced challenge level. The game can still be very challenging (the speeder bike forest mission comes to mind) but the challenge makes you want to keep trying instead of overwhelming and frustrating you like RL's did.

Rebel Strike has very high replay value. You can unlock hidden missions, retro Star Wars arcade games, and other surprises I won't spoil. The balanced difficulty helps out very much here, since to unlock the secrets you need to get medals in the levels. Medals are obtained by meeting requirements in areas like accuracy, time and enemies destroyed. Getting gold medals is tough, but not seemingly impossible like RL. It is challenging instead of frustrating.
Gameplay score: 9/10

Graphics:
Rebel Strike has incredible graphics. The ships, characters and backgrounds are extremely detailed. You are also treated to FMV clips straight from the movies. The settings are varied, with themes like ice, forest, and space. Unfortunately, some areas are much better graphically than others. Some areas look very plain. It's not a big deal though, and many of the levels are breath taking.
Graphics score: 9/10

Sound:
Rebel Strike excels in the audio department. The music is perfect renditions of classic Star Wars music. The sound effects are clear and accurate. There is also tons of voice, adding greatly to the immersion in the game.
Sound score: 10/10

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Overall: (not an average) 9/10

Conclusion:
Rebel Strike is an incredible game. I wasn't looking forward to this game that much, but playing it instantly changed my mind. This is the ultimate Star Wars game and a great shooter all around.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/03