Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

"The force is not as strong with this one."

This is the first game I played for my N64, and at the time I loved it. Now, I think it's boring. Why? Maybe it's succession. Maybe it's the fact that I beat it. Maybe it's the fact that it's Yesterday's News. I don't even know. All I know is that when it first came out, I loved it.

Story: 7/10
This game takes place between the two Star Wars movies "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". Han Solo has been frozen and captured by Boba Fett, and you have to stop him. It's not an excellent story, but I guess something had to happen in the time gap between when Luke left Cloud City with one hand and the time he arrived at Jabba the Hutt's door. What better thing to have happen in the time than introduce a new character, Dash Rendar. Dash is a pretty much neutral character who you take control of. He rides a ship similar to the Millennium Falcon called the "Outrider". (???!!) He, too, has a little bot to accompany him who has less meaning than Christmas Decorations in July. The movies between levels are somewhat animated, which always helps.

Gameplay: 8/10
The game is really fun to play. The first level takes place during the battle of Hoth. There, you are in a snowspeeder and you have to destroy Probe Droids, then AT-ST's (All-Terrain-Standard-Transports) and then destroy AT-AT's. (All-Terrain-Armored-Transports). In the next level, you play on foot and can pick up different guns and kill enemies with it. (including ginat snowbeasts called Wampas) Then you go into outer space in the horrendous looking Outrider and destroy enemies. So, it's cool how you can control two vehicles and a guy on foot. The reason this section lost points is because the bosses can be really hard...even on easy mode! I remember the first boss took me over half an hour to beat. Fighting Boba Fett in his starship, though, is the hardest of them all. It's very hard to find the spot to hit the bosses, it's even harder to remember where and how you hit them, and it's super hard trying to endure them.

Graphics: 9/10
Okay, so compared to today's graphics, the graphics in SOTE aren't so great, but back then, they were the best I had ever seen. The lasers, the vehicles, and the characters are all well done. The best part is how when you kill someone, unlike in most games, the people you kill never disappear, which really adds a touch of realisticness (is that a word? If it isn't I'm going to write to Oxford and demand they put it in their next dictionary) There are two reasons the graphics lost points. One was that the explosions looked really lousy. That alone would have kept the score a ten, but the Wampas and that weird thing you see in the beginning of the Beggar's Canyon level look awful. I don't even know how to describe them except for the fact they look really choppy.

Sound: 6/10
Definitly not the strongest point in the game. The sound of lasers firing and ships taking off is good, along with the sound the big things make when you kill them. The reason this section lost a lot of points is that the music is awful to listen to. Some levels like the climactic Skyhook Battle and Xizor's Palace is interesting to listen to. However, most levels have barely any music at all, and it repeats itself so often you'll want to hit the MUTE button. The boss music is decent, but it's a little wacky for the situation usually and, like most levels, will make you want to kill the sound after it repeats itself over and over.

Multiplayer: N/A

Length: 8/10
This game is a little long, but that's okay. Once you beat a level, you never have to go back to it again. However, that doesn't change the fact that some of the levels are a bit long. If you have an easy time with the levels, then the game could go a little quickly. However, if you beat the bosses the way I do, it will take you a long, LONG time to beat them. Of course, a challenge should be encouraged, but sometimes the challenge can be on the verge of impossible to beat. The ironic thing is that the last level isn't too hard at all. All the time is spent beating the bosses instead of destroying the massive space station. But, everything cancels out and the length turns out to be fairly reasonable.

Replayability: 5/10
Well, this is the part that hurts the game. If you enjoyed playing the game, then you'll want to go back and play it some more, just for the experience and to sharpen your skills. Also, sometimes you may be so confused with what's happening you might miss something the first time through. If you didn't like the game, the only reason you'd play it again is to play it on a harder difficulty, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that.

Total score: 43/60
Average Score: 7.2 (rounded down to 7)

Buy or Rent?
I'd just recommend you rent this game. Chances are you'll get a used version and a lot of the work will be done for you already, so there's really no point in buying it if that's the case.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04