Star Wars: Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire

"Does not live up to the Star Wars legacy at all"

I have to admit that I am not really a fan of interactive movies. In fact, I think that most of them are complete disasters that sometimes tend to be nearly unplayable, and it is not really a shame to see that the interactive movie has been extinct ever since the end of CD-based consoles like the Sega CD or the 3DO. However, there was one interactive movie that managed to get over the usual gameplay limitations and provide a rather satisfying and cinematic experience: Star Wars - Rebel Assault, a game that has been praised for its visuals when it hit home computers in the early 90s. And here we have the sequel to this best selling PC game, namely Star Wars - Rebel Assault 2: The Hidden Empire in its PlayStation port.

And the gameplay has not really evolved that much since the original Rebel Assault. Your freedom in this game is still extremely limited, as you cannot walk around during the on-foot missions - instead the only thing you´re allowed to do their is to aim at enemy stormtroopers and shoot them between the FMV cutscenes. The flight missions in your various Rebel fighters like the famous X-Wing offer little more freedom. Sure, you can move your spacecraft up and down and to the left and to the right, but the course you take through locations such as an asteroid field are predetermined by the game and displayed by FMV backgrounds, so you can practically only evade incoming obstacles much rather than fly around freely in space - and of course, shoot down enemy TIE-Fighters. A slightly amusing level also includes a speeder-bike chase as we know it from Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, but it follows the same concept as most of the flight missions in terms of freedom. While all this is at least more interactive than the stuff you´d find in a regular interactive movie like Space Ace, the controls, the controls in Rebel Assault 2 are rather clunky and not exactly intuitive, which makes aiming with the ordinary PlayStation pad a chore sometimes, as well as controlling your spacecraft. The controls might not be horrible, but they certainly do not give you the feeling that you have everything under your control. What really disappoints, though, is the fact that this game is pretty short, and once you beat it, there´s actually no reason for you to play through it again except for maybe improving your high-scores, but that´s about it.

The graphics are a somewhat mixed bag. First and foremost, the full motion video sequences to be found here are of a stunning quality for such an old PlayStation game, and the spacecrafts are at least decently done. However, they feature one major flaw: the actors portraying the characters. Yes, Rebel Assault 2 features some real-life scenes, but unfortunately, the actors are amateurish and wooden beyond compare, and they sometimes destroy the supposed-to-be-suspenseful scenes. There also moments when they seem to be clumsily inserted into a blue screen shot, for example during the speeder-bike chase. The game itself uses FMV backgrounds and models most of the time, but the problem is that they are poorly animated at times, and some backgrounds and crafts can also end up being extremely pixilated. All in all, the visuals and especially the FMVs do not really help to tell the rather unexciting story of rebel pilot Rookie One and his quest to get rid of a new menace emanating from the Empire in form of the so called Phantom TIE-Fighters.

The music is one of the games stronger points, but quite honestly, seeing what movies this game is based on, it is hardly a surprise that the recurring melodies by John Williams are superb, but that is certainly not an achievement the developers should be too proud of; the only thing they really can be proud of is the sound quality of the music,as it is exceptional for a PSOne game, but of course, the music itself remains as the great highlight. The voice acting, on the other hand, is rather solid, even though you will not find any familiar voices from the movies, which is quite sad especially in view of Darth Vader´s appearance.

Star Wars - Rebel Assault 2 might be quite superior to nearly any other interactive movie that has ever been made, but that does not automatically mean that the game is good. It´s merely average because of its serious gameplay limitations and sloppy controls. I even have a hard time recommending this game to die hard Star Wars fans such as me, so I think Rebel Assault 2 is only for Star Wars fans with a love for rather weird games.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/06