Star Wars boffins into their RTS games are going to love Rebellion for its depth, authenticity and sheer blissfulness. The game is also highly polished and about as true to the spirit of Star Wars as you could possibly get. John Williams’ breathtaking score is put to good use in Rebellion, with a perfect use of his many fanfares and key themes that are joyfully dotted about the game. The game wields his music, integrates it seamlessly into the mix and makes the experience that much more authentic. You can also expect a decent amount of voice work for the game, not least the true voices of Vader, Luke, Han, Leia and such. The only thing that lets it down is the not too convincing C3PO during the 'Alliance' side. So what is Rebellion? Well basically it is a map of the galaxy, with loads of little dots that represents each planet. In a nutshell, that is the graphical interface. Simple; yes -- deep; absolutely! At the start of the game you choose which side you want to be affiliated with; either the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. Whoever you choose to side with, the game picks up right after the events of A New Hope. The Death Star has just been obliterated at Yavin and so the rebels are still collected on the planet. If you play the Alliance, then your first job is to get your people off that world and go into hiding. If you are the Empire on the other hand, your job would logically be to hunt down the Alliance and crush them once and for all. Of course, you can play the game how you want. You can spend all your time building up your troops, massive fleets, conquering worlds, seeking out Jedi, turning your enemy from either the dark or light side of the force - anything. You can play it tactically, vengefully or just down right silly if you really want to. Make no mistake, this game is huge. Which ever side you are on, you have the option to build anything in the epic universe of Star Wars. The Death Star, Corellian ships, the infamous wedge-shaped Imperial Star Destroyers, Bothan Spies – anything and everything! If you meet an enemy ship in battle, the game brings up an option to progress in a few different ways. You can either automatically predict the outcome of the battle (quite useful in hopeless cases), retreat or indeed dive right into a 3D space grid and duke it out. Though the graphics are quite crude by today's standards, the visuals haven’t lost their unique charm. Some of these battles can be awesomely epic, but remember, if you have gone wild with your fleet building, then the battles can become quite monotonous. Admittedly the game is quite hard to master. It may take you hours to figure out the interface and work your way around the many menu's and such, but once you do you will find a highly poignant game stuffed to the brink of that classic Star Wars mythos. You are in control of this galaxy and it’s yours for the taking, do as you will, build what you want, and may the force be with you! 8.1/10
I picked this game up back in Summer of '98, and have been playing it ever since. I was amazed by the depth of the star wars universe that was portrayed. The ships for both the Alliance, and the Empire, were true to the ... Read Full Review
Many game reviewers of the time gave this game a very poor rating because they were too rushed to give it a proper review. The game required a bit of dedication to learn how to play and once the time was invested to lea... Read Full Review
