Calling all Jedi: your mission is to kick some intergalactic ass!
Nintendo fans have seen the classic breed of Star Wars titles on their home consoles dating back to the early NES days. The SNES was later home to a trilogy of "Super Star Wars" titles that kept fans quite happy with their film-based, side-scrolling fun. Then the N64 was born, and with it came the flawed yet lovable Shadows of the Empire. Falling into the "side-story" category, Star Wars console gamers got one of their first tastes of a new adventure set between two of the classic films. Since then, the majority of our Jedi fixes have come in the form of vehicle-based shooters from LucasArts and Nintendo favored developer Factor 5.
And now on the GameCube, the pattern continues, as LucasArts is once again filling in the Star Wars storyline with its action-packed blaster, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Set just after the events of Episode II and leading up to the soon to be filmed Episode III, The Clone Wars puts players in control of exactly that -- the epic battle between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems that unfolds at the closing of Episode II. It's a game that is similar in many respects to other 3D vehicle-based shooters set in the Star Wars galaxy, but with enough of its own merits to make it a truly unique offering. But like any good Skywalker, this latest LucasArts padawan project lacks the maturity and refinement necessary to claim a permanent seat in the Jedi Council. Features
Star Wars-based 3D air and ground combat
Play as Jedi Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu
Command forces through 16 mission-based levels and across six diverse Star Wars worlds
1-4 players simultaneous multiplayer modes
Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound
16:9 enhanced widescreen mode
Gameplay
As mentioned, The Clone Wars is a vehicle shooter at heart. For those already familiar with the Factor 5-developed line of Rogue Leader and Battle for Naboo titles, you will feel right at home behind the controls of Clone Wars. The wide array of Episode II-based tanks, speeders, and aircraft at your disposal all control with the same well-balanced arcade feel that you'd expect simply by watching them in action. And each has a control scheme completely unique to the various craft, thus keeping the gameplay fresh and really adding a slightly distinctive feel to the handling of each. For example, most ground vehicles can strafe left and right via the L and R triggers, while aircraft use these same triggers to either accelerate or decelerate the craft. The most consistent control element would, of course, be the big, fat A button, which fires your primary lasers no matter what you're driving, naturally.
The game unfolds at the end of the recent summer blockbuster film, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, with the standard Star Wars yellow crawl of text to bring you up to speed on the latest state of intergalactic affairs. You'll then sit through the standard pre-mission, real-time cinema and watch as various Jedi such as Mace Windu or Obi Wan Kenobi talk amongst themselves and coordinate their attacks on the separatist armies. The idea here is that you, the player, will be re-enacting something that George Lucas has no intentions of ever bringing to the silver screen: each and every battle of the Clone Wars. Presumably, Episode III will heat theatres sometime at the conclusion of the war, thus making this title an interesting bit of Star Wars history for fans of the saga. Battles will rage across six different planets in the Star Wars universe, such as Geonosis, Rhen Var, Raxus Prime, and Kashyyyk Moon -- the home of the wookies! Each is decorated with a landscape of sprawling hills and valleys mixed with the wreckage and debris of war-torn military outposts. Players will start in a chosen vehicle and will proceed to blast away at the nearest threats and mission objectives, oftentimes while trying to balance other mission objectives such as keeping a wingman alive, protecting a convoy, or airlifting a batch of prisoners. The action is intense, as enemies swarm from all sides, relentlessly pounding away at you with their lasers, missiles, and various forms of deadly energy beams.
Make no mistake about it, the action in The Clone Wars is intense. It's some of the best pure shooting action to be found on this or any system to date. Even on the default "Jedi Knight" (medium) difficulty setting, players will find themselves scrambling right out of the gate to stay alive against the barrage of oncoming projectiles and sizzling laser blasts flying over the hills. Clone Wars is unlike most of the other Star Wars vehicle shooters for this very reason: its pure, arcade-driven intensity. You can't afford to sit still and regain your composure between waves of foes, otherwise you'll find yourself and your buddies as a smoking black splotch on the side of a nearby hill courtesy of a deadly Spider Walker.
Developer Pandemic Studios really balanced the non-stop action wonderfully, allowing players to spend their allotted missiles generously without excessive fear of running out too soon. Power-ups in the form of small, glowing crates liter the landscape throughout each mission, and both land and air vehicles can easily scoop them up for a quick refill of health, missiles, or the occasional power-up such as invincibility or super-lasers. Their timing throughout the levels is perfect, allowing you to really cut loose and wreak as much havoc as you please while still forcing you to be somewhat mindful of your reserves. Knowing how to manage your resources on each mission is really a key to success, as you'll often need to bypass a health container and return to it later once you've been pounded by an unstoppable army of droids.
And although "unstoppable" might be a slight exaggeration, it's not by much. Clone Wars puts you in what feels like a one man war against the rest of the galaxy, despite the fact that you often have a wingman or entire squad of other vehicles supporting you. The opposition is tough, and you'll be forced to move quick, fire effectively, and choose your targets wisely before they punch through your friendly lines. One mission you'll find yourself defending a group of walkers from oncoming Trade Federation tanks while your allied walkers fire upon defensive canons up ahead. Should you get distracted by the dozens of other targets crossing your path, your buddies will pay the price, and it's game over.
Other times, you'll be in a three man convoy of Republic tanks, where players (as Obi Wan Kenobi) can give orders using the traditional d-pad method to your tank buddies (such as Anikan Skywalker) to attack targets, defend, or form up. You'll race ahead to a key location and wait with your allies to ambush a passing enemy convoy. The mission diversity, along with the non-stop action, really keeps you hooked to your controller. You'll find yourself slightly exasperated and tense at the end of a 10, 15, 20 minute mission, and ready to press the start button all over again to see what kind of action the next battle might hold. If you're a fan of action shooters and a lover of all things Star Wars, you will be quite happy to play through The Clone Wars multiple times over.
But of course, few games are ever perfectly conceived, and this one does bring its flaws alongside the fast, furious, and fun gameplay mechanics. For starters, the enemy AI isn't particularly impressive. Fortunately, the action is far too enveloping to really dissect the actions of any one particular computer-controlled entity, but occasionally you might find yourself frustrated with the results of their thought patterns. For example, the very first mission will ask players to accompany a friendly tank on a path of conquest and destruction. Unfortunately for you, your buddy isn't quite the cunning sci-fi warrior that you pride yourself on being. While you circle-strafe your opponents and dodge their oncoming missile attacks, you'll watch as your wingman smashes right into the deadly rolling tank headfirst and attempts to physically bury its cannons into the enemy hull. Not exactly the best strategy, and it makes for one hell of a time as you attempt to keep the nitwit alive throughout the rest of the mission. Thankfully, such problems never really keep you from enjoying the mission, and if anything, it actually helps to add to the challenge.
One unforgivable flaw, however, are the ground-based Jedi missions, where players take control of a lightsaber-wielding character such as Mace Windu. Again, the control setup changes here, giving players new moves such as a "Force push" and "Force lightsaber throw." Unfortunately, sufficient development time was not given to these hack-and-slash missions to make them truly fun. Each Jedi controls more like C-3PO on roller-skates than a highly trained mystical warrior. The basic idea (for the sake of variety) is a good one, but the execution is poorly conceived to the point of being an annoying distraction from the true fun of the game: vehicle blasting. Still, much like the game's other flaws, it is possible to just grin and bear the pain long enough to get back to the highly enjoyable vehicular combat.
One eyesore that will definitely be tough for some gamers to ignore throughout all of this combat is Clone War's unsteady framerate. At best, the game runs at a healthy 30 frames per second, but more often that we'd like, it drops. It never drops to an unplayable level, but when the action gets cooking and your health meter is sinking dangerously low, a choppy framerate will only lead to frustration. Again, some of the more anal gamers in the crowd will find such technical flaws to be unforgivable, but the majority of gamers will simply ignore it and let themselves slip into the fast-paced groove. Here at IGN, we are always aware of such technicalities, but The Clone War's super fun gameplay has us hooked to the point of not getting caught up on it. Chances are good that a moderately skilled Jedi could fly through this game in a single day the first time through. But LucasArts is rarely one to slouch in the quality department, and many nice touches have been added by the development team to prolong the life of your enjoyment with The Clone Wars. For starters, there's the gratuitous password feature -- always a crowd favorite for unlocking secret ships and extra goodies at some point down the road. Additionally, each mission lists a standard selection of Bonus Objectives. Completing X number of bonus objectives will unlock lots of cool stuff from the Bonuses menu, such as movies (cut-scenes from the game), multiplayer maps and modes, a sketchbook, "CD player," and even a "making of" video. If the action-packed gameplay wasn't reason enough to play through the missions multiple times, then perhaps these extra goodies will sufficiently motivate.
And of course, something that a lot of Star Wars titles miss out on are the multiplayer aspects, but not this time. LucasArts did it right with Clone Wars, as players will have tons of different gameplay modes, environments, and Episode II-based vehicles with which to challenge a fellow Star Wars lover. Although its difficult to reproduce the intensity of the raging single player battle within the confines of a two-player grudge match, the various modes are still quite fun and deserve the play time you'll give them. You can read more about them in our hands-on impressions.
Graphics
A mixed bag, The Clone Wars definitely isn't going to win any awards for its visuals. At its best, it gets the job done with realistically modeled vehicles taken straight from the silver screen and into your console. Colors are all appropriately gritty and lasers streak across the landscape in brilliant flashes. Dust and smoke trail behind rockets, and metallic scraps spray everywhere in brilliant orange explosions. You'll even glimpse reflective bodies of water or rain effects spraying in the foreground. It all serves to keep you rooted in the Star Wars universe and suspend your disbelief while you hammer through the missions.
But as mentioned, all of these graphical touches, onscreen enemies, and blazing fast skirmishes come at the cost of its framerate. And truthfully, for a system as powerful as the GameCube, such framerate drops are not warranted by the level of eye candy displayed throughout the levels. Although realistic, the models are not overly detailed to the point of being impressive in any way. Animations are somewhat rigid, especially for human forms such as soldiers and droids. A lot of the models tend to have a generic, blandly shaded look to them, and the horizon is typically clouded with that ever-present wall of fog under which the landscape is drawn into your surroundings.
But the visuals do the job and serve the action well. Debris and particles fly onscreen as explosions rock the camera, and it's these little touches that serve nicely to keep you sucked into the heated battles and thus hopefully overlooking many of Clone Wars other graphical flaws.
Sound
If you've owned a GameCube for any time now, then you're probably becoming aware of the standard level of audio compression found (unfortunately) in a lot of titles. In such comparison, The Clone Wars ranks quite favorably, as the rocking explosions and pings of laser fire are more than worthy of cranking up on your home stereo. The game supports Dolby Pro Logic II, and the added separation amongst the channels really brings the raging battles to life in your rooms. Even in a simple stereo setup, the background music mixed with colorful sound effects will keep even the pickiest Star Wars fans delighted.
The weakest aspect of the aural bag comes with the spoken voice acting. While the actors themselves do a decent job of performing their on-screen counterparts appropriately, the compression is easily the most noticeable in these parts, and especially when the lines are layered on during a battle sequence. For a typical Cube owner, this kind of compressed audio is nothing new, but to seasoned PC, Xbox, or even PS2 gamer, the tin can voices will be a distraction. Again, the level at which this distraction hinders your gameplay experience is inversely proportional to your inbred level of Star Wars infatuation.
If you love the Star Wars universe and have a taste for blowing things up, then by all means, crank it up with no remorse.
Closing Comments
Reviewing a Star Wars title is always a tricky task, as these days you're either a fan of Lucas' latest flicks or you're not. For those of us fans, we tend to look upon the latest Star Wars software with loving eyes, quick to see past the inconsistent framerates and foggy draw distances and look straight to the core, fun gameplay elements it has to offer. And fellow Star Wars fans, The Clone Wars is a truly great Star Wars game. The action is intense, the control is fluid and tight, and the gameplay is diverse and well balanced. Some of the gameplay scenarios are going to be more fun that others (with a the occasional third-person Jedi lightsaber slashing stinker), but the end result is a package of Star Wars whoopass that even non-fans will enjoy. Pandemic Studios hasn't crafted the "next-best-thing" in terms of shooters, but the formula it has put together with this Star Wars label is one of the absolute best Star Wars action experiences in the long history of Nintendo Star Wars titles. If only some of the more technical flaws and lack of polish had been smoothed out before the game shipped, this title would have easily been awarded an IGNcube editors' choice award. Sadly, these shortcomings are quite obvious and only give Pandemic and LucasArts good reason to put the formula to use again in an even better sequel once Episode III finally hits theatres.