Take everything you liked about Star Wars: Rebellion and make it awesome. Now you've got Star Wars: Empire at War.
Up to now arguably the best Star Wars stategy game on the market would be the extremely old and outdated Star Wars: Rebellion. This was a highly complex strategy game that was very hard to pick up and play.
Star Wars: EAW reminded me first of this ancient game as I played it. However it feels like they have taken all the elements that made Rebellion great and evolved the game to its present state. The only thing missing is the depth of heroes available from Rebellion, although that's hardly much to complain about given the options in this game.
The game is unique as it tries to deliver RTS on a whole new game engine, with two sides that have extremely different play styles, and a very simplified resource gathering system. That makes for a game that really focuses on the strategy aspect of playing this game, be it plotting your plans or engaging in epic battles.
The system, while not the simplist, takes a small amount of time to pick up, but once you get the hang of it the system becomes much easier and you can focus more on your grand galactic strategy.
Graphics for the game are pretty good, while maybe the game doesn't immerse you right into the Star Wars world as much as the Battlefront series, it still has a great Star Wars feel to it.
Sound for Star Wars games has to be easy at this point, because there is not much room for creative development and most players want the authentic Star Wars sounds anyways. This game delivers them as great as they have ever been.
As of this review the author has not had a chance to play multi-player, but is excited of the possibilities that multi-player could generate.
If you like the Star Wars universe and strategy games then this game will easily become one of your favorites in the Star Wars gaming world. If you are more of a Real Time Strategist looking for that game with the perfect formula and engine, you will probably want to look somewhere else.
Overall I have enjoyed this game very much and look forward to playing it more, especially once I have friends that pick it up so that I can try some multiplayer.