While the adventure and script stays close to the movie, Phantom Meance is a game that you can and should miss.
When you first start the game you are treated to a prologue discussing what has happened. Once you skip that you will become Obi-Wan on a ship with Qui-Gon and are about to demand the Trade Federation to not take over Naboo. The characters in this game truly look awful and barely even look human. The animation looks stiff in fact it is the DEFINITION of stiff! Your character turns as if he is on a grid and never moves his feet, these animations make the game look stiff and feel just ridiculous. The enemies within the game are simple Battle Droids that will just shoot at you and can have artificial intelligences by running away and calling back-up . But these Droids can be disposed of in a simple matter of running up to them and slicing them in half with your lightsaber. The lightsaber looks stiff as well and you are only given one attack with it, moving it around away from your body back and forth. This makes your character look dumb and ridiculous looking. Even using the force is an unfortunate shame simply because you only get one attack which is the force push. All you can do is push enemies and other objects at some points but that doesn't help give the game any more variety.
The story is stupid and a step in the wrong direction for Jedi's and Jedi Masters. Your job is to kill or stop Nute Gunray from taking over Naboo, why? Naboo is a small but largely trading planet that many other planets use as a trading center, yes you are fighting for politics. As I said you play as Obi-Wan but you can also play as Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amedala, and Captain Panaka. Each character has a different weapon of choice and can be used in some fun and interesting ways. Qui-Gon has the standard lightsaber but a different attack scheme, this attack is different and even worse than Obi-Wan's attack which will make you want to play as Obi-Wan even more. Amedala has a gun that sends out electrical charges, these charges can make droids do stupid things like walk in a meaningless manner and hit walls. The weapon is used in a good way and it makes the droids act in a real state. It's just a shame that the weapon will take many attacks until the droid explodes or falls flat down out of energy which makes this weapon a bad choice if there is more than one enemy fighting you. Captain Panaka has a basic blaster that works as any blaster would and can destroy the droids as always. However, on Courasant you get a new and even more powerful blaster that can shoot two blasts at once. This doesn't necessarily mean you can destroy two droids at once it just means that you can destroy them twice as fast. He also as been trained in karate and when having no weapons he can attack with his bare fist and feet. However, this attack does minimal damage and should be avoided at all times even with only one enemy to fight. All in all these characters have unique and interesting weapons but could have used more weapons to increase variety and the game play.
The story follows the movie and can actually be a substitute for the movie meaning if you want to know what happens in the Phantom Meance but you do not have the movie but you have the game you should be fine. An interesting tidbit that the voice acting is almost perfect and sounds like the actual characters from the movie. This is a nice feature but doesn't help at all with the game play. In other levels the game tries to have an organic feel to it and if you must know it does a decent job at doing it. Killing people will result in getting attack by the guards, children and people move in a way that makes the game look like an ordinary day. You can also buy and trade which can compliment the game in a good way. However, the organic feel can be lost when you find yourself killing off rogue attackers which can make the game feel just like fighting the droids. If you kill someone even with no one around the guards will still attack you if you come close to them. Enemy AI's can interact in aggressive ways help the organic feel but can drain some of your health even when all they did was just push you. Enemies can be sitting in chairs or roaming around either way you can still kill them without a penalty. This makes the game feel easy and just plain boring. Bartenders in the game also make the game feel a bit more organic except the items they give you can only be given to others and can not be drunken by yourself.
Character designs look stiff, choppy, block like, and repetitive dampening the games look at being fresh and innovative. Boss Fights are sometimes easy but generally hard, when I was playing it I fought most bosses with a blaster. And even the final boss against Darth Maul can be easy if you can find a secret way of killing him. The game tries to add some variety by having parts in it where you have to jump. These jumps can be very tricky and will possibly leave you frustrated rather than having a good time. When using a gun and targeting smaller enemies you actually won't do anything. Yes, your character can use the force for puzzles, negotiate well and get some good help, but he can not point his gun down to shoot. This means any killer fish or Jawa that you want to kill you will need to shoot several blaster shots before your character gets the message. Every level feels like a simple go in guns or lightsabers a blazing and chopping/shooting everything in sight. For trigger happy, and psycho killers will feel right at home, but for those with a bit deeper game play will feel left out. The game tries at the decision mechanic allowing you to make decisions that can effect the game. The mechanic unfortunately is broken, any thing you say can lead to something new but it doesn't change the story. Sometimes two different discussions can lead to the same outcome. The personal favorite levels within the game are the Mos Espa levels, like I said these levels have an organic feel that doesn't do the game a whole lot of justice but it can make the core game a bit more fun.
There are many technical flaws such as bad lighting, almost no lip movement, and embarrassing levels that could have been avoided. The sound design in the game is crisp, clear, and understandable but you aren't here to listen to the game you are here to play it and playing this game is a waste of time.
Pros:
-Organic feel in some parts of the game
-Good fights
-Nice cut scenes
-Follows the movie's story closely
-Voice acting is almost like the real thing
-Sound design is amazing
Cons:
-Stupid weapons
-Broken look
-Choppy animation
-Terrible character designs
-Bad lighting
-Easy boss fights
-Repetitive character designs
-Bad presentation
-Action feels bland and generally bad
-Weird glitches and jumpy graphics
-Not much variety in force powers
-Not able to point your gun up or down
-Bad camera angles
-Stiff movement
-No variety of attacks
The game tries to hold some promise and can be fun sometimes. However, with so many problems in story, character design, plot, graphics, weapons, animations, and many other bits, Star Wars-Episode 1: The Phantom Meance is the worst Star Wars game in the series and should be missed.