Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds

Summary

Genre: Strategy
Number of players: 1-8

Review

As the observant amongst you will have no doubt noticed, Tangy and myself are quite partial to a good old real time strategy game. The genre is an ideal one for the PC, with its precision control and tactical variety really requiring the mouse and keyboard format of a computer. Galactic Battlegrounds is yet another RTS which we have found ourselves playing since its recent release, and as you may have guesses from its title, this game is based heavily on the Star Wars franchise, so expect to see plenty of X-Wings, stormtroopers and Jedi making an appearance. The Star Wars licence, however, is not a guarantee of a good game, and the previous Star Wars RTS, Force Commander was not thought of highly amongst the gaming community. Is Galactic Battlegrounds another poor-quality game?


Gameplay: With Galactic Battlegrounds, the game developers have taken a slightly different approach from creating a brand-new strategy game. Instead, the game is very heavily based on an already-successful RTS design, namely that of Age of Empires II, which I must admit never to have played. In any event, Galactic Battlegrounds requires the player to amass stores of four different resources - namely food, carbon, nova and ore - in order to construct the various buildings and units necessary to further your war machine. Your units come in six main 'classes', including troops, mechs and air units, and all have specific strengths and weaknesses.

The strengths and weaknesses are what make the game interesting on many levels. Instead of all units using the same attacks, just of different power, as with most other RTS games, Galactic Battlegrounds features a number of different attack types, usually distinguished by different- coloured laser beams, each of which good against different unit types - such as red lasers being better against troops, and blue lasers against mechs. This is an interesting scheme, and forces players to create well-balanced armies to succeed in any attack - always a good thing, at least in my book, since there's nothing worse than an RTS where all you do is build up a mass of the same unit and go on a rampage. The different coloured lasers are an excellent idea, particularly for newer players, making it that much easier to see what should be attacking what.

Balance between units is quite good as well, with most units being useful at all stages of the game despite being lower down in the tech-tree, largely due to the ability to upgrade them as you climb the game's four 'tech levels' - for instance, you can upgrade your basic troopers three times upon payment of resources. However, the most powerful units in the game ('Assault Mechs') are a little too powerful, and would probably have been better had they been less strong against most other units. Even so, balance is done well, and this includes balance between teams.

In Galactic Battlegrounds, you can choose from six teams, based on factions from the Star Wars films. There are obvious inclusions such as the Empire and Rebels, as well as less-obvious teams like the Wookiees. While each team is essentially made up of the same units, just given different names and graphics, each team does have its own 'unique' unit, which varies considerably from team to team, as well as some unique technologies, and some technologies which are unavailable. As a result, your strategy can vary considerably depending which team you use - you can't make very good mech units as the Rebels, but you do have superior trooper and air units, while the Gungan team is good with sea and mech units but feeble in the air and with Jedi. Knowing which team your enemy is playing with will often let you anticipate the sort of attacks they'll be using, and prepare defences accordingly. It's a good system, and works out well.

Overall, then, gameplay is very good, even though it does follow the basic RTS premise of gathering resources and creating units without that much deviation from the norm. Nonetheless, it is a good example of the genre.


Challenge: There are six campaigns in single-player, with several standard missions and one or two 'bonus missions' in each campaign. The missions are well-designed, and can be quite tricky in places - the campaigns should keep you going for a while, and each mission can be played on one of three difficulty settings, adding to longevity considerably. There's also the customary 'standard game' option, where you choose a map and can fight it out with several computer-controlled opponents in a variety of scenarios ranging from a fight to the death to a challenge to an economic war where you must amass enough funds to build a 'monument' before any other player. This mode, too, has plenty going for it, and what with multiplayer included as well (see below), the game should last quite a while.


Graphics: The game's graphics are another strong point. All of the units and all of the scenery look crisp and well-drawn, while the sheer variety of units - there must be thirty or so different units for each team, and each team's units look totally different - add great graphical depth and make battles that much more interesting. The fact that most of the units have been seen before in the movies, and look impressively similar to these, adds more graphical charm, and the graphics really can't be faulted. Good stuff.


Sounds: The game's music is a solid Star Wars score, featuring a great many of John Williams' finest, as well as new takes on the classic tunes, which is all done very well. Unit voices are also good, each being clear and different, and quite well acted. The various sound effects are fine as well, and the overall aural effect is very solid. The only fault might be that a couple of the voice actors who portray the main characters sound very unlike the 'real thing'...


Multiplayer: Multiplayer mode allows up to eight players to do battle via the internet, and all the options available for the single-player 'standard game' mode can be used in setting up a game. The game lends itself well to multiplayer combat, and there are various useful ways to ally with others in the game, such as sharing unit sight and combining unique units to good effect. In addition, there are great features such as the ability to record and play back matches later, so you can see what went on from the enemies' perspective and refine your skills accordingly. A solid addition to the game.


Summing up: It may be yet another RTS game with the same formula, but Galactic Battlegrounds is a very good example of the genre. With a very authentic Star Wars feel, and a good unit system, this game should appeal to anyone, particularly Star Wars fans, who isn't sick of the formula by now.


Gamesmark: 91%


Reviewer: Maverik



Tangycheese's opinion: Galactic BattleGrounds is a reasonably good strategy game. I don't think it's even in the same league as StarCraft though. I think Mav's been a bit generous with the score, aside from the Star Wars theme, there isn't really all that much that stands out from all the other strategy games out there. Don't get me wrong, the game's decent enough, but I would have hoped for a bit more from this game. Still, it's worth a look, especially if you're a fan of the series.