Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Score: 80% ESRB: Teen Publisher: LucasArts Developer: The Collective Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: With the release of the last “Star Wars” movie ever comes the last chance for a movie tie-in. Sparing no expense, LucasArts teamed up with The Collective, known best for the sleeper hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the Xbox, and saga stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to deliver “The Ultimate Jedi Experience.” Though the game certainly does the art of lightsaber-swinging right, it’s a few midichlorians short of being a true Jedi Master. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith looks great, but at the same time is about average for an Xbox game. Hayden looks like Hayden, Ewan looks like Ewan, and so forth. In actuality, droids and clones are perhaps the best-looking visual elements of the game since they don’t have the plastic “fake” look that just about every human character has. It’s not bad looking – not by a long shot – there’s just something that feels “wrong” about the human character movements. Animations go from good to bad to good again. Lightsaber combat is the game’s showpiece, making it the best looking visual element in the game. However, since stunt coordinator Nick Gillard choreographed all of the in-game moves, it better look good. As an added touch, each Jedi has a particular style that shows up in every animation. Anakin has a very strong, powerful set of animations, while Obi-Wan has a quick, graceful style. Even similar styles, like Count Dooku, who’s style is similar to Obi-Wan’s, have their own nuances that really make them stand out. Sounds great so far, right? The fighting animations look great, but every other animation comes off as wrong. Walking, running... it all looks stiff. But there’s rarely a time you’re not fighting, so most times you’re letting the momentum of combat carry you around the levels. Cut-scenes are a mix of clips from the movie as well as some in-game stuff. All of the clips are edited and cut a little different and, except for a few areas such as Anakin’s confrontation with Mace, transitions between movie and in-game are choppy. It’s kind of an old-school kickback after seeing the great transitions in The Lord of the Rings games. There are parts where the cut-scene just ends, goes to black, and starts up the in-game action. There are attempts to bridge the gap with a voice clip, but it sounds like it’s trying to catch up with the visuals. Audio is typical Star Wars audio – it rocks. Even the sub-par job that was done by SOE in Galaxies sounded decent compared to other games. All of the sound effects are straight out the Skywalker Sound archives. There’s no music from the movie’s soundtrack; instead it’s a mix of stuff from the Original and Prequel trilogies. None of the actors from the movie perform their in-game dialog. Instead, it’s all handled by the actors from the “Clone Wars” TV series.
Gameplay: As far as gameplay goes, the game follows the movie’s plot and expands on areas while a few of the game’s larger levels are parts that were cut from the movie. For example, in the movie Obi-Wan’s escape from Utapau is much easier than it is in the game since you have a legion of clones to fight through. Characters are assigned during certain sequences during the early part of the game. After that, you follow each Jedi’s particular parts of the story, all ending in the climatic duel at the end. Without giving away too much, The Collective has thrown in a very nice surprise at the end that makes it worth checking out the mission tree after completing the game. If you’re familiar with any of EA’s The Lord of the Rings games, you’ll feel right at home. The game’s basis premise finds you going around and hacking anything that moves with your lightsaber. Saber combos can be linked up to form much longer combos. An on-screen gauge keeps track of your hits and rewards you with different class types like Good, Impressive, and Master. The higher your class, the more damage your hits do, and the more experience you gain. Between levels, you can spend experience points to upgrade your combat abilities as well as your Force powers. Aside from the lightsaber, use of the Force is a key component of any Jedi experience. The system used in Episode III isn’t entirely deep and runs on the same basic grounds as every other Jedi-related game. Both Jedi have access to the same Force abilities at the start. Experience points are used to upgrade the ability, making it more powerful. It’s not until the climax of the story that the two Jedi’s paths diverge – which mainly involves their “disable” ability becoming either Lightning (Anakin) or a Mind Trick (Obi-Wan). During gameplay you also use other “inherent” Jedi abilities like telekinesis or high-jumps. Performing these feats involve standing on a glowing ring and holding the right trigger. From the standpoint of an action game, the system works; yet, for something calling itself the “Ultimate Jedi Experience,” it’s a disappointment. Force abilities are little more than secondary combat abilities and really don’t play much of a role in the game. It would have been neat if the abilities could have been worked into gameplay in more creative ways instead of a few clichéd powers and pre-set options. Some abilities even lose their “all-powerful” allure later in the game when enemies, including some low-level droids, can actually “block” force pushes and grabs. When you finish up the main game, you can enter a series of Co-op and Single-player challenge modes. These are little, self-contained side-stories that are more challenging “filler” content than full-blown extras. These areas do, however, give you the chance to play as characters other than Anakin and Obi-Wan. A two-player Jedi Arena mode is also available where you can pit various characters from the game against one another in one-on-one duels.
Difficulty: Completing the main single-player experience really doesn’t take that long, especially once you learn to pull off some of the “cheap tricks” such as Force-grabbing someone and slashing them into a corner. The only truly difficult parts are a result of mechanical issues. For example, while battling atop a tank, it becomes really hard to target specific parts of the tank since the lock-on feature always tries to lock-on to the nearest enemy, rather than the nearest targetable object. This problem happens often and leads to some untimely deaths. Episode III also relies heavily on the age-old ploy of throwing lots of stupid enemies at you. I have never been a fan of this mechanic, especially when the combat system isn’t built to fight eight enemies coming at you at once. The combat system does allow for some area-effect attacks, but is still meant more for one-on-one combat, introducing an element of frustration during large battles later on. Long battles are great, but when they begin to feel like a way to squeeze in a few more minutes of repetitive gameplay, it becomes a problem.
Game Mechanics: Saber combat is implemented very well, even in the beginning of the game when you’re still learning what the hell is going on. Even before learning the really tricky stuff, you’ll be amazed at some of the stuff button-mashing lets you pull off, making you feel like a true bad ass from the start. Attacks are limited to Strong and Weak attacks which can be linked together to form bigger, flashier attacks. Some moves even hit with a slight bullet-time effect. Most of the game’s more advanced moves are determined based on where you are in relation to your target, the direction your facing, and how you’re pressing the control stick. The system is actually rather complex, at least that’s how it seems after reading through the manual; but in practice it’s very fluid and easy to use. You also enter parts of combat where you’re locking blades entering a show of strength. I had a hard time with those at first, but caught on. Winning these saber-locks usually opens up a short, but powerful combo. As a Star Wars fan and gamer, I feel the same way about the game as I do the prequel movies; it’s enjoyable fun. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith isn’t the deepest or most polished game (at least to The Collective’s usual standards), but it’s a fun beat ‘em up game. That said, it’s not something you want to rush out and buy immediately, nor will it change your view of action games (like God of War did). It’s just a good, clean action game that might make a fun rainy-day rental.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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