And while the gameplay isn't impeccable, it's still very good. With a wide variety of ships, huge environments, and a sense of scale that's never been felt in the Star Wars series--the only things that have come close to this are the
Freespace computer games--
Star Wars: Rogue Leader - Rogue Squadron II is a success. The brevity of the main game and the somewhat weak controls take some of the shine away from the game, but it's still a brilliant outing, and one that will make many avid Star Wars buffs and fans of action games alike giddy with joy.
The basic idea of Star Wars: Rogue Leader is reliving the big action scenes from the original movies. It starts off with the assault on the first Death Star, and moves on from there, taking you to icy Hoth and beyond, up to the necessary culmination. Along the way, there are a number of missions that are not represented in the films; they don't so much add to the game's story as they do simply flesh out the Star Wars universe a little more. It was nice to see the Maw, having read about it in the books, and other little touches like that really make the game something more than a straight copy of the movie's scenes.
Each mission starts off with you picking a ship (assuming you have a choice). Then, after a brief cutscene, you're generally thrown into the action. There's usually some serious goal that you have to manage, such as destroying towers, defending Alliance ships, or skulking about in an attempt to break into a complex. This keeps it from being a raw blast-fest, which is a nice change from the usual for the genre, and each mission really feels like it stands on its own. Some of them aren't particularly enthralling in terms of what you have to do, but they're all different, so you can't fault the game for that.
There are ten core missions in the game, which is admittedly a good bit on the short side. Of course, there is a bevy of hidden stuff in the game, which can only be found by diligent searching (or the use of guides). In addition, there are medals that you can garner in each level, depending upon your accuracy and speed of completion. Getting all of the gold medals jacks up the game's complexity considerably, but non-hardcore gamers won't bother with that sort of single-minded determination.
And that's really the only problem with the game. For those who aren't looking to play the same levels over and over, trying to optimize their times and accuracy, there's a handful of hours of fun and then retirement to the 'show off occasionally' shelf. Completists like myself will find a good bit more entertainment on the disc, but the relative ease of the missions for those not shooting for the gold will definitely dampen some spirits out there.
The game sports a wide variety of extras, which are unlocked by a variety of means, which keeps the value up even higher for completists.
