That's a lot to live up to.
But Factor 5 and publisher LucasArts have tried anyway, and the fruits of their labor -- a two-year-plus collaboration -- is Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. This official sequel once more follows the storyline of the classic trilogy, which in turn means that you control Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Wedge Antilles instead of, say, Mace Windu or a young Obi-Wan.
In Rebel Strike, you again fly an X-Wing in space battle and through the clouds of Hoth. But in addition, you can now also pilot Imperial Walkers, race speeder bikes through the forest of Endor, and yes, even go it on foot in third-person mode -- all franchise firsts. This time around there's even advanced multiplayer options.
So is Rogue Squadron III the better game? In some respects, yes -- absolutely, in fact. Its flight-based scenarios are more intense, larger and prettier than ever before and its new cooperative mode is reason enough to pick up the title, if for nothing else. But the game does not succeed in all areas. Its Shadows of the Empire-inspired third-person foot scenarios are particularly malfunctioned and unpolished -- a truth that dents the overall experience. To find out just how much, you'll have to keep reading.
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The Facts
- Official Star Wars Rogue Squadron sequel
- Follows the storyline of the classic Star Wars trilogy
- Play as recognizable characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Wedge Antilles
- Pilot classic Star Wars craft like the X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon in Rogue Squadron-style flight missions
- For the first time control Imperial Walkers, speeder bikes, and Tauntauns -- along with other new vehicles
- All-new third-person missions -- travel on foot as one of the heroes and explore the insides and outsides of classic Star Wars locales
- Two-player versus modes
- Two-player cooperative mode -- play through the entire Rogue Leader
- Runs in progressive scan
- Runs in Dolby Pro Logic II and Dolby Pro Logic IIx
- Features DIVX-encoded, high-quality DVD clips from the feature films
- Unlock classic Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back arcade games -- fully playable
- Unlocked a behind-the-scenes making-of featurette
- Unlock voice commentary from the developers
Gameplay
Rebel Strike is a far more epic undertaking than Rogue Leader. You play as Luke or Wedge through a branching storyline that encapsulates an impressive selection of varying objectives and eventually intertwines. You will shoot down Storm Troopers from the inside of an AT-ST; you'll meet up with Yoda and train to be a Jedi in the swamps of Dagobah; you'll race through the lush forests of Endor on a speeder bike; and you'll even maneuver an old Starfighter over Geonosis. For Star Wars fans, it's all here, well preserved, and complemented by a wealth of crispy-clean DVD-rip, DIVX-quality full-motion video sequences direct from the feature films.
When you're not in the sky, you might find yourself on one of the franchise's many new intriguing ground-based missions. In these, you'll do everything from smash an AT-ST through Endor, shooting down other Imperial Walkers and crumbling trees, to racing a speeder bike across lake water and atop mountain peaks. The Walker missions are very well done, in our experience and the simplified control scheme (R and L walk, the analog stick steers and A shoots) feels highly intuitive. The speeder bike sequences, meanwhile, move along with a distinguished sense of speed, but lack the wide-open non-linear design of the Walker levels. In fact, some of the speeder environments seem constrained to the point that they appear to be almost on rails, a disappointment. This is not to suggest they aren't fun; correctly timing when to boost over chasms or to catch air off jumps is satisfying; and the speeder bike race in multiplayer mode is both intense and addicting. But with that noted we would have preferred a greater depth of control options when on the sensationally fast craft.
Were Factor 5 to have stopped there, Rebel Strike would have received a higher score. But by the developer's own admission roughly twenty percent of the title is made up of on-foot missions. While we respect the company's ambitious plan in this regard, the truth is that these levels just don't work and they feel severely unrefined when compared to the rest of the game, which is mostly solid. Maneuvering the characters around the environments feels untested and clunky -- even broken, and as a result these levels can be discouraging and frustrating. From the opening tutorial, which challenges you to control Luke around the courtyard of his home on Tatooine, you'll run into problems. The character's stiff, robotic movement, the model's lacking sense of collision detection (he'll actually stutter and fall off walls and stairs if he's positioned incorrectly), the unreliable lock-on system and the mismanaged camera -- it all combines for a very clumsy play experience. While on-foot missions in the outdoors play better, particularly in levels where Luke will also have to man gun turrets and shoot down ships and enemies, the simplified control scheme still fails to offer the desired degree of depth or flexibility that you'll likely require.
This, unfortunately, interferes with the pace of Rebel Strike, asking players of the traditionally-airborne, vehicle-based shooter to do things that not only feel a little out of place, but also awkward as they could never stand alone. This is in stark contrast to the intense dogfighting of Rebel Strike, which no one can deny is the whole reason to play the Rogue Squadron series. So, despite Factor 5's efforts to increase gameplay variety, this new gameplay, faulty and ill-placed, doesn't push the franchise forward.
Rogue Squadron III features a deep, entertaining two-player multiplayer mode -- another first for the franchise. The mode is split up into versus and cooperative categories, both of them enjoyable for different reasons. In versus mode, you can dogfight against another friend via split-screen play, or you can take part in a number of variations, including a fun scenario in which you must attack your opponent's bases, destroy and take control of them. There are also very fun offerings such as the Death Star trench run, in which two players fly X-Wings down the classic gully -- the first person to reach the end wins. This, and the Endor speeder bike race, which is basically the same thing in a different location, are likely to result in a lot of laughs and good-spirited name-calling -- a successful multiplayer entry, by our measure.
Rebel Strike's cooperative mode, though, is reason enough to pick the game up. It's that good. Here, you and a friend can play through the entirety of Rogue Leader. The difference is that the original game has been made considerably more difficult to accommodate two Rebel pilots instead of one. It plays splendidly. You can do everything you could do in the original game, except that with two players it feels fresh again, and there's much more strategy involved. You'll have to work together with a friend to win. Amazingly, thanks to a completely redesigned engine, the two-player split-screen take actually looks just as good as the original Rogue Leader and still runs with a very respectable framerate. Hats off to Factor 5 for that one.
Then there are the DVD extras: the behind-the-scenes featurette, commentary, arcade unlockables and more -- they're all well done and highly welcomed.
Graphics
Star Wars Rogue Leader, a technical benchmark even by today's standards, earned IGNcube's highest graphic rating of all time. Rebel Strike, in some cases, looks considerably better. Factor 5 has with Rebel Strike beautifully captured the look of the Star Wars trilogy. From the ultra-slick menu work complete with FMV backgrounds to the hyper-detailed ship models that are brought to life with a wide variety of detailed textures, many of them layered with dirt and bump-maps, few other developers equal the level of polish in place in this action shooter.
Even levels such as Hoth and Bespin, both returning in Rebel Strike, take on an entirely new look due in large to an impressive technique called light scattering which is used in full by Factor 5. Click here to see dramatic examples of this method, which essentially scatters a light source in an atmospheric fashion across an entire level, subtly affecting fog and landscapes.
Many of the effects in Rogue Leader have likewise been improved upon. The water, more realistic, is actually programmed to sway realistically. The volumetric fog reacts more fluidly and looks all around cleaner. Shadows missing from the first game -- like under ships in the hanger -- are now in place. It's just a much more complete visual package, and this is really saying something.
However, the third-person on foot missions aren't nearly as graphically outstanding. While the character models themselves are detailed enough and skinned with effects such as reflections on trooper armor, the animation is seriously lacking. Luke doesn't move smoothly, but stiffly, and there is no sense of weight to the character; he stops on a dime and turns completely; he catches and jerks on walls; and there are no satisfactory transitions between actions. The camera system for these third-person missions, meanwhile, is unreliable at best, often shooting the action from the wrong angle or short-circuiting altogether.
Naturally, Factor 5's attention to detail is still very much in place. The FMV sequences in the game are easily of the highest quality we've ever witnessed on GameCube. They look to be perfect quality DVD snippets from the feature films. The framerate holds steady for the most part even when the action moves along at a frantic pace in large environments with lots of vehicles on-screen. And of course the title runs in progressive scan mode, too.
All in all, parts of this game feature some of the prettiest graphics achieved on Nintendo's console. But we have to knock the score down due to the admittedly slim, but still present selection of awkward foot-mission oddities.
Sound
The Rogue Squadron series has always been at the forefront of audio technology and Rebel Strike is no different. The game sounds superb in almost every respect. For the first time in the history of the series, Rogue Squadron III features fully orchestrated music. The composition is well done and the quality is pristine. Voice and sound effects are equally well integrated. While some of the dialogue is overacted, there is no sense of compression here; voices boom out while sound effects, clear and present, have their desired impact.
Verdict
Rebel Strike is a worthy follow-up to Rogue Squadron II in just about every way. It's all around more epic. There are more levels, bigger environments, a greater sense of intensity as the battles unfold, and parts of it are significantly more beautiful -- a commendable accomplishment.
While the game's flight missions are still its most enjoyable, some of the ground-based craft areas deliver a good deal of entertainment, too -- from the controlling of AT-STs to blazing-fast races through the forests of Endor. There is, simply, a lot of fun packed in between these kinds of stages.
But unfortunately, Factor 5's own ambitious plan has also backfired in some parts as the third-person on-foot missions -- about twenty percent of the game -- feel unrefined and in some cases malfunctioned. In short, they just don't live up to the otherwise very solid level of Rebel Strike, and this is a big disappointment. It's because of these clunky missions that we've scored this year's game lower than its predecessor, despite the fact that it has made great strides in many other areas and is technically even more extraordinary.
Between a superb two-player cooperative mode -- an absolute must play, in my opinion -- a fun versus mode, and a for-the-most-part engaging single-player experience, there's a lot to do and a lot of satisfaction to be found. And I don't think Star Wars fans should ignore Rebel Strike because of a few poor on-foot missions.
Recommended.