Star Wars Rouge Squadron
Reviewed by Stephen Sullivan
The game revolves around Luke and his formation of the Rouque Squadron.
You start off in training and work your way up to officer. To get promoted
you must complete the missions within the required time, accomplishing
all of the goals set for the different levels. You can score a bronze, silver
or gold medal for each episode. The awarding of medals will determine
your rank. Scoring bronze is usually easy. The game will pick the type craft
you will fly. The craft available are: X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing, V-wing and
the Speeder. You'll find some new characters in this game and even one who
defects from the other side. The game doesn't include any references to Darth
Vader, but instead has a new main character called Moff Serdon who flies
around in a shuttle. Each mission normally starts off with three ships (i.e.
you get three tries before you fail your mission). However, you need to keep
track of this as there are no on screen graphics to show you this. There is
much talking between Luke and others in the game. Once you have mastered
a mission you can play it again to try and improve your rank.
Graphics 8 out of 10
Graphics are similar to Star Wars Shadow of the Empire as far as quality,
maybe even a little better. The cockpit views are pretty good, but you have no
way of seeing to the sides, directly below you or behind you. It makes it
difficult to protect yourself from attacks. I would had liked to see a graphic
that would tell you how many planes you had left. This is important as depending
on where in the game you left, you may not have as many ships as you think you
do. I would like to see the targeting graphics improved as it can be hard to aim
and shoot in a target that is closing fast. The game lets you know how much
live you have left in your craft by showing a small graphic of it in the upper
left hand corner of the screen. It starts with a solid green and goes to yellow
green, yellow, yellow red, red and finally flashing red.
Music and Sound 8 out of 10
There is more to the sound in this Star Wars than the previous. In this one
you get to here the voices of General Rieken, Luke, Wedge and a few others.
The music is mostly the same as before, but now you have the voice overs
with it. The addition of the voices is much better than having to always
pause to read.
Game Challenge 9 out of 10
The game varies as far as challenges go. Some missions are easy to
accomplish while the majority are quite difficult. When you are trying to
attach the gas containers sometimes you are blamed for blowing them up
when you haven't even fired yet. It seems to be a quirk in the game. You get
to fly different craft with the Y-wing being the most challenging. I found
the Y-wing to be the greatest challenge, because of its slow speed and
the need to fly low when bombing. Bombing from high doesn't give you the
accuracy. When flying the Y-wing I found it best to fly it using the inside
cockpit view and to always fly at maximum speed.
Game Play-Fun 9 out of 10
It takes a while to complete the entire game. It is not as long or adventurous
as the previous Star Wars, but it is challenging and time consuming. The game
won't have any trouble holding your attention. As far as action games go, it is
pretty good. It starts off with each mission unrelated to the previous for
chapters one and two. When you get to chapter three the missions are now
tied into each other and Moff Serdon comes along as the guy you are after.
Serdon is trying to destroy or take control of anything relating to the rebel
cause. I enjoyed flying the A-wings the most. They are easy to fly and can
easily catch and shoot down Tie fighters and bombers.
Frustration
The game has quirks in which you get blamed for blowing up things you never
went near. Also when you are trying to save the back containers, the game is
limited in the areas in which you can fly. What happens is that when you try
to fly up against the limits of the games background it forces you to turn in
a given direction. This is pretty bad when being chased by Tie Fighters and
Bombers. They are able to attach you and turn into parts of the screen where
you can't go and you in turn are forced to turn when you don't want to. It takes
control away from you if you get too close to the limits of the background.
Another frustration is when you are chasing the Tie fighters and bombers.
You are close enough to hit them, but the computer won't let your guns touch
them. You have to be almost on top of them to hit them. In addition, the ability
to turn and give chase is limited by the computer not letting you always use
your planes full capabilities. This is especially true with the X-wing. It turns
slow and always in wide circles. I also didn't notice much difference in speed
on the X-wing with the wings closed versus open. It seems you should be able
to go much faster with the wings closed. Instead your speed is only slightly
increased. Y-wings are very hard to control and complete missions with.
Could never figure out how to auto fire guns while on a bombing run. In the
mission to destroy the barracks and radar site using the Y-wings, you have
to be careful. If you get shot down while following the shuttle or when the
shuttle is appearing for you to follow, you will lose the shuttle and then
have to spend a lot of time flying around looking for the port where the
shuttle went to. The idea is to follow the shuttle and it will lead you to the
shuttle port to blow it up.
Overall 8 out of 10