Star Wars: Rebellion

The Good
I learned to like this game because of it's complexity. There are several ways on how to win the galaxy over - by brute force (then you have to deal with traitors and uprisings), diplomacy, by colonizing a lot of fresh colonies in the Outer Rim, by sabotage and assasination, by peaceful diplomacy... "Popular Support" is the key to this game - the populace of every planet is either biased towards you or your opponent. If they hate you, you will need to heavily garrison the planet to deal with uprisings and smugglers. On the other hand, if the populace of a planet under enemy control is on your side, you will benefit from informants, smuggling and find it easier to successfully finish a covert operation on that world. Many other factors influence the game - the ratings of imperial personnel improves as soon as the emperor is on Coruscant, a team travelling with Han Solo will be faster because of the Millenium Falcon... If you catch a big enemy fleet and wipe it out, he will lose popular support in the entire system - sometimes neutral worlds even sway to your side voluntarily.

The Bad
Ok, it is true - the interface is not the most intuitive. I had to play the game a lot to get used to it. And it is easy to get confused, if many things happen at the same time.

The Bottom Line
This game is a true strategy game. You can develop several different strategies, not only the usual "defend-build-crush" of other RTS-games

The Good
I tried this game because it had the title "Star Wars", although from the beginning a knew it had bad reviews. I admit that the first 3 times I tried, I could not cope with it and I quit. When the Star Wars virus stroke me again, I gave it a second chance and I was glued for hours!! Yes, the game is really hard, I haven't managed to do anything of notice no matter how many hours I tried but it challenged me... I WANT to beat it!

If you don't stuck on the bad things, you will love this game. It has no action but it's rich and deep. Characters, ships, fleets, missions, spies, technologies and evolution. The game really evolves in your hands and your empire becomes your own personal creation.

There is also plentiful information in the little embedded encyclopedia, about everything in the game, that will boost up your knowledge on Star Wars.

Many say that this is 'a card game with the name Star Wars on it to attract fans'. Maybe, I don't agree, but there is even Star Wars Monopoly. If you don't have a problem to play it, what's wrong with Rebellion?

Also, it's not really important, but I liked the cutscenes :)

The Bad
Yes, I know players dislike many elements of this game, so did I, but I want to justify some of them.

• The nature of the game itself isn't promising for graphics, sound and action. You can't accuse for example a platform arcade game for having poor dialogues. I agree however that (although it doen't affect much) the 'cards' could be drawn better

• Everyone says that the controls are hard and confusing. I am not going to say the opposite, but it can be mastered.

• I didn't like some inconsistencies to the Star Wars timeline. For example you are going to 'discover' and recruit characters that were in the Rebellion from the first movie! also, this is the same for the planets. I had to 'discover' Tatooine!

• Yes, COULD have some action and battles, even poorly done. Even the ancient Centurion had elementary battles.
  
  The Bottom Line
  I can tell that this game was maybe hastily done. It could be simpler, had better graphics, and maybe battles. But if you give it a second chance, and don't define 'strategy' as 'action RTS', and then try to find what is really good of it (believe me, there is), then Rebellion is worth the try!

The Good
This is a truly immersive and addictive game. To actually play as the Empire or the Rebellion and try to take over the galaxy with or without force is a dream many Star Wars fans have had. To build multiple Death Stars and blow up planets at will is a first in the line of Star Wars games. As an avid fan of TIE Fighter I felt a strong desire to correct the mistakes of the Empire and bring true peace and order to the galaxy. I tried playing as the Rebels but hearing that fake Leia or Luke voice made it so annoying to play as the Rebels. The Empire was much more fun as their characters were more civilized and proper. The Imperial Star Destroyer is a great capital ship and with the Lancer Frigate and Carrack Light Cruiser can easily take on Rebel fleets fairly early in the game. The Super Star Destroyer along with a fleet of the smaller Star Destroyers with fighters and support craft make the game very engrossing.

The game diverges from so many other RTS and turn-based strategy games in that it requires the player to effectively manage political, social as well as economical and military events in the game. The lower your expenditures in the war against the Rebels the more popular you can be. Gaining support for your cause is crucial to success in this game as you only have limited resources and a big galaxy to conquer.

The Bad
It takes a very long time to build ships and send fleets to fight the enemy. The Rebels start off with a huge disadvantage as they have NO LARGE CAPITAL SHIPS. The Empire can rely on the fact that it will start the game with at least one Star Destroyer, either a smaller Victory Star Destoyer or the superior Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Very wise planning is needed in this game to achieve success as the enemy is not as dumb as they look.

The infamous interface which has so often killed the game in the reviewers' minds is not hard to learn. It is better than the interface in newer games like Star Trek Armada. Unfortunately it is terribly inefficient and can even lead to mistakes such as retiring officers prematurely or scrapping necessary ships (I've never made these mistakes in the game but came close).

The sound options are terrible as it is impossible to mute those annoying C-3PO sounds and other robot noises.

The Bottom Line
Only a four on five as it lacks proper sound and interface controls. I still recommend it to all hardcore Star Wars fans as you do get to conquer the galaxy either with an iron fist or a soft hand.

Do you have what it takes to command a galaxy?