Star Wars: Rebellion

The Good
Great interface wonderfull design. I loved the complexity and the options. I still play it all the time.

The Bad
Character Intel is very weak. When you send a person out to do spying it always more trouble than it is worth. At the begining the Empire starts out with almost no starships!! How is that possible.

The Bottom Line
I have seen so many bad reievews of this game and I still can not understand why. This is a Hall Of Fame game. Just give it a chance and you will see.

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
Most games are about excitement. I play games like Medal of Honor for the thrill of victory. Starcraft is fast-paced strategy excitement. Titan Quest offers fun abilities, while Mass Effect and other RPG games offer a compelling plot.

Rebellion offers almost no plot. Rebellion is not fast-paced. And while a well-placed headshot may give me a smug feeling of superiority or a thrill of quick victory over an opponent, Rebellion offers no similar quick endorphins. Instead, Rebellion gives you an open format and lets you decide.

We all know the Star Wars universe well. If all you know is the original trilogy, or even the first of those movies, you know enough to understand the back history of this game. If you have read the novels, played the games, and love every aspect of Star Wars, you will get even more out of this game.

Rebellion is set up for long-term strategical satisfaction. It actually takes time to build a kilometer-long starship. There are no super-units; balance is important. Research doesn't always work. In short, Rebellion is a mix of sci fi, video game, and reality.

Characters are recruited, then sent on missions. Intelligence is gathered slowly, and is not always reliable- sure, Darth Vader may have been on Corellia when Han Solo scouted the planet, but by the time Wedge Antilles arrives with a battle squadron, Vader has left.

Resources are gathered via mines and refineries. Maintenance of equipment is important- just because you can build it doesn't mean you can keep it running. This is the idea behind Rebellion: more realism.

This game provides players with the ability to do what they want. Make the Star Wars plot change, build a real fleet with the Rebel Alliance or use the Empire's starfighters to destroy the rebels. Train new Jedi, or new Sith. Assassinate enemy operatives. Bombard worlds into oblivion, or blow them away entirely with your own Death Star.

With great power comes great complexity. Most bad reviews are because of the time required to learn this game. If you don't mind actually thinking about your video games, you may ignore most of the bad reviews.

The Bad
There is a learning curve. Once you have played the game for a bit, you'll find the AI is pathetically inadequate. Fleet battles are difficult to manage beyond the basic. Parts of the game are hardcoded and cannot be upgraded.

The Bottom Line
Rundown: Graphics: Certainly not fantastic, but are acceptable except for fleet battles. Music: Standard Star Wars. Neither spectacular nor bad. Interface: Poor, but manageable. Flexibility: Superb. Few games offer this level of options.

Final thoughts: a great game for thinkers. There is still a thriving community for this game: http://www.swrebellion.com/

The above website also offers tools like RebEd, which allows customization of units, build times, etc. Highly recommended, especially if you like the extended universe.