Star Wars: Rebellion

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.

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?

The Good
Star Wars stategic combat? Take control of the Alliance or the Empire? what a concept!

The Bad
The execution of the wonderful concept is the absolute pits.

1. "Rebellion" has the worst interface of any game published in the last ten years. Accomplishing even the most mundane task is a nightmare of right- and left-clicking, none of which is based on any sort of logical menu algorithm. Even if the game was otherwise terrific, the interface alone is enough to make it worthless.

2. The graphics and sound are the pits.

3. The AI is terrible. Ten years ago I might have accepted bad AI, but for a game written in 1997 it's ludicrous. The AI acts in an essentially random fashion.

4. Despite big promises, the game's Star Wars feel is lacking. The personalities are just Strat-o-Matic cards that you assign to uninteresting missions, for which you get text boxes stating whether the mission was successful or not. Most of the really cool characters, like Darth Vader or the Emperor or Princess Leia, are merely used on one "diplomatic" mission after another, which doesn't do anything except slightly raise your influence over a planet.

The entire game doesn't even match the Star Wars universe. The Empire starts out with virtually no military power, which just doesn't make any sense at all, and controls next to no planets; they're pretty much equal to the Rebels, which of course pretty much blows the whole "scrappy rebels vs. huge, lumbering Empire" thing right out the door. My idea of the perfect Star Wars strategy game would have the Rebel player forced the hit and run and disrupt the Empire from all corners, slowly breakign it down, while the Imperial player would have to use sheer force to try to box the Rebel player in until he had nowhere to run. Most planets are unexplored, which makes no sense in a Star Wars setting. At the beginning of the game the Empire exerts no control over the galaxy. What the heck are they an Empire OF? What are the Rebels rebelling against?

The truth is that the game HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH STAR WARS. The strategic and tactical elements of the game are no more relevant to "Star Wars" than they are to Fried Green Tomatoes. The game is merely a very, very bad abstract strategic game on which they've plastered the "Star Wars" name and put some of the character's names on the playing cards. Big whoop.

The game's tactical combat system sucks as well; the graphics are poor and the combat is uncontrollable and boring. Other types of missions have no combat at all and there's no ground combat, so you can't order General Veers to begin his attack, and what fun is that?

The Bottom Line
This game is a complete ripoff, an attempt to use the Star Wars name to sucker gamers into buying a terrible, boring and buggy game. Don't buy this game; don't take it if someone PAYS you to play it.