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> Results: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
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Based on the feature film Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, Pandemicﾒs Star Wars: The Clone Wars clearly has one central goal in mind: take the mind numbing and often mindless combat found in the Episode II Clone Wars sequence, and make it playable in video game form. To their benefit, and to the benefit of Star Wars gamers everywhere, theyﾒve largely succeeded.The game begins with the initial Clone Wars battle on Geonosis, as seen in Episode II, but quickly moves beyond the film into a story all its own, split among a series of sequential game missions, each with their own set of objectives. Not wanting to spoil things, Iﾒll say the storyline adds much to the existing Star Wars mythology, providing what Lucasarts claims to be legitimate details falling within that murky realm between Episodes II and III. Such details include further Count Dooku details, what could be a Jango Fett replacement, more exploits of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan, and in particular, Mace Winduﾒs participation in the Clone Wars. The game itself is pure, unadulterated vehicular carnage (with a smidgen of droid and Geonosian insectoid combat thrown in for good measure). Like the battles seen in the film, the game is essentially war-havoc made playable, with vehicles equipped with a variety of weapons, some standard issue, others requiring periodic reloads or recharges. The game is simplistic in regards to such weaponry ﾖ youﾒll find items like rocket reloads, health, and super charges in the battlefield, with no unruly sub-menus or difficult control schemes looking to slow down the action.  Thankfully, Pandemic did an admirable job in breaking up what could have been otherwise heavily repetitious game play. By introducing different mission objectives and different playable roles, the game likes to keep things interesting, never dwelling on any particular style of play for too long a time. Youﾒll make use of different vehicles, including Republic Gunships and AT-XT walkers. Youﾒll sometimes find yourself riding saddleback atop a Maru, and in other cases, youﾒll play as famous Jedi from the film, equipped with only a lightsaber and the Force. For the vast majority of The Clone Wars, however, youﾒll find yourself manning an armed-to-the-teeth hovertank, and youﾒll quickly appreciate how easily this vehicle allows you to participate in the various ground battles going on around you, which are amazingly populated and intense with vehicle explosions and trademark Star Wars laser fire. The missions themselves provide a series of different primary and bonus objectives, such as protecting a convoy of supply ships, destroying a wave of incoming droid transports, rescuing soldiers, or battling it out one-on-one with a Star Wars ﾓbossﾔ encounter. As a Star Wars game, The Clone Wars bleeds licensed personality, loaded with authentic John Williamﾒs scores, sound effects and movie-based character and enemy models. There are quite a few new and original vehicle additions as well, nearly all of which fit perfectly within the Star Wars motif. While character voiceovers arenﾒt those of the original movie cast, youﾒll find them familiar if youﾒre a Star Wars fan ﾖ many featured voice actors have appeared in other Star Wars games and Cartoon Networkﾒs The Clone Wars animated series. The voice work is well done and deserves special mention, as it contributes a great deal of ambience to the game (thereﾒs a strong reliance upon quality radio chatter for each mission). The Clone Wars does falter a bit in the technical department. While the music and sound effects are Star Wars bliss, the environments and graphics donﾒt quite live up to other famous Gamecube Star Wars efforts, such as Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike. This is largely forgiven considering the great deal of Star Wars combat on screen at any one time, but the lack of pristine graphics is noticeable. Along with some frame rate drops, these issues acknowledge the gameﾒs unfortunate lack of perfect polish, but can also reach a level where the actual game play sometimes suffers, what with choppy movements and notable clipping problems. Combined with a few instances of almost severe playability issues (the Jedi segments namely, which are thankfully few in number), there are a few faults in Star Wars: The Clone Wars which should have been ironed out before the gameﾒs release. But donﾒt let some poor technical marks make the final judgment. Graphic hiccups and Jedi segments aside, The Clone Wars is still great fun and makes for one of the better Star Wars video gaming efforts out there. Itﾒs very much a ﾓpick up and playﾔ arcade style of game, requiring very little thought as to any strategy required ﾖ simply point in the right direction and shoot. Combined with a series of extra material to be unlocked (game trailers, a documentary, in-game codes, etc), and an unappreciated but robust multi-player mode, Star Wars: The Clone Wars stands as a proud bearer of the Star Wars namesake. Kudos, Pandemic, and thanks Lucasarts, for giving these guys some playtime in the sandbox. Kid Factor: Itﾒs Star Wars in vehicular combat form, so makes for a relatively safe sci-fi gaming experience. Casualties consist almost entirely of other vehicles, robot droids and insectoids. Even with the constant vehicular explosions and firefights, itﾒs rather tame stuff by Star Wars standards, and you may find your pre-teens ready to challenge the Dark Side with this one. Reviewer Recommended Ages: 10+ Genre: 3-D Action-Combat ESRB Rating: T for Teen Producer: Lucasarts Developer: Pandemic Studios Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Star Wars: The Clone Wars |
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