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> Results: Star Wars Lethal Alliance
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Violence: GamerDad spent the entire game blasting apart assassins and Stormtroopers, occasionally ripping them apart with our melee weapon. In some ways I miss the good ol' days when Star Wars games were either excellent or pure junk ﾖ for every X-Wing there was a Force Commander; for every Knights of the Old Republic a Battle for Naboo. Recently, with the exception of the excellent LEGO Star Wars I & II , the games have tended towards mediocrity ﾖ from Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice to the Force to BattleFront I & II to Republic Commando and beyond, the games are often good but never really stand above the crowd of other good games in their genres. Such is also the case for Star Wars Lethal Alliance, a very average action game that is loads of fun but easily forgotten. The game puts you in the body of Twi'lek mercenary and former slave Rianna Saren, and pairs you up with a multi-purpose droid you end up calling Zeeo (who looks much like the droid Obi-Wan rode through the skies of Coruscant in Attack of the Clones). It is a third-person action game with some platforming parts, but mainly you spend your time shooting stuff and moving from area to area. The plot is simple ﾖ it is just before the events of the original Star Wars film, and you are helping the Rebel Alliance while simultaneously trying to even the score with your old slaver. Of the common PSP complaints ﾖ load times, controls and camera ﾖ only the camera is an issue. The load-times are fairly quick and the controls generally work well ﾖ except when the camera decides to change context on you suddenly. The camera is also part of the auto-aim system, which works so well that the only reason for taking damage is the camera system failing to register an enemy. You can expect the majority of your deaths to be caused by falling off edges of areas or failing to lock on to the nearest enemy ﾖ both of which are camera related. The thing that bothers me the most is that the game is inherently pretty fun, but comes off as lazy ﾖ the auto-targeting mechanism and camera controls could have greatly benefited from some tweaking, and the story is trite and derivative. An action game like Star Wars Lethal Alliance doesn't need much of a plot to be fun, but the story here takes events that were already described in Dark Forces and retells them using a new character. The game features Princess Leia and Kyle Katarn, but their involvement is minimal and unrealistic. Overall it feels like a generic action game that was tweaked to use the Star Wars license. It is still a decent game, and provides a bunch of fun ﾖ it is just much less than it could have been and very far from being a classic.  
Regardless of what parents think of the recent Star Wars films, kids *get* Star Wars. The basic stories and themes speak to kids, and the sweeping integration of fantasy archetypes and technology sparks their imaginations. As a result they can't wait to get their hands on new games when they come out. Generally there is little content that will be surprising, and fortunately this is the case with Star Wars Lethal Alliance - this is a third-person action shooter and nothing else. The only difference is that you are armed with a close combat weapon called the ﾑThorn of Ryloth' that you use to deliver deadly attacks. Some of the special attack moves involve you eviscerating a stunned foe (nothing gory) or lodging the pike under the helmet of a Stormtrooper and flipping him over your shoulder to his death. Again, this isn't gory but makes the game a bit more intense than a standard third person shooter.
Which version to buy? PSP: Reviewed above ﾖ better controls and graphics, slightly more violent. Better version. DS: Same basic game, controls are worse, but it has some puzzles ﾖ still, overall the worst version. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Star Wars Lethal Alliance |
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