I have always regretted that I just missed
being included in the Star Wars generation (I was
too young at the time to appreciate the first two
movies). Never the less I have been bombarded
with the Star Wars legend and let's not forget, the
merchandise as well. I guess I could even be so
bold to say that Star Wars was the beginning of
my love for science fiction and I am usually
suckered into any new Star Wars game released.
Thus I am doing this review for a game that, while
it uses the Star Wars license, falls short in far too
many aspects to be worthy of the legend.
Graphically, Rogue Squadron 3D is very
similar to Shadows of the Empire and should be
described more as an "N64" style game. While
lighting and fog effects are present, they don't
require anything above a voodoo graphics
accelerator to run at extremely high frame rates.
The textures were too sparse for my liking and
while the TIE Fighters, bombers and interceptors
all were discernable from each other, they didn't
look much better then their original renderings in
TIE Fighter (the game by Lucasarts). The building
textures are satisfactory but simply lack flare and
originality. I would have liked to see much more
detail as with today's 3D acceleration technology
far more could have been done without isolating
most of the gaming market. Terrain texture
fortunately does not experience any severe
pixelation but again lacks the detail that should be
present in a modern 3D game. Lastly I would like to
address the laser fire and miscellaneous effects
aspect of the graphics engine. Explosions and
laser hits are all acceptable but not in the league of
today's top titles. Additionally, the explosions are
boring and do not create the satisfaction that they
should. I noticed some clipping problems in a
mission where you had to use the towline on your
speeder to take out Imperial walkers: the wire
clipped into the legs of the walker. The graphics
unfortunately are only the beginning of an
unpleasant theme of lack of effort and inspiration.
Star Wars is known for awe inspiring
sound effects accompanied by a majestic sound
track. Rogue Squadron's sound is bland beyond
the acceptable range for a Star Wars product. We
all know that Rebel Assault wasn't that great of a
game, but the soundtrack was unmatched at the
time, which is what I was expecting with Rogue
Squadron. Alas, Rogue Squadron does not fail to
disappoint once again. The music is not redbook (I
think it's midi or something of similar quality) and
the sound effects are not even close to digital
quality and don't support 3d sound acceleration (a
must in any new Star Wars game). Even if you
aren't a Star Wars fanatic, prepare yourself to be
disappointed with the sound. If you are, I
recommend you don't attempt to play this game for
fear of loss of sanity. So summed up in one neat
little sentence the sound of Rogue Squadron is,
bland, boring and definitely not majestic.
At least the gameplay in Rogue
Squadron is superior to that of Rebel Assault and
its oh so pathetic sequel but then again Rogue
Squadron is so far behind X-Wing and TIE Fighter
in the gameplay department that I can't believe it
came out years later. First off I should note that
Rogue Squadron is based completely on planetary
spacecraft combat as seen in the first level of
Shadows of the Empire. Gameplay consist of flying
up down left or right and firing either your primary
or secondary weapon at your target while avoiding
incoming missiles or laser fire. There are no
keyboard commands such as altering shield
intensity, energy management and other expected
controls. The best manner in which to describe
Rogue Squadron would be a simplified First
Person/Third Person action shoot 'em up without
power-ups or new weapons within levels. Sure
there are 4-5 different craft you can pilot but the
differences in interface between the crafts is
practically unnoticeable. Rogue Squadron is only
effective in that it allows for a quick Star Wars-like
fix without a hefty learning curve: perfect for the
15 minute gamer.
There is no multiplayer in Rogue
Squadron, which I feel was a very stupid plan.
Rogue Squadron could have potentially been a
very enjoyable multi-player experience and thus its
rating would have been increased, but that would
require more resources and time, which of course
is completely unacceptable.
As you may have noticed, this review is
considerably shorter than most of my other
reviews. The reason behind this is that Rogue
Squadron can't really generate much more text
without becoming redundant. Star Wars Rogue
Squadron is an uninspired game that will only
serve as a quick fix until the much more
anticipated and hopefully far superior X-wing
Alliance is released in Q1 99.
Every year, Lucasarts treats gamers
with a bombardment of Star Wars games and
expansion packs that never seem to grow old. This
year is no exception to the tradition, but there is a
minor lack of quality that everyone expects from
the company with so much behind it's name.
Rogue Squadron, the latest in the flock, takes us
into a world that meshes the styles from Rebel
Assault and the action experienced in Shadows of
the Empire. The missions expand as you are
playing them, and the action itself, never stops.
The game takes place right after Luke
Skywalker and Wedge Antilles have destroyed the
infamous Death Star. Unfortunately, they don't
have time to spare because the Imperial Empire
has already begun their revenge upon the Alliance.
In order to save the Alliance from the grip of the
Empire, Luke and Wedge form the Rogue
Squadron. The Rogue Squadron is created with
twelve of the most highly-skilled, battle-tested
starfighter pilots in the Alliance. In the game, your
missions will take place during the time period
between Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire
Strikes Back, many take place on memorable
planets such as Tatooine, Yavin 4 and Hoth.
At a first glance, Rogue Squadron may
seem like a mediocre shooting game that requires
no skill. I soon found out that the deeper I got into
the game, the more complex, challenging and
exciting the missions became. The gameplay
doesn't get more complicated than flying,
shooting, deploying and receiving, but when the
task at hand requires combinations of all your
abilities, it does get quite addictive. If you have
ever seen the Star Wars movies and wished you
could fly the X-Wing or Y-Wings, or even the Snow
Speeders, this game provides inaccurate yet
enjoyable simulations for all the popular Star Wars
ships. The mission briefings are quick and simple
(sometimes one sentence), but they don't go into
the unnecessary details which most space sims
have. After being briefed, you are able to choose
the ship you wish to fly for the particular mission.
The ships are awarded to you as you pass each
mission, and certain ships require use in most
levels. For instance, in one level you are required
to use the Snow Speeder in order to hog-tie an
AT-AT walker with your cable. I was able to
understand why people might be angry with the
realism represented by the simulation factor of the
game, but you must remember that these are
fictional space fighters. There can't be a game that
accurately re-creates the experience of flying an
X-Wing, because they don't even exist (try not to
cry, it's just reality). So when your ship is hovering
like magic, or you are able to do a 180 in the blink
of an eye don't be disappointed. The only
simulation-type feature that is available in-game is
the radar, which shows your surrounding area,
enemy and friendly ships and also is very useful to
guide you to the next mission objective.
The levels themselves impressed me,
although they don't look exactly like the ones in
the movies, they seem to represent what the
planets would really be like. The environments are
creatively put together, and you can test your
skills over water, through canyons, out-stretching
deserts, active volcanoes, rolling hills, through
thunder storms and much more. In total there are
four chapters with approximately 5 missions in
each, so you're looking at about 20 unique levels
to play in. Sadly, the replay value will be diminished
to nothing once you complete the game since it
has no multiplayer capabilities. If Lucasarts had
considered Multiplayer it's possible that this game
could be a huge hit, the fun-factor level would be
improved as well. Although I had a lot of fun
playing this game, it's more of a cheap
thrill/novelty than a game that will stick with you
for a long time.
As far as control goes, it gets as
complicated as opening a pickle jar. Your basic
flight controls are to accelerate/slow down and
maneuver, the rest of the controls are represents
by a few special firing methods and special utilities
which are unique on each of the five available
ships. When playing this game with a Keyboard, I
found it very difficult to get my double targeting
scopes centered on enemies, it was too sensitive
and unfortunately couldn't be adjusted. The same
over-sensitivity was experienced using a Gravis
GamePad as well. However, when I tried a
Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad, the
over-sensitivity I experienced earlier was basically
nonexistent. The most effective methods of control
are the mouse and joystick, since they vary
depending on how much force you use. I ended up
using my joystick because the buttons were simple
to memorize and it was a lot easier to aim at
enemies with.
The sound effects are absolutely mind
blowing, since the game is able to simulate
accurate 3D positioning, I was able to shoot
enemies and hear them blow up behind me as I
flew past them. The speech is quite high quality
too, and Lucasarts has found some great voice
actors to play the roles of all the popular Star
Wars characters (including Chewbacca!). The
musical score from John Williams is superb, you
wouldn't expect any less from him. Even though
Rogue Squadron doesn't support 3D sound modes
such as A3D and EAX, it does have a 4 speaker
output option. I wasn't able to test this mode
because I don't have a 4-speaker set up, but I'm
sure it would sound even better than the normal
stereo output. The only complaint I have about the
sound is the blaster fire; it gets very repetitive
since you'll probably average thousands of shots
per mission. Otherwise the sound is perfect if you
don't include that minor annoyance.
The most impressive features in the
game are in the graphics, which are presented in
full 3D. Supporting both Direct3D and Glide this is
a real treat for Voodoo Card owners. Let me off
start with the features. Rogue Squadron shows off
real time colored lighting, which aren't the most
visually stunning I have witnessed, but provide just
enough realism to satisfy an action fan. The special
effects themselves are awesome, you can
experience realistic smoke, dust and water
splashes, engine glow and even tracer fire. The
explosions could use some work for a game that
relies on destruction as a theme, but they aren't
overdone like most games of the genre. Basically
when you destroy a ship, you will see a tiny
explosion ring followed by the ship breaking apart
and a flaming explosion. The shadows are
amazingly realistic, like the movies, they follow the
structure of the terrain and cast themselves
accordingly. I was pleased to see the game uses
the actual engine for rendering all the cutscenes in
real time (is it just me, or this becoming a trend in
all the new 3D games?), even the opening
"Lucasarts" logo is rendered by the game engine.
The ground terrain and water all look pleasing to
the eye when you are flying past them and
destroying enemies. The textures on every object
in the game (the entire game is 3D except for the
Storm Troopers, they appear to be sprites
probably because they are so minute) are high
quality and realistic. The models used for all the
ships are probably the best seen out of all the Star
Wars games. Overall, I found Rogue Squadron's
graphics to be supreme in quality and I
experienced no problems in Glide and Direct 3D
modes at multiple resolutions.
In conclusion, even though I prefer
playing the simulation type Star Wars games
(X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter to be specific), I found
Rogue Squadron to be an enjoyable experience.
It's not the best Star Wars game to date, but it can
provide a cheap ride that should at least keep you
busy for a good chunk of time. Just remember, if
you are not impressed at first, continue on with
the game it gets a lot more exciting. This is an
action game, not a simulation, and it should be
treated as one.