33 out of 33 people found this review helpful.
Mediocre is the Force with this one.
Date of Review: Jan 9, 2009
The Bottom Line: Mediocre but still above average.
A couple years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find an X-box under the Christmas tree. Packaged with it was a limited edition disc containing Tetris: Worlds and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Being somewhat of a Star Wars nut, I of course gravitated the latter.
Plot and Characters
The Clone Wars begins sometime during the final act of the second prequel Attack of the Clones as the Jedi Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli race to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker from execution on the planet Geonosis. In the ensuing battles, you’ll play as Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker through what begin as missions with ostensibly little importance but become a major factor in the battle to the save the Republic.
Basically, don’t expect much from the story. It gets the job done, but it’s not exactly riveting, in my opinion. And I could see how many would find it to be a little hokey to some. Additionally, character development is minimal. Almost all of the characters are one-dimensional and the ones that rise above that don’t rise very far. Count Dooku, Cydon Prax, and the Sith acolytes are evil. Obi-Wan Kenobi is duty bound. Anakin is gung ho for a fight. Not even Yoda shows much spunk.
Gameplay
There are four multiplayer modes: duels, conquests, zone controls, and academy. Duels are matches where players compete to win a certain number of kills or the most kills in a set time. With conquests, you lead an army with the aim of destroying the other side’s base. Control zones are battles for territory where you earn points by occupying zones. In academy, the player battles wave after wave of attackers, scoring points by killing enemies and collecting bonuses. All multiplayer modes are available both offline through a splitscreen and through Xbox live. I have unfortunately not had the opportunity to try out the multiplayer missions (other than academy, which is also available for one player), so this review will focus on the single player campaign.
The campaign mission objectives themselves are pretty varied: destroy this, outrun that, rescue this, guard this other thing, reach a certain location, etc. There are also bonus objectives, three per mission, which range from destroying a certain number of enemies to completing mission objectives or the entire mission in a certain amount of time. All of this keeps the game from getting too monotonous. The bonus objectives also add to the replay value as you can go back to previous missions and complete the tasks you missed.
The gameplay itself is pretty fun. There are several different vehicles you’ll use throughout the game. Each has its own mechanics and abilities. The fighter tank is agile and quick but can still pack a punch. The walker is slower but is like a battering ram: it can take a lot of damage and deal even more. You even play occaisionally as a Jedi, although I do wish there were more Jedi abilities. There are no special lightsaber moves or cool force powers; all you can do is throw your lightsaber, slash, and use a force “push” that really causes your enemies to explode. You can’t even control how you deflect blaster bolts.
Also, game is almost completely linear. All objectives must be completed in the given order. All missions must be completed in the given order. There is not choice whatsoever. You can’t even decide what to unlock with the bonus points you accrue. Moreover, the game is very short. The missions go by very quickly. We’re talking fifteen minutes at the most in many missions. To give you an idea, some of the bonus objectives include completing tasks in under two minutes and completing the whole mission in under nine. That’s just insane. And there aren’t that many missions to begin with. I was literally shocked at how fast I completed the game. And while the bonus objectives do add some replay value, it is quickly used up.
Graphics
The environments you play in are diverse, ranging from the desert of Geonosis to the snow and ice covered Rhen Var to the lush forests of the Kashyyyk moon. Each planet has a varied terrain featuring hills, mountains, depressions, streams, ravines, and so on. Smoke and dust billow from the wreckages of destroyed tanks and ships. Armies of clone troops and battle droids trade fire. Rain and snow fall from the sky. Lightning strikes the ground.
The character and unit designs are fairly well detailed, both during gameplay and the videos. You can see the contours of Anakin’s clothing, the nooks and crannies of the vehicles, and different tones in hair, even if the clothing and hair seems to be really stiff. Apparently, clothing starch and hairspray are en vogue in a galaxy far, far away.
However, the graphics still seem limited in places. The level of interactivity with the environment is very small. You can’t even target the battle droids on the ground when in the gun ship or the hover tank. And the armies on the ground don’t even interact; they’re firing at one another but no one ever gets hit. And the environments can also leave one wanting. There are times when they seem too planned, too artificial. For example, the lines of the mountains and hills are too clear, too geometric. The color schemes are too uniform. The canyon walls are too smooth in places.
Controls
The controls can get annoying at times. The first two vehicles you use (the hover tank and the gunship) are very responsive to slight changes in direction and therefore take a while to get used to. Another annoying thing is that, should you veer too far off course, the game will pull you back. For ground units, this isn’t too much of an annoyance, but for the air units, this can be lethal as you fly through tight quarters. There have been times I’ve found myself in a death spiral, being jerked into walls continuously by the game until I end up dying.
Sound
The voice acting is passable, not great but not terrible either. For the most part, the voice acting comes off as natural and with the appropriate tone for the situation, although there are times when it becomes a little stiff. None of the actors from the movies reprise their roles, but the replacements for Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, the clone troopers, Yoda, and Count Dooku all do a fairly good job of approximating the actors’ voices, at least to the point where one doesn’t realize immediately that they’re different. The voice actors from the non-movie characters (or characters without lines in the movies) lend personality to their characters, led by Grey Delisle, who would become better known for her roles as Azula on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Frankie on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. The one goat is the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not only does it sound nothing like Ewan MacGregor, but it sounds like he has a constant cold.
However, there are times when it sounds like the voice actors are reading from a script they’re reading from a script they’re unfamiliar with, with weird emphasis of random syllables (ie. “Sen-SORS indicate…”) or turning every word into its own sentence (“The. Second. Orbital. Cannon. Is. Down…”) or both (“I’ve input. The. Co-Ordinates”). For the most part, however, the voice acting sounds pretty natural.
Probably the most disappointing thing about the sound are the sound effects. I haven’t figured out if it’s more a case of the sound effects getting drowned out by the music and dialogue or if they’re using the music and dialogue to cover for the inadequate sound effects. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The net result is the loss a lot of atmosphere and immersion in the game, especially considering that the music, while authentic (it’s composed by John Williams), doesn’t add much atmosphere itself. That being said, some sound effects do make it through and sound pretty good. The wookiee voices sound dead-on from the movies. The beeps of the astromech droids and the blaster fire of the STAP fighters likewise sound faithful to the movie.
Final Word
In short, The Clone Wars does nothing really well but nothing poorly either. It’s a straight-forward, easy to learn, fun game that’s good for an hour or two. So, if you can find it very cheap and have some time to kill, by all means, give it a try. Just don’t pay the $15.00 and more people are asking for on it E-bay. Better yet, just rent it. I give it four stars (actually 3.75 rounded up) and a recommendation.
