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Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III Rebel Strike Review
Chris Leyton
10/11/2003
Oh dear what have Factor 5 done, it's like 'Shadows of the Empire' all over again...
āOh dear itās āShadows of the Empireā all over againā were the thoughts buzzing around our heads when āStar Wars: Rogue Squadron III ā“ Rebel Strikeā was first unveiled to the gaming world prior to E3.
Fresh from the deserved success of āRogue Squadron IIā, Factor 5 have decided itās time to give us yet another instalment in the series that spiritually began life out on the Nintendo64. But unfortunately the US developers have decided itās time to bring Luke out of the cockpit and show his wares on the battlefield.
Whilst we wouldnāt have complained if these sections had shown a shred of quality and applauded Factor 5 for attempting to bring new ideas to the drawing board, the sad truth is that these sections ruin the overall enjoyment gained by the more traditional shooting missions.
Itās no over-statement to claim that the on-foot sections are reminiscent of the very first 3D games that we played back on the PSOne and Nintendo64. The player has no control over the camera; instead unhelpful fixed cameras do little to make the experience cinematic let alone enjoyable. Whilst fixed point cameras are ideal for slower paced survival/horror titles to build up the tension, the truth is that they just donāt work in fast-paced action titles; youāll find yourself constantly shooting enemy characters that are off-screen or banging into walls because you canāt see exactly what youāre doing. To make matters even worse, later levels feature some platform aspects that will have you pulling out your teeth thanks to the awkward camera positions and controls.
The sections arenāt helped by the fact that they feature the worst controls and animation weāve seen in a very long time. When we first laid eyes upon it and played it at E3, we blamed all these issues on early code and gave Factor 5 the benefit of the doubt ā“ unfortunately these scenes havenāt changed at all since then. Luke crawls along as though heās freshly deposited something in his underpants, youāll always know a game is going to be bad by the run and jump animations ā“ to say theyāre crude would be doing Factor 5 a great favour. To compound matters even further, the auto-targeting in conjunction with the camera makes the game almost unplayable, whilst the balance between the levels varies from as frustrating as being shot by something you canāt see to just standing still and killing everybody by hitting the A button as much as possible.
Elsewhere Factor 5 has continued the concept of bringing new ideas to the series, some which work better then others.
The game loosely follows the adventures of the original trilogy, interspersed with limitless FMV scenes from the movies. Whereas the original games were strictly linear affairs, the third title offers a branching system allowing players to take on missions as Luke Skywalker or swap over to Wedge Antilles. Players are free to switch between each of these as and when they wish, however the two different storylines come together at the end during the Rebellionās climatic battle with the Empire on the forest moon of Endor.
āStar Wars: Rogue Squadron III ā“ Rebel Strikeā places a huge range of different crafts for you to pilot, more then any other Star Wars game, but unfortunately only the space based craft offer any excitement. We were massively looking forward to the chance of picking up a speeder bike for a spin in the forests, but unfortunately all youāve got to do is fly forward and shoot, not exactly as exhilarating as we were hoping for.
The game features a wide selection of multiplayer modes to add some hope of replayability, even going to the lengths of being able to play all of the missions from āStar Wars: Rogue Squadron II ā“ Rogue Leaderā in 2P co-op ā“ fun if youāve not played that, but not exactly a reason to go and buy the game immediately. The game also offers the old vector-based arcade games as a hidden bonus, certainly a more appealing prospect for the older gamers out there then playing through the main game.
