Yes, we know, it’s another Star Wars game. Sorry folks, but there’s not much we can do about it. George Lucas has managed to create a universe which will sell even mediocre games for years to come. Come to think of it, I don’t know if there’s a game genre that doesn’t have at least one Star Wars title in it. However, not all of them were a gold mine for Lucas Arts, the real-time strategy genre being one of them. At first there was Star Wars Rebellion, a game much like Master of Orion but with a horrendous interface. Force Commander was the second attempt at the gold, but which ultimately became the worst Star Wars game ever made. Star Wars Battlegrounds doesn’t really count, since it was basically Age of Empires 2 with a Star Wars skin on top of it. If it were about any another genre, Lucas Arts might not have taken such great efforts, but there are a lot of real-time strategy fans out there… err, I mean customers. Since a third fiasco would have probably been equivalent to a marketing suicide, Lucas Arts turned to Petroglyph Games, which despite being newly formed, is composed of veterans who participated in the design of some very successful games, like the Command & Conquer series, Civilization 3 or Z.

     The action in Empire at War takes place after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and just before Episode IV: A New Hope, covering the birth of the Rebellion and the destruction of the first Death Star. Therefore, you will have the chance to relive Star Wars history and destroy the most feared weapon in the galaxy or help the Galactic Empire crush the Rebellion. As expected, all the main characters from the original Star Wars movie trilogy are present in the game as heroes, fighting for either the rebels or the Empire: Mon Mothma, Amiralul Ackbar, Grand Moff Tarkin, Colonelul Veers, Boba Fett, as well as the iconic characters - Emperor Palpatine, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The hero units in Empire at War are extremely powerful, in single-player and multiplayer as well, some of them (Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader) being able to decimate entire armies without too much of an effort.

     The designers also thought about the more hardcore Star Wars fans and made a nice touch by including two special characters in the hero roster: Mara Jade, an assassin in the service of the Emperor and Kyle Katarn, the renowed hero of the Jedi Knight series of game.