Star Wars: The Best of PC is a compilation of 6 Star Wars games for $39.99. Sounds good right? Well here’s the review.
Star Wars: Empire at War
STORY
I don’t know what EAW is about. It’s an RTS so the story wasn’t the most interesting nor did I pay attention. There may not be a story. I can’t really say more than I know and I don’t know anything. If I can’t remember any of the story you can probably guess it wasn’t very memorable.
2.0/10
GRAPHICS
The graphics are solid in EAW although not very inspired. They seem stale for a Star Wars game. The models are not that good close up but from afar they look good. The landscapes are decent though but again nothing spectacular.
6.5/10
SOUND
The sound was what you would expect from a Star Wars game. The theme song backgrounds the menus and the blasters go *pew*. I would have liked to see more unit sounds as a battle raged on. Sadly there was nothing to immerse you instead you just get the bare minimum.
6.5/10
GAMEPLAY
EAW should have had the greatest gameplay ever considering it is years ahead of the great Star Wars RTS Galactic Battlegrounds. Unfortunately this is not a true. GB had tons of races, lots of unit types, and awesome Jedi. EAW has none of that with only the Rebels and the Empire as playable factions. The battles, both land and space, are also subpar. They never make you feel like you are under control but instead just clicking buttons. It was okay, but unless you are starving for a Star Wars RTS I would avoid it.
6.0/10
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
For PC games I’m going to have this section where I explain any technical difficulties I may have had. EAW didn’t have any difficulties with the game. I did however have problems writing this because at this point Microsoft Word decided to change my default language to French (Canada) and not allow me to change it back. Hopefully it won’t be too bad. Anyway, the game worked good and I had no problems.
STORY 2.0/10
GRAPHICS 6.5/10
SOUND 6.5/10
GAMEPLAY 6.0/10
OVERALL AVERAGE 5.25/10
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
STORY
You are a republic soldier woken up to the sounds of sirens as the ship you are stationed on is attacked. You escape you Taris where you and Carth, another republic soldier, must find the Jedi Bastila and save the universe. It is a very interesting story just the way you experience it. Even though the dialog/action choices only change small parts of the story, they are still interesting because you know it was because of you. It was really compelling even though a huge part of it was spoiled by the internet for me.
8.5/10
GRAPHICS
The graphics for KotOR are pretty good for an ’03 game. Character models look pretty good and the landscapes look amazing. My only gripe was that when you talk to someone you zoom in on them a bit which shows you the terrible lip sync. It was weird at first but I got used to it. Still looks good though.
7.0/10
SOUND
The sound for KotOR was pretty good. As a TBRPG the sounds were a little dicey in the sense that you here the sound and you don’t, no fade in or out. They were nothing spectacular. The voice acting was good though particularly Carth as many characters were recycled. His character was truly believable to me and he sounded great.
7.0/10
GAMEPLAY
KotOR’s gameplay however blows the rest of the scores out of the water. It was a great game with fun fight mechanics, great amount of items to collect, party selection was great, and lightsabers of course! It was a great time with lots of fun to be had. Any RPG fan has to play this game.
9.0/10
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
KotOR crashed on me about 5 times during the 30 hours I played it. Not too bad but 0 crashed would’ve been nicer. Save often!
STORY 8.5/10
GRAPHICS 7.0/10
SOUND 7.0/10
GAMEPLAY 9.0/10
OVERALL AVERAGE 7.9/10
Star Wars: Battlefront
I’m not going to explain much for STBF as I’m pretty sure we all know what it’s about
and because we all have different opinions about the game and I know I have already voiced mine about it enough times. Here are the scores:STORY 2.0/10
GRAPHICS 7.0/10
SOUND 7.5/10
GAMEPLAY 9.5/10
OVERALL AVERAGE 6.5/10
The score is low but I still like the game
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
No difficulties playing BF.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
STORY
You lose your partner to a Sith and seek revenge. That is the pretty much the whole premise to the game. Many locations make you scratch your head to why you are there but you go along with it anyway because it is fun.
6.5/10
GRAPHICS
The graphics have not held up in the game. They are not horrible but they are hilarious. They are not going to impress anyone.
4.0/10
SOUND
The sound is okay; again nothing special (seems to be a trend in Star Wars games). Everything is fairly generic.
5.5/10
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is heavily reliant on puzzle trickery which can be fun and challenging or completely unnecessary and aggravating. It depends on how you like your game. There is a lot of action to of course but puzzling is the big and unforeseen difference.
8.0/10
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
Single player worked perfectly but multiplayer was another thing. I didn’t actually know it had multiplayer until I read it online. Apparently you have to select multiplayer in the launcher window. Unfortunately the Best of collection doesn’t use the standard launcher window. I explored the CD to find the multiplayer .exe and though I was golden. Then when I tried to join a server it said I didn’t have the disc inserted and kicked me. I tried all the discs and nothing worked. I ended up using a no CD crack to get it to work when it did. I was really not missing much though.
STORY 6.5/10
GRAPHICS 4.0/10
SOUND 5.5/10
GAMEPLAY 8.0/10
OVERALL AVERAGE 6.0/10
Star Wars: Republic Commando
STORY
You are part of a 4 man squad called Delta Squad. You must stop the separtists on many dangerous missions. There’s not much story but it is a good ride.
6.5/10
GRAPHICS
The graphics are pretty good in RC. One notable thing are the small touches in the game. An example is that when you melee (or shoot at close range) you are greeted with a spray of oil (droids) or brown goop (geonosians) on your visor which is then wiped off by a blade. It’s small stuff like this that makes the graphics interesting.
7.5/10
SOUND
The sound is pretty good in RC with pointless yet slightly humourous banter from your squad. My favourite is when you go to Kashyyyk (which I though was pronounced cash-ee-k but apparently is cash-i-k) 62, your squad mate says, “Yay! Wookie life debts for everyone!” One thing I noticed is that 62 and Carth (KotOR) are the same person and the same voice. Kind of cheap but he was a republic soldier.
7.0/10
GAMEPLAY
The single player is great fun. It is a mix between tactical and run-n’-gun. You need to use your squad wisely but you can go around shooting everything, granted you have enough grenades to defend from the stronger units. The online is even better though with the best mode being CTF. I am still playing it now. Of course using dial-up doesn’t give me many options when it comes to online gaming so it probably won’t distract anyone from CoD very long.
9.0/10
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
The lights were solid grey objects, I had to double tap visor mode so my teammates weren’t white models, trees sometimes turned pure black, and many menu options crash the game. Lots of difficulties with this one.
STORY 6.5/10
GRAPHICS 7.5/10
SOUND 7.0/10
GAMEPLAY 9.0/10
OVERALL AVERAGE 7.5/10
The sixth game was Star Wars Galaxies 14 day trial. I didn’t play this (dial-up) so I can’t say much about it.
AS A COLLECTION
This is an amazing deal (I purchased it for $40). You may find some games for fun then I did. I’d buy for KotOR and RC alone. Not great as a whole but certain games stand out.
OVERALL AVERAGE 6.63/10
