Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Galactic Battlegrounds combined the Star Wars universe with the Age of Empires game formula. It had to be a winner, and was hailed as one of the best Star Wars games.

Purists might have raised an eyebrow at seeing Wookies in tanks, and the whole chronology of Star Wars seemed to be scrambled in a black hole, but it was lots of fun.

That was largely due to the AOE game design, although one cynical reviewer labelled it fish and berries in space, after the primary resource gathering of Microsoft's classic game.

Galactic Battlegrounds was overtaken by the release of the second instalment of the new Stars Wars trilogy, Attack of the Clones. The expansion pack, Clone Campaigns, adds elements of this movie and freshens up the game just when it was starting to look tired.

It is tempting to compare Clone Campaigns with the AOE expansion, The Conquerors.

Both brought strong new civilisations to their respective games and added new units and technology.

The depth of Clone Campaigns is perhaps less than that of

The Conquerors, though. That's mainly because it has to follow the movie, and only two civilisations are available - the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or the Galactic Republic.

But it adds 14 new missions - seven for each side - and enhances the original with new units and tweaks.

The Republic are the good guys of course, and their top unit is the powerful Jedi Starfighter, which is just about the top aerial weapon.

Count Dooku's Confederacy has the insectoid Geonosian units, such as the nexu, reek and acklays, which seek and destroy enemy units, much like Red Alert's terror drones.

You can of course play the game as one of the original sides, and LucasArts has adjusted the balance of power with new units and capabilities.

Jedi are more powerful and cheaper, new air cruisers can launch devastating attacks from long distance, and allying with other civilisations earns bonuses.

A significant upgrade is raising the population limit of each side to 250. This lets players develop epic battles, but will slow down marginal systems.

LucasArts, PC General

Email: petereley@nzherald.co.nz