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Star Wars: Empire at War Forces of Corruption - Expansion Pack (PC DVD)
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Description:
In a nutshell:
The Empire at War universe expands with a whole new faction of criminals and scoundrels, with dozens of new units and an engaging new single player campaign. The lowdown:
Star Wars hasn't had a lot of luck when it comes to strategy games but Empire at War is certainly the most convincing yet, with a clever mix of grand strategy and both space and land based real-time combat. The original game featured the two obvious original trilogy factions, but this includes a third in the form of a criminal empire lead by Tyber Zahn. As such, you no longer invade planets but corrupt them, enabling you to siphon off money and sabotage ground installations. Apart from this, the core gameplay hasn't really changed but the new single player campaign is excellent, with a good variety of missions and cameos obscure and obvious from the classic trilogy. Most exciting moment:
The best bit about the new single player campaign is the imaginative range of missions you must complete as the Tyber Zahn, in order to successfully corrupt planets. These include kidnapping, piracy, assassination and various other forms of skulduggery that are much more interesting than just destroying all the enemy units on a map. Since you ask:
Zahn's criminal consortium has all its own unique ships, but the most anticipated new units are those MIA from the first game, such as the B-wing, TIE Interceptor and Super Star Destroyer. A few units from previous Star Wars games also appear including TIE Defenders and Dark Troopers. The bottom line:
One of the rare expansions to prove almost a necessity for fans of the original.-HARRISON DENT
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4/5 |
Star Wars: Empire at War Forces of Corruption
(August 29, 2008) |
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This is a very good game. Initally it starts of a little bit slow and is hard to get into when compared to the orgional star wars game. However once you get into then the game is really good fun and the end battle is reall top class |
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3/5 |
Left me cold!
(October 05, 2007) |
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I was expecting great things in this expansion pack.
Unfortunately I was left disappointed.
I found the new features a bit boring and added little to the game - I realise it's an expansion pack, but I did find that the new features weren't terribly engaging . This is nothing like as engaging at the original game which arguably is my fave game ever!
I actually sold this game as I didn't ever see myself playing it again
So I give a 2 |
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1/5 |
Utter rubbish...and bad for your PC
(August 31, 2007) |
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Empire at War, despite a few bugs, was a great game. This, frankly, isn't. It has bugs that crash your system; longer load times; and a hugely overpowered new faction. This game is *irritating* to play.
But worse than that (after all, there are fan-made mods to improve games like this) was that it actually resets my PC's sound scheme; so if you've customized any sounds at all- ie, Windows navigation, etc- you have to redo your work. And even worse, it somehow trashed the NVIDIA control panel for my graphics card, making me re-install the drivers.
Not even worthy of one star. |
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4/5 |
Moves too far away from the films
(April 19, 2007) |
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Whilst the this game does bring you more things inline with the origional series, the overall plot line moves too far away.
The main thrust of the game is to bring the 'Empire at War' format 'upto date' with the real films by introducing content from the last too films. They do this by introducing the Super Star destroyer, Death Star 2 and other things inline with items associated via previous games, (Admiral Thrawn and the TIE Defender etc). By doing this the creaters were on to a good thing, as many of these aditions would be welcomed by hard core fans.
The main problem as far as I am concerned with this game is how it 'advances' the plot beyond the final films. They have attempted to do this by introducing a new facton based on the underworld. Whilst this idea is not a bad one, the way they have produced it does not sit well with me. To summarise the problems, the game effectivly makes them a major military power, equal and in many ways superior to the other two traditional factions. Their ability to produce military units that are more powerfull means that they can become more than a match for the empire, and particulary the Rebellion
On top of their military power, they recieve the advantages normally associted with underworld factions. These include black market trading and other corruption possibilities. Overall then the new force moves away from what it should be; a difficult to catch, sneeky foe and turns them into a power more than a match for the traditional forces.
What this does is change the nature of the Galaxy awry, moving well away from what fans enjoy about the Star Wars Universe. What the makers should of done was to make the new faction fit into the normal mold of a underworld force and concentrate the main thrust of the game onto the action associated with the Return of the Jedi film and possibly what happens after the fall of the second Death Star. This is a strategy that I believe would have sat well with the traditionl fans. |
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2/5 |
Shoddy, Rushed and Lackluster
(March 17, 2007) |
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From the outset this game would appear as an overall improvement to the somewhat average Empire at War. Indeed it features updated graphics, units, maps, options and extras. Great.
However under the surface you will find a game that has had no loving finish applied to it. Persistent bugs that will crash your system or ruin games which have taken many hours to develop are common-place. Two such examples spring to mind: One, during an online conquest, the interface (the galactic map) suddenly became two dimensional. This was not related to my PC as my opponent also suffered the same problem. Another stupid issue arose during the campaign. In one mission Tyber Zann, the leader of the mysterious and frankly un-canon new third faction of the game, is required to survive. And low, should he be killed by an opposing faction the game does indeed end. However, should he be killed by a natural hazard, say a rancor, it goes on. It crashes at the next cut scene which features Zann, or rather should feature Zann, of course.
This doesn't even begin to touch upon the random cut-outs, freezes and general crashes experienced elsewhere. Want to load up another game while in the midst of another battle? I DON'T THINK SO.
The lack of realistic Star Wars content also may trouble the more hardcore fan. Sure you get expanded units such as the Executor, Arc Hammer, etc etc. to play with. But it's the little elements, such as the super killing machine Urei Fenn (Zann's 2nd in command) whom belongs to a super mysterious race, which will turn you off. Or the fact you can bully Mandalorians. Yes, you can coerce, with the threat of violence, the most savage and battle-hardened people in the universe.
Hrmm. In general the game feels as if its deadline game too quickly. There are far too many bugs, and not enough attention to detail to warrant the price or the invested time. The original game while not without either problem, was much more reliable. It's also a hell of a lot more balanced. Perhaps the added units and the third faction may intrigue you enough to buy it. I'd certainly get it if you enjoyed the first one immensely. Otherwise avoid.
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