4 replies to this topic

[AdmiralGT]

So I'm assuming most of us have now downloaded the demo and given it a whirl, just wanted to gauge everyone's opinion on the game. To get the ball rolling I'll give some of my opinions.

Overall, I was impressed, it's very easy to pick-up and get into it and the gameplay is very easy to pick up. Personally I don't think there is anything that truly shines about the game and while I enjoyed the game, it didn't knock me back as I had hoped it would. Overall, it reminded me of the Imperium Galatica series and has a very similar setup overall with some clever twists such as the population cap depending on planets, the heroes, the planet bonuses and the stealing of technology. It strikes me that being Rebels is a lot more of an original style of gameplay than being the Imperials.

However, there were some things that I did find slightly annoying. Firstly, the default game speed is insanely fast. Now I'm not entirely sure how multiplayer will work, but for singleplayer I was just overwhelmed by the sheer speed of the game, particularly the space battles. Once I'd issued an attack order to my fighters, I found it incredibly difficult to ever be able to select them again as they whizzed around the map. And while the ability to target specific systems of capital ships was nice, to me there were just too many systems requiring intense micro-management. Personally I'd like to see it reduced to attack either Shields/Weapons/Engines rather than each individual weapon system. Prehaps a default sub-system could be set for bombers so you just chose them to attack ships.
Apart from some balance issues (such as the Millennium Falcons special ability) my only other gripe is with the "Cinematic Camera". To me, this seemed totally pointless, since I was unable to do anything while in this camera mode and it jumps all over the place that it just became annoying. I can't understand who thought to include it in the game other than for game replays.

I suppose the true extent of the game won't be revealed until the full game comes out with all the various building and unit types and the much larger galactic campaign mode. The demo can't really do justice to the system since there is no need to balance spending over all the planets, maintaining defences and vantage points and actually attempt to defend rather than just attack. In some ways, the Star Wars name has limited the game but in others has brought about original gameplay styles such as the Rebels.

I just feel it lacks that extra something to make it truly great. Don't get me wrong, it's good, it's just not as ground-breaking as I'd hoped it would be.

[ComradeJ]

I played the demo too, but the lack of anything special made it bad, rather than good-but-not-groundbreaking. Very few non-groundbreaking games are worth 50 euros, IMO.

Overal, I somewhat agree with GT, but I had a rather mixed feeling about the battles. They're not actually fast, but chaotic, and even annoyingly slow, with laser beams traveling half a mile an hour and stormtroopers walking like they're 70 years old.

I haven't played Imperium Galactica, so to me, it looked mostly like a combination between RTW and a regular RTS, but it doesn't do much good at either point. The star-system is actually real-time, so it may take ages to get some money again.
The actual field battles are pretty chaotic, because you don't get any rest, or time to use tactics, yet at the same time your units are slow-ass. Dropping in units from those pad-thingies doesn't hold any advantage for me over base-building, and it just rips away the entire base and economy tactics, while it doesn't give anything in return.

That all, and I just HATE Star Wars. Such a cliche setting with such lousy architecture and style. Bah.

EDIT: Oh yeah, explosions look ugly too.

Edited by ComradeJ, 20 January 2006 - 09:00 PM.

[Major_Gilbear]

Largely agree with what you said.

I also found space battles had other troubles too; the celestial phenomena tend to simply funnel units towards each other. I mean, if you get caught in a dust cloud, you're a sitting duck. I'd have liked the phenomena to have had different effects on different ships; small ships and fighters being more immune to the adverse effects and so using these areas to their advange in hit-and-run attacks on bigger forces.

I suspect too that the building/combat aspect will prolly be a bit tedious, especially considering that you are restricted in what you can build/where, and how much you can build.

And so far, the SP maps also seem to channel players at each other, making tactical choices regarding terrian and attack direction etc fairly irrelevant. You basicially have to worry about which troops are shooting at/being shot at by what and that's it. I hope the full game's maps are a bit more imaginative, and perhaps have a bit more interaction to them.

Finally, hardpoints on units/stations. I find that they take huge amounts of firepoer to disable, and that you are better off simply targeting the main body in almost all cases. Shield nodes on space stations might be worthwhile, but then you have other weapons that are *designed* for knocking down sheilds and paralyzing units that are better at it...

[crave22]

@GT and Comrade

You two do realise you can pasue the battle and issue orders, don't you? The button's right above the mini-map.

My Gripe:
Reinforcement pads. Absolutely hate the damned things. I want to be able to land as many units as I want where I want. I want my legions of troopers to rain death upon my enemies in vast numbers, and not need those reinforcement points to reinforce them.

I also hate how you aren't able to precisely plot the locations of your buildings on the planet. They shouldn't appear at pre-positioned points on the map. You should be able to have to find a suitable area to begin a base, and start building it. I also feel planets should be able to hold more than just four buildings. (I know that the base building part would be totally useless in the demo, but it's still a nice idea.)

Other than that, I am impressed. I can tell I'm going to love this game alot.

[Silent_Killa]

Was entertaining, found the fact that units moved incredibly slow pretty annoying though... The main purpose I would buy the game, which is to mod, I think shows a great deal of potential.