| Star Wars: Empire at War | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Petroglyph |
| Publisher(s) | LucasArts |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Release | February 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Star Wars: Empire At War is the newest Real Time Strategy (RTS) game based in the Star Wars universe.
After poor to mediocre results with Star Wars: Force Commander and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Empire At War is the latest attempt to emulate large scale Star Wars battles. It focuses on the struggle between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance that begins in the time frame between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
It is being developed by Petroglyph, which is comprised of many former members of Westwood Studios, best known for their work on the Command and Conquer series. Empire at War uses an entirely new engine that Petroglyph developed, known only as Alamo. It uses several higher-end shader effects such as soft shadows, specular lighting, and particle effects for dust clouds and explosions.
Gameplay
Empire at War does not feature traditional resource collection, instead resources are based on the planets controlled by the player. Some planets will bring in more credits than others, some will help technology grow faster, and some will allow the player to build ships, like Star Destroyers, faster.
Units appear to be recruited in groups, similar in practice to Rome: Total War and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. Battles will be fought both on land and in space, and there will be interaction between the two. If the player assaults a planet with strong defenses it is possible to call down a squadron of bombers or heavy bombardment from space, provided that the ships are in orbit. Ground shields will act more like barrier then an augmentation to surrounding units health.
The two factions are said to play differently, with the Empire relying more on brute force and the Rebel Alliance on sublety, intelligence and guerilla tactics.
Like many RTS', Empire at War will feature a "Rock-Paper-Scissors" unit usage style. Brett Tosti, former LucasArts producer, has stated that this encourages players to create diverse armies and fleets with units that counter other units, as opposed to being able to build a bunch of "super units".
Not much is known about the multiplayer aspect of the game. All that's known is there will be a 2-player campaign mode, and a skirmish mode that can handle up to 8 players.