GENRE
	Action-Shooter
	DEVELOPER
	Pandemic Studios
	PUBLISHER
	LucasArts
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
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Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones is out on DVD and for those of you near one, it’s also in IMAX theaters. What a great time to release the first Episode II game for the Cube. Taking place during the final scene of AotC and expanding past the set story line, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is all about mass mayhem and chaos. It’s you and a few computer-controlled allies against the Separatists’ droid army. Be prepared for all-out warfare.

Clone Wars has the player behind the wheel of one out of a handful of vehicles featured in Episode II. While the title shows mostly action elements, there is a bit of strategy thrown in. You can order your allies to attack, defend, break off, or regroup—much like in LucasArts’ last Cube effort, the excellent Rogue Leader. Clone Warsplays a lot like the aforementioned title, but holds its own without borrowing too many concepts from it. Does it work when throwing players into the middle of the chaos of the Clone Wars? Yep.

visuals

Clone Wars fits into the Star Wars Universe nicely. The environments are expansive, well detailed, and capture your eye even while you’re engaged in heavy combat. While traversing one of the many levels, you’ll notice things like legions of druids and clone troopers having at it, which looks great while flying overhead in an Imperial Gunship, but is just another thing to plow through when you’re on the ground in your Hovertank. Speaking of the vehicles, they all look good but lack little details. Visual damage would have hit the spot, with things like blaster burns or pieces of a vehicle about to break off. It would have added to the tension. However, even though the vehicles all look fairly generic, they are very suitable for Star Wars.

The visual effects in this game look straight out of Episode II. The Gunship’s rocket spread—nimbly shifting around themselves until they hit the target—looks just plain awesome. The Hovertank’s missiles look just as cool, with little smoke streams trailing behind them. Blasters are obviously your standard Star Wars fare, but how can you improve that kind of excellence? Nothing’s better than sending out a couple of missiles and blasting your opponent to dust with a few blaster shots. The explosions are what make the game look so great. The Separatists’ Hellfires look great when they bite the dust. Just like in Episode II, the two-wheeled rocket machine breaks apart and missiles stream everywhere. This is a great effect.

audio

Obviously, this goes for most Star Wars games: The effects sound just as clear and precise as those from the movies. The vehicles sound great, the blasters sound even better, and the other weapons catch your ear just before the devastating explosions. The voice acting is unfortunately impersonated, as it is in most Star Wars games. The actors do a decent job of it, though, especially Obi-Wan and Anakin. Although, how hard is it to impersonate yet another snooty Skywalker?

John Williams’ brilliant Episode II score sounds clear and concise. The music sounds great in any environment throughout the game. The tracks that play during the speeder-bike scenes—where you’re either chasing something or something’s chasing you—are the best at increasing adrenaline. The music gets the job done not only in a Star Wars way, but also in an action game way as well.

gameplay

I first thought that this would be Rogue Leader on land, but Clone Wars is much more than that. While it doesn’t play as good as Rogue Leader, it does follow nearly the same formula. You will receive missions that will have you defending a “convoy” for a certain period of time or keeping a certain object from taking too much damage for a certain period of time. While the missions may seem familiar, they are all too different with the vehicles given to you.

Pandemic Studios did an excellent job with this game, what with the excellent PC hovertank game, Battlezone II under their belt. While you’ll be in the hovertank for what seems to be the majority of the game, you’ll also pilot an Imperial Gunner, an AT-XT walker, and even travel on foot, wielding the character’s favorite lightsaber. I was itching at a chance to control Luminara Unduli through some of those latter scenes, unfortunately, you’ll only have the pleasure of controlling Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker. You’ll also be able to play as Obi-Wan, but only in the seat of a vehicle.

Each vehicle feels and plays the same, with the exception of the AT-XT, which is slightly different. Even the missions taking place on foot feel the same as in a vehicle. This can be a good thing since you don’t have to learn a new control scheme every time you enter a different vehicle. However, it seems to lack diversity. This neither helps nor hinders the game.

multiplayer

This pits you in a Star Wars: Demolition-like setting where you and up to 3 other buddies duke it out in either a Deathmatch, capture the flag, or king of the hill mode. While they are titled differently to accomidate the Star Wars universe, this is basically all they are. It can be a lot of fun, much more so than Demolition and adds some lasting appeal to the title.

For some reason, however, there is no cooperative play through the main missions. Why this isn’t implemented, I have no idea since you always have computer-controlled allies assisting you in every level, even the on-foot missions. There is, however, a cooperative survival mode to unlock called Jedi Academy. This pits you and a friend against a non-stop onslaught of enemy after enemy. This can be fun, but not as fun as deathmatch or the MIA co-op main quest.

overall

Star Wars: The Clone Wars gives gamers a better chance at chaos in the Star Wars universe than LucasArts’ past efforts such as the vehicle combat game Demolition. With so much stuff to unlock including multiplayer maps and the ability to play as Yoda (!), you can spend many, many hours with this title. It was missing a bit more of an attention to detail and solid controls, but it didn’t need all that to be fun. All it needs is the ability to throw gamers into this expansive universe in the middle of the havoc and mayhem that was The Clone Wars. To put it simply, it works. It works like no other Star Wars game I’ve played in recent memory. It sacrifices glamour and elaborate play mechanics to be what it is supposed to be: Fun.

8.3/10