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Genre: Strategy/simulation

Format: DVD

Developer: Petroglyph Games, Inc.

Publisher: LucasArts

Mac Publisher: Aspyr

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4.8, 1.83GHz Intel chipset, 512MB RAM, 3.5GB free hard disk space, 64MB Radeon X1600 or NVidia GeForce 7300 video card or Intel GMA 950 chipset, broadband connection for Internet and LAN play, DVD drive.

Review Computer: 2GHz 20" Intel Core Duo iMac, 1GB RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon X1600

Network Feature: LAN/Internet (TCP/IP)

Processor Compatibility Intel

Price: $49.95

ESRB Rating: N/A

Availability: Now

Demo: macgamefiles.com (892MB)

Official Website: www.empireatwar.com

There's apparently an unwritten law amongst game reviewers that, when reviewing a Star Wars game, requires us first provide some kind of antecdote about how the Star Wars movies affected our life or about how we hate any two of the three prequel movies or how Jar Jar Binks...well, Jar Jar should never even be mentioned.

I would happily do that, except I really don't care about any of it. Sure, I liked the first couple of Star Wars movies. I was seven; it's not like I had a choice. But, by the time Return of the Jedi came out, I was writing better dialogue than George Lucas was. This is sad because: 1.) I could do that at 13, and 2.) I recognized that Jedi needed it done at 13.

Although I outgrew the movies, I didn't outgrow the games. I couldn't name three characters in the prequel movies, but I could describe in detail the individual missions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter for the Macintosh. I would just as soon play through Dark Forces again before I'd watch The Empire Strikes Back (as good as it was). And although I don't own any of the movies on VHS or DVD, I did buy a Nintendo Game Cube specifically so I could play Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II.

I'm now up to Star Wars: Empire at War, a strategy/simulation game set in the Star Wars universe. At it's most basic, it's pretty much a cross between Age of Empires and Homeworld. At it's most complicated, it's a pretty difficult game that may not appeal to strategy/simulation fans. This is fine; Star Wars fans will buy it anyway.

You know how these games work, right? You research some stuff, you build some stuff, you conquer some stuff, you defend some stuff and you move on. It's a pretty simple formula, but the games are never all that easy. Empires at War is made more complicated by allowing you to play through the story mode as either the Rebellion or the Empire, but making the game work differently for both. For instance, whereas the Empire is all about researching and building new technologies, the Rebellion mainly just steals them. Always stealing, that Rebellion. The first movie began with the Rebellion stealing something. If I were Vader, I'd be kidnapping their princesses, too.

You spend a lot of this game in space, of course. Not just fighting tactical battles, but also figuring out where to fight those battles. Invading and controlling planets and star systems is very important, as you'll need to use these bases to launch further attacks. Of course, when you conquer a planet, you have to defend it. It's all pretty typical, but that doesn't make it easy to plan or execute. Most of your decisions on what to do with the planet are made from space, as you're pretty much stuck with what you have when you're down on the planet. You can build structures and call in reinforcements, but the control there is more limited than in other RTS games. For instance, no matter how much land you control, you can only call in reinforcements to specific locations. Why? I don't know. I guess the developers just enjoy making Lucas-like decisions that make sense only to themselves.

There's a good tutorial in the game that'll explain the basics, but it oddly switches to movie mode instead of interactive at one point. You'll need much more than the tutorial, anyway. If you're like me, you'll need more than the manual, too...something like a walkthrough and a couple cheats would be nice. When the game starts, it instantly gets more difficult, making you wonder why you bothered with the tutorial at all.

But, once you get the hang of the game and get through a few levels, it comes together quite nicely. The game leans quite heavily toward the strategy/planning side, perhaps to a fault (this is Star Wars, after all, and Star Wars fans generally just want to engage in epic battles), but the fight sequences are very cool. The audio is fantastic, almost on par with the Star Wars movies (they really did have the best laser sounds), but it's the graphics that make this game stand out. Using a new game engine created by Petroglyph (requiring an Intel processor, so take note of that), both the land and space battles are something to behold. They don't necessarily look real, but cool. There's a certain style to them that helps to separate this RTS from all the others out there that look basically the same, even if they don't play the same.

There's also a good variety of missions to help keep the game interesting, as long as you don't look too deep. When you're launching invasions of multiple planets and using such a wide variety of spaceships, you have to count on some diversity. However, most of the variety comes in the form of eye candy and equipment, and a careful look will reveal that the battles do play out kind of the same way. Covering this a bit is the aforementioned option to play both the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. Oh, and of course, the developers decided to include the "hero" characters that are so popular in RTS games these days. It'll be more popular here, as the heroes include Darth Vader, R2-D2, and the beloved Wedge Antilles.

Well, that's provided you're into Star Wars to begin with. Empire at War is a fun game, but it's fluff. The gamers I know who are heavily into RTS games enjoy the depth of options and the complexity of the systems they're controlling. These people generally don't look far beyond Civilization and Age of Empires, and most of them won't look here. Petroglyph seemed to understand this, and created a game for those interested in adding to the Star Wars collection. Empire at War is harder to pick up and play than, say, Jedi Academy or Battlefront, but the payoff may actually be larger for those willing to invest the time. Fans of other RTS games, however, may be turned away by the odd development decisions and lack of depth.

Or system requirements. But at least they won't be turned away by the dialogue.

Buy Star Wars: Empire at War