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Review: Star Wars - Galactic BattlegroundsReviewed By: Bill Stiteler Review Date: August 19, 2002
The best thing about Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds (SWGB) is that you can kill Jar-Jar Binks. That could have been the whole game as far as I'm concerned; Jar-Jar trying to get away, perhaps one leg already broken, while a host of AT-ATs and TIE bombers quickly close in on him. I'd have bought that game if it were only that, and several more as gifts for dear friends. Lucasarts, take note. So, then, for me, SWGB succeeds handsomely as a game about killing Jar-Jar Binks. Also included is a real-time strategy (RTS) game. Since the joy in killing Jar-Jar is evident to anyone with a soul, I'll now talk about this other game.
The game features two kinds of play: campaign and standard. In campaign, you assume control of a specific race (Wookie, rebellion, empire, etc.) and lead a series of missions to achieve specific tactical goals, such as defending your own base, growing to a certain level, destroying an enemy building, or wiping the opposition out completely. Except for the opening Wookie campaign, which has several skippable levels to teach you the very basics of the game, you must complete a mission to gain access to the next one. You're free to play each race in whatever order you choose, however, which spares you the indignity of playing the Gungans. I have more respect for the tactical brilliance of the Ewoks. Or R5-D4.
The controls work well, giving you several ways to do everything. With a unit selected, right-clicking on another object causes the unit to take intuitive action. A worker will begin to farm a berry bush, for example, or collect carbon from trees, or repair a damaged wall or mech unit. Military units attack enemy units. Good for simple commands, but for more complex ones, use hotkeys and gathering points to automatically group your soldiers (handy for not having to micro manage army creation).
That bugs me. Yes, I know it's a game balance measure; the Jedi are based on the AoE priests. But still, watching Sith Lords whack away at a Wookie again and again to bring him down didn't seem right. It pulled me out of the game. Another quibble; Rebel mounted units use Tauntauns, even on a desert planet. Ditto with Imperial Dewbacks on Hoth. Hoth! Does it affect game play? Not really, except that if you're going to create a game in the Star Wars universe, you have to take these things into consideration. Pure geekery, I know. Still...
Graphically, the game is solid. It's sprite-based, but I like sprites. All the units look like the things from the films. The sounds seem to be taken directly from the films as well. My only complaint is that the buildings, being all futuristic (oh wait, it was "A long time ago..." wasn't it?) makes it difficult to tell them apart. Many times I had trouble finding the right one in the heat of battle, or built a duplicate because they all blended together. As both an RTS and a Star Wars game, Galactic Battlegrounds succeeds. In the field of allowing you to kill Jar-Jar Binks for entertainment, it's the game of the year. The only way it could be better is if they came out with a mod that has George Lucas (the new one responsible for the "Episodes" and for having Greedo shoot first) run out and try to shield Jar-Jar with his own body. I, on the other hand, get the original George Lucas and the Death Star. Lucasarts? Aspyr? I'll pay cash.
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Based on the 
In standard play, which is also how you play the multiplayer option, you begin with a small base and a handful of workers, as do your opponents. You can win in one of two ways, with wiping out your enemies being the most basic. You can also send out your Jedi to collect "holocrons" (which I believe were in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase) and bring them to your base. Get all four and hold them in your temple for 100 turns, and you win. I found the computer AI challenging to play against, which is great, since I refuse to play online. I stink at multiplayer.
The units are nicely balanced. Each race gets a unit enhancement specific to itself. And unlike Age of Empires, in which you could dominate the game with a strong navy, no one type of unit will ensure victory. Large mecha (like AT-ATs) are slow and can't attack units which are right next to them. Most air units have weak armor and can be brought down easily by basic air defense. Jedi can convert units, but are expensive to create and not especially good at hand-to-hand.
Oh, and the game repeatedly calls Chewbacca's father Aitichituk, or some such nonsense. All true Star Wars fans know that Chewie's father is named