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Star Wars: Empire At War is the newest Real Time Strategy (RTS) game based
in the Star Wars universe. As of this moment, not much information has been made
public, but what information we do have you can find here. Check back occasionally, as
we'll update this page as new information becomes available.
After the unexceptional Force Commander and the only mild success of Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, LucasArts has left Star Wars fans without a good way of fighting large scale Star Wars battles. That's all about to change. Though many are skeptical of Empire At War due to the mediocrity of past Star Wars RTS games, this game looks like it may be the one to break the curse.
Empire At War is being developed by Petroglyph, which is comprised of many former members of Westwood Studios, best known for their amazing 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. From the screen shots we've seen, Alamo should be a fine engine indeed.
In addition to a new engine, Empire At War will also reign in a new type of gameplay. In a traditional RTS game, you build workers, gather resources, build up small armies with individual units, fight on the ground (maybe with some air units involved), and in the end it comes down to who has the best economy. Not in EaW.
Empire At War does away with traditional resource collection. Droids will not be chopping wood in this game. Instead, you'll get resources based on the planets you control. Some planets will bring in more credits than others, some will help your technology grow faster, and some will allows you to build ships, like Star Destroyers, faster.
Units appear to be recruited in groups, similar to how Rome: Total War and Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth do. However, I imagine capital ships like Star Destroyers will be built singularly in addition to things like AT-ATs, AT-STs, hover tanks, and other vehicles such as those. Troops and fighters, however, appear to be groups, which is much more realistic than the typical RTS game where units are recruited individually.
Battles will be fought both on land and in space, and there will be interaction between the two. If there's an installation you need taken out, but it's defenses are keeping your ground soldiers at bay, call down a squadron of bombers from space. However, these aren't bombers that just come out of nowhere, destroy what they're told to, and then disappear without a trace. If you don't have bombers in space above the planet, you've got nothing to call, and your ground troops are on their own. I also imagine you could call for a bombardment from space, provided you have capital ships in orbit capable of carrying out such an order.
Ground shields will be much more realistic in this game than in it's predecessor, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. In SWGB, shield generators provided shields in a small radius around the generator. The shields essentially doubled a unit's hit points and had the power to regenerate. In Empire At War, they actually form physical barriers that can keep units out until they destroy the generator. However, I imagine that shielding on fighters and capital ships would be similar to SWGB.
Unlike most RTS games, where several different factions/civilizations/countries are present, Empire At War will only feature two: The Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Some might not like this, but since the game is based during the Galactic Civil War, including other civilizations/factions from the Star Wars universe seems pointless. This is, in fact, probably a strong point of the game. Faction diversity isn't typically a strong point of RTS games. In the Age of Empires series and SWGB, civilizations have few differences, and those that do exist are fairly minor (eg +5% resource collection bonus). With only two factions in Empire At War, there can be a lot more focus on diversity.
The Galactic Empire will have the most resources at its disposal from the start. Subtlety is not going to be one of their strong points. They will be, in essence, a powerhouse. The Rebels, on the other hand, will be the complete opposite. They won't possess nearly as much as the Empire to start out with, therefore can't fund an army that can directly compete with theirs. They rely on spies and tactics more than power.
For every unit in Empire At War, there will be a counter-unit. Brett Tosti, the 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 building a bunch of "super units". As the Empire, you may be tempted to build a giant fleet featuring only Star Destroyers. However, that could be your undoing. All the Rebellion would have to do is bring in the counter unit, and those Destroyers are done for. This should make for great, balanced gameplay that encourages tactics and diversity over "unit spamming".
Not much is known about the multiplayer aspect of the game. All we know is there will be a 2-player campaign mode, and a skirmish mode that can handle up to 8 players.
The graphics are absolutely incredible. The screenshots show a large amount of detail. Both the textures and the models are exquisite. The scaling is also very well done. One of the complaints of SWGB was the improper scaling.
Unfortunately, that's all the information and media we have for now. Check back often for updates.
Last Updated: 09/30/05
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