Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

The Good

• Successfully conveys the Star Wars feel
• Nostalgically reminds me of the (far superior) Dark Forces series
• Nice variety in level types
• Cool story and cut-scenes

**The Bad**

• Limited control over the camera
• Some very bland and empty levels
• Badly thought out level bosses

**The Bottom Line**
At the time of this game's release my PC did not live up to the minimum requirements. So even though I was quite a Star Wars fan I had to let this title slip by. I did have the chance to play the first level at a friend, but it stayed at that. Until 2010 when I finally got around playing this game. Interestingly for an early Windows 95 game it installed without any problems whatsoever on my Windows XP machine. I could just jump straight into the action. Unfortunately I was staying at my parents where I did not have a gamepad at my disposal, so I was forced to play the game with mouse and keyboard. I must say that I preferred playing it with just the keyboard. Except for the boss fights where quick circle strafing seemed to be the dominant strategy. More on this later. The game sucks you in immediately with splendid Star Wars music and sound effects. The menu interface is obviously designed for consoles, but hey we're kind of used to that in 2010. Might have been a shock at the time. The first mission is immediately one of the best. It's a re-imagining of the Battle of Hoth from Star Wars Episode V. The player controls a Snow Speeder and has to take out Probe Droids, ATSTs and ATATs (2 legged and 4 legged walking tanks). The controls are very easy and very arcade like. And even with the keyboard it's quite easy to aim at your targets even with the lack of a cross-hair. The Snow Speeder scene is the only level in which you get to fly on land. There are some other missions where you fight in space, but most of the missions are third person shooter levels. Although the camera is configurable. It is also possible to play in first person, top-down or with a stationary camera. But even though I'm a big fan of first person perspectives I found that 3rd person works best for this game. Mainly because you can't look up and down. Dark Forces and its sequel Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight count themselves as some of my favourite games of all time. And I think that in the end those games are the reason I started liking this game. Because in reality it is far inferior to those two games. Continuously throughout the game I was welcomed by warm nostalgia. Textures and 3D models that were reused in Jedi Knight, rooms which had a very similar layout to rooms in Dark Forces and other similarities forced my mouth into a smiley at a regular interval. But while there was a lot of recognition and the art was quite good for the time, there's not much positive to be said about the actual level design. Most levels are very straight forward and plain to look at. There are some interesting levels that try to do something completely different. For example a train level in which you need to jump onto passing cargo trains. And some levels feature slightly more elaborate switch puzzles. But nothing to tease the mind. The controls for the third person sequences work, but pale in comparison to Quake, which was released some months earlier. The fact that you can't look up can be annoying, because often levels can be quite vertical. The vertical aspect is further explored in some of the levels where you have a jet pack to your disposal. This jet pack seems like a lot of fun at first, but soon turns out to be a chore. The reason for this is again that you can't look down or up. So you can't really see where you are going. The story of the game is pretty cool. It follows the story of the book and graphic novel of the same name and ties in nicely with the films. In-game the story is told in high quality rendered full motion videos which are quite a reward for finishing a level. The worst part of the game is arguably the level bosses. There's quite a few of them, but most battles don't seem very well thought out. Take the ATST for example. This mini-boss has to be defeated several time. The ATST has 1000 hit points and hitting it with the laser pistol does 1 damage. When circle strafing around the ATST it's impossible for it to hit the player. But it takes a couple minutes before your damage adds up to a thousand. The game usually assumes you still have some missiles left which do more damage, but that's not always the case. Often I missed a few of my missiles and got the ATST to 500 hit points. leaving me to circle strafe for two minutes before it would collapse. Many of the other bosses can be killed in the same way. They will never be able to hit you. Others can fly and you need to use your jet pack to get to the same height first. Which is again annoying due to the poor camera system. The final boss can be killed in three hits because at that time you find some really powerful weapon. The game sees re-playability through its different difficulty levels and the challenge points which can be found in each level. Frankly I didn't bother with them. The game is great for a single run-through, but doesn't really invite for a second play-through. The game is remarkably short. I finished it in roughly four hours. By no means is this a really good game. And quite frankly I think that people with no relationship with Star Wars will not find any satisfaction in this game. The main elements that make this game fun is how it reminds of Star Wars and Dark Forces similarly to the way Outlaws reminds of Dark Forces (compare the sewer levels for example). Hence the guilty pleasure. I had a lot of fun this weekend with this game even though there are so many better games around.

The Good
Shadows of the Empire (SOTE) was conceived as a multimedia project in the mid-nineties as the closest we'd get to another Star Wars film, without the expense of actually making one, and before the prequels appeared. It purposely uses a time frame between 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi' a period little covered, and focussed on the chase for Han Solo (frozen in carbonite) with a new baddie thrown into the mix. In a novel move for the time the creators decided to split the story across three media; a book, comic series, and this game. Each tackles a different facet of the story, occasionally intertwining scenes. The novel is really the lynch-pin of the group and I'd recommend anyone wanting to play this game should read that first as it will help you understand quite what is happening in the game.

The whole storyline for all the version is a bit shoddy really, even by later Star Wars standards, so the game didn't really have much to live up to. The plot of having a monstrous new evil guy, Prince Xisor, as powerful as Darth Vader is just lazy. Though you never really know it from the game, which plays out on the periphery of the main story, with three pretty unrelated scenarios; the escape form Hoth, finding Han Solo, and stopping Xisor. It's clear that the game's plot was developed last, the designers handed a complete story and told to fit a game around it. They made a good choice by focussing on one character, Dash Rendar, a new character devised for the series who has bizarre cameos in the other media, seemingly designed to fill in plot holes as he's constantly traipsing across the galaxy. Elsewhere he's portrayed as a more callous Han Solo, but the game designers evidently made him more loveable, removing that aspect along with his stubbly beard. The here-there-everywhere nature of dash makes him quite versatile as playing him enables you to be at several points of the action, and action is the game's speciality.

What kind of game did this create? Well for a start it was made for the N64 initially, with this Windows version being clearly a port. It means the level design is made to fit the console, and the whole game is quite short. The Windows version has been upgraded with higher resolution textures and completely different cut-scenes to the N64, now in full 3D. SOTE has a definite arcade feel to it, like the later Rogue Squadron III, mixing aerial combat with ground mission. In fact the first level seems to have directly inspired the Rogue Squadron series, with a game only scene of Dash piloting a snowspeeder against AT-ATs. The battle has been heavily altered to fit the constraints of the time and does really capture the atmosphere of a retreating action, or the scale of the later Rogue Squadron versions. Next mission reveals the slightly dodgy 3rd person shooter play mode as you escape Echo Base, where contrary to most shooters you don't pick up new guns but different ammo for your gun instead. Typical console shooter practices are in force here; enemies who are slow to respond and poor shots allowing you to first first, and auto aiming which makes any precious ammunition difficult to conserve. Then the final chapter of the Hoth sequences demonstrates the last mode of play as you man the turrets of your ship, the Outrider, to take out attacking fighters, whilst your droid co-pilot makes the getaway.

The rest of the game repeats one of these three types as it picks on any crumbs left from the novel's story to expand into levels, or else just alter the plot to include dash. Game-wise it delivers quite an action-packed experience, as the designers have tried to give each level something unique, such as moving trains, jet packs etc. Story-wise it's confusing and feels like someone's just handing you odd jobs, you have no feeling of control. the levels are all linear, you'll rarely get lost or stuck, but they are fun and I enjoyed playing them without getting bored. It's quite a short game, something I always like in shooters, with only ten levels. some of which I completed hardly aware they were separate levels. I just found it confusing that some of the events in the game differ completely from the novel just to give Dash a bigger role, but undermine the bigger story.

The Bad
That the game has been ported from the N64 really shows through and can make for a difficult playing experience. the flying levels are fine but the shooter levels have horrendous mouse control, causing several avoidable deaths. The auto aim is also frustrating as they do not allow any fine control, and often Dash decided to shoot at an enemy hidden behind a wall rather than the one who was shooting at me a little further away. it's a shame that the console limitations affect the level design so much, even for 1996 even though the texture have been upgraded from the console they are still horribly applied, appearing stretched and distorted. It also carries over the checkpoint save system of the console, so a couple of levels I had to start from scratch on, though this wasn't so bad as the levels are generally quite small.

My main hang-ups come from the bland storyline. Whilst it's nice you get to play as one character and follow their journey, dash really is a shallow Han Solo clone. The levels are simple shooting matches, no puzzles to solve and no alternative to fighting. The variety level type though (shooting, flying, 3rd person) is nice though, especially the flying which nicely handled and must have inspired the first Rogue Squadron. The 3rd person levels are pretty poor though, really feeling halfway between Dark Forces and Jedi Knight. It's a shame they tried to fir this into the main SOTE story so much, it could have been much more engaging rather than a series of disconnected missions. This is evident at the start of each levels, where are are directly told what you must do and why, rather than discovering it through playing.

The Bottom Line
This game feels like a play-through of scenes that didn't make the man SOTE story, with a character who desparately wants to be Han Solo. Still, it avoids any of the really stupid aspects of novel (sometimes even contradicting them) and instead makes a fairly short and fun action game. The variety of levels work here to create a more epic scale, though the lack of alteration from the N64 version means that frequently you die at the hands of cumbersome controls. However without the backup of the silly bigger story, the game can't really deliver much of a lasting impression.

Oh yes, of course it is another chance to re-use all the music and sound effects of Star Wars, including the famous death scream!

The Good
Ok I got this game after seeing people play it at a store in some demo thing that had been made. The demo was playing the very good battle of Hoth level at the start. I later ate my words but we will gat back to this later. Firstly the good things about this game was, the Battle of Hoth level, The final level and the speeder bike level. Why? Apart from all of the other levels that were either on rails or boring TPS levels the game had little else that was fun. The shooting parts of the game were fun, once. The levels were ok in design but a little too blocky in my tastes. The lasers were also rectangles. The bad guys were ok in modeling but were pretty dumb. The weapons were ok as well but you often over hoarded all the guns untill you got to a big boss at the end.

The Bad
The game play was only fun once. The character had this lightweight feel about him when you jumped and it just did not feel right. Other problems was that the bosses were almost too hard to beat and some parts were too boring.

The Bottom Line
The first and last levels were good, the rest of the game can wait till you are either on drugs or drunk.

The Good
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire starts you off with a kick, flying a Snowspeeder in the battle of Hoth. From there gameplay progresses through several first or third person shooter levels, with a couple of turret shooting missions and a swoop race through Mos Eisley for changes of pace. Each shooter level has a large boss at the end, and provides a wide variety of different weapons. The high points of the game are the Hoth, Mos Eisley, and Skyhook levels, which involve flying a Snowspeeder, Swoop, or YT-2400 in battle. The action and control during these levels is extremely similar to Lucasart's Rogue Squadron series of games. In fact, Shadows is the game that spawned Rogue Squadron, and is certainly worth playing even if only for that fact alone.

The Bad
The worst part of this game is the repetitiveness of the shooting levels. Although the level design is all right, the hybrid design leaves both first and third person shooter fans wishing for slightly better gameplay. Although the third-person view is default, I found the first-person view to be easier to play with, however, the total lack of crosshairs makes aiming more difficult than it should be. In fact, the awkward control and clunky aiming are the primary contributers to the irritating nature of the shooting levels.

The Bottom Line
If you've enjoyed the Rogue Squadron games, this is the game that started it all. It's not perfect, but it is a lot of fun.

The Good
I remember the first time I played this game and I was reading the novel at the same time. I'd play for a while and then I'd read and try to stop at the point I was at in the video game. This video game takes place at the beginning of Star Wars Episode 5: The Emperor Strikes Back and in between episode 5 and episode 6. You play as Dash Rendar, a Han Solo smuggler type of guy, and battle through 10 levels of increasing difficulty. You get to use different kinds of guns, sometimes you get to use a jetpack, and you get to pilot a Snowspeeder, a Swoop Bike and Dash's ship, the Outrider. There are bosses at the end of each level, except the ones where you're in a vehicle. The bosses are tough and the levels can be challenging and tricky. The music is good, some of it's straight from the movie.

The Bad
Compared to the other games from 1996 - Super Mario 64, Mario Kart, ect. this game has fairly poor graphic's, but I can live with that. Also, after you beat it it's not that much fun anymore - sure you can go back and collect all the Challenge Point's, but that's not that fun.

The Bottom Line
A good game than any gamer should get.

The Good
It's Star Wars! * Well-drawn cutscenes * Variety * Decent boss battles * Nostalgia * Fun stages...

The Bad
...And bland, boring stages * Poor ground-level stage controls that requires getting used to each play * Minimum camera control * Occasionally frustrating * Seeker camera... enough said.

The Bottom Line
'Shadows of the Empire' is a fun action game, but, as always, it's not without its flaws. The poor controls make certain segments more trouble than they're worth; certain jumps can seem real easy some times. At other times, they're hell. Still, I would call it one of the N64's finest titles -- which I guess isn't saying much, given the lack of games. It's certainly not up there with Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64. That would be a blatant lie. But I would say it does quite well as simple action game, and it's a mostly fun experience that's only held back by minor flaws. It could have to do with the fact that I only had around 4 N64 games growing up, but I haven't gotten tired of this title yet, despite having had it since around the time it came out.

Some might not be as forgiving about the flaws as I am, but I would say the game is well worth giving a shot in spite of them.

The Good
-

• Immersive Star Wars experience: deserves praise for its ability to transport players into the Star Wars universe, with its captivating narrative and familiar locations.

• Varied gameplay: The game successfully blends different gameplay mechanics, allowing players to engage in thrilling third-person shooting, intense space battles, and even vehicle segments, providing a diverse and enjoyable experience.

• Authentic atmosphere: Captures the essence of the Star Wars universe, thanks to its iconic characters, memorable soundtrack, and impressive attention to detail.

• Engaging storyline: Shadows of the Empire expands the Star Wars saga, introducing new characters and filling gaps in the narrative, which keeps players invested in the game's events.

• Nostalgic charm: Players who grew up with the game on the N64 will fondly remember Shadows of the Empire for its nostalgic appeal, making it a beloved classic among Star Wars and retro gaming enthusiasts.
  
  The Bad
  

• Dated visuals: The game's graphics have not aged well. With polygonal character models and low-resolution textures that can be jarring by today's standards, it isn't looking its best.

• Controls can be challenging: The controls can feel clunky or unresponsive at times, which can hinder gameplay enjoyment. Camera controls also are missing/lacking.

• Limited replayability: Despite its strong narrative and engaging gameplay, Shadows of the Empire offers limited replay value once the main story is completed, as there are few additional incentives or alternative paths to explore.

• Inconsistent Difficulty: While the game generally offers a fair challenge, some sections can become overly difficult or require repetitive attempts, potentially frustrating less experienced players.

• Limited Character Development: While the game features familiar Star Wars characters, the depth of character development is limited, leaving little room for emotional investment in their stories.
  
  The Bottom Line
  Shadows of the Empire is a classic Star Wars adventure that still holds up today. It provides an immersive and authentic Star Wars experience, featuring varied gameplay and an engaging storyline. While the graphics may show their age and there are occasional control challenges, the game's nostalgic charm and overall enjoyable gameplay make it a must-play for fans of the franchise and those seeking a taste of retro gaming magic.

The Good
This game was the first Star Wars game to come out for the N64. The game pitted you as Dash Rendar, a friend of Han and Luke's as you fought along aside them in a timeframe between Ep. 5 and 6.

The first level of this game really gives you high hopes, with you flying around with other landspeeders trying to haplessly destroy AT-ATs as they approach Echo Base. This level was truly amazing. You could shoot AT-STs and wrap up AT-Ats. To a Star Wars nerd, this is pure bliss. However, this level ends a bit short and you are left with the rest of the game.

The other really exciting part of this game is that last level. Skyhook battle is open, surrounding a giant space station. Nearby is a giant star destroyer, constantly letting out tie fighters, as the skyhook lets out their fighters. In between all this is you and rogue squadron. This provides for a nice three-way war. Buddies help a bit, but not as much as you do. And besides that, there is not much to do except destroy a never-ending wave of tie fighters or else do your mission.

The last, and most valuable part, of the game which I liked was it told you where Luke goes between Ep 5 and 6. Multiple cutscenes have him fighting along side you, but too bad you never get to do it in real play. However, you could have just read the books too.

Sound is a classic, with classic blaster noises and screams. Music is brought straight from the movies with nice tones like the asteroid field music. They made good choices when it came to sound.

The Bad
The rest of the game is mediocre. It's a generic third-person/first-person shooter (they are switchable in game by tapping a button). Besides a blaster, Dash gets a seeker missile, an automatic pulse rifle, a flame thrower, and a pulse bomb which wipes out everything within seeing range. Yeah, thats it. 5 Weapons.

Enemy AI is stupid. Guards patrol nicely when your not around, but when they see you, they NEVER move. The only time they will move is if they've seen you and you go out of range. Then they will get in range again, and stand completely still to shoot. Not much of a challenge there.

The other two vehicle levels are not much to boast. The asteroid field leaves you on a rail cannon, unable to drive. The skiff bike chase is repetitive and annoying.

Graphics are nice (I mean that), however there is a lack of detail in the environments. Why would the rebels even want Echo Base if there wasn't any computers in sight? Most of the levels are just hallways. Boooring!

The Bottom Line
Overall, only about half the game is worth seeing, and even those parts have been vastly improved upon. The Rogue Squadron series improved upon Hoth (number 2 had the best version) and everything else in the air. The Clone Wars improved upon ground vehicles. Even the story has been out for years in the book. The music can easily bought as the Star Wars soundtrack (the background music is taken directly from it)

Unfortunately, at its time of release, had lots of potential, however, it has been left back in light of more updated games.

The Good
The Hoth level is amazing.

The Bad
The 3D shooting is poor.

The Bottom Line
Shadows of the Empire was a big “Expanded Universe” multimedia event with this story getting a novel, soundtrack (for the novel), comic book, toys and, of course, a video game. Shadows of the Empire was released on the N64 on PC. I was originally going to use the PC version for this, as the game is identical, but it has video cutscenes with voice acting, but controller support is poor (and the HUD goes tiny). With the help of remapping buttons, I was able to create a good setup that uses modern using the strafe setup.

I played this as a kid and I do remember enjoying it.

The game starts off during the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes back, with you controlling a snowspeeder. This section is great, with the snowspeeder feeling great to control and toppling AT-ATs with the tow cable is great. Unfortunately, the level isn’t very long and it’s the best part of the game (you may notice the large amount of lives – that’s more for the poor platforming in later stages). If the entire game was like this, it would be a great game, but most of the game is on-foot.

You play as Dash Randar, who in this game is essentially a Han Solo clone (the novel expands the character’s personality a lot). You’re armed with a blaster that recharges, and you can get special ammo for it (best saved for bosses). The game heavily relies on autoaim, which is especially necessary as you can’t really aim up or down in any reasonable way (the aim button lets you, but it’s far too sensitive).

Trying to setup so you can flee Hoth, you start by watching the Millenium Falcon leave (shouldn’t Vader be standing nearby?) then blast your way through the stormtroopers attacking the rebel base. The shooting isn’t very satisfying and the movement is wonky.

After blowing up an AT-ST, you make your way off Hoth and blast TIE fighters in an asteroid field in a dreadful turret section with awful controls. The game at least gives you plenty of time to react as the bombs from the TIE bombers are really slow, and you have infinite missiles – they just reload between batches of 5.

Hunting for Boba Fett, Dash heads to a junkyard planet to get information from IG-88. I absolutely hate this level as a kid due to the controls but I didn’t find it too bad – I think the ability to strafe helps a lot with lining up jumps, and I never figured that out the first time round. It’s still a very ugly planet, though – Shadows of the Empire was definitely ahead of its time for its use of greys and browns. At the end of the level you take out IG-88, who gives you information on where Boba Fett is.

This is where the platforming really does take a nosedive. Dash’s jump is incredibly floaty and not difficult to control, and the narrow paths of this level are built for you to fall off constantly. You get a jetpack half way through which helps a bit, but is not as fun as a jetpack should be due to being slow and only possible to use for short bursts.

You fight Boba Fett and the Slave 1 at the end. I ran out of ammo, but found a spot where Slave 1 couldn’t hit me, so was able to hit it a few hundred times to destroy it.

Some text explains that after this, Boba Fett escapes and an assassin tries to kill Luke, so it’s up to you to help protect him.

As Luke chills out at Obi-Wan’s home on Tatooine, Dash hears of a swoop gang heading to kill Luke. Speeding through this level is great, but it’s much better to go slowly to take out enemies. You find out information that an Imperial ship contains the necessary information.

As Luke waits outside in his X-Wing, Dash assaults the imperial ship on his own (this game makes Luke seem weak). Most of this level is messing with door switches in a large cargo hold. There’s some secrets to find, but you need to work your way, then fighting a big droid near the end. The jetpack you found earlier would have been handy, but Dash left it on his ship. On a side note, I do really like the Outrider.

In order to infiltrate a base, we need to go through a sewer. Dash has absolutely no issue diving though massive amounts of excrement as you have to find a few different items to progress. The boss fight at the end is a horrible experience, with respawning tentacles and the poor jetpack controls underwater.

Going through the base your job is to find a reactor to place charges to blow up a space elevator. Luke is also infiltrating this base to save Leia, but that’s just background information and you never get to see them during gameplay. This is another dull level.

After another bad ship turret section, we get to actually fly the Outrider, and it’s great. You don’t get to focus on shooting other ships, though: your mission is to shoot four turrets then fly into the base and blow up the reactor, Death Star 2-style. The game ends with Dash seemingly not making it (but then reveals his fate in the final cutscene).

Shadow of the Empire is not as fun as I remember. The genre has evolved a lot, and the controls are just strange and floaty. The full story is probably good, but this isn’t a good adaptation as important points are relegated to scrolling text.

The Good
The cinematic cutscenes in between chapters are in line with a Star Wars movie with great conspiracy plot elements put in for that epic thrill. The setting for the chapters brings both familiar territory like Hoth and fascinating new places in space to explore and complete your missions.

Level design is good and worth exploring. Your weapons do have an auto-aim to assist you. This game does put all the great stuff that we all know and love in the Star Wars franchise including TIE fighters, stormtroopers and Boba Fett. Fancy fighting a walker entirely on foot with a laser pistol. Sadly the game is only decent skin deep.

The Bad
This game is absolutely packed with some of the aggravating and problematic mechanics and gameplay in a Star Wars video game. The flying sequences are among the most awkward in the genre of space shooting, made only easier by the first person view. In the first chapter, the snowspeeder's power cable is useless against the AT-AT walkers, it looks like spinning a web around it. Your only chance is to shoot them down.

The third person shooter levels feel awkward. The wonky controls can do little to get you through. You can't strafe and shoot smoothly. The camera rotation and positions don't always give you time to target your enemy, while you're being shot at, unless you're really far away. Jumping is a major chore in the levels. If you don't aim the camera perfectly as you jump a gap, you'll most likely fall to your death. Falls are your number one enemy from beginning to end. The jetpack has a horrendous tendency to make you overshoot from exactly where you intended to land. Even worse are the slippery slopes that send you zooming off cliffs, even when you're being careful. Passing the later levels requires you to die and replay lots of times and stack on lives, before you can choreograph a successful level play, because you can't save your game anywhere mid-level. To top it off, there are virtually no health pickups to preserve your current life.

The choc-blocky graphics are lacking in both texture and colour variety, especially the level surfaces. Here and there presentation is lacking with overly bold text placed in some screens. The classic crawl opening sequence moves a lot slower than it does in the films. The resolution works for everything except the HUD, making it difficult to indicate the weapon you're using and how much ammo and health you have.

The Bottom Line
This game will certainly keep you playing for many hours albeit with frustration as you grind your playing skills to pass a level. It seems apparent that LucasArts took some ideas from their Rebel Assault series, but forgot to make them work well. This could've been a decent game if not for the existing issues. One has to wonder if this game was actually finished by the time of its release. It is what it is, with a nice amount of Star Wars lore. If you're accustomed to Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter, you won't be happy with this one.

The Good
The best thing about Shadows of the Empire (SOTE) is that it is set in the “Star Wars” universe. Familiar characters and locations, like Han Solo and the ice planet of Hoth, help tie the new Shadows storyline in with the original trilogy. And, of course, SOTE would not be a real Star Wars game if it did not include the famous Star Wars sound effects and musical themes. Both are here, and they are delightful as always.

SOTE reels you in immediately by throwing you right into the midst of the spectacular Hoth battle scene we saw near the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back.” As if it weren’t cool enough that you get to blast AT-STs and AT-ATs with your snowspeeder’s guns, you also get the chance to launch your tow cable and trip up those big bad Imperial Walkers, just like they did in the movie! It’s one of those things you have to see and do before you can understand how thrilling it really is – for Star Wars fans, anyway.

The Bad
The main problem with SOTE is that the game peaks with the very first level. Once you get past the Hoth battle, the action consists of nothing but average first/third person shooter stuff, with some arcade-like space battle sequences thrown in for good measure. It’s a classic bait-and-switch, and big disappointment.

While the Nintendo 64 has plenty of good FPS titles, SOTE is sadly not one of them. Our hero, Dash Rendar, plods along slowly and clumsily when you move the analog stick. The stick is a pain to use, too. It’s too bad they didn’t implement the control scheme from Turok, which feels much smoother and more intuitive. Dash doesn’t get many different kinds of weapons to play with, either. I love the old Star Wars laser blasters as much as anybody, but surely we deserve something more for our money here.

It’s bad enough that the post-Hoth sequences aren’t that much fun, but I’ll just add that they don’t seem all that important, either. Once you’ve stopped recreating that big scene from “Empire,” there just isn’t enough to motivate the player to push through it. If you are really interested in the Shadows story, then I recommend you read the book. As for the music, well, you could always buy the soundtrack…

The Bottom Line
Really fun for the first level, and then mediocre the rest of the way, SOTE was more about clever marketing than brilliant game design. Still, it’s probably worth playing once just for the Hoth battle.