The best Star Wars games
The top 3 Star Wars games
Over the last decade, there have been lots of Star Wars games; far too many to count, however a large majority have been far below my expectations, or have become extremely outdated, without a much needed revival, or sequel. For example, Knights of the old republic. I am told by a lot of people that the storyline for this game is fantastic, so I read parts of the comics based around this era, and I agree – it is a very interesting era. Also, I hear it has some great mechanics.
However, the game is so old, with such poor graphics, that I can’t bring myself to play it, or its sequel. A third game, or a revival of the first two games, would be a fantastic move from LucasArts/Disney, as the game has a very loyal base of players. And by a third game, I don’t mean another MMO.
Just to clear something up, I also haven’t included any other outdated/ended games. Star Wars Galaxies seemed like a good game from the videos I have seen, however since it was discontinued, it would be pointless putting it in this review. Also, I won’t include more than one game from the same series, and will merely pick the best out of the group. So, let’s get started!
Number 1: Star Wars Battlefront 2
Now, let’s get something straight: Battlefront 1 was epic as it was. If it didn’t make this review a little unbalanced, I would include that as the second best Star Wars game. But as I can’t do that, I had to pick its sequel over it. My reasoning for this is simple – the space battles. And when I say space battles, I mean the most epic space battles I have taken part in. Sure, it was no simulator, but going head to head with the empire in space, and being the bomber to destroy massive ships was absolutely incredible.
Other than the space battles, there were some other good reasons for Battlefront 2 to be held on an even higher level than its predecessor – a major one being the inclusion of newer units, notably the ‘heroes’ that you saw in the films; whether that was the might of Darth Vader, the power of Yoda, or the bravery of Luke.
If you haven’t heard anything about this game before, it is a game for the PC, or the last generation of consoles, and is a First person shooter, made popular by its ‘Instant action’ game mode, which is very similar to Black Ops ‘Combat training’, in the fact that you are in a game on any map you choose, essentially playing a multiplayer game, but against AI controlled units instead of real players. You chose which era, which team/faction, and which game mode, then fought it out.
My personal favourite moment in this game was taking part in the battle of Hoth. You don’t have to follow any storyline if you play on Instant action, however it is still the same battle as it is on the 5th film (with AT AT Walkers for the empire, and the T-47 air speeders for the rebels, with the empire aiming to destroy the shield generator), making it an incredibly fun experience which you can relive over and over again.
Number 2: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
I have owned my fair share of games on the Nintendo Wii; however this is the only one I have ever actually completed. In fact, it is probably the only one I have enjoyed.
The main reason for this is that the controls fit the Wii’s controller perfectly. Although the lightsaber swinging has virtually no responsiveness to the way you move the remote (a bit of skill would have been nice), it still feels so much better than the second game did on the Xbox. Using all the different moves and combos flows strangely smoothly, to say I was playing it on the Wii, making it even cooler when you kill a group of rebels with force lightning.
Another reason for this game being so good is the storyline. Following on a few years after episode 3, it follows the life of Darth Vader’s apprentice, through a very complex chain of events, which take some drastic turns throughout. It is easily the most intensely written Star Wars game I have seen so far, which is a fantastic level to reach in itself. But I may go as far as saying it was one of the most interesting single player game I have experienced for a long time. It is up there in the top 10, for sure.
My only major problem with this game was that they didn’t integrate this great storyline into the actual game. Each level felt very linear, and the game just screamed out for some free roaming elements. It had a ship, which had a computer for choosing your next destination– yet it only let you choose the location of your next mission. Honestly, I spent the whole game waiting for a bit of choice.
The second game was fun too, with some even more epic mechanics, and even smoother combat, essentially allowing you to take on 50 enemies at once. Very fun, but the game was just too easy, and took me around three or four hours to complete, because of a ridiculously short storyline.
Also, the ‘intense’ storyline kind of turned into a game full of twists and turns that tried to surprise you, but it got tedious, and even for a sci-fi, it still got too out-there. If you can pick it up cheap in a sale, sure, play it – I had fun. Just don’t expect much complexity.
Number 3: Star Wars: Empire at War
This is a real time strategy game, set in the time period between episode 4, 5 and 6. If you have played the first Dawn of War RTS, then I don’t need to explain this game anymore. It feels like a re-textured version of the game, and since this was released 2 years after the first Dawn of War (2006 compared to 2004) I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. However, they are both great games, so I can let them off for that. And it does have several different game modes; it is just the in-battle mechanics which feels very similar. Anyway, its hard for a sci-fi RTS to not look like Dawn of War now, anyway…
Don’t get me wrong – although I rate this as the third best Star Wars game, some parts of this game suck. For example, there is a cut scene which tries to relate the game to the film, by showing Darth Vader force choking a storm trooper for doing something wrong. But there is no logic behind it whatsoever; mainly because the storm trooper does absolutely nothing wrong. Sure he is evil, but he only chokes his employees to set an example for doing something wrong in the film – this makes it look more like a fetish or something.
But, luckily for this game, no one cares about the campaign. It is very similarly played like Star Wars Battlefront, in the fact that people tend to play galactic conquest, or instant action – leaving the campaign left untouched.
I enjoy Galactic Conquest a lot – it is by far the strongest part of the game, as it has a very unique element to it, which is the fact that in most strategy games that feature some kind of map feature, in which you move a fleet around to encounter enemies and take over difference areas, they tend to have this part as a turn based game, with the actual battles in real time - yet this game makes everything real time.
Although I am still enjoying this now, I feel that I will get bored of it soon, and I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if they made it turn based. Look at the Total War series; turn based strategy mixed in with real time is one of the reasons it is so popular. I personally hold the Total War series to containing some of the best in fun strategy gaming, so it feels normal to say that I think games should stick to this recipe, if they are within the same genre. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Thanks for reading, and i highly suggest you pick each of these games up. On Steam, there is a £60 sale for 10+ Star Wars games. You save like £20, and it has some brilliant games, which can help you choose your own favourite. Enjoy!