John Topley's Weblog

Star Wars Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leader II

Saturday, 21 June 2003

This is the game that led to my impulse purchase of a Nintendo GameCube. I've never really been a dedicated gamer. I used to play games on my Sinclair ZX Spectrum because that's what you did and because it was well, fun. I played the odd driving game and first person shoot–em–up on the PC (Doom, Rise of the Triads, Quake, Jedi Knight, you know the games I'm talking about) but I always felt that I should be doing something more productive such as honing my programming skills. Games consoles had never appealed to me until I saw some screen shots of the new Star Wars game for the GameCube on the BBC News website of all places. I was blown away by how far games had advanced since I last looked, and that fact combined with having a soft spot for Star Wars anyway, meant that I had to have it!

Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II sees you piloting a number of familiar craft on ten missions at various locations in the Star Wars universe. Some locations are from the films, a few are new for this game. You start off on a training mission flying around Tatooine with various objectives to complete. Naturally I skipped this mission and went straight into the first level proper, which sees you at the end of A New Hope, flying an X–Wing fighter over the surface of the Death Star. This is a nice level because it's not hard and it showcases the amazing graphics in the game.

Once you've blown up the first Death Star, you're confronted by the full range of enemy machinery from the original film trilogy. The range of craft available for you to pilot is amazing and each ship is very well detailed and rendered. You can use a snowspeeder to take on AT–AT walkers on the ice planet Hoth, a B–Wing bomber to attack an Imperial Star Destroyer and you even get to fly the Millenium Falcon! Later on in the game, you also get the chance to fly the odd Imperial spaceship.

The game missions are sufficiently varied to maintain interest and there are lots of upgrades to your ship to be sought out. Sometimes I find myself flying around just looking at the scenary because it's so beautifully done. My favourite mission is probably Vengence on Kothlis because it opens with a really enjoyable dogfight against lots of TIE fighters and because it requires you to switch ships a few times.

The disc includes some really nice extras such as a documentary on the making of the game, as well as galleries of the artwork and in–game music. This game really showcases the GameCube's abilities and apparently the follow–up game will include this game in its entirety but playable by two players. Bring it on! 5/5.

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