Preview for Star Wars Rouge Squadron 3: Rebel Strike

Intro:

    The Star Wars franchise has gone limp in the last 5 years. Not only have both of the movie prequels failed to live up to hype and expectation, but even the games have to a degree. Star Wars: Demolition and the Clone Wars were both shoddy attempts at cashing in on the wind of the prequels. So when the movies don’t turn out to be masterpieces, the games aren’t cut any slack. One game managed to avoid all of the prequel hype and succeed in becoming a worthy gaming experience. Star Wars Rouge Squadron 2 is possibly the best Star Wars action game ever made. It was challenging and beautiful, not to mention a first generation GameCube title. It captured everything that made the original saga so magical. The environments were crafted with amazing detail and the mood made people feel they were really apart of a squadron. The obvious next step after all of this would be to make another sequel. Star Wars Rouge Squadron 3 also aims to stay away from the media blitz of the sub par prequels and make its own indent into gaming history. Early shots of the game will make certain people pass it of as a technically superior clone to Rouge Squadron 2, but if you look deep enough, you will see a whole lot of new ideas being pressed into the game.

Preview:

    Some of the complaints with the first sequel surrounded the games difficulty. Rouge Squadron 2 was by no means easy and some people found it too hard for its own good. If you failed to meet the objectives of the mission you would have to begin the whole level over again. They were huge missions, which would explain the anger of gamers who were forced to trek the same environments over and over again to get it right. This would never have been a problem if the AI had been varied better. Most of the time you could map out a level and predict where each ship would fly in from, making the game somewhat repetitive in its execution. Another complaint with RS2 was that the game was too short. The game could be completed in one short weekend. Even though their was a tremendous variety in the missions, some cant help but wish there were more. So will Rouge Squadron 3 fix any of these problems? We sure hope so. In the games early state, things seem to be shaping up quite nicely. The graphics have received a boost in detail and scope. When you are flying through the environments you feel more connected than you would have in RS2. The visuals are clearly superior to RS2 in many ways including the ability to present more ships and vessels on screen. In terms of gameplay the game is taking a giant leap in terms of variety. Not only will you pilot the many spaceships of the Star Wars universe, but you will be able to ride on speeder bikes and Tauntaun. During the revamped version of the Hoth mission, you will have to grapple onto an AT-AT, destroy it and then hop onto a Tauntaun and ride off to the nearest transport. This isn’t all that the game will provide because the developers have added a few on foot missions that will take place in the Death Star and other locations. The controls and fluidity of movement have yet to be tweaked in the early versions of the game. Several multiplayer modes will be included with the game to increase replayability and hopefully allow it to gain a few extra points on the scale of innovation. Everything that should have been improved with the first game seems to be getting done now. We will have to wait and see about length and the AI though as that can only be truly expressed with a hands on review of the game. Rouge Squadron 3 should be released sometime this fall and it is shaping up very well. May the force be with this one.

Facts:



- Improved Graphics Engine

- Multiplayer Capabilities

- On-Foot Missions

- New Vehicles Including The Speeder Bike and Tauntaun

- Third Installment Of The Popular Series Developed By Factor 5


Written By: Joseph Bennett