Star Wars The Clone Wars Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Not enough Jedi's in this one

Hot on the heels of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comes The Clone Wars game based on the animated film of the same name. The film is set in between Episode 2 and Episode 3 when Anakin is still a Jedi and the Republic are still the good guys.

Leaving the Jedis to one side, the game focuses on the battles between the Republic's soldiers (the stormtrooper looking dudes) and the beige droids of Count Dooku. You control a small squad of soldiers in 15 missions around the Star Wars galaxy and its planets. The gameplay is similar to Brothers in Arms and all the other top down army based action games but the controls are a little different.

The controls are a mix of Playman World Soccer and Destroy All Humans. Left and right rotate your direction cursor and up/down move your squad forward/backward along that bearing. It's a little confusing at first and you shouldn't try to do too much with it. Fluid movements across the screen are a little awkward but the level design rarely calls for any frantic manoeuvres. Your soldiers will automatically fire on the enemy and you can also use 5 to throw a grenade.

The graphics from THQ and Universomo are impressive as always. While the game doesn't have the same animation style as the film, the characters and backgrounds still have that cartoony feel.

There are very little tactics to this game, just lead your men through the meandring levels and take out droids as you see them. Your soldiers will automatically fire on anything that is within range and in front of them. The levels are littered with hiding spots and if you approach them slowly, your squad will crouch down and dig in. Your soldiers have a slightly longer range than the droids so you gradually pick them off without a full firefight. This isn't meant to be a stealth game and there is a generous time limit to prevent you waiting forever. While basic droids do make up most of the enemy, there are few larger droids that can be a bit more cunning and powerful. As the game has infinite continues, just learn where they are and chuck an early grenade.

The levels have been cleverly designed to give you a number of ways of patrolling to your objective. Together with the open map design, you have some choices in the order of levels to play and increases the game's nonlinear feel. About halfway through the game, a number of levels will be unlocked and choose which to play. The plot does have its part to play here and completing one level before the other can be very favourable. For example, take out the factory in one level and you will have less droids to face in a later level. There is much more openess and freedom in The Clone Wars than in other games of this ilk.

Completing the story will take a few hours and once you have reached the rank of commander, new power ups are unlocked. These yellow rings are now hidden in the levels and finding them will momentarily boost your team's firepower and speed. Not much benefit really but it does give you another angle if you want to replay the levels.