STAR WARS™ Galactic Battlegrounds Saga

Galactic Battlegrounds is one of the few real-time strategy games set in the Star Wars universe. Simply put, you build a base, gather resources and build an army to defeat your enemies using one of eight factions from the prequel and classic trilogies. The game runs on Ensemble's Genie engine, famous for powering Age of Empries II. For all intents and purposes, SWGB can be considered a total conversion of AoE2. In my opinion, this leads to a few shortcomings. For instance, the factions are all very similar to one another. This wasn't such a big deal in AoE2 given the game's "historical" setting, but in a Star Wars game it feels downright strange to have Gungans with mech units that essentially mirror the Empire's. Factions do come with a few unique bonuses, but it doesn't quite cut it. SWGB still has some advantages over AoE2. The factions all have unique visuals for their units and buildings, which still hold up nicely. They also added air units which give an extra layer of depth to the gameplay. John Williams' score is used masterfully throughout the game. The campaigns are serviceable but vary in quality. The missions are usually about building a base and destroying the enemy's, just like in a standard game. Also included is a scenario editor, which people have used to create some pretty cool custom maps. The main long-term attraction of the game should be the multiplayer component, but in this day and age you will likely not find many people online even using replacement services. Unless you have some friends to play it with you, I wouldn't expect to get a lot of reliable multiplayer gameplay out of it. Overall SWGB is a solid game and definitely worth the price for curious Star Wars fans. Its use of AoE2's engine can be seen as either a blessing or a curse depending on your mileage with it. I'm personally a fan of more unique factions in RTS games, which led me to be a bit disappointed with SWGB, but it's an enjoyable game for a Star Wars fit.

This game is greatness. My brother and two cousins were playing AOE2 HD the other night, and I remembered I had this game. Dusted off the old disk and installed it. Sadly... it did not play well with Windows 7 and 8 over network. :-( That evening, I cam go GOG and searched for an updated working version.. alas, it was not here. that was two weeks ago. NOW IT IS HERE! QUICK, TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!

Note: Review based off CD-ROM copy Essentially Age of Empires II reskinned for the Star Wars Universe, the real value in Galactic Battlegrounds is in the scenario creator. A community for sharing and rating custom maps carries on at http://swgb.heavengames.com/ . With their modifications and original stories, there is plenty of value to keep you playing solo or locally at LAN parties for a long time. Just don't expect to find players still online for multiplayer.

I love this game, I played it religiously when it was in its prime back in 2003-2006. Just discovered that it had been released on GOG (and therefore eliminated the biggest issue I had with it, namely that there was severe discoloration on Windows Vista and beyond. That said, I know that a LOT of people who buy this will want a Widescreen solution, as well as a Multiplayer solution. A few reviewers have mentioned some options, but I want to mention a one-stop-shop solution to both Widescreen and Multiplayer: Voobly.com The multiplayer is simple, they provide a Lobby, NAT and UPnP services to ease the issues with DirectPlay, ratings, teams/clans and friends lists. For Widescreen, it supports your native resolution, windowed mode (for the menus), multi-monitor support, and stretching (that looks good!) of the command bar. Basic tutorial for Widescreen, you join a Game in the Lobby to get access to game settings, from here there are support links. You can also choose to launch to the Single Player menu, which is the main menu you get if you start the game normally. Help Pages: http://www.voobly.com/pages/view/widescreen http://www.voobly.com/pages/view/dxtools I know these say Age of Kings and have screenshots from Age of Kings, but they all apply to SWGB. :)