STAR WARS™ Galactic Battlegrounds Saga

I've never played AOEII and some time ago a friend of mine recommend it to me. Hence I wanted to try it but since it isn't listed in GOG, I decided to fall back on this SWGBS, which is supposed to be the same game with Star Wars graphics. I don't regret doing it at all, the game is very well made and totally addictive, you can really spend hours playing it without even noticing. The gameplay somehow resembles the first Kohan series to me (apart for the fact that you can't resurrect your heroes and your city walls don't upgrade by themselves) which is an added value, and has plenty of scenarios in which you can play for any civilization, either good or bad ones. Both units and buildings are very well detailed, missions are intriguing, the sound set is very done and you can build your own customized scenarios. I also found plenty of user made scenarios and an interesting mod on the web. The only downside I found in SWGBS is that you have to install a thirdy party mod in order to play it in widescreen mode; still menu screens don't get fixed anyway. LucasArts should really show this game some renewed love, and that would be very well deserved for sure.

I would obsessively play this game back when I was a child. I played Age of Empires II first. So when someone told me that there was a game just like Age of Empires II, but Star Wars, I was pretty damn psyched. Good times. But enough nostalgia -- does this old gem still hold up today? Well, in an objective sense, yes. Seriously, it's Age of Empires II but Star Wars, what's not to like? Sure, it's a little weird how you can have the Rebel Alliance fighting Gungans, but that's no less realistic than having Vikings go head-to-head with the Japanese in AoEII. Some of the campaigns are pretty good, though some of missions are admittedly pretty boring. But how does it differ from Age of Empires II? Well, for one, there are several new features in the game. Jedi/Sith units can stealth, and require special units to see them. Jedi themselves are basically just Monks who can attack people (while still retaining the ability to "wololo" people, as well). There are air units now, that also require specific units to shoot down (apparently storm troopers cannot fathom the idea of aiming their blasters into the sky). Several races have cool unique features to them. Gungans, for example, can construct buildings in water. The Trade Federation does not require prefab shelters (read: houses). So after all these years I'd still say it's a good game, and would definitely recommend it. However... From a technical standpoint, the game is in dire need of an update. Personally, I wish it received the treatment Age of Empires II got, with the HD re-release. You're probably going to want to browse around the GOG community and look for some wide-screen resolution patches and make a batch file to shut off explorer.exe, because it has the infamous Windows 7 color bug. Even with these work-arounds, I don't quite remember the UI being so obnoxiously large so long ago, but it is exactly that. Also, the main menu still has a link to the MSN Gaming Zone. The Zone... Good times, good times.

First things first; this game is fun. It's fun, has tons of fan service, and despite some of the fairly contrived mechanics, it does a good job of putting you in the Star Wars universe, thanks to the use of sound effects right from the movies. With all that established, this is a very hard game to really stand by or defend. Before going into it, I had heard that Galactic Battlegrounds was very much like a mod of Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings. While most reviewers mentioned this in terms of mechanics being similar, I found that this extended to the overall quality of the game. Animations are, quite frankly, poor, the sprite work in general is not nearly as refined as its inspiration, and sound runs into a lot of trouble. Overall, visual and audio execution honestly does not exceed the level of quality you'd find in a mod. A great mod, to be sure, but not a product made by Lucas Arts of all companies. The quality issue extends to a few oddly done parts of the game itself. Jedi/ Sith Knights and Masters are listed as different units, yet functionality wise are identical save for the latter's improved stats and additional ability to convert things (AOE monk!). It would have made more sense to have the Master be the last line of progression for the former, but for reasons unknown, they are split. Another oddity, this one to do with presentation, is how Carbon rock formations are labeled as Red, when in fact they are visually covered in Blue. It leads me to wonder if this wasn't some massive typo... The game also sticks to Age of Kings gameplay steps in ways that don't really fit, and go a step further in that they are almost lore-breaking. Because Age of Kings requires gold mining, over here we have "Nova Crystals, which are a form of currency". I'm a long time Star Wars fan, I grew up on all the books, many of the games, saw every single movie, and not once had I ever heard of a Tiberium like crystal being used as currency. But here we are, mining not-Tiberium and acquiring it via the use of Jedi/ Sith holocrons as tourist attractions (?!). Despite all this, the game does have at least three noteworthy ideas of its own. The addition of Power Cores requires you to spread out your base, by leaving buildings to function at roughly 25% efficiency unless they are built in the radious of a power core. Similarly, Shield Generators can also be built to give structures and mechanical units a layer of rechargeable protection. This means that when attacking an enemy base, you'll want to prioritize your targets in order to deal the most crippling blow rather than knocking out a couple of random buildings. Finally, air units add a tactical layer that, while not perfectly executed, is still fun to play with. As noted in the beginning, Galactic Battlegrounds is fun. But it's largely fun because the game it copies so directly is fun. Anything more than that, you'll only get if you're a big time Star Wars fan. AOE 2 HD is a largely superior game point by point (and quality wise), but this will make for some nice goofy fantasy exploration if nothing else.

It's a great RTS game. Especially if you like Age of Empires combined with Star Wars because that's pretty much what this is. Buy it if that sounds good to you.

Star War Galactic Battlegrounds. This game really holds the player in its seat. Yes this game has similar gameplay like Age of Empires games. So if you liked those games just jump on it. The best thing in this game is the epic campaign where you can fight as the Empire or Rebell Alliance and Wookies. There are maps that are played on the planets and in space and as such give a lot of variety to the gameplay. In the addon you get to fight on Naboo at the time of the Trade Federation invasion as the Naboo, Gungans and Trade Federation. This game is a real RTS gem and highly recommended.