STAR WARS™ Shadows of the Empire™

If this game played like Dark Forces II, or better yet, if it were made in the modified Quake 3 engine like Jedi Outcast, it would've been an absolute MASTERPIECE and the only Star Wars action game we would ever need. But it wasn't. And it isn't. It's still enjoyable as a Star Wars experience, but it's just not a really good game. GOG did it again as far as compatibility is concerned, download, play, go. It runs flawlessly on 2560x1440 for me (apart from the cutscenes which play in a small window at the top left, which GOG does notify you about, but it doesn't bother me), the controls are set as good as they can be, and it works. It's capped at 60 but I capped it again at 30 with RTSS because the Asteroid Field mission was impossible to beat on Hard. What everyone says about the controls is true. They suck. Well, there's nothing wrong with the way the character walks etc., but the mouse y axis is hardbound to movement and it can't be turned off. Luckily, there is vertical autoaim to a certain point, but if something's too high, you have to press V, look up/down and shoot and pray you hit it. I just use the keys and ignore the mouse and it's serviceable. Another terrible thing is the old school consoley lack of real saves. The game does have discreet checkpoints but you're A) not notified in-game when you pass one and B) they can be VERY unevenly distributed (looking at you, Gall), as in 30 minutes until you hit the first one and C) you get a set amount of lives to play with each level, after that it's game over and start again. It's just a huge waste of time - this is a PC port, at least they could've done away with the lives and used a normal checkpoint system. THAT SAID, the characters are really good, the story is decent, the settings and levels are wonderful despite their occasional 1997 barenness, the flying parts are nearly on par with Rogue Squadron, the sound design is stellar. The packaging and vibe is nice, the gameplay isn't.

It's a pretty great game. Biggest drawback is not being able to save in the middle of a mission and it has a lives system, which is really a holdover from the previous generation of console games and should have been thrown out.

Beat the game on Nintendo 64 numerous times. Playing on the PC is tricky, I'm using a knock off 360 controller. Dash tends to glide on angled surfaces. It's really pissing me off....but worth it for the nostalgia!

Don't let the nostalgia fool you, this game has not aged well. It starts out so promising but quickly decays into an average at best experiece. Only buy it on sale.

So fun to play it again but the experience here is miserable :( Example: Mouse looks right and left... AND moves you forward and backwards, but still you're moving with WASD too.... and right click to jump?! Come on, who the hell did the control bindings on this thing?! SO sad for such a classic game from my youth to be near unplayable due to hot garbage control bindings :( And yes, the controller bindings are brutal too, no strafe, cant turn on the jetpack (have to press q on keyboard... ya the keyboard)... hell u can't even change your darn weapon type! AHHHH! So sad for it to go down like this.