This review is about the core game, I have never tried the expansion. If this seem unfair, you are free to ignore this review. Let's start with the most fun part of the game; space battles! When fighting in space you start with a small base, here you can produce spaceships, you can even drop them right into battle thanks to warp speed. To get resources it is important to take control over mines spread around the map. When fighting against big spaceships you can focus fire on specific parts such as shield, engine etc. This is really awesome and you think this would give you a lot of tactical options. It does, but tactics stops at a screeching halt here. The two existing factions have way too obvious weaknesses and strengths; the Rebels have stronger fighters that will always trump Empire fighters while the Empire have battleships that will always trump Rebel battleships, it is like a rule of nature. Imagine a game of rock, paper, scissors where Rebel fighters are flying scissors and Empire fighters are flying sheets of paper. The land battles are extremely shallow, no tactics are involved. Show up with more and better guns = win, nothing more to say here. The campaign features a 4x4 map of the galaxy where you move fleets and armies from planet to planet. The map is in real time, so watch out for enemy fleets sneaking up on you! To conquer a planet you first need to defeat the enemy fleet occupying the planet's space, then you can land troops and gain control of the planet. While 4x4 Star Wars sounds interesting it is unfortunately one big repeatable grind. To conclude; the most fun part of the game are the space battles, but there is not enough tactical depth to keep you interested for a long time. The campaign is boring and. Land battles disgust me. As a strategy game Empire At War is very flawed. Would give 2.5.
