Star Wars™: Rebel Assault 1 + 2

Consider you are buying RA2 and RA1 is gifted with it. RA1 has little interest. Even hardcore gamers and Star Wars fans are likely to be discouraged. RA1 is worth trying out of curiosity as one of the first CD-Rom games, frequently bundled with CD-Rom players. 'It's a trap!' the game will appeal to you as much as it will repel. Even in the 90s, it did not look that beautiful. I was more impressed by the quality of the music. This game will not make a Jedi of you, but a Zen master. It is hard to keep one’s composure while starting levels again and again. Even the cheats are hard to activate. The 3rd level in which you pilot an A-Wing through crystals on planet Kolaador seems neverending and the slightest piloting error is punished. This f***ing Ru Murleen made me lost years of life expectancy. Higher difficulty also means higher satisfaction, but I never finished the game, some levels are too boring. RA2 is much better. Back in time, this game was very flattering. I ran it on a modest 486 and it looked incredible! It felt like a game from the future played on a computer from the future. My friends were amazed by the graphics, especially because many did not know pre-rendered graphics and thought it was real 3D. Cutscenes are awesome. You will want to see them all. The game is an interactive movie. Like some other Lucasarts games, RA2 would have made a good Star Wars movie. The plot is interesting, the score is well used. Levels are varied, with piloting and shooting. It is great to play many prestigious ships. As for the gameplay, do not expect much. Targets always come near the center of the screen. You just have to keep calm, move as little as possible, point and click. It is like a software aimed at making you more efficient using your mouse in office softwares. A must-play.

No saves, no passcodes when you complete chapter, no continue from the last point. Each time you launch game you start from scratch. And your attempts are limited and you cann't just restart game^ either use all of your attempts or quit game totally and launch again. Tried to use joystick and mouse - slight change in play-ability. It's disappointing. The only way to get it playable is hacking though DosBox config to make it slow enough.

Some of the shooting levels are really fun to play, and the story is good. Some of the piloting levels are very unfun, but the difficulty editor makes it a cinch to beat those. The flexibility of the difficulty is what does it for me. You can customize the experience you want, all while experiencing fun gameplay and a cool storyline. The only downside is how short the game is.

Rebel Assault 1 was a technological revolution and paed the way for CD-Roms in pc gaming. The game itself, though technologically very impressive, has always been very wobbly and kind of so-so. The controls are awfully oversensitive and the video technology behind it all is now hopelessly underwhelming. I do not think Rebel Assault 1 has retained much of its appeal. It's only interesting for nostalgic or historical reasons. Take it from me. I used to marvel and adore that game all throughout the 90s. That's all gone now. Rebel Assault 2 has fared quite a bit better in my opinion. It's got way more options and punched up the quality of the FMV-stuff. More than part 1 it's like a small little star wars movie in its own right. Controls are a little bit better and more flexible than in part 1. Gameplay has been slightly improved too, as you can now duck into cover during the third person shooty bits, for instance. With the aid of the included difficulty editor you can actually make this game as (un)challenging as you want and improve your gameplay experience for each level and many, many variables. Rebel Assault part 1 is also historically interesting because it was the first time they dug out old props from the movies and started filming new scenes by themselves, wheras part 1 mainly just took existing scenes from the original films and kind of put some drawn or rendered scenes in between or dubbed them over. TLDR: Rebel Assault 1 has lost its appeal entirely. Rebel Assault 2 is actually quite okay and is actually enjoyable, but still a railshooter. I've got no idea how you'd react to both these games without any nostalgia.

i remeber playing the Rebel Assault II Demo that came on CD of a PC Games magazine back in the 90ies. It was awesome! Sadly i had not enough money to buy the game back in the days. :( Rebel Assault II was a critical point in the history of the Star Wars franchise. This game was the first media to incorporate live-action actors and footage in the Star Wars universe since Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The stormtrooper armor, weapons, helmets and suits seen to be worn by the actors are the actual props seen in the original trilogy, taken from the archive storage of Lucasfilm. [source: wikipedia] Rebel Assault is an "on rails shooter" mostly in space. So the gameplay lacks some freedom, but it compensates it well with it's story, cutscenes and musical background. So it's some kind of an interactive actionmovie.