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Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
GameRatio Review
GC |
View Full Game Info
Published by
LucasArts
Released on
2001-11-17
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| 89% GameRatio |
90% GR% Review |
Shay
Reviewed on
2003-10-31
Rogue Leader is the most accurate portrayal of Star Wars to date. Everything about the game contributes to make it a great Star Wars game. Gameplay is pretty good, consisting of flying and shooting down enemy ships as well as directing partner ships and troops. Graphics, music, and sound are also great. But the one distinguishing aspect is the excellent use of locations from the movies.
The graphics are done very well. No drop in framerate or slowdown, or patched backgrounds. The levels all look just as you would expect from the movies, the explosions are done well, and the ships look realistic. Of course, the graphics don’t look as impressive two years later once I saw screens for Rogue Squadron 3, but they were revolutionary when the game came out. The music and sound in the game are superb, adding all of the Star Wars sounds you have heard in the movies. The music comes straight from Star Wars, doing a great job of adding excitement to each level. Sound effects are also good, including talking from characters, sometimes straight from the movies.
All 15 levels are varied and have tons of stuff to do in them. The tasks can range between destroying the enemy ships to saving your leaders to stealing ships. Half of the levels are taken directly from the movies and look and feel so similar it’s amazing. I thought I was going to wet my pants during the Battle of Endor. It starts off with Rebel ships ambushing the second Death Star and shifts to a huge space battle, characters screaming lines right out of Return of the Jedi the whole time. Throw in cinemas from the movies to show after a few levels and you have the closest thing to being in the movies.
The other levels weren’t taken from the movies. They aren’t as exciting, but they did a good job of making them as fun and exciting as possible. These levels include missions on Kessel, Cloud City, Tatooine, and Yavon IV. Two noteworthy missions have you play as Darth Vader as he fights the Rebels, making for a nice change and cool gameplay. There are nearly ten ships to fly in the game, each level allowing you to only fly specific ones. Ships include the x-wing, y-wing, a-wing, b-wing, Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, tie fighter, and Darth Vader’s tie fighter. Each ship has strengths and weaknesses, as well as different weapons. For example, tie fighters are small and fast while the Millennium Falcon has good weaponry and shields, but moves and turns slowly.
The game takes quite a while to beat, longer if you try to earn all of the medals. There are three medals to earn in each level: bronze, silver and gold. You earn them depending on your level time and flying statistics. Earning the medals can be very difficult, and it requires lots of time and practice. You have to earn some medals if you want the extra levels and ships. Once the game is completed, even more replay is added on in the form of an extra hard mode. So strap yourself in because, until Rogue Squadron 3 comes out, Rogue Leader is the best Star Wars game out there.
Shay O'NeilGameRatio review by Shay
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