Will the world ever see another good Star Wars game? I honestly don't know. They weren't showing anything off at E3 that looked remotely groundbreaking, and even though the time is ripe for another X-Wing game, they seem to be focused more on their lackluster Battlegrounds game and their collective kick to the crotch of both gamers and Star Wars fans, Star Wars Galaxies.
Lego Star Wars and Star Wars: Republic Commando were decent, but none of the games based on the material for the new movies has ever made a real hard push towards excellence. For the first two movies, you could argue that was because the source material was a steaming pile of crap. However, for Episode III, the movie that is unquestionably the best of the prequels, that wasn't supposed to be the case. Could The Collective overcome the LucasArts Plague and actually put a decent game together?
Apparently, the answer is no.
Gameplay
The game's events revolve around the events of the movie, and as such, me running through them would be pointless. As you go through the various levels, you'll control both Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader as they progress through the events of the Clone Wars.
A jumps, X is your jab attack, Y is your strong attack, and B does thrusts. B is also used for things like using the saber to open doors and jumping into turrets. L blocks, and R uses your force powers.
This all sounds like a very nice setup for controls, but the controls are the single thing that kills this game right off the bat. I wanted to Force Push things into exploding objects. Wasn't happening. I tried to Force Pull the exploding objects into the enemies. That wasn't happening, either. There's no targeting on the Force powers, and that's atrocious. My character would use his powers on something completely random. If there was a guy in the distance, and an object even further in the distance, the game would invariably decide that what I wanted to pull was the useless object in the distance.
In between the levels you'll get to increase your Force Powers in a limited number of aspects, as well as increasing your combat skills. I honestly have no idea what the difference between Level I and Level III is except for the fact that it increases your Jedi Rank. Am I doing more damage? I can't tell. It still takes a bunch of hits to kill people. After maxing out Force Lightning, it'd still take me a full bar to kill a single medium level minion. Where's the sense of growth in that?
You'll also be treated to scenes from the movie that totally spoil said film. I'm guessing Lucas either didn't care anymore, because he figured gamers were going to hate his newest film. (And I don't blame him after 32's editorial.) If it wasn't that then it was just that LucasArts themselves were too late in finding a third party company that would be able to rush this game out the door and hit their deadlines. This would also explain why the game doesn't even get to 5 hours in length.
You do have the added replay of trying to play a shoddy 2-player lightsaber duel with whichever characters you've unlocked, but seeing as how all you've been doing for 5 hours is lightsaber wielding, I don't think anyone would be too keen on that.
Graphics
There is a nice variety in graphics. To go along with all the video clips, the level designers and artists had to make scenes that looked like all the ones in the movie. Jedi Temple, Utapau, The Chancellor's Chambers. The models aren't really anything to crow about though, so if you were hoping this would be a game where you'd have a hard time distinguishing the CG from the movie, move along.
Audio
The one positive thing about the audio I can say is this. The Voice Actors Guild is trying to declare a strike! Maybe I will never ever be forced to listen to the guys who did the voiceovers for this game again. (apparently, the guys at Joystiq.com tell me that these people are the guys who provide the voices in the Clone Wars cartoon. Makes sense. I thought Anakin sucked in that, too.) The people they hired were far more concerned about sounding like Ewan MacGregor and Hayden Christensen than they were about actually EMOTING. (And remember kids, emotion is what separates us from the Kilrathi.)
Now granted, Hayden Christensen doesn't do much emoting himself, but the voice actor mimicking him in the game is so murderous that you'll mute the entire game rather than listen to any more of this. The worst line in the game is delivered by whoever's playing Obi-Wan Kenobi. When picking up an item to increase his overall health, he delivers the line, "My stamina is increasing." with the EXACT same cadence and tone you'd expect from someone advertising erectile dysfunction aids. (If you're having trouble wielding your saber...) I honestly had to stop playing the game because I was laughing so hard. (No pun intended.)
Gripes
This game is shorter than Republic Commando, and it is shorter than Lego Star Wars. I had reservations about both of those games due to their length, and since this game clocks in at roughly half of Lego Star Wars I have to wonder what the heck went on. Did the Collective only get clearance for their levels with 3 months before ship date? Was LucasArts hamstrung on design thanks to Lucas being all secretive? Whatever it was, it added up to make for one incredibly weak, weak game.
What's with the AI? On one level you're trying to battle a ship, and these enemies come climbing up a crevasse to attack you. The crevasse is about the width of the enemies, so you can Force Push them back across it. Then they'll get up, and run back at you...completely forgetting that there's a chasm in front of them, and fall to their deaths. This game probably features the worst AI outside of Daikatana.
Overall
All in all, this game feels like a box of Star Wars cereal. Stale, ripped-off from an established product, and not worth the depreciation that occurs when you open the packaging.
Due to the special circumstances surrounding the game, it's hard for me to place blame here. I can't honestly tell if this is a colossal failure on the on part of The Collective, or just Lucas' draconian methods coming around to bite him in the ass yet again. Whatever the case, this game is not only a blight on Star Wars (and honestly, it takes an awful lot to gain that description nowadays) it besmirches video games, as well.
I can't recommend this game as a purchase, rental, or as a free gift. The only gaming use I can find for this would be to in a museum display for the worst use of video game licenses, or as a cautionary tale about the woes of rushing a product to market.
