Publisher: LucasArts, www.lucasarts.com
Age Appropriateness: eight and above
Parental Advisory: Strategic war game with bloodless battles
Violence
Rating: 
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds may be set in a galaxy far, far away, but
this real time strategy game plays much like Microsoft's Age of Empires II.
This is because Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds was built on the Age of Empires
engine, which gives it a similar look and play. And like Age of Empires II,
which is a great game, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is equally good. But
somehow, fighting in distant galaxies feels a lot like fighting old world
Byzantines on Earth, as if you're playing Age of Empires.
Once again, there's turmoil in that famous galaxy. To resolve the ongoing civil war, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds asks you to control the forces of the Trade Federation, Rebel Alliance, Gungans, Galactic Empire, Royal Naboo, and Wookiees in first rate, real-time combat. Here, the game offers some 300 different units and structures that fight in campaigns that occur over land, and in the sea and air.
If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll enjoy controlling the various units that include snowspeeders, Wookiee tanks, bounty hunters, Jedi Knights, stormtroopers, X-wings, droids, and more. As in any good real-time strategy game, you have to effectively balance your economic, troop management, technology, construction, and scientific and military resources.
The game features numerous game play modes, including single player campaigns, skirmishes, historical missions and multi-player battle arenas over Internet and LAN. Because Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is built on the Age of Empires II engine, one of my favorite real-time strategy games, I found Galactic Battlegrounds to be immediately familiar-I could pretty much jump right in a play. And in execution, the resource management, unit upgrades, and many other aspects were much the same.
I liked the air warfare, Jedi knights and shield generators, which make Galactic Battlegrounds a completely different game that's set in a different universe. On the downside, the civilizations in Galactic Battlegrounds are too much alike. Somehow, I wouldn't expect Naboo, Rebels, Gungans, and other armies to mostly resemble each other in battle. Visually the game looks great and it does an excellent job of depicting the units of the beloved Star Wars universe.
I immediately liked Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds because it was so similar to Age of Empires II. But as I played Galactic Battlegrounds, I found that it succeeded at taking one of my favorite games into a new direction that brings the Star Wars world to life. Star Wars fans as well as die-hard real-time strategy players can enjoy this one.
