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I can't remember the last time a game that was completely hyped by the gaming community lived up to my own expectations. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Maybe I'm just jaded. Either way, it really takes an incredible game to get me excited, and unfortunately, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader just hasn't gotten me excited. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that Rogue Leader is a poor game, it just doesn't have the addictive, compelling gameplay that it takes to be a classic. For those who may not yet know, Rogue Leader puts you in the shoes of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles as you reenact some of the most popular events from the original Star Wars trilogy, such as the attack on the Death Star and the battle on Hoth. While the missions that are modeled after the movie are solid in their own right, I really found the original missions like Kothlis to be far more engaging. Most likely, it's because the developers were able to throw in unexpected twists to the missions, meaning I never quite knew what to expect. Judging by those levels, I almost wish Factor 5 would have stayed away from anything based on the movies. I'm sure Star Wars fans everywhere are screaming "Blasphemy!" at that last statement, but if I wanted the movie, I'd go rent it. When it all boils down, I'd much rather be treated to a whole new story and events than be stuck into a mold, forced to follow a plot that I already almost know by heart. Ever since the first videos of this game in action surfaced, everyone has been ranting and raving about its graphics. While parts of the game definitely look wonderful, just as many look downright bland. Frankly, I don't really care how many polygons or bump-maps are being thrown around in the stage - the Death Star levels are just plain boring to look at. Fortunately, the wonderfully crafted Kothlis and Bespin levels completely make up for it. After all, I can't really expect the Death Star to look anything other than plain gray. In addition to the stages themselves, each spacecraft is beautifully done. Every craft is perfect down to even the smallest details, and look as if their models have been ripped right out of the movies. (And in some cases, they have!) There's absolutely no evidence to suggest that they're made up of hundreds of tiny polygons Another bright spot in the graphics of Rogue Leader is the excellent lighting. The way your laser blasts reflect off of anything and everything nearby is a very convincing effect. At one point, while engaged in a dogfight, a TIE fighter came out of nowhere from below me. Though I narrowly missed it because I wasn't expecting it to show up, the laser blasts from my X-Wing flew right by it, creating a very cool red glow on its surface. For all that Factor 5 did right with the graphics, it's a shame they couldn't keep the frame rate up. While the frame rate problems aren't prolonged, they do rear their ugly head in just about every mission, and especially the land based ones. I can't help but think that a little more development time would have completely cleared those problems up, but since the game made it out for launch, they obviously didn't have the time. That lack of polish shows up in a few other instances as well. It may be pretty nitpicky, but there are several places where the game could have had better transitions. For instance, if you're playing through the game, and the screen suddenly freezes up for a couple seconds, it's probably because a cut scene is about to load. This happens several times, and it always made me sit back and say "What the heck? Did the game just lock up?" Even a simple fade to black would have taken care of that. Also, what's with those animations of the AT-ATs tripping? Those definitely could have done with a reworking. Another area that could have used some tweaking is the radar. It's really downright confusing the way ships are denoted as being above or below you. Ultimately, you'll just find yourself pointing your ship in the direction of the orange wedge that leads you to your target, and just making a few wide turns to scope out the scene, since by the time you could decipher the radar, any enemy you could have shot down will have flown away already. My other major gripe with this game is the control system. At first, it'll feel absolutely perfect, as you'll be able to jump into the game and start taking out TIE fighters in no time flat. Unfortunately, I found the simplicity of the control to be very limiting, and ultimately it even caused a few problems. Unlike games like Star Wars: Starfighter on the PlayStation 2 that utilize both analog sticks to control flight, Rogue Leader relies on only one. What this boils down to is that you have no way to roll your craft without reaching for the awkwardly placed Z button. To compensate for this, the game includes autoroll and autolevel features to help you make tighter turns and level your craft with respect to the horizon, respectively. The problem with this is that you often won't want these features. I found myself frequently having to battle against the direction the game wanted to take my ship versus the direction I wanted it to go. Turning off the autoroll and autolevel features helped in that respect, but because there was no way to level my craft without using the (again, awkwardly placed) Z button, I was still out of luck. So what this all comes down to is that beginners will have no trouble picking the game up and having some fun, but more advanced players will feel limited. Unfortunately, there's no way to customize the control, so we're pretty much out of luck. Finally, the way every ship reacts and can seemingly turn on a dime lends a very unnatural feeling to flying in general. It really feels like you're moving a model airplane around a screen, rather than flying an incredibly fast and large spacecraft. Though the framerate and controls may not have turned out the way I would have liked, it's hard to complain about the sound in any Star Wars game. Anything composed by John Williams is going to beat the crap out of the generic music of most games. Additionally, the sounds of the laser blasts are all spot on, and the sound bites taken from the movies (i.e. Harrison Ford's flyby in the trench) are pretty cool too. The only thing keeping the sound from being absolutely perfect is a couple of badly done voices. Who is that guy in the Prisons of the Maw stage? I want to shoot him... Other than that, there's really no complaining. All in all, what we have in Rogue Leader is a very solid effort on the part of Factor 5, but ultimately the game falls a little short in a couple of important aspects. What Rogue Leader really needed to do was provide truly engaging, and original gameplay. Had it actually been able to hook me with that "Just one more try..." addictiveness, the little problems like framerate and controls you occasionally have to wrestle with would have been completely outshined. As it stands, I only felt myself compelled to play the game on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately, for every stage like the wonderfully chaotic Battle of Endor or Razor Rendezvous, there's a snorefest like the Death Star or Imperial Academy stages. Kothlis, Bespin, and Endor have left me wondering how much better this game really could have been. OVERALL:9.0
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