I loved Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II - Rogue Leader when it came out for the GameCube, and must have worn out at least one controller from playing it. The solid graphics, great Dolby Sound and great level design made it an experience that throroughly breathed the Star Wars atmosphere, even in the levels that didn't play out scenes from the films. Now I heared some complaints that people didn't like the mission objectives, and the fact that they didn't get as much freedom to move around as compared to Rogue Squadron, but since I never played that game, that was not an issue for me.
I do, however, have this problem with Rebel Strike. The first mission is a spectacular escape from Yavin IV as the Empire attacks the Rebel base. It looks great, with Tie Fighters all over the sky, but the mission is limited to simply protecting some ships and disabling selected targets. If you try to engage the TIEs, you are immediately told not to focus on the fighters and leave that to others. Really disappointing, considering that those who played Rogue Squadron destroyed two Death Stars, and should be given something more than a menial job in the sequel. Or at least the freedom to choose how you tackle your mission.
The rest of the missions are a bit better. We again see missions based on scenes from the movie trilogy, and we are happy to play an active role in them. The missions where you command an Imperial Walker are some of the best parts of the game, and all missions featuring an X-Wing or other fighter are pretty good as well. However, they are in sharp contrast to a lot of the other missions where they try to force some variation. They needed to conceive of a story and settings to tie all the missions together, but they didn't do a very good job to make it feel naturalistic. Some missions get dangerously close to fan pleasing. A race with speeder bikes on a planet with canyons that are continuously struck by lightning: looks spectacular but it feels out of place, and it makes no sense: this is an open space, not a dense forest, so it could just as easily been done in a fighter. The same goes for a incidental crash-landing on Geonosis so that you get to fight Battle Droids and use seismic charges. As if the guys at design did a brainstorm session and continuously said "Let's do this because it's cool!' without wondering if it actually makes any sense.
Much has been said about the decision to feature walking missions where you navigate the Death Stars interiors, the frozen surface of Hoth and many other places. These are arguably the biggest disappointments in the game because they simply don't work. You get to run around, but it is in third-person mode and with auto-aim, so its mostly button-bashing while you are walking from cutscene to cutscene. Had this been in first-person mode or actually require some skill (like aiming or seeking cover), it could have been fun, but now they feel like filler material just for the sake of featuring scenes from the trilogy. The training mission with Yoda should have been a tutorial level: frustrating platform jumping action, no fun challenge whatsoever. And the storyline even manages to badly cram in a subplot involving a traiterous Rebel who decides to turn up at the end as Han is trying to blow up the Death Star's shield generator. They tried too desperately to tell a story-within-a-story, but it doesn't quite fit. Really too bad that they had to resort to this kind of forced storytelling, since the storyline of Rogue Squadron felt so intricately but subtly weaved through the existing saga without disrupting the overall story.
Nice graphics, some good missions, but sadly the story and gameplay would have deserved some more effort, making this game feel like a Death Star with an obvious design flaw, making it too easy to shoot down.
I do, however, have this problem with Rebel Strike. The first mission is a spectacular escape from Yavin IV as the Empire attacks the Rebel base. It looks great, with Tie Fighters all over the sky, but the mission is limited to simply protecting some ships and disabling selected targets. If you try to engage the TIEs, you are immediately told not to focus on the fighters and leave that to others. Really disappointing, considering that those who played Rogue Squadron destroyed two Death Stars, and should be given something more than a menial job in the sequel. Or at least the freedom to choose how you tackle your mission.
The rest of the missions are a bit better. We again see missions based on scenes from the movie trilogy, and we are happy to play an active role in them. The missions where you command an Imperial Walker are some of the best parts of the game, and all missions featuring an X-Wing or other fighter are pretty good as well. However, they are in sharp contrast to a lot of the other missions where they try to force some variation. They needed to conceive of a story and settings to tie all the missions together, but they didn't do a very good job to make it feel naturalistic. Some missions get dangerously close to fan pleasing. A race with speeder bikes on a planet with canyons that are continuously struck by lightning: looks spectacular but it feels out of place, and it makes no sense: this is an open space, not a dense forest, so it could just as easily been done in a fighter. The same goes for a incidental crash-landing on Geonosis so that you get to fight Battle Droids and use seismic charges. As if the guys at design did a brainstorm session and continuously said "Let's do this because it's cool!' without wondering if it actually makes any sense.
Much has been said about the decision to feature walking missions where you navigate the Death Stars interiors, the frozen surface of Hoth and many other places. These are arguably the biggest disappointments in the game because they simply don't work. You get to run around, but it is in third-person mode and with auto-aim, so its mostly button-bashing while you are walking from cutscene to cutscene. Had this been in first-person mode or actually require some skill (like aiming or seeking cover), it could have been fun, but now they feel like filler material just for the sake of featuring scenes from the trilogy. The training mission with Yoda should have been a tutorial level: frustrating platform jumping action, no fun challenge whatsoever. And the storyline even manages to badly cram in a subplot involving a traiterous Rebel who decides to turn up at the end as Han is trying to blow up the Death Star's shield generator. They tried too desperately to tell a story-within-a-story, but it doesn't quite fit. Really too bad that they had to resort to this kind of forced storytelling, since the storyline of Rogue Squadron felt so intricately but subtly weaved through the existing saga without disrupting the overall story.
Nice graphics, some good missions, but sadly the story and gameplay would have deserved some more effort, making this game feel like a Death Star with an obvious design flaw, making it too easy to shoot down.