The Official Rebel Strike Thread

[OB1]

Hands-on impressions from IGN:

May 14, 2003 - We've just driven up to publisher LucasArts' San Rafael-based hideaway to see the Factor 5-developed Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Three editors intently huddle around producer Brett Tosti's in-office television screen in anticipation of what's to come. We're genuinely thrilled because first we're all die-hard Star Wars fans, and second -- perhaps just as important, we know that if any software house can dazzle the cynics in us, it's the technically boundless Germans at Factor 5. Maybe we know what to expect, but it's still hard not to be impressed when Tosti flips through a debug menu and cues a wholly transformed Hoth level complete with more TIEs than could have ever been drawn on one screen in last year's GameCube shooter of the same franchise.
This is Rebel Strike, the latest in LucasArts' videogame voyages back to the holy trilogy of Star Wars films. No Jar Jar Binks here. You won't see any pod races either. And the only Darth Vader to be found is the one decked in black and gunning for your Rebel ass. For fans, it doesn't get much better.

Factor 5 seems to know what the masses want. The company has this time saturated its Rogue Squadron game with characters, scenarios and locales familiar to trilogy worshippers. Not only that, but in contrast to last year's effort, Rebel Strike features missions that take place in the cockpit and -- yes, like Shadows of the Empire, in third-person as one of the classic characters from the SW universe. You can, in fact, fly the X-Wing one minute, hop on a speeder bike the next, take control of an AT-ST afterward and then go it on foot. It's an ambitious leap forward and one that could propel the franchise to new heights.

The wizards at F5 weren't content with having one of the best 3D engines on GameCube -- by far, in Rogue Squadron II. With Rebel Strike, the developer wanted bigger environments, more enemies on screen, more effects, more particles, and all with an improved framerate. Sounds almost laughable, but somehow the developer seems to have pulled it off. One look at the forestry in Endor, complete with Ewoks, AT-STs, and a barrage of effects from bump-mapped everything from flowing foliage and shadows that move across the land, and your jaw will drop like it did when you saw the Death Star sequence in Rogue II for the first time. The GameCube is definitely working overtime with this one, no doubt.

Engine in tact, F5 gathered its assets. It pondered what scenarios it hadn't already tackled and considered the possibilities. Endor: check. What about if Luke could run around on Hoth and maybe attack the AT-ATs with his light saber -- cut it open and throw a thermal detonator in its hull? Check. How about being able to ride Tauntauns around the level? No problem. Could he go to Yavin and defend the moon? Yep. Could he go to Geonosis 40 years after the events in Episode II? Uh-huh. Well, if all that's in the game, what about being able to rescue Princess Leia? Yup. Play as Wedge? You bet. Hang out with Han and Chewie? Better believe it. Battle 110 TIEs at the same time? Of course. It's all in there.

The flight missions control and play almost exactly as they did in the last game, except with added intensity. This, because the engine now spits out quite a bit more enemies on screen. Download a couple of our Hoth videos and be prepared to be amazed. There are so many of those suckers flying around that it's hard to stay focused on the matter at hand. Several of the levels demoed to us center on flight scenarios, from soaring through an asteroid field -- now with more deadly rocks than ever before -- to dog fighting over the ground and in the skies of Hoth. The snow level is particularly interesting because F5 has created two height maps for the area so that a cloud layer hangs in the sky and if you fly through it, a second-tier map is quickly generated and all of a sudden there are seemingly hundreds of TIEs zooming around above the clouds. If you fly back down into it, the ground level is generated again and all of the land objects are seamlessly loaded -- it's a nearly unnoticeable transition and it's very well done.

Then there are the ground missions. One of our favorites so far pits you in the cockpit of an AT-ST as Han and Chewie and gives you nearly full reign over the forests of Endor. You can battle other AT-STs, shoot down storm troopers, and even give Ewoks simple instructions to back you up or retreat. The level of course looks astonishing and control feels very similar to the scheme for flights. Factor 5 has made a conscious decision the keep the controls simplistic and unvaried between different play scenarios, be they in the air or on the ground. This is a direction that may not be without drawbacks. The control in our experience thus far seems almost too shallow for some of the character-based third-person missions. As Luke runs through some Imperial structures and blasts enemies, for instance, it's almost like a game of Robotron -- lots of quick-trigger shooting and not much else. Just hit the A button to blast over and over again. A lock-on target system is being worked on, but it wasn't nearly useable in the rev we played. By comparison, the flight areas and land missions feel far more refined. And yet, flight missions don't put you in Luke's shoes as he runs across the illuminated, reflective floors of an Imperial ship with AI counterparts like Chewie backing him up. It's too cool.
We'd be remiss if we didn't detail more of the speeder bike sequence. Here Luke takes control of the craft and zooms at top speeds through the forest, all the while battling troopers and avoiding obstacles. You can switch between third- and first-person view, the latter of which comes complete with hand models that feature Luke's one-glove look from Return of the Jedi. (Factor 5 has modeled some 10 different versions of Skywalker that illustrate his many changes from whiny boy to full-blown Jedi.) Press a button and the speeder gains a momentary thrust of speed, an effect made all the more realistic by a well-placed motion blur filter. The scene is pretty intense and though it sometimes feels a bit more "on-rails" than we might like, there are also times when we find ourselves totally caught in its grip, too. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction gained after successfully bumping a trooper into a tree to watch his bike explode, right? Come on. You love it.

To top everything off, F5 has included Rogue Squadron II in the game as a multiplayer bonus. Yes, the entire Rogue II. You can play the game in two-player cooperative mode. It's pretty ridiculous. You can actually team up with a friend and fight your way through the entire game, from the Death Star to Bespin and beyond. Factor 5's new engine spits out the split-screen two-player mode, brand new advanced lighting engine and all, with a respectable framerate -- it still slows down, it still chugs here and there, but considering that it still runs nearly as well as the single-player modes in the first game, we're still amazed. Plus, producer Brett Tosti claims that the fluidity will be bumped up considerably before the title's ship date this holiday season. The title will also boast a variety of four-player death-match missions -- all new, which will surely be a major draw for SW fanatics hoping to beat up on their friends.

The graphics engine is amazing all over again. From the intricately detailed 3D models to the wonderfully animated machines, enhanced lighting and particle effects systems, and more, it's one stunning package. Lasers light up the cockpit and the surrounding area and volumetric smoke wisps over the forest while snow storms haze over the low ground in Hoth. There are reflections, transparencies, and some very crisp textures to boot. If there is to be a visual complaint, it's that so far some of the characters seem to lack the same realistic level of animation that saturates the machines and animals in the game. Skywalker, for instance, has a robotic walk about him that definitely needs fixing up. Rebel Strike is definitely one of the hot titles -- period -- of the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2003. We'll have much more on the title in the coming weeks, but in the meantime we suggest that you head into our media section and download the media. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these movies are worth a million.

Incredible!