Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – Review

Its difficult to go too far into the story of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith without giving away spoilers, so its probably best to skim the story and say that essentially, as you would expect of a Star Wars game the story is strong in the cutscenes; even if the actual gameplay does nothing to contribute, or alter it in any noticeable way. Revenge of the Sith is an odd game, Imagine you’ve bought a budget side-scrolling hack and slice game the ticket says 4.99, and you get to the counter and the ashier asks for 30.00: This, basically is Revenge of the Sith.

Gameplay
As you wade your way through a series of indistinguishable backdrops (all the while locked down to some special George Lucas tram-tracks to stop you exploring or enjoying yourself) you will learn through and irritating routine of button smashing that the basic gameplay of Episode III is based on a combo system allowing you to built your aerobatic skills to frenzied heights as you defy gravity leaping through the air and scything your lightsabre down on the skulls of your foes. At least I think that was the idea, in actuality you will push two buttons in order to make the main playable characters (Anakin “guess who” Skywalker and Obi “How many jedi does it take to change a lightbulb” Wan Kenobi) twirl around their luminous glow stick like a randy majorette trying to sleep with the captain of the football team, only to have a droid blast you in the back from outside the screen.

The entire fighting engine of RotS is badly, badly flawed, and you will find it almost impossible in a given situation to string together more than a few hits before having to begin the cumbersome blocking progress which involves completely stopping what you’re doing holding down L1 and twirling the R stick. There is also an auto-target system to keep you facing down whichever villain you are engaging and as long as neither any other dark forces, droids or another Jedi are on screen it works flawlessly, otherwise you find yourself lunging off, completing the longest combo you’ve ever managed into thin air while Darth Tyranus prattles on about “twice the fight, double the fall” on the opposite side of the room.

Aesthetics
Graphically RotS is fine, no serious complaints with the in game animation, don’t get me wrong it’s by no means the best, but it’s not the worst and stands up well against a few older PS2 games. The real problems come with the terribly compressed “real film” footage cut and pasted with computer animated sequences and characters to mould the film to the game without giving to much away. It’s supposed to be a sneak preview of the film from its creators but instead looks like a seedy video copy you bought from a guy in the pub whose mate works offshore.

Sound
No complaints with music, and sound quality, what did you expect? Come on, it’s Star Wars. Although I did find myself muting the television so that I didn’t have to listen to Obi Wan and Anakin’s incessant banter which grew tiresome after around 5 minutes of “more scrap metal” and various other Lucasian attempts at witty jibes. The deaf gamer should have few problems with this generic hack and slash though as just mentioned the incessant banter does actually include some instruction (Anakin shut down that gibbit!) but it’s doubltfull this will hinder the deaf gaming audience.

Girl Gamer Appeal
Revenge of the Sith’s appeal should really extend only to fans of Star Wars and kids who love those movie franchises, regardless of their gender, although it should be pointed out that there are about as many female characters as there are on a postage stamp so… the usual inequality.

Revenge of the Sith is just another movie license, poorly made, fired out with the widest scope for appeal, and no real consideration has been give to content, working assumedly on the idea that people will buy it because its Star Wars, and the sad thing is that they are right. However, if you are looking for a well thought out battle engine, in an intelligent story with various characters and a variety of differing locales and situations all neatly wrapped up in a big Star Wars box then I can only recommend you buy Knights of the Old Republic 2. Vote with your feet people: if we stop buying terrible movie spin off games, they’ll stop making them.

Review by Pete

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