Star Wars: Empire At War Member Review for the PC

Star Wars: Empire At War is no doubt the best Star Wars RTS, but it's the best for what it can do right.

First off, it includes most, if not all the main planets in the movies and in the Expanded Universe, this goes a long way to please Star Wars fans since it makes the galaxy seem that much bigger. The game provides a good interface to manage your production of ground and space units but the only problem with it is that you can only move 1 unit at a time when organizing fleets.

The graphics are excellent for it's time with little frame rate drops and it's smooth overall. the ships have all the little details one may expect and the explosions in space battles are simply amazing. The land textures are a bit bland but the land vehicles and the troops so look pretty good themselves but not up to the quality of the ships. (This is all on the high setting for the graphics).

Since it's Star Wars, the sound is nothing short of excellence. The music is done by John Williams and it's always a high point, the lasers and the explosions are spot on and the overall sound effects are what fans should expect. The voice overs are good but don't seem as high quality as the sound effects or music.

The gameplay has it's ups and downs, mainly the space and land based battles. The Space battles are the highlight of the game and features depth and strategic thinking. To see it in action is just jaw dropping, to be able to replay famous space battles and to see two great forces clash together. The land battles are not as fun, they just don't feel as exciting and for me, it's hard to describe why. The space battles feel more . . . natural, like they truely belong while the land battles feel a bit unfinished.

Overall, this is a great Star Wars game with amazing sound and graphics. The land battles may not be up to par with the Space Battles but to just play the Space Battles makes it all worth it.