Overall, believe what you have seen in screenshots. For the most part, what you have seen is what you are going to get. But with such clean visuals, it just makes some of the flaws stand out. There are a few graphical glitches in the game that I believe could have been eliminated with more time. An example is in the training stage on Tatooine. In one section of the level, the ground polygons tear at the seams. It’s something that I haven’t seen since earlier PlayStation games and was a bit shocking to see. Another example is the shadowing on the Rebel transport ships and on the heads of the AT-ATs. Here you will see the shadows break up and kind of wobble as they are being applied to the bottom. However, these tend to be rare and rather infrequent, but they are consistent in that you will always see them in that specific scenario. Other small things that you may notice is the weak explosions of large ships. Sure the explosion looks fine, but what happened to the ship? You pretty much see the ship, then it disappears for the explosion and then it’s nowhere to be seen. Not even debris.

A bigger problem on the visual side is the framerate. A lot of the time the game is running at 60 fps. But depending on the level, there can be considerable slowdown. Sometimes it is expected, and sometimes you have to wonder why it is there. A lot of the times it deals with making a sharp and sudden turn or shooting down something and it exploding. Another area with framerate issues is the cinema cut-scenes. A few are at 60, a few are at 30, and several are at sub 30; it is almost like it is at 24 fps to try and match film. It looks really bad at times in the Hoth sequence. Why there is a discrepancy in the cinemas are beyond me though. It almost seems like they were trying to get them at 60, and worked on optimizing a few of them to that point, and then ran out of time trying to do it. It is in my opinion that another month of polishing could have cleaned up almost, if not all of these issues. Fortunately, the framerate never ends up hurting the gameplay and just ends up being disappointing to see, when at times, you are playing with such amazing visuals while maintaining at 60 fps framerate. That being said, most of the time, the graphics are simply drop dead gorgeous and amazing. Huge capital ships have an extreme amount of detail and often the game approaches looking like the movie. This is aided by the cinemas replicating the camera shots and movement of the ships. Other nice touches are the lighting from laser blasts, the sheer number of objects on screen at once in huge space battles or an asteroid field, reflections and transparency in water, and even the landscaping in some of the missions which makes the land look like it’s lush with plant life and foliage.

Unfortunately, I did not have access to a Dolby Pro Logic II setup to fully test the audio feature. As a result, I was stuck with simply Dolby Pro Logic. That’s not a bad thing though as Factor 5 has done an excellent job of creating positional sound within the limits of Dolby Pro Logic. Included in the game is a mode that will fly a TIE Fighter around you so you can position and test your speakers. The effect is really nice, and is equally reflected during the game. In the game, you’ll hear all the familiar sound effects and music that you would expect out of the Star Wars universe. On top of that, quite a bit of vocal dialog that often is straight out of the movie. Factor 5 even got the real Wedge Antilles, Denis Lawson, to do his voice in the game.

Despite all the positive things to say about the audio, there is one small issue I had with the music. When you play levels that were straight out of the movie, they play the same music used during that scene in the movie. But when you play other missions, you will be listening to newly composed music. Now while it sounds like it should fit in the Star Wars universe, there is a discrepancy on how it sounds. You may not catch it at first, but it becomes apparent when you beat the game and the credits scroll by. Music that was composed by John Williams sounds like a full orchestra recorded the music. Music composed in the game sounds a bit more synthetic than a real orchestra and thus you have a bit of a contrast to how the music sounds. It’s a small gripe, but I wish they didn’t sound as different as they do. Mind you, I’m not complaining about the composition, just how they were performed and recorded.

But enough of the technical stuff, let’s get into the heart of the game. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the game spans through the original trilogy. It starts you out at the climatic final attack on the Death Star near the moon of Yavin in Episode 4 and takes you through to the Battle of Endor as you attack the newly reconstructed second Death Star. Along the way, you will play through missions that lead up to various moments in the movie. For example, after the Battle at Yavin, you lead your convoy as you are heading towards Hoth to set up your base. Another mission has you stealing the Shuttle Tyderium that was used by Han, Luke and the gang that let them sneak onto the planet of Endor. Having missions like these help feel that the game has a consistent flow rather than putting missions in between the ones everyone has been wanting to play since they were a kid. There are a total of eleven main missions and a number of extra missions that you can unlock. This unfortunately means the game is relatively short the first time through. Beating the game can be achieved with just a few hours of play. That doesn’t mean all the missions are easy, as some will take you several tries to complete. The attack on the Star Destroyer was certainly no picnic.

A cool touch is how the wingmen are implemented. They simply aren’t there for show and actually do help you a bit. While you should be doing the bulk of the work, you definitely will see them chase down TIEs if you tell them to. For proof of this, say you are down to two TIEs left and you tell your wingmen to go after them. Simply sit there and do nothing and there is a good chance you’ll hear them take out the last two and you will advance on. Wingmen will also come into play if you have a TIE on your tail and you call them into formation. Since we’re on the topic of AI, the Imperials often will get on your tail and you will have to shake them or as mentioned, have your wingmen take care of them. It certainly isn’t always easy to shake them off either. Factor 5 has included a camera that pans out to show that you are being tailed and will stay that way until you shake them. The only problem is sometimes it is a bit disorientating when you do shake them off and it zooms back in suddenly. Sometimes it stays zoomed out for a little while before it zooms in as well.. If you don’t like this, it is merely and option in the settings and you can turn it off.

The gameplay isn’t perfect unfortunately. The control seems a bit too sensitive and in some cases because of the restricted view makes the cockpit view not the optimal choice to play in. The control isn’t bad, but one would have a good argument to say that Star Wars Starfighter has better controls. In addition to that, the radar isn’t as intuitive as most space combat shooters are. The key problem is the radar is set up more for 2D plane rather than 3D space. You can easily find the direction you may need to head, but judging if you should be going up or down isn’t so easy at a glance. On the radar, they show the height of an object by a line coming out from the blip. However, because the radar is so small and cluttered it becomes problematic. It takes a little getting used to, but that could have been avoided by having a better radar system to begin with.

As mentioned earlier, the game is short and is easily beatable the same day you get it. Factor 5 has included a medal system to add replayability to the game. Depending on how long took to beat the mission, how many enemies you destroyed, how accurate your shooting was, how many Rebels on your side died, how many lives you lost and how often you used your targeting computer will determine what kind of medal you earn. Upon earning a medal, you will gain points which in turn can be spent on opening up to five bonus levels up. Also, after gaining a specific number of medals, new features and ships will be unlocked. Medals have different point values: bronze is three points, silver is six points, and gold is ten points. If you earn a higher medal on a level you have already earned a medal on, you will only gain the difference in points. In other words, a total of ten points is the maximum you can earn per level. To help you earn higher medals, a technical power up has been placed hidden somewhere on each level. These upgrades will give you things such as more powerful weapons and better shields which in turn make some of the tasks easier and faster to accomplish. I have never been a fan of the medal system as a form of replayability, especially when a game is short. However, for some reason it does not seem to bother me in Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II. The levels are still fun to me even after beating all of them several times now. But be warned, if you aren’t a fan of this type of replayability, this may not be the game for you.

There are a few minor things that I wanted to mentioned that bothered me a bit, but really have no real effect on the game itself. The first is seen when you take on the AT-ATs. As you use your tow cable to trip up the walkers, right before the AT-AT falls, the rope pretty much slips off and slides down. It wouldn’t make sense for the AT-AT to fall over if the rope has more or less fallen off. Another small annoyance is the radar on the Millenium Falcon. Why does it constantly spin? It never did that in the movie and it’s not supposed to do it. It kind of makes the Falcon look silly. Finally the last three things that stood out take place at the Battle of Endor. If you don’t want any spoilers, skip to the next paragraph. The first thing is while you see the Super Star Destroyer in the background, that’s all you ever get to see of it. It would have been nice to at least see it crash into the second Death Star like in the movie, but it would have been even cooler to have to take it out. Also there doesn’t appear to be enough NPC rebel fighters out there. Sure there are a few, but there aren’t very many which doesn’t convey the feel of the Battle of Endor fairly well. Don’t get me wrong, the number of TIEs and the chaos out there is certainly as expected, but I just wish you would see more Rebels out there. Finally, the second Death Star only fires once and that is during the cinema. It would have been much cooler if it fired every now and then and took out a ship while you’re fighting. Again these are minor things that I wish were improved but don’t hurt the game in any significant way.

Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II is certainly a breath of fresh air for those who don’t like the new trilogy design and prefer the original trilogy. It is also a great title that shows off what the GameCube is capable of. Other than it being short and containing a few minor problems, it’s an excellent launch title that is extremely fun to play. It is my firm belief that with another month of optimization, most of the graphical issues would be a thing of the past and hardly is a reflection on the capabilities of the system. Despite the short length of the game, being the huge Star Wars fan I am keeps the game highly entertaining and enjoyable to me. Being able to relive some of the key moments from the original trilogy is a blast and represented faithful both visually and in gameplay. If you are not a Star Wars fan (or somehow have never seen the movies), or worried about the length of the game, you may want to rent it first. Otherwise, you should know by now whether you want it or not.

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