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[lowlylowlycook]

There have been many games based on Star Wars over the years. Some like Tie Fighter and Jedi Knight have been instant classics while others like Galaxies have been even bigger disappointments. One of the less known PC games was Rebellion.

Rebellion puts you in command of either the Empire or the Rebellion just after the Death Star is destroyed at Yavin. It is up to you to marshal you forces to bring peace to the Galaxy one way or the other. More specifically you'll need to capture the leaders of the opposing side and either capture or destroy their capitol. To do so you can use starships, legions of troopers, units of special forces or heroes.

All this action takes place on map of the Galaxy. Depending on you decision there are up to 6 in the heavily populated and well know core sectors and many more in the outer rim. Each of these sectors has 10 planets to fight over. Each planet can add to your economy, either by producing raw materials or by turning out combat units or both. You can defend them with ground based facilities like the shield and ion cannon deployed on Hoth in Ep V, fighter squadrons or even a fleet of starships much bigger than any seen in the movies. If two opposing fleets are in orbit over the same planet then combat will ensue. This is done in 3D and real time. You have to chose to fight or to run. If your attacking fleet is victorious then you have more options. You can bombard the surface or send in troops to clear out the enemy. Depending on how much the populous of that planet support your cause you might need to have extra troops to garrison the planet so don't lose too many in head on assaults.

All of that seem like a pretty ordinary sci-fi strategy game even if the ability to "concentrate all firepower on that super star destroyer" and the familiar Star Wars music add a lot. But what makes Rebellion unique is the use of heroes to help your cause. These are individuals from the powerful and well know Lord Vader and his children to more obscure characters like Mazer Rackus. These guys have a lot of uses: they can lead either space or ground forces, they can go on diplomatic missions to bring planets to your side, they can sabotage the opposing forces or installations and they can try to capture or assassinate your enemies heroes. For instance you could have Han Solo leading a party on board a Star Destroyer in order to disable it while Leia is off on a nearby planet convincing them to join the Rebellion. A few heroes have special abilities to either research new units or to recruit new heroes. Parts of the plot from the movies have been added as well. At some point Luke must travel to Degobah, occasional bounty hunters will bother Han and if Vader and Luke meet then they will confront each other.

The fact that each side has a different set of heroes and each hero is better at some tasks than others makes each side unique. For instance, Empire heroes tend to have high leadership scores and get a bonus to leadership as long as the Emperor is at Coruscent. This tends to make the Empire side better at wining large battles while the Rebellion's heroes tend to be better at espionage and sabotage. In addition the spaceships each side can build and the ability of the Rebellion to move it's capitol also differentiate the sides.

All of this leads to a very deep and engrossing game that really should be better known. However there are some parts of the game that hold it back. First is the interface. There are a lot of windows that you have to shuffle around and they always seem to get in the way of each other. Worse some of them force you to close them to use any other part of the interface. Some way should have been found to simplify matters. Secondly, some parts of the game are not balanced very well. In particular, using sabotage missions to destroy the troops of a planet that is only under enemy control due to that garrison is often all too easy.
What's more, the propaganda boost you get from such a victory can bring an entire sector to your side very easy. Finally it would be hard to imagine a AI player that could handle such a complicated game with so many options and strategies to employ and indeed the AI is too much of a push over not really using whatever advantages it's side possesses and can easily be beaten on the hardest difficulty setting.

All in all I give it a 3.5/5 for being great but tragically flawed.

[Marciano155]

Hello, i like a lot that game and had played in all the ways posibles hehehe (like more the dark side). I think that the game deserv a higth rank, cause only for the music I give a bigest valoration. The only thinks that made this a regular game is the abscent of artificial inteligence

[Jaynus]

Good review. It's been forever since I played this game, although I'm pretty sure it's still around here somewhere. The A.I. seemed pretty good to me back then, but then again I was 10 :bleh:

[sev7en]

Nice review, well done k: I agree with the final score. I played this game alot and now I'd like to give it a "second season" but I would like to try it into Italian: as far as I know there is a localized version of Italian market but I haven't find it yet :tai:

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For those want try the Rebellion :brain: I suggest to look at the Official Website: there are many information, tips, tricks and patches to make it better.

[faeornran]

High five. This rank is perfectly appropriate as Rebellion is a fun game though like you said is tragically flawed.

[sev7en]

Finally I found the Italian version! I bought it for just 15 euro!!!

[Tiberius]

This game definitely had it's share of problems, but hey any game that let's you command the Imperial Empire is a great game in my book. I might have to give it a "second season" of sorts myself.

[Burger Meister]

It isn't a bad game at all, play a 1v1 with your buddy that knows how to play and it'll be a fun match. Yeah, stardestroyers in a huge battle crushing all the rebels... I love it!

[guesst]

I like the game, but because it combines strategy and action based fight sequences, like my favorate game of all time, Star Control 1.

One small correction to the review, fights above the planet do not take place in 3D. The graphics are 3D, (who's aren't nowadays) but the gameplay is decidedly 2D. A 3D RTS would look like homeworld, which was cool and whatnot, but unpopular owning to the challenge of wrapping your head around it.