lhandren's Full Review: Shadow Of Destiny for Windows
I really enjoy playing this game, I'm a big Star Wars fan. In fact, I'm able to wile away hours at this game blowing up Rebellion scum and driving the wookies before my AT-AT walkers! But then, I can also spend hours playing Age of Empires II, which is the core game engine for Galactic Battlegrounds. The similarity between the games is so close that anyone familiar with one can nearly instantly play the other at the same level of ability as the other game. In fact, many times it feels like it is AoEII with Star Wars graphics pasted in. Somewhat disappointing, but I guess you can argue "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Some of the interface has been tweaked, including new controls for the mini-map and troop formation commands.
In Galactic Battlegrounds, you take command of either the Empire, Rebellion, Wookies, Naboo Trade Federation, or the Gungans. You build armies and command posts while harvesting various minerals to aid in your construction efforts. You can play in preset Campaign games where you strive to reach certain goals with a limited set of resources. You an also set the game in a "generic" mode where you simply wage war on another race (or races) with the full resources of your chosen army at your disposal. Lastly, you can engage in all out war with human opponents. Nothing like seeing your enemy's army of jedi fall beneath a saturation bombing from your TIE Bomber fleet! In the Campaign games (or in Custom Levels that you can design), you can use iconic characters from the Star Wars genre, such as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul and others. Their effect on the battlefield is really limited, but watching Darth Vader wade into a platoon of Rebel troops is sheer childish delight.
Like AoEII, each race is basically the same. Each has a different bonus here or flaw here, but overall they are not that different. Their equipment matches up to equipment of other races, it simply has a different graphic. Come up with one tactic, it will generally work no matter which race you use. That is disappointing, but it does ensure game balance. You can't really call one side or the other the "best", they are all identical. Personally, I get tired of trying to manage resources, and Galactic Battlegrounds doesn't help that any. In fact, you have numerous resources that you have to keep up with. Oh for the days of Starcraft! I can handle two resources, but more than that and you spend more time cutting things down or digging something up than waging war. I don't want an economics simulator, I have a degree in economics, I want a war game!
I have sadly found the game to be very unstable. Alas, none of the patches to date have fixed the problems, and I've tried them on several very distinctly different computer system all to the same results. I find the game crashes a lot during big battles. Seems like 30 storm troopers firing at once is a little much for the game to handle. Now this is nothing new, the AoEII engine was atrocious when first released, however it was patched into a stable program. Too bad no one thought to fix the exact same problems in this game. Also, I cannot get multi-player to work. After four or five minutes of connection, the games loose sync and lock up. I've tried on several machines, it just isn't stable. I'm an IT professional, I have been for 7 years, it's not that I don't know what I'm doing. The software is bugged and I hope that a patch comes out for it soon!
Overall it is a fun game. If you liked AoEII, you will enjoy this as well, but you'll probably feel like the games are too similar and be disappointed in "buying it twice" so to speak. When it runs, it is great and it doesn't lock up all the time. I recommend saving often and checking for patches as often as you can. A lot of potential, but it isn't there yet.
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