By Elias Dounis on May 11th, 2005

If you’ve ever played the videogame versions of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect from The Collective’s Revenge of the Sith, however, I’m sorry to say that the gameplay found in Revenge of the Sith isn’t as enjoyable or as rewarding as either LotR games. Revenge of the Sith is nothing much more than a hack ’n slash that is based on learning button combos and leveling up a character’s ability and powers. The only real difference between this game and the Lord of the Rings games is that is adds some cool Jedi abilities and some light puzzle elements in an attempt to keep players entertained.

The Jedi abilities that I spoke of are none other than Force Powers. In the game players will be able to use their Force Powers to stun enemies, control the minds of Clone Troopers, use Force Lightning to shock enemies to death and blow up power conduits, and other maneuvers of the sort. These powers, of course, use energy from a meter that is located above a player’s health. By far, the most useful Force Power, aside from the ability to heal yourself, is that which allows you grab enemies and objects and toss them. Intelligent players will learn to toss explosive objects towards enemies to kill them, and it’s really cool to be able to do something of the sort. Another cool Force Power is the ability to deflect an enemy’s blaster fire and send it back to them, however, it isn’t always too useful since it drains each character’s force energy quickly. It’s only useful during key enemy and boss encounters that require deflecting laser blasts to destroy them.

The core gameplay of the game is very enjoyable for something that’s repetitive and quite simple in approach. If linear action games are your cup of tea, then you’ll find much to like about Revenge of the Sith’s gameplay. It’s to-the-point, always throwing a number of enemies at players and the puzzle elements involved usually don’t involve much more than slashing power conduits, cutting through doors using a lightsaber, or moving something that’s blocking your path using force powers. The actual fighting is nothing too complicated. It requires pressing buttons in combos to execute some killer lightsaber attacks, all of which have been motion captured (Anakin’s done by Hayden Christensen himself). You have your quick attacks, heavy attacks, and critical hits. Unfortunately for those who often think a trait such as the following is a bad thing, Revenge of the Sith can be considered a button masher, and I won’t lie -- I found myself mashing buttons far too often. I often had only a simple strategy in mind, and that consisted of blocking an opponent’s attack and waiting for an opening to unleash my own, using Force Heal whenever I needed it to regain some health.

It becomes evident from early on that lightsaber battles with other lightsaber-wielding opponents is the most enjoyable gameplay feature of Revenge of the Sith It’s just extremely rewarding as a Star Wars fan to battle against Count Dooku or Mace Windu in a videogame version of a lightsaber battle that flows almost as smooth as its silver screen counterpart. I love how two opponents clash lightsabers, almost locking them together, as they use their strength to overpower their opponent (which is done by tapping buttons rapidly).

At times, these lightsaber battles can be a real pain in the ass. Out of all of the action sequences found in the game, lightsaber boss battles are the most difficult. They often move from room to room and are incredibly lengthy compared to boss battles found in most linear action games. Unfortunately, the game’s AI can be manipulated easily, and that takes away from boss battles a bit. I’ve seen opponents get stuck in corners and by doing so giving me time to regain some health. It’s a bug in the game that I’m sure many players will take advantage of like I have.

The interesting thing is that the game’s AI is crap in general. Whenever you’re accompanied by a lightsaber-wielding partner in the game, they’re not going to make or break your chances of completing a stage, since they only attack a handful of enemies. Also, even if your partner is closer to a group of enemies than you are, they’re likely to come after you, completely ignoring your partner.

The game’s difficulty isn’t something it should be proud of because the game is way too easy on the Normal difficult setting for even casual gamers it seems. The only times things seem to become difficult is when players are tossed in frustrating encounters against a large number of enemies. That is the point in which players become overwhelmed. It is also the point in which players realize that game has some gameplay flaws. For example, the attack system begins to feel broken once you realize that you cannot cancel attack chains.

Revenge of the Sith’s biggest flaw is that the game is no longer than the actual film itself. This no exaggeration folks, I found myself completing the game in under three hours, and I can say that I’m quite

In a further attempt to lengthen the lasting appeal of Revenge of the Sith, the game also includes some multiplayer gameplay modes such as co-op missions and a versus mode that allows players to duel with another lightsaber-wielding friend (or enemy). Not to be fooled, the cooperative segment is not the entire game played, but four missions from the game played out from a different perspective of sorts. It’s entertaining to say the least, since it’s not too often that multiplayer modes aren’t enjoyable, but it’s not much different than the bonus mission I mentioned previously, in which players simply hack their way through hordes of enemies.

The Versus mode is clearly the more enjoyable of the two multiplayer modes, and could even be a very rewarding experience. Basically, it pits two players against one another in a typical 3D fighting game fashion, with lightsabers in hand. Now, if players were to get into this mode, they will discover that Revenge of the Sith doesn’t necessarily have to be considered a button masher when there’s an incentive to learn its attack combos.

Personally, I would’ve liked if The Collective expanded on this Versus mode by including tournament modes and things of the sort. It would’ve made Revenge of the Sith feel like two games in one and would’ve definitely offered something that many gamers and Star Wars fans would appreciate. However, all it does is make me wonder what a new Star Wars-based fighter could possibly end up like.

As a Star Wars fanatic, I’m a bit disappointed by the storytelling aspect of the videogame version of "Revenge of the Sith." Since the game is based off the film, I was quite excited to see more footage from the movie in high quality video. However, it seems that The Collective has taken the liberty to change the story of the film quite a bit, and unfortunately it is for the worse. For instance, Anakin’s motives for turning to the Dark Side in the game are not the same as his motives for doing so in the film. Additionally, a key character in the film, Padme Amidala, is nowhere to be seen in the game. Also, the game has taken the liberty of changing the events of some key fight scenes found in the film and adding a few new ones too. Few may be relieved to hear this since it doesn’t spoil the film too much, but for a fan like myself who knows the events of the films very well, it can only be disappointing.

Another thing that some may consider to be trivial, that I found to be disappointing, is the fact that this game incarnation of "Revenge of the Sith" does not feature the soundtrack of the film. It mostly recycles music from past films. Of course, it’s hard not to like any of John William’s musical scores, but the score for the latest Star Wars film fits the mood of the game and film so perfectly that listening to anything else, even other Star Wars music, feels somewhat out of place.

Fans of the "Clone Wars" mini-series should find it interesting to learn that the voice actors of the cartoon mini-series have reprised their roles as their respective characters for the videogame version of "Revenge of the Sith." Anyone who has seen the mini-series can tell you that these voice actors are the next best thing to the actual actors who play the roles of Anakin, Obi-Wan and the rest of the film’s characters. Though, I’m sure that many folks will be annoyed by Anakin’s voice. The voice actor sounds even more irritating than Hayden Christensen at times.

Revenge of the Sith’s visuals aren’t the best around but the game has its visual strengths. For example, the facial animations and detail put into playable characters such as Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu, etc. is outstanding and wholly convincing. The game’s environments are also nicely detailed,

The Collective’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is not a terrible game by any means. The game has, by far, the most impressive lightsaber action seen in any Star Wars game to date, but I see no reason to ever wanting to purchase the game due to the length of its main single-player adventure. No amount of multiplayer modes can make up for the brevity of the game’s story mode. Well, at least not the multiplayer modes Revenge of the Sith has to offer. In addition, I just can’t help but feel let down by the game’s storytelling elements. It may have some good quality footage from the film, but the plot of the film has been butchered with this videogame version of "Revenge of the Sith." Of course, Star Wars are sure to find much to like about the game. It’s not rare that Star Wars fans don’t find something to like in even the worst of Star Wars-branded videogames.