Star Wars Empire at War demo released

So did anyone get the full version of this game yet? My friend got it and I have enjoyed mooching off of him for my SW RPG fix.
 
Not yet. I really enjoyed the demo, So it's quite likely that I'll pick it up. My tax refund is slowly disappearing.
 
I liked the space parts a lot. They really LOOK and feel like SW (The good SW, not the bad new stuff). The land parts are ok, nothing to write home about.
 
Edfilho said:
I liked the space parts a lot. They really LOOK and feel like SW (The good SW, not the bad new stuff). The land parts are ok, nothing to write home about.
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Hey let's not turn this into a prequel vs original trilogy discussion. ;)

But I agree about the space battles being the highlight of the game. I usually just auto-resolve the ground battles 'cause I find them kind of boring. But I love building up fleets and moving them around to wreak havoc.
 
yeah, the cinematic camera is really sweet. Even though it is useless. Everything just looks right in this game. And I bet that the X-Wing models have more polygons than the Space Sim ones.
 
I got the demo and was really unimpressed. The land and space maps are exactly similar - swapping out trees and land masses for nebulas and asteroids. Yeah, they use the same engine and all that - but it doesn't make any sense to me to be playing a space RTS thats two-dimensional (provided its a game made in the here and now)
 
Lt.Death100 said:
Homeworld 2 used 3 dimensions. Never really much use except in multiplayer games though.
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Bullshit. I've played scenarios against a couple AI enemies and have had scenarios take weeks sometimes. The AI in Homeworld 2 is as cheap as they come. You'll wonder how an enemy is still producing capital ships after destroying their mothership, three shipyards and a dozen carriers only to find that they have *another* two shipyards at odd positions on the map. Its like the game just decides to cheat.

You need that third dimension so you can hammer the opposition on several axises.
 
I never played homeworld, is it standard RTS gameplay or different (besides the obvious difference in dimensions). It just seems to me that other than for visual affect, it three dimensions aren't needed for an RTS game.
 
Says the man who never pulled off escort fighters from above while sending in his bombers from below.

The third dimention adds a hell of a lot to it, but isn't essential. And at least in the demo, I didn't mind it not being there.
 
Mav23 said:
I never played homeworld, is it standard RTS gameplay or different (besides the obvious difference in dimensions). It just seems to me that other than for visual affect, it three dimensions aren't needed for an RTS game.
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I think it's a standard RTS, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a chance. By the way, does anyone know how Homeworld 2 was?
 
I decided to chance the full version after enjoying the demo (I haven't played a large scale space empire building game in a while).

I have a couple pet peeves with it:

The ridiculously low unit count- You can build as many units as you want, but you can only "warp in" or "shuttle in" 20 units at any given time. Once you lose units, you can hyperspace in replacements until your fleet is destroyed. It's not quite as noticable in the initial space battles, but in late game fleet battles or when skirmishing it really shows- especially if you're playing with a friend against multiple computer enemies- it's really frustrating that you can't muster the units to both maintain an offensive and guard your rear areas. Granted, C&C Generals has spoiled me on unit counts, but even Starcraft's 200 wasn't so bad- but 7 units for land skirmish battles? That's downright ridiculous.

The inability to warp out individual units- The unit count is also a pain if you have a cruiser or frigate with almost all its hardpoints blown off- you can't make that one unit hyper out so a "fresh" unit can hyper in. At certain critical junctures, this can drive you insane, for instance, if you have a frigate with no turrets left, and your starbase is under attack- even though you have other frigates that can warp in when the disabled one finally bites it (per the unit count).

The AI is weak- I've only really played skirmishes, the campaigns and a short galactic conquest game, but the AI never attacks your rear areas on the galactic map. Occassionally during space battles you can sit back and blow apart someone's space station from a distance using missile cruisers- and even though you are dismantling the starbase, the fleet around the starbase often won't rush the missile cruisers. Another noticable problem is that the AI doesn't go maurading from world to world with its space fleet- It'll pick one planet, invade, and just sit there if it loses the land battle. If you have a strong land army on that planet (such that you can fend off most ground assaults)- you've effectively immobilized their fleet until you can muster a counterfleet.

The Empire's lack of ground air units- both side gets a carpetbombing superweapon, but only the Rebels get a genuine air unit. Given that only one unit type and one type of turret can shoot back at air units, it makes the land part of the game feel a little unbalanced, since the unit counts are so low (if a Rebel player builds air units, the Imp player has to devote at least 1/7 of his army to anti air units- units that are worthless against any other type of unit).

Final prognosis- I wouldn't buy it. It's fun for a couple hours until you realize the limitations of the game, and then it very quickly becomes tedious. If you do want it, wait a couple months for the price to drop.
 
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