Star Wars: The Clone Wars

With the Star Wars seat of quality and heavy Xbox Live features built in, will The Clone Wars live up to expectations?

	Version Xbox	Developer Pandemic Studios	Publisher LucasArts	Genre Action

By Matt Thomas

Any product carved with the Star Wars label automatically obtains loads of respect. Action figures, board games, video games, movies... no matter what it is, it sure sells a great deal, and that's probably because of the time and effort put into LucasArts goodies. Currently leaking with the word "promise" inside the LucasArts production oven is a variety of potential electronic hits, including the immensely hyped, Xbox-exclusive RPG entitled Knights of the Old Republic. In contrast, there's an Xbox item that has unintentionally slid under the radar, and thus is Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an action title which did excellent on the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube consoles last year.

Developed by Pandemic Studios, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a vehicular combat title that places assorted airships, gun ships, speed bikes and tanks in extreme rivalry. Each of the mechanical beasts has a mixture of attributes, as well as weapon combinations (missiles, lasers, explosives). One vehicle may quite possibly be quicker then another, but in the case of a tank and a speed bike, the tank certainly has an advantage when it comes to actual warfare. In addition to the wide range of armed transports, LucasArts and Pandemic Studios also give players the chance to step out of their vehicles in order to participate in classic lightsaber fighting, an aspect of the Star Wars series no fan would ever disregard.

Set immediately subsequent to the proceedings in Star Wars Episode II, Star Wars: The Clone Wars' campaign mode follows famed Jedi's through sixteen intense single-player levels across an array of strange terrestrial structures. Players must primarily halt the Separatists in their insane assembly of a Sith weapon of mass destruction, but in addition, complete different main objectives for each level. There are also masses of secondary goals to accomplish along the way. Some classic objectives include escorting significant materiel from a point to another, destroying marked targets in addition to defending bases against all enemy forces.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars allows for players to join the intense battles either using a first or a third-person point of view. The decision to incorporate a variety of in-game perspectives was an intelligent one, as now gamers have the flexibility to choose the view that better suits them.

The giant advantage for Microsoft's console with this ported version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars definitely comes in regard to full Xbox Live support. LucasArts and Pandemic Studios have both confirmed that their vehicular combat title would appear on the infinitely expanding network. Speculation has it that the title will maintain an eight player per game limit, although nothing has yet been written in stone by either party. The multiplayer game types available over Xbox Live include the familiar Deathmatch, Conquest and King of the Hill brands, as well as a promising ability to play co-operatively in teams.

A neat addition to the multiplayer aspect of Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes the shape of a medal reward system which awards players all sorts of trophies, pending on the completion of specific tasks. The entire game is said to feature about twenty to thirty of these medal prizes, and what's exciting about all of this is that anybody hooked up to Xbox Live can view another player's trophy case. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get practicing before some arrogant little youngster comes around being spiteful about your empty plaque container.

The attention to detail in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is something to be proud of. The environments look splendid, from the snow on the higher mountains to the trees next to ground level; the little touches are really impressive. Hopefully LucasArts and Pandemic Studios won't ignore the graphical benefits of the Xbox when they finish porting the title.

Although Star Wars: The Clone Wars has already launched on competing video game consoles, LucasArts has managed to assure a hopeful product for fans of the franchise willing to hang around on an Xbox version. With full online support by its side, Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Microsoft's system seems likely to reign supreme over all past editions of the title... keep an eye on it!