The Final Word game review

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire -- LucasArts

R.I.P.
Here's a good question. How is it that this game was never reviewed until now? Shadows of the Empire came out at the start of the N64s life, and still stands as an important milestone in Star Wars games. A combination of first person shooter with added flight combat missions makes this game entertaining and full of variety... and an awesome theatrical score to boot!

The graphics and sound effects are top notch for the system, and play control is amazingly precise, really showing off just how accurate the N64 analog controller is. In first-person targeting mode, I was frequently able to sniper enemies as far away as the fog/horizon. Totally impressive.

My only gripe is the same as it is with all LucasArts games... The skill level progression. In all of their platform games, by the time you hit the half-way mark, the difficulty is about to make you scream bloody murder. I just about lost my patience for this game at the battle with Bobba-Fett. This was just way to hard to complete, and completely out of scale to the stage leading up to it.

But other than that, the game is pretty good. If you're a Star Wars fan, you shouldn't miss playing this title.

(10/2002)