Maybe it's a little bit of the nostalgia talking, but I adore this game. I remember that we had one disc of the original game and the expansion, but we burnt discs of them and I played LAN with my siblings.
Okay, time for the actual review.

It's a simple RTS game, and that's a huge part of the charm. I know people compare it to Age of Empires II, but I wouldn't know how similar they are since I've haven't played AoE. I find the gameplay very relaxing, but it can be challenging when you ramp up the difficulty. The AI can actually be something dangerous and you have to match a pace with them. If you pick no allegiances in a standard game at the setup, generally all the AI will join into one team, and they don't respond to any negotiations, so keep that in mind if you play.

Outside of having a randomly generated map and playing against either randomly generated AI or ones you define, you can play kinds of "story missions" that are actually set in the Star Wars lore. They generally have specific objectives to complete with special units/characters involved. Haven't done too many myself, but the ones I have played were fun, and what more can you ask for? In addition to that, you can actually make missions of your own with the Scenario Editor.

Now, the vanilla game is a bit limited graphically, but it's still completely playable. However, if you want to play with widescreen patches, 60 fps, and a good deal of new content for FREE, there's a mod that provides you all of this: Galactic Battlegrounds: Expanding Fronts. It's lovingly crafted with new sound effects, two new civilizations to play as, more things to research as you play, an increased maximum total of units per player, a new maximized map size... You get the idea. For some time I was playing the vanilla game here on Steam, but I recently picked up this mod and have found new life breathed into the experience. Maybe those who want to revisit the game will be interested to know about this mod.

This game has always been special to me as someone who enjoys some lite strategy gameplay and Star Wars. If you're a fan of both those things, this game is very much for you.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that online servers have long been discontinued for this game. LAN/virtual LAN setups are an option for you to play with your friends!

Maybe it's a little bit of the nostalgia talking, but I adore this game. I remember that we had one disc of the original game and the expansion, but we burnt discs of them and I played LAN with my siblings. Okay, time for the actual review. It's a simple RTS game, and that's a huge part of the charm. I know people compare it to Age of Empires II, but I wouldn't know how similar they are since I've haven't played AoE. I find the gameplay very relaxing, but it can be challenging when you ramp up the difficulty. The AI can actually be something dangerous and you have to match a pace with them. If you pick no allegiances in a standard game at the setup, generally all the AI will join into one team, and they don't respond to any negotiations, so keep that in mind if you play. Outside of having a randomly generated map and playing against either randomly generated AI or ones you define, you can play kinds of "story missions" that are actually set in the Star Wars lore. They generally have specific objectives to complete with special units/characters involved. Haven't done too many myself, but the ones I have played were fun, and what more can you ask for? In addition to that, you can actually make missions of your own with the Scenario Editor. Now, the vanilla game is a bit limited graphically, but it's still completely playable. However, if you want to play with widescreen patches, 60 fps, and a good deal of new content for FREE, there's a mod that provides you all of this: Galactic Battlegrounds: Expanding Fronts. It's lovingly crafted with new sound effects, two new civilizations to play as, more things to research as you play, an increased maximum total of units per player, a new maximized map size... You get the idea. For some time I was playing the vanilla game here on Steam, but I recently picked up this mod and have found new life breathed into the experience. Maybe those who want to revisit the game will be interested to know about this mod. This game has always been special to me as someone who enjoys some lite strategy gameplay and Star Wars. If you're a fan of both those things, this game is very much for you. NOTE: Please keep in mind that online servers have long been discontinued for this game. LAN/virtual LAN setups are an option for you to play with your friends!