Star Wars: Rebel Assault II -- The Hidden Empire

Review

by Christopher Michael Baker

I don't know why, but I never felt the need to play Star Wars: Rebel Assault II upon its PlayStation release. With the exception of the whole "fake Star Wars characters" thing, I really enjoyed the first one on Sega CD. Its graphics and story elements far surpassed those of many console games of the time. And with Rebel Assault II, I knew to expect real actors instead of computer-generated people for a change. But I still wasn't excited.

As a Star Wars fan, though, I knew I would pick up that two-disc set eventually. Did I enjoy it? You bet. But still, my initial ambivalence toward the title is entirely justified.

Just as with the original, the game's main fault lies in the fact that you're dealing with characters who seem to steal the glory from the heroes we know and love, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Once again, we control and follow Rookie One through a decent Star Wars story in an attempt to thwart Darth Vader. But "decent" is about all this story is. Don't count on the character development and all-out fantastic storytelling portrayed in the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back. And most certainly don't expect any revelations on the scale of "I am your father"!

The story is told via live-action cut-scenes featuring performances by actors you've rightfully never heard of. Still, it's a big step up from what the Sega CD had to offer. And there's quite a few minutes worth of this too!

Unfortunately, all of the live action takes up a considerable amount of disc space, meaning the two discs you get with the package make for considerably less game time than you might expect. Though there are 15 missions, if you want your game to last a long time make sure you don't set things to easy. Or else, you might literally find yourself working through the game in about the time of a feature film.

The controls in Rebel Assault II in many ways resemble those in the original. Sometimes they're right on the money, but others -- especially when you're behind the ship in a third-person perspective -- can be particularly hard to maneuver.

The levels themselves are presented with beautiful graphics accompanied by some stellar sound taken straight from the movies. My particular favorite moment was hearing John Williams' inspired "Asteroid Field" during an actual asteroid scene. You really do feel as though you're within a Star Wars movie at times.

On the whole, Rebel Assault II is worth the time of any true Star Wars fan. Even if the characters are a bunch of posers, the spirit of the films is present. However, its lack of difficulty might just want you to make it a rental. After all, you can always just tape the cut-scenes and watch them later!