Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
| Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire | |||
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| Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire logo | |||
| Studio |
 LucasArts
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| Publisher |
LucasArts |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Nintendo 64: December 3, 1996 March 1, 1997 June 14, 1997 Windows: September 17, 1997 February 3, 1998   |
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| platform | Nintendo 64 , Microsoft Windows | ||
| genre | Third person shooter | ||
| medium | Plug-in module , digital distribution , download | ||
| language | English | ||
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Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a third-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe . It was developed by LucasArts and released for Nintendo 64 in 1996 . In 1997 a version for Windows followed .
action
The action begins at the beginning of Episode V with the battle on Hoth. The player takes on the role of the rebel Dash Rendar who takes part in the defense of the rebel base on the planet Hoth from the attacking Imperial troops. With the help of a snow glider, he destroys several Imperial units to secure the retreat of the clearly inferior rebels. Then he also flees from the planet. He is attacked by Imperial units in orbit of Hoth, which he can escape.
He then takes part in the search for Han Solo. To do this, he takes the trail of the bounty hunters who were hired by Darth Vader on Han Solo. On the planet Ord Mantell he meets the bounty hunter IG-88, who tells him that Boba Fett, who handed Han Solo over to Jabba, is on the planet Gall. Once there, Rendar attacks Fett, but the latter manages to escape.
Meanwhile, Jabba carries out an assassination attempt on Luke Skywalker, which was commissioned by Prince Xizor, who wants to rise in the favor of the Emperor after Skywalker's death. The assassination fails, but Princess Leia fears for Skywalker's safety, so she hires Rendar to protect Skywalker. While Luke is practicing his Jedi skills in the house of his late master Obi-Wan Kenobi , Rendar intercepts a gang of pirates who are on their way to Kenobi's house to kill Skywalker.
Finally, Prince Xizor kidnaps Leia and locks her up in his palace on Coruscant. To free them, Luke, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca and Dash enter Xizor's palace. There Rendar faces a guard droid, which he destroys. Thereupon Xizor flees to a space station and attacks the rebel ships that have since arrived. Rendar succeeds in flying into the space station and destroying it from within.
Whether he survives this depends on the chosen level of difficulty. At the simplest level, Rendar dies in an explosion. On higher levels of difficulty, he escapes the exploding station, but is believed to be dead.
Gameplay
The game combines the mechanics of several genres. In most levels the shooter component is in the foreground. The player goes through the linear levels and fights opponents. In some missions the game contains racing and flight elements.
Development history
Development of the game began in the summer of 1994. LucasArts planned to develop a game with three-dimensional graphics for an upcoming console, the Nintendo 64 . Jon Knoles, lead designer of the project under development, suggested integrating the game into the multimedia project Shadows of the Empire , which is based on the novel by Steve Perry and includes games, comics and other toys.
The developers put new characters at the center of the plot in order to have more creative freedom in the conception of the plot.
reception
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John Broady of the online magazine GameSpot described the first level of the game as outstanding. It convinces with good control of the snow glider, a clear structure and beautiful graphics. However, the following levels are not enough. Broady criticized the complicated controls of the game and the sometimes monotonous levels. On the other hand, the tone and graphics of the game are convincing. The low number of save points is annoying and often forces players to play long game passages again.
Doug Perry from the online magazine IGN complained that the game suffered from imprecise controls and annoying camera settings, which made it a lot of fun. In addition, the level design was mostly unimaginative.
LucasArts reported that one million copies of the game had been sold by 1997. This made it the third best-selling Nintendo 64 game between September 1996 and August 1997.
Web links
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Mark Haigh-Hutchinson: Classic Postmortem: Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire Exclusive. In: Gamasutra . Think Services , March 6, 2009, accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Doug Perry: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis , December 9, 1996, accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ^ A b John Broady: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Review. In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , December 4, 1996, accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Jamie O'Neill: Review: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. In: Nintendo Life . December 1, 2009, accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ^ Scott Alan Marriott: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. (No longer available online.) In: Allgame . Archived from the original on February 15, 2010 ; accessed on February 25, 2016 .
- ^ Meta-evaluation "Shadows of the Empire" (N64). In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Meta-evaluation "Shadows of the Empire" (Windows). In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Jeff Gerstmann: Shadows of the Empire Review. In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , October 9, 1997, accessed February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide in Electronic Gaming Monthly March 1998, p. 45.