Star Wars: Force Commander (Jewel Case)

Other products by Lucas Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000063N7U
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: April 15, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,392 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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  Video Games > PC Games > Strategy > Real Time

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Star Wars: Force Commander, which casts you as one of the Empire's sinister agents, takes the Star Wars universe into the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. The gameplay follows standard RTS control conventions, so anyone familiar with StarCraft, Command & Conquer, and the like will be able to enforce the Emperor's will in no time.

Force Commander differs from traditional RTS games by eliminating resource gathering. Instead, players receive command points for accomplishing mission objectives, controlling key buildings, or blowing up enemy units. Command points are used to requisition troops and buildings from an orbiting Star Destroyer.

Star Wars fans will find much to love in the plot. Force Commander begins with your small training platoon being ordered to investigate a certain escape pod that has crashed on Tatooine. Caught up in events that will forever change the galaxy, your career takes you to such far away worlds as Tatooine, Yavin, Hoth, Endor--even Coruscant. With each successful mission comes an increase in rank and larger forces of Storm Troopers, speeder bikes, TIE Fighters, and AT-ATs. Being able to take part in the Echo Base assault on Hoth (and other key conflicts from the movies) is a Star Wars fan's dream come true, and we'll be forever grateful to LucasArts for giving us the opportunity to hunt down Ewoks on Endor. --Mike Fehlauer

Pros:

• Play as the Imperials or the Rebels, in single player and online
• Fully 3-D units and terrain
• Units gain experience, and surviving units can be used in subsequent missions
• Perfectly authentic sound effects
• Storyline puts you in the pivotal battles of Star Wars

Cons:

• Hefty system requirements
• Occasional texture breaks on the 3-D terrain
• Units not from the movies look out of place
• Ugly interface

Amazon.com Product Description
With its breathtaking 3-D environments, Force Commander draws players into a real-time strategy that is wrapped in a story line intersecting with some of the greatest moments in the Star Wars epic. The game begins just prior to the Empire's search for the droids in Star Wars: A New Hope and ends after Return of the Jedi. Along the way, players experience firsthand the decisive Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back, plus several new locations and conflicts created exclusively for the game. The intense, real-time nature of the game, coupled with a classic Star Wars story, offers fans and gamers the chance to truly live the adventure. Unique to Force Commander is the opportunity to be a commanding officer of the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Game Often Gets a Bad Rap, June 29, 2003

By	Shale (NW, USA) - See all my reviews

Of all the early Star Wars games sporting improved graphics (compared to polygonal gems such as X-Wing Alliance) Force Commander ranks among the most fun to play. Like its modern twin (Galactic Battlegrounds) Force Commander requires the player to think strategically and be able to keep track of many battlefield units during multiple real-time conflicts over variable terrain. This game is for the more intellectual Star Wars fan so it isn't full of flashy lightsaber fights, alien shoot-outs, or fast-paced fly-bys in Incom T-65 X-wings; you'll actually have to use your noodle to enjoy it! And for these reasons the game often gets poor reviews, with "unengaging gameplay," "dated graphics," and "poor AI" among the common remarks. But nothing could be further from the truth. If you go into the game knowing what it is, you'll find Force Commander enjoyable and engaging with a high replay.

In short, Force Commander is Lucasarts' version of extreme battle-chess: it is an interactive 3rd person set of real-time 3D strategic missions that span the original Star Wars Trilogy. You can play in either Campaign mode, Skirmish mode, or Scenario mode and depending on the mode (and your progress), you play either as an Imperial or Rebel commanding officer Brenn Tantor, a hero with a dark past. Using a unique tactical screen that Lucasarts calls the 'Battlefield Holographic Control Interface' (BHCI), you control up to 60 seperate battle units, including Imperial ATSTs, ATATs, Mobile Artillery Units, and TIE Bombers, as well as Rebel Hover Tanks, Mobile Proton Torpedo Launchers that lay mines, Mobile Missle Launchers, and Rebel Troops with grenades. There are tons of other units available. You requisition additional units with your command tenure using a system of "command points" which work as currency. You earn tenure/points by controlling the battlefield, destroying or capturing enemy units, keeping your units alive, and preventing the capture/overrun of your planetary base. The max command point total is 5000.

On worlds including Tatooine, Serapin, Abridon, Endor, and Coruscant, you control your central base, ground, and air forces via the BHCI from your Star Destroyer or Rebel Command ship, orbiting the planet. Half-way through the campaign, or at any time in a skirmish, you have the option to leave your command ship and go to the planets' surfaces in a Tracked Mobile Base (TRMB). What you see on the screen for most of the game is intended to be a "holographic 3D representation of the battlefield" and not the actual battlefield, thus the battlefield units are *supposed* to look like 3D models.

Frequent cutscenes with a few dramatic twists provide excellent backstory and keep the player engaged throughout the campaign mode. You start the campaign as Lt. Brenn Tantor of the Empire, commanding a team of sand-troopers on a search for an all-to-familiar escape pod on Tatooine and (without spoiling the details) end up with the Rebellion by the end of the Campaign, storming the Imperial Palaces of Coruscant following the destruction of the Death Star II which you directly have a hand in. The Scenario Mode gives you a chance to go back and replay cutscenes or missions that you've already completed in the campaign.

In Skirmish Mode, you choose from a wide variety of worlds and environmental conditions in which to battle, you choose your side, and you start out with at most 2000 command points. The skirmish is over when you succesfully control the enemy's base and command bunkers and then mop up all additional enemy units on the battlefield. A skirmish is basically an annihilation exercise.

In all modes, the game is designed to limit available units & command points to force you to use strategy to win and not brute force. Each world/terrain presents specific tactical advantages & disadvantages which you must balance in your strategy, and each side (Empire/Alliance) has advantages over the other for different battlefield units. For example, Imperial units are inexpensive but have no shields, so most opening Imperial moves must be won by numbers. On the other hand, while Rebel units are a bit more expensive, they have shields which regenerate and so they last longer in head-to-head combat. Prior to each mission in the campaign, you load your battle units in the command ship's landing bay where you have the option to store and save critical units for later missions.

There are some disadvantages to this game: the AI has only one setting, making the harder campaign missions almost impossible to win on the first try. The BHCI, which you can toggle on/off, takes up a full 1/3 of the screen. If you fully use the tactical advantages of the BHCI this is not a problem, but if you rely solely on the view of the battlefield then you'll choke in a fight. Also, manipulating the camera takes some practice but if you combine camera manipulation with the weapon-grouping feature (shift + 1-9), you will actually have a tactical advantage over the AI. In addition, there are several shortcut keys which make quick work of frequently used features.

Going into any Force Commander battle requires strategy and if you combine the features of the BHCI with the tactical advantages of the particular battlefield terrain, this game is lots of fun. P.S. In a skirmish, the Empire always uses the same set of battle units for its opening move. Good luck and enjoy!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good idea, a bad execution, May 13, 2003

By	Ethan D Van Vorst (Salisbury, NC USA) - See all my reviews

I can't help but laugh a little bit. LucasArts, once known for the very best in computer games, has within the past few years begun to decline in product quality and originality. Once upon a time they made actual non-Star Wars games too, ones that were really outstanding (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam and Max hit the Road, and The Dig come to mind), but as of late seem to be focusing almost entirely on the Star Wars motif itself. There's nothing wrong with that...since the release of SW Episodes 1 and 2, there's a much higher demand for Star Wars related games, and they're simply trying to fill in the demand.

But so many of the games are just terrible! And Force Commander is a good one to pick out of the bunch to illustrate this fact. The idea behind it I'm sure is that the guys at LucasArts saw how popular StarCraft was, and knew that Warcraft III was coming. So why not beat the boys at Blizzard to the punch? Thus became FoCom.

The plot is actually quite good....LucasArts never skimped on many games as far as that goes, and a great deal of effort went into the storytelling side of this game. You start out working for the Imperials, following the path of a certain Astromech droid who happens to have Death Star plans in it's memory banks. The graphics really aren't that bad either. The details on some of the units you have is quite good depending on what unit you're looking at.

The problems with the game almost outweigh the good things though. The camera control can be likened to strapping a camcorder to Tarzan's head and having him swing over the battlefield on a vine. And you can never seem to focus just right on the units.

But let's head straight to the single biggest gripe anyone who's played this game has. The music!...or should I say Muzak?
From the moment that extremely unique combination of classic John Williams gets blended with 2nd rate elevator music disco, you feel like screaming. The scary thing is that it grows on you as you play, and after 4-5 hours of it you'll start beebopping your head to certain tracks of the stuff.

The game isn't overly difficult to play, but there's some imbalance to it. An earlier post said you can win solely with infantry...and he's right. You need only build those to win. But make sure to mass them before you do attack, as your transport shuttles will only deliver 6 of the guys at a time. AT-AT's are still fun to run around in though, I won't lie, although they do have a tendency to get quagmired easily.

These are all overlookable problems in themselves, namely because of the price. You'll not find a better deal ..., and if you stick with it you'll find the game is fun, just a little hard to get into at first. Oh, just remember to turn off the music ;)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Game for its time, May 30, 2005

By	Alex Wiederspiel "Spiel" (Lawrenceville, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This was one of the finest Star Wars game storylines I've ever seen. It rivaled that of Jedi Knight I: Dark Forces II. The graphics are fairly decent for being from 1998. The gameplay is great. It is really an awesome RTS. The Campaigns are really challenging and very fun. Although it isn't that fun to play more than once, there are some very challenging missions that will make your head spin. Also, the story, the rise and fall of Brenn Tantor and then his redemption. Then he even lives to see the fruits of his labored redemption. The story is great and it is vaguely reminiscent of Darth Vader's storyline.