Star Wars is one of the most
lucrative franchises in known history. There are not many franchises that can
continue to spawn new movies, television shows, books, comics, action figures,
games, and still continue to have an extremely loyal following. There is a new
game within the Star Wars franchise entitled Star Wars: Lethal Alliance for the
Nintendo DS.
The story for Star Wars: Lethal
Alliance takes place between the Episode III and IV timeframe. Princess Leia has
proposed an extremely dangerous mission to help secure the future of the Rebel
Alliance. To help make sure this particular quest is successful she enlists the
aid of Twi’lek Rianna Saren and her security droid Zeeo. The mission that Leia
gives them is one of the most dangerous in the galaxy. They must infiltrate the
Empire, fight off legions of enemies, and steal the plans for the Death Star.
This game can be defined as an
action-adventure game, with most of your time trying to get from one place to
another while shooting any enemies that you might come upon. One thing that the
developers did that really made this game easy is that they included an
auto-lock function on your gun. What this means is that once you enter into a
room you gun will automatically point to the closest enemy for you to take them
out. This took all of the challenge out of the game because you are ensured a
direct hit almost every time you fire you gun.
To help break up any repetitive
feeling that you might get while playing, the game offers a various puzzles at
different points in the game. Like the majority of this game, the puzzles are
very easy to figure out and solve. Some involve memorizing light patterns and
others involve moving cubes to certain locations. All in all you will find that
most of the puzzles are timed but since they are very easy to solve that will
not remain a problem for you.
One thing that made this game unique
is the inclusion of Zeeo. You can use Zeeo as a shield, climb on him to get past
various hard to reach areas, or even perform some nice double kills. My
complaint with this droid is that the developers really didn’t explore the
gameplay factors as much as they should and could have. Many gamers will find
this to be a true disappointment.
When you see Star Wars: Lethal
Alliance, you will quickly understand that this game will not be in the running
for the award for best graphics on the Nintendo DS. The problem is that the game
has very little detail and the main culprit is the enemy characters. It is hard
to tell what you are about to be up against because they look like ink blobs
until you get use close, and even then they are ugly looking. One the bright
side of things the engine was able to keep the framerate up.
One thing that I will complain about
is the camera in this game needs major work. It is really hard to keep the game
focused on the main character so you are constantly adjusting the camera just to
walk in a coherent straight line. This kind of thing was forgivable when games
first came into the 3D world, but now it is a major annoyance and something that
should have been fixed a long time ago.
The audio for this game gets one big
boost in that it gets to pull from the huge archive of Star Wars sounds. What
this means is that while you are playing the game you will hear very familiar
sounds of laser fire, explosions, and music. The problem is that with the
limitations of the DS cartridge you will not get the same immersive soundtrack
that you would get in some of the other Star Wars games. One annoyance I had
with the game is that the enemies have very load and annoying grunts that they
will constantly do.
Star Wars: Lethal Alliance is rated
everyone 10+.
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Gameplay: 5.8
The problem here is that the developers didn’t fix all of the game’s
problems to make it more fun to play. The annoying camera, easy to solve
puzzles, and not exploiting the droid enough really knocked down the score here.
Graphics: 6.1
The graphics engine for this game really doesn’t do the Star Wars
franchise justice. The problem is that the game is void of detail and makes the
game looks very mundane and ugly.
Sound: 7.5
Thanks to the Star Wars license this game’s has the vast library of
sounds at its disposal. The only downside is the lack of voice acting, but it is
just as easily overlooked.
Difficulty: Easy
You will have no difficulty with this game; the puzzles are beyond
easy.
Concept: 6.0
The partnership with Zeeo offers some unique ideas but the problem is
the developers really didn’t exploit them to the fullest.
Multiplayer: N/A
At the time of this review I didn’t have the capability to test the
multiplayer portion of this game.
Overall: 6.0
People who buy this game and can forgive its shortcomings are die-hard
Star Wars fans. If you do not fall into that category then I suggest that you
skip this romp in the Star Wars galaxy.
