Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike Preview

Developer	Factor 5
Publisher	LucasArts
Genre	Action
Release Date	9/23/03

A short time ago in a state far, far away...

..a playable demo of Rogue Squadron 3 was released upon the masses at this year's Californian electronic game show, E3. Despite the minute amount of bugs, the audience came away greatly impressed by Factor 5's new ideas for the series. And what fan wouldn't be? They're taking Star Wars to a whole new level of cool.

As Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader continually raised the bar for Star Wars vehicular games, Rebel Strike promises to raise the bar even higher, and then break it over your head with all new gameplay aspects. Don't expect this game to use the same old "fly around and shoot things" formula that made it popular over the years. This installment will be amped with new features such as 3rd person walking/shooting, being able to control ground ships like AT-ST's, speederbike chases, and even mount a big, smelly Taun Taun for the ride of your life. Brace yourself. The Force is overwhelming with this one.

Along with the gameplay renovations, Factor 5 is doubling their efforts to make the gamers feel right at home in the galaxy. The graphics have gone through a major overhaul, with better particle effects, better lighting effects, and much more developed character models. The terrain will also be around 16 times more detailed than in the previous GameCube Rogue Squadron. The vast improvement in graphics will help boost the experience of every unique mission you run across. Also expect to hear your favorite Star Wars tunes, conducted by John Williams of course, as you play through. This, and experienced voice actors, will help keep the game as realistic to the movie as possible.

However, one thing that will carry over from Rogue Leader is how you control your ship. The analog stick will undoubtedly control the movement of your ship or character. Pressing the A button will fire your primary weapon, while the B button will fire the secondary weapon. Primary weapons will mostly consist of laser bolts, however, secondary weapons will include proton torpedoes, concussion bombs, and grenades. While in flight mode, the Z button will roll your ship, in hopes to break away from enemy fire. In walking mode, the same Z button will make your character perform a diving roll to help keep gamers from taking a laser bolt in the old kisser by a Stormtrooper. The shoulder buttons will increase and decrease the speed of your ship. Although, while on the ground, the left trigger button will lock onto enemies for quick targeted kills, while the right trigger button will allow your character to jump on command. With the introduction of ground missions, Factor 5 has made sure not to alter the controls too much, so veteran and new gamers to the series will both be able to pick up the game and enjoy it.

Buy or buy not. There is no rent.
While blowing up the Death Star, toppling AT-AT's, and fighting above Cloud City has been fun for the past million bajillionty times, it's time to toss these memories aside and get ready for some new ones. Factor 5 has digested the finer parts of the Star Wars trilogy, and figured out what else could be fun to do in the game. First off there's the ship missions for the die-hard dogfight fans. Sure it's nothing too incredibly new, but what Star Wars game would be complete without flying a X-Wing? Along with the usual dogfighting, the introduction of the walking ground missions looks very promising. Gamers will assume the role of Luke Skywalker in unique missions that will replace ships with a good ol' blaster and lightsaber by your side. Some of these missions include helping rescue the Princess from the Death Star, toppling AT-AT's single-handily with thermal detonators, and jumping from barge to barge over the deadly Sarlacc pit.

Fighting on the ground and flying in a ship isn't the only way to play this game. Factor 5 has gone out of their way to include other types of gameplay to keep the game fresh for gamers. Speederbiking through the lush forest moon of Endor will not only prove challenging due to its speed, but downright realistic as the trees start to blur when you crank the juice faster and faster. Playing the role of another Star Wars favorite, Chewbacca, you will be able to commandeer an AT-ST and help fight off the increasing waves of Imperial troops at the bunker on Endor. You do want to help save the Ewoks from an intergalactic ass whipping, don't you? Don't answer that. Lastly, the ability to mount a Taun Taun will round out the new abilities in Rebel Strike. With these new skills and abilities, this will really feel like a whole new game to Star Warsians and gamers alike.

As if all these new features weren't enough to tide gamers over, Factor 5 has gone and added the complete version of Rogue Leader to the game. However, that's not the good part. The entire game of Rogue Leader will now be completely playable with a friend. That's right, co-op mode! Now you can finally live your dreams of destroying the Death Star with your best bud as your wingman. No word on if the system link mode will be available come release date, however the split-screen mode has proven to run at a perfect frame rate with no lag or slowdown in sight.

With all this game to be had, mixed with LucasArts' fetish for neat unlockable content, Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike is quickly shaping up to be the game to own for GameCube. Just in the nick of time too.

Preview by Erik Waters