Star Wars: Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an action shooter with explosions, laser salvos and crowds of fighting clones. Take your droid with you and fly an assault plane into the Empire's lair as Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker to bring the villains to justice.

In the Name of the Republic

The player enters the epicenter of the space saga:

• Lightsaber chops down robots
• The force repels falling rocks
• The Republic provides advanced technology

Battles take place to the original accompaniment of the iconic movie. The graphics are cool.

In spite of all their mythological posturing, the Star Wars movies are ultimately about one thing: nasty, bust-your-head-open battles populated by fresh ships and their suicidally daring pilots, and peppered with enough blaster fire to lighten the dreariest, most jaded soul. It's a good thing that they translate well to the realm of video games, considering how many titles LucasArts releases every time there's a new movie. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the latest manifestation of this, and if you're at all familiar with Rogue Leader, then you'll know just what tree this game's trying to measure up to. Sprinkle in some Twisted Metal, and you're that much warmer...

As the title would imply, The Clone Wars takes place during that nigh-legendary spot in the Star Wars continuum, which is currently located just after Episode II. It was a time of great unrest for the Galactic Republic (no thanks, in large part, to Jar-Jar Binks), which equates to a whole mess of tanks, walkers and heavily-armed Jedi, among other units, being deployed to bring down the house. Much like in Rogue Squadron, you'll get to use different vehicles in different scenarios, with some sections calling for a bit of hands-dirtying third-person Jedi lightsaber action.

For a majority of the time, though, you'll be behind the wheel of a zippy fighter tank. It's a quick little number, with the ability to tear speedily through enemy ranks, as well as pummel them with fire from its heavy blaster and concussion missiles. The battles you'll engage in when piloting said tank are unrelentingly thick in terms of headcount, so its high mobility and respectable offensive power will definitely keep it out of the scrap heap, provided you're careful, of course.

You'll spend a good bit of time off of the ground, and in the air. In these situations, you'll get to ride a Republic Gunship, which is both nicely hooked-up in terms of armaments and is as swift as a hungry bat. Apart from the standard allotment of blasters and missiles, it's strapped with a crazy-cool concen-trated laser beam that can rip right through enemy hulls like no one's business. Just like the tank missions, insanely populated battlefields are the order of the day here, so you'll need all the firepower you can get.

In truth, though, there doesn't seem to be a battlefield in Clone Wars that isn't filled to the brim with the richness of carnage. Take your tank to a mountaintop, and you'll be able to peep aircraft dogfighting above you. Look down, and you'll see infantry and lighter hardware doing their thing. Spend too much time gazing at your figurative navel, though, and you'll catch some flak to the rear--there's fighting on your stratum, too, so you'll have to stay with it.

Throughout most battles, you'll maintain a certain level of control over the units on your side. By means of the directional pad, you'll be able to issue rudimentary commands like "defend," "attack" and "regroup." Your men are decently responsive and can actually carry their own weight in battle. In some scenarios, though, you'll simply be supporting groups of autonomous wingmen-such was the case in a level we played, which had us playing backup for a group of friendly assault walkers. Regardless of whether you're giving or receiving the orders, all sorts of banter will color the battles, much of which will be uttered by some real Jedis.

On your side of the battlefield will be most of the Force-wielding all-stars from the recent Episode movies including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and the whiny Anakin Skywalker. You'll get lots of play time with them in the third-person segments, but in most cases, you'll just take on their roles from inside the cockpits.

A whole mess of multiplayer modes will further beef up the action (see the accompanying side-bars), some of which are genuinely loads of fun. On the whole, it's clear that developer Pandemic is shooting for a Rogue Squadron-level of polish with Clone Wars. Here's to it working out.

Star Wars: Clone Wars is an action game where you'll play as Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Beginning where Episode II ends at the battle of Genosis, the story line will take you deep into the Clone Wars in addition to giving more insight into the character's developing personalities. Using one of five crafts or running on foot with your lightsaber, Clone Wars offers a respectable game with only a number of areas that give shaky performances.

Star Wars: Clone Wars is far from spectacular but ultimately pulls off a decent game. What is does produce are extremely tight controls with few exceptions. The hover tanks in particular are a blast to pilot as they are able to achieve a realistic feel allowing you to slide, turn, and accelerate in different directions with ease. Only when on foot do the controls become awkward and probably would have improved the game if left out. Swinging the lightsaber is especially difficult to manage with hitting enemies and blocking laser blasts left mostly to luck or proximity. Another control issue to be aware of is the auto-aim feature. Personally, I'd rather control the crosshairs then have it controlled for me, but others may like to focus more on driving.

The rest of the game exceeds average requirements but few areas are stunning. The graphics fall into this category with well-textured crafts and environments but explosions and destruction of large targets are rather bland. The large scale of the war, however, is captured and relayed in a believable manner.

Star Wars: Clone Wars brings the epic war to life, giving justice to the large-scale battles that unfold. With responsive controls and solid plot, Star Wars fans won't be disappointed but non-fans may not appreciate the Star Wars aspects enough to set it apart from other games on the market.

The Star Wars universe has always been a field ripe for excellent video games, and The Clone Wars is no exception though it doesn't deliver quite as well as some of its predecessors.

Clone Wars the game starts off where Episode II the movie let off, with you taking on the roles of Obi-Wan, Skywalker and Windu as you try to help the Republic crush the separatist uprising. But unlike the movie there isn't a whole of twisted and shallow plot lines to slow down the impressive action and epic battles'instead you'll do a lot of light saber wielding and speeder bike riding as you mow down tons of bad guys.

The game does a good job of rotating game play between combat on foot, where your main weapons are The Force, your light saber, and vehicle combat, where you get to control everything from a tank to Speeder Bikes to Walkers and Gunships.

Control is well mapped out, with the triggers allowing strafe movements, the thumbstick controlling camera angle and movement and the buttons firing weapons. However, it can be hard at times to quickly switch between weapons or to fire multiple weapons while maneuvering around an enemy.

Clone Wars has little in the way of puzzles. Mostly it's a run and gun game with a serious number of enemies to destroy. There is a smidgen of tactics used later in the game when you're able to control a group of people with simple commands issued with the directional pad, but for the most part consider this a first-person/third-person shooter.

The graphics are very impressive, though there are a few horrific lapses in judgment when it came to rendering. For instance when you smack into an object in a Gunship you sort of bounce off it with the trill of your R2D2 unit and automatically swivel around. It feels more like you're in a bumper car than massive space ship. The audio is suitably impressive, leaning heavily on the familiar strains crafted by John Williams and pumping it up with tons of sound effects.

Although Clone Wars has already been out on the Playstation 2 and Gamecube for a bit, the Xbox version does have one big difference ' Live support. This addition of broadband multiplay, turns what would be a quick trip through the world of Stars Wars into a game worth holding onto. The online features include scoreboard, chat and four methods of play. Duel is your basic deathmatch, Control Zone is a bit like siege where you have to hold a ring of ground, Academy is a cooperative gladiator game where the last player standing wins, and Conquest. Conquest is the most interesting of the lot. In the game, players are put in two teams each with their own HQ. The players have to defend the HQ while trying to destroy their enemy's. This can be accomplished with a player's unit or by taking control of outposts and launching attacks. Outposts can be gained and lost throughout the game. It's a ton of fun.

Clone Wars is an excellent addition to your Xbox Live experience, blending a well-rounded third-person action game with enough multiplayer features and maps to keep the game fun long after you've beaten it.