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North America

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

by Jonathan Metts - December 21, 2001, 8:08 am EST

9

A month late and anal as all hell, it’s Jonny’s Rogue Leader review!

It’s hard for me to really describe Rogue Leader, which is partly why this review is a month late. (Final exams were the other factor…) It is simultaneously an impressive and frustrating game, for several reasons. I’m amazed that it was essentially developed in less time than it takes to create a human baby, and yet, do I weigh my complaints with that knowledge? No, I honestly can’t, and that goes for some other aspects too. This is a classic case of really knowing too much about a game before it’s out, and thus objectively reviewing the final copy becomes more complex and psychologically difficult. Thank God we still know jack squat about Eternal Darkness!

Anyway, at its core, Rogue Leader is a very direct sequel to the original Rogue Squadron. It has plenty of space battles, which were introduced to Factor 5’s games with Battle for Naboo, but otherwise this new title has little in common with that Episode 1 game on N64. It’s about flying through the original Star Wars trilogy, with both the major film battles and several that were vaguely inferred. Rogue Leader’s sense of authenticity in both types is hit-or-miss; the first Death Star Attack doesn’t feel nearly as urgent as it should, while Prisons of the Maw is so removed from the trilogy storyline that it’s hard to care about the prisoners, especially with them barking curt orders all the time. Meanwhile, Razor Rendezvous is as majestic and seemingly impossible as any battle from the movies, and its follow-up, Vengeance on Kothlis, is a perfectly logical and brilliant continuation of Razor’s events.

I speak about these missions as if they were individual experiences, because they very much are. Each mission is vastly different from the others, and while Rogue Leader contains only about a dozen in all, you can be sure that a few of them will stick in your mind for a long time to come. Factor 5 and LucasArts should take pride in that. The encapsulated, mission-based design may have its advantages and disadvantages, but Rogue Leader exploits the format in the best manner I can imagine. The (loose) story is progressed, the scenery rotated, and above all, the gameplay is juggled so that no two missions play the same…an important aspect for a game that essentially consists of shooting lasers. The obvious downside of these large, unique missions is that they are few, and their scripted events don’t really change upon subsequent playings. The designers have side-stepped the problem with the improved medal system, and it does a pretty good job of providing replay – if you’ve got the skill and patience to deal with it. For fickle and inexperienced players, the game can be beaten in a matter of days, and the medal challenges will be so out of reach that they might as well not exist.

Rogue Leader is simply a hard game, to a degree that hearkens back to old-school platformers where survival often became an issue of memorizing enemy patterns or learning the correct path by trial-and-error. For better or worse, we’ve mostly left that era of gaming behind, and Rogue Leader’s unabashed difficulty will be shocking and probably unattractive to early GameCube adopters looking for a more easygoing action game. Since it’s a matter of taste, I won’t judge the game either way for being hard; however, there is one glaring facet of the design that I can only see as a source of unnecessary frustration, and therefore a flaw. The mission goals just aren’t clear enough. They might be listed when you press start, and if you’re lucky you’ll see a flyby view of something you need to blow up or protect in the opening cut-scene, but Rogue Leader usually offers no explanation or even advice on how to actually execute many of the mission objectives. Never is this more clear than in the last normal level, Strike at the Core. The first objective is to protect Lando. I assume that means taking out the TIEs that shoot at him, but noooooooo. What that really means is to stay within a certain distance from him, and as long as you stay nearby, he can withstand a ridiculous amount of shots from the enemies. So I’m dropping back a pretty good distance to get a good view of the attackers, and even though I shoot down every single one of them, I keep failing the mission because Lando gets too far ahead. And instead of the game telling me that’s why I failed the mission, it says Lando got shot down. I failed Strike at the Core at least twenty times before finally realizing the truth; after that I beat it on my first try. If leaving out critical information like that is Factor 5’s way of making the game last longer, it does not go appreciated in this reviewer’s book. Vague objectives were a problem in the first Rogue Squadron and again in Battle for Naboo, and they still have not been fully remedied in this newest game. Thankfully, the targeting computer can help sometimes, but it’s no good in situations like the one explained above.

With a decent guide and/or a measure of luck, you’ll make it through the game. In the process, you’ll experience one of the most visually and aurally impressive games ever produced, especially for a launch title. Rogue Leader shows off a geek dictionary’s worth of visual effects, with bump-mapping as the fanciest and even some very basic “cel-shading” used to a very practical and innovative end. The application of full-motion video is also very impressive, as it is incorporated both in mission cut-scenes and in the menu screens, making for one of my favorite presentation setups ever. The sound is top-notch, as you’d expect from the developer who revolutionized voice and MIDI for N64 and developed the GameCube’s audio hardware and middleware. I’m sure the Pro Logic II mode sounds incredible, but the audio is plenty good enough for me on my TV’s speakers (…although my gxTV does have pretty unconventional speakers, including a rear channel and fake surround modes).

Rogue Leader stands as one of the most impressive launch titles for any system, ever. That’s not to say that it’s perfect. Actually, there are quite a few bugs and glitches, from the infamous floating stormtrooper on Hoth to scripted voices actually being cut off mid-sentence in a Battle of Endor cut-scene. These things are minor, and would probably go unnoticed if the rest of the game weren’t so highly polished. They detract from the immersion but not the fun. And, to its credit, Rogue Leader is extremely fun and enjoyable most of the time. It has its frustrations, it has its glitches, but the game is still awesome and still deserves to be played by anyone who’s ever loved Star Wars.

Score

Graphics Sound Control Gameplay Lastability Final
9.5 9.5 10 8.5 7 9
Graphics
9.5

You’ve heard that Rogue Leader is one to impress your friends with, and that’s true. Layers upon layers of texture effects and some of the largest and most detailed polygonal models ever created (see: Star Destroyer) make for a visually arresting experience. At some point, you WILL die from being distracted by the graphics. The only problem with an otherwise perfect experience is the occasional drop in framerate, but the game really does run at 60fps almost all of the time.

Sound
9.5

The mix of John Williams songs and original tracks goes a long way to making you feel like part of the Star Wars universe. Sound effects and voices round off the package, including lots of new lines from the real Wedge Antilles and one of my favorite narrators ever. There’s also support for Dolby Pro Logic II and every analog surround format before that. Negative brownie points for mangling the cut-scene voices in Battle of Endor.

Control
10

I can’t find anything wrong with it. Rogue Leader makes use of the GameCube controller more intuitively than perhaps even Miyamoto’s titles. Applying wingman commands to the control pad is genius, while the analog triggers and their click function are incorporated perfectly.

Gameplay
8.5

Well, there’s no denying that Rogue Leader is of a dying breed. Arcade-style Star Wars shooters like this have pretty much hit the bottom of the barrel, but at least RL makes the most of its fundamentally simple gameplay and is arguably the best example of the genre to have ever been released. You still shouldn’t expect a vastly different experience from Factor 5’s N64 shooters…there are only so many ways to slice a pumpkin pie. And, whether you detest or love the game’s difficulty (helps to be a masochist!), some of the vague mission objectives are inexcusable. Still, Rogue Leader is undeniably fun and generally well designed.

Lastability
7

There’s actually quite a bit to do after you see the ending; whether you’re good enough to win the medals and ever see the bonus missions is another matter. And, if playing against performance requirements that rival Perfect Dark target times doesn’t interest you, the game can be “beaten” pretty quickly. It’s still an experience you’ll want to relive periodically, and some Easter Eggs like the documentary and audio production notes help to extend the experience.

Final
9

Contrary to what some people have said, Rogue Leader is not so universally great that everyone will love it. It is, in truth, a pretty hardcore shooter whose unsurpassed graphics make it enticing to people who normally wouldn’t care about such games. Underneath the pretty shell is an impressive and highly enjoyable game that will have Star Wars fans, even casual ones, foaming at the mouth. Rogue Leader isn’t perfect, but it does deserve its place in GameCube history.

Summary

Pros
  • Factor 5’s patented arcade-style gameplay, refined and expanded to its limits
  • Improved medal system with more secrets than ever to unlock
  • Practically unequaled graphics and sound
Cons
  • Framerate drops may annoy those sensitive to such things
  • Over too soon unless you devote yourself to earning medals
  • Some mission objectives are needlessly vague
Review Page 2: Conclusion

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Genre Shooter
Developer Factor 5
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Release Nov 09, 2001
PublisherLucasArts
RatingTeen
jpn: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Release Mar 22, 2002
PublisherLucasArts
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