Star Wars 10 Ways Shadows Of The Empire Aged Like Bantha Fodder
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Star Wars 10 Ways Shadows Of The Empire Aged Like Bantha Fodder
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire released to rejoice from fans but it hasn't necessarily aged well. Some Star Wars games aged worth replaying. Unfortunately, Shadows Of The Empire is not one of those games. It launched to an immediate flood of love from fans but has anyone actually gone back to play it? Shadows Of The Empire has aged quite poorly, to the point of nearly unplayable. It may have been impressive back in 1996 but much like Boba Fett, it was cooler to look at than it was actually good. Perhaps it's time to embrace the Dark Side and showcase why this game is now unimpressive, most unimpressive. THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY Dreadful Level Design
Most of the stages have no rhyme or reason to their structure. Hoth looks more akin to the Ice Caverns and Ord Mantell has nothing interesting about it. All the textures are pretty hard to look at, even for Nintendo 64 standards. Add in terrible draw distance and it makes exploring the levels just painful for the eyes. Especially in the Imperial Freighter and palace sewer stages. The Framerate Moves Like A Wampa
Even some of the worst Star Wars games run pretty smoothly. Shadows Of The Empire is not one of those cases; it features some of the most inconsistent frames. On the speeder bike stage, it remains pretty high but then the Ord Mantell stage drops to eight frames during action sequences. This happens throughout Shadows Of The Empire and it really worsens the already annoying controls. Especially in sequences where levels are so dark and dreary making it impossible to see what's happening. Dash Rendar Is Not A Good Character
Due to taking place during the events of The Empire Strikes Back, it makes sense to use a new character. However, it feels like Shadows Of The Empire didn't even try with Dash. Everything from the character's look and personality is just a clone of Han Solo. Even Dash's ship, the Outrider, looks like a morphed Millennium Falcon. It's pretty easy to see why this version of Dash was not carried over into official Star Wars canon. Every Boss Fight Is Terrible
The AT-ST Walker on Hoth? So easy that even Bowser would be laughing. IG-88 on Ord Mantell? Blends into the ugly textures and draw distance thus making it impossible to fight him. It doesn't help that the controls are broken (more on that later) so fighting IG-88 is a grating mess. This continues with the Boba Fett boss fight. Take everything wrong with the IG-88 and add awkward jet-pack gameplay to it. Forgettable Characters
Other than the inclusion of legacy Star Wars characters like Han Solo, Luke, and Boba Fett, every new character is a waste. The evil Prince? He's just there to be a bland villain. Dash's droid sidekick is just there to be a sidekick. And as mentioned, Dash himself is nothing special. It makes a Star Wars game feel like a drag when there are no interesting characters to carry the story; unlike where nearly every character stood out, especially Kyle Katarn. Shooting Like A Stormtrooper
By default, Dash auto-aims his blaster to take down enemies. Rather than doing it like , Dash sways his blaster around like he's nauseous. This makes his blaster unreliable and has the player just hoping a blaster shot hits. Well, there is the option to manually aim. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Manually aiming forces Dash to plant himself on the ground like a totem pole thus leaving him exposed. Plus, there is no crosshair or any indicator where Dash is aiming thus making manual aiming worthless. Dash Is Impossible To Control
Dash's controls similar to classic Resident Evil games. Tank controls where Dash only moves forward and can turn side to side. See, that works for a slow, atmospheric horror game. A high octane action-shooter game like Shadows Of The Empire? It makes moving through the levels a chore. Especially since Dash glides when he walks. The turning is even worse, it makes Dash do a drift like . The controls get really frustrating when the game's framerate drops. Criminally Short
Excluding the cheap deaths and retries of bosses, Shadows Of The Empire rivals The Force Unleashed II in terms of length. It can be beaten in about three hours which is atrocious for the Nintendo 64 era. At least both games have fun gameplay worth revisiting. Whereas Shadows Of The Empire has nothing worth replaying for. So that three hours will probably be the only hours one will ever play it. Every Other Vehicle Segment
Via shacknews.com The opening level which is a recreation of the Battle Of Hoth? Awesome. It is the most fondly remembered part of Shadows Of The Empire that feels great to play even to this day. Unfortunately, it only lasts about five minutes. Every other vehicle section is either a turret segment, a hilariously broken speeder bike sequence or a bland starfight. Nothing ever matches the opening stage. The PC Version s Cutscenes
Shadows Of The Empire is mainly known for being a Nintendo 64 title. Well, there is a PC version that runs only a tad bit better than the console counterpart. To make up for it, the PC version has . Every character looks like they got stung by a bee and the lip-syncing never matches. As per usual with the late 90s, the voice-acting is dreadful. Play the PC version just to laugh at how bad the cutscenes are.