Star Wars: Rebel Assault II - the Hidden Empire

This game is visually superb, and has a good storyline guides the player through the levels. Original filmed footage is a welcome feature of this game, and it gives the viewer the feeling of being part of a Star Wars movie. The only disadvantage is that, with the one storyline, it can get repetitive, unlike other games with numerous storylines. ***1/2 out of *****.

This is a fully scripted game, meaning that you should be exactly on the right place at the right time, while a video plays on the background. That video is a bit blocky, thought not too bad. If you know how to fly/walk, you can literally do it with your eyes shut, as the game is completely static!

The story line is rock bottom bad, where you blow up all the bad guys and saving the blond. Apparently all Star Wars ships suffer from the same problem: underclassed craft can fly in the reactor room and blow everything up...again!

Oh, make a custom pilot with all damages on 0 and sit back and watch, then it is slightly agreeable. As a game it is non-interactive, thus actually not a game?!

This game was not meant to be hard, though if you put it on the "Expert" setting it's no piece of cake. This game was meant to be fun and entertaining, which it is. Though there's really only one path to every level, so there is in other games such as Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. In that respect, it may get boring after a while but I always come back to it. You would not call it a flight simulator though there is quite a bit of starfighter action, and joystick is NOT recommended. It's more a "shoot-em-up" game but with a Star Wars twist. I really like the graphics and the live-action movies. If you like Star Wars and you like computer games, you would certainly like this one.

Rebel Assault II was the first Star Wars game that I ever played. Its mini-game style gameplay keeps it refreshing, and the cut scenes are actually quite thrilling. There are a couple incredibly frustrating moments that make you wonder whether developers made the game possible to finish, but you get through them eventually. I always thought the whole idea of phantom fighters was really cool, though. Hopefully you're playing this for the PSOne, and not the computer, as modern hardware far outdates the game. As far as I know, Lucas Arts has dropped the game from their help section entirely, so you're left to sift through message boards to find help with modifying computer settings just to run the game. (Just get it for PSOne).

All in all, it was fast and fun, and a great game for Star Wars fans. It's no KOTOR, but it gives Obi-Wan a run for its money, ha.