Just beat Galactic Conquest on hard... some impressions

[austin_48111]

Just walloped the Empire as rebels and I've got to say the graphics in this game are very impressive as is the overall scale and feel of being a galaxy spanning armada.  It does definitely play like a more refined Star Wars: Rebellion even if slightly "dumbed down" as numerous people have stated on here.  I prefer not to think of it as dumbed down though but slightly abstracted.  Do you really need the distinction between ISD I's and ISD II's to make the game entertaining?  Complication doesn't make the game any more entertaining.

 

On to my various points about the game, a mini-review if you will.

 

Graphics

 

Let's face it, this is the first thing you're likely to notice about this game.  The cinematic views are bar none the best I've ever seen in a video game.  The space battles look like X-Wing Alliance on steroids.  Collision detection aside, the battles progress in a realistic manner with your various fighters buzzing around like a swarm of locusts, your bomber craft lining up their attack runs and your capital craft slugging it out with turbolasers like a couple of heavyweight prize fighters.

 

That said, I've heard some complaints about graphics.  I can't say I have any but I'm only playing the game on a Athlon 64 laptop with a outdated Radeon 9600 Pro 64MB so I can't max out the graphics.  That said I think the graphics serve their purpose very well and while they may not be as cutting edge as Doom at least the gameplay is lightyears better than Doom.

 

Gameplay

 

While the overall feel and strategic thinking this game encourages are definitely along the lines of some of the great strategy games I've played in the past there are some definite (and patchable) issues.

 

In the Rebellion campaign I just wrapped up on hard difficulty the Empire started off strong by quickly snagging Kessel out from under me and moving on to utterly squash Yavin.  I was impressed with how quickly the Empire was rampaging over my tiny alliance army.  I felt like the rebels during Empire Strikes Back.  The space battles were quick and decisive.  I noticed the imperials don't seem to attack en force in space -- usually there are a slew of tartans that move in and capital ships generally loiter around in the back in a daze as if on patrol.  Eventually the capital ships do move in and waste the space stations however.

 

After that bloody nose I managed to build up a small force of Nebulon-Bs and fighter craft and distributed them at key planets.  This is when I began to become disenchanted with the AI.  The Empire seemed to almost freeze at this point, just building and defending although their force was ridiculously massive.  They didn't seem to progress technologically.  I faced the same Acclamators and Tartans I faced earlier on only now there seemed to be a huge swarm of them. 

 

Typically a Imperial battle force consisted of a 3 Acclamators and a embarassingly large group of around 22 Tartans that pretty much made fighter craft obsolete.  Seems like a tough enough force right?  Not if you have no fear of being attacked.  I simply grouped up every unit that could be mustered and made a driving wedge towards Coruscant which the Empire seemed to be unable to counter.  At one point the Empire did attack one of my rear planets with a pretty unbalanced Tartan/Acclamator force.  They never did raid the planet and were eventually cut off as I planet hopped to the system they originated from.  I picked them off at my leisure later in the game.  I have noticed that the Empire never brought in additional space reinforcements which makes their superior fleet size kind of a waste.

 

After capturing Fondor I had Ackbars command ship and 2 Mon Cals.  Coruscant was defended by 33 Acclamators and 49 Tartans.  Where are the Victory Star Destroyers or even the might Imperial Star Destroyers?  The Empire appeared to be stuck in a turtle defensive mode using outdated technology.  The same held true for it's ground forces -- not once did I see anything beyond stormtroopers and AT-STs.

 

Rather than fight through Coruscants space defenses I sent a raid force to see how massive it's ground defenses were.  I had one squad of airspeeders, one squad of T2-B light tanks, one squad of plex troops and Obi-Wan.  After scouting quickly with the airspeeders I was notified that the emperor was spotted.  He was running around in a daze not far from my position.  The air-speeders began peppering him with laser fire as I sent my entire puny force his way.  Ignoring everything in their path Obi-Wan and company moved in and with a simple wave or two of his lightsaber destroyed the emperor.  This all ended on day 63.  Pretty anti-climatic... you'd expect the emperor to defend himself a little better.  The empire didn't even seem to be able to shoot my airspeeders.  Supposedly Tarkin and Veers were on-planet but I never saw them. 

 

I'm very disappointed with the AI now.  I will next try as the rebels to see if they share the same level of ineptitude on HARD.  I'm no grognard by any means and though I've played a lot of strategy games over the years I felt this was too easy.

 

Multi-player

 

I have yet to play multi.  I have no desire to skirmish and it seems like it would be rough to get someone to play a conquest match since it takes several hours for a medium sized one.  If the AI proves much more disenchanting I may just play MP either way.

 

 

 

Well that's what I thought.  Depending on your skill level your opinions may vary.

[Cobra848]

You should try the rebel single player campaign on hard.  I had the Empire AI using ISD around the Kashyyk mission with Han Solo.  I little bit later the ground forces were using AT-ATs.  I had a lot of close battles in the rebel campaign on hard.  The AI for me build a lot of broadsides, Tartan, and VSDs.  With the occasional ISD.  I had to make two strong points in space at Kuat and Nal Hutta, and made a land defense base a Bothawui that the Empire sent most of it's ground forces at.

[Nick2730]

I found the game on hard increidblt easy?