This is one game I've been anticipating, some might even say gagging for, for a very, very long time. For such a huge franchise, it's a shame that there's not been many good Star Wars games in the past; you have to hark back to the simply phenomenal X-Wing and Tie-Fighter series of games, or even the more recent Knights Of The Old Republic twosome. Star Wars games have always been exceptionally well presented, down to the intricate level of detail in the films themselves, but it's usually in the gameplay stakes that they tend to fall down. So with a pretty embarrassing attempt at Command & Conquer-style strategy with Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds a couple of years ago, LucasArts take to the fray once more with their new baby, Star Wars: Empire At War.

Before we begin I must draw attention to a game that came before this, the lesser known Star Wars Supremacy for the PC. It was released possibly five years ago and allowed you to try and conquer the Star Wars universe through a top-down form of gameplay, reminiscent of a boardgame. You could view the battles in what would be rather pitiful 3D graphics by today's standards, but that didn't matter. It was just cool, because the game allowed you to try and take over the whole Star Wars universe. The only problem was that it was so unbelievably hard that you couldn't last more than a couple of game months without the Empire mauling you. Plus there was no option to go as the Imperials. I remember playing it and hoping that maybe they'd bring out an easier sequel. So I waited and waited and waited, but nothing ever came. Until now - Star Wars: Empire At War is Star Wars Supremacy, except that this time you don't die so easily and now you can even play all the galactic battles yourself.

You've probably guessed that I was kind of excited about this game. Star Wars: Empire at War is a real-time strategy throughout, whilst running along the same lines as the Total War games. You play either as the Empire or the Rebels via a real-time galactic conquest map and then dip into space and ground battles as they occur, which also take place in real-time. This does make it pretty hardcore from the very start, as at least in Total War you can sit back and take your time before making any rash decisions. It's an unusual mode of play, but it actually works very well; it just means that you have to be doubly diligent and keep your eye on enemy movements constantly, whilst also building up your own army and stocking up on planetary resources and defences.

Your primary reference point to the Star Wars universe is the galactic map, which features a multitude of solar systems from the films and acts as the board from which the other tiers of the gameplay spring. From this screen you can zoom in on each of the planets and see everything; which resources the planet produces, which structures you have built there, how many troops are on the surface and so on. You can build up your fleet and move your spaceships from planet to planet, zipping through space, and if they encounter an enemy you will enter a slightly disappointing space combat system, which takes the form of ships flying around real-time on a 2D plane. Why the developers didn't adapt Empire At War to the longstanding Homeworld 3D space engine is a bit of a mystery, as the software has been out there for some time. Once you've destroyed the enemies in space above a planet, you can then start the ground battle and drop your troops onto the planet's surface - and then there's your usual C&C style RTS gameplay as you try to defeat the enemies and their many fortifications.

And that's pretty much the premise of the game. As you pass from planet to planet, building up resources, your ultimate aim is to defeat either the Rebels or the Empire, depending on whether you chose to be good or evil at the start. There are some developments, in that you can gradually improve your technology level as you play through, but it's basically a mix of fighting on land and in space, again and again, until you've finally obliterated the opposition. Now this may sound repetitive, but surely if the land and space battles are pretty awesome, you could handle a bit of the same thing throughout?

And that's where the problem lies. Whilst the space and land battles are good, they're just not quite there. LucasArts seem to have bitten off more than they can chew by trying to do everything at once, the result being that they haven't had the time to really polish off all the edges and come out with a superb game. In the ground battles, it all looks okay, but quite a few of the troops lack detail when you zoom in. There are little or no special attacks that your different troops can carry out, and also very few orders you can give them. You can't even build your own base, as all troops have to be called down from your galactic bases and appear in designated reinforcement areas on the map. This might not bother some people, but I've always loved the fun of building your own impregnable home on the battlefield and then hunting out the enemy scum once everything's all tickety-boo back home. And when you attack the enemy, there're no fancy explosions or glorious sound effects. You do, however, hear the snazzy blasters from the movies, but they sound rather flat in this game. The ground battles are also incredibly difficult; enemies regenerate constantly from enemy factories, whilst all you can do is call in your paltry forces and hope to stay alive through being sly and underhand. In terms of recent games of this genre that kick this game's ass, you need only look at Ground Control, Total War or Warhammer: Dawn of War to see that LucasArts' effort simply can't compete with the best that this genre has to offer.

Onward into space and it's not much better. Why they've opted for a 2D flat battle engine is completely beyond me. They may as well have forgotten about the space part and just had star destroyers floating across a bed of jelly. Obviously LucasArts have never heard of the Homeworld games or if they have, it's quite simply lazy that they didn't even try to adopt something even remotely similar to the fantastically complex Homeworld 3D game engine. Having said all this, the ships do look good in the game and sound pretty awesome. With headphones on, the Tie Fighters take you back to those Christmas afternoons when you were glued to the telly watching the original movies. There is also quite a cool system whereby if a large enemy ship comes along, you can attack specific parts of it, such as its shields or even its engine, to stop it dead in its tracks. This can be great fun when you're taking down your tenth or eleventh Star Destroyer, but after a while it gets a little dull. These battles are also extremely difficult and so you can often find yourself saving and replaying them just because you made one little mistake.

And that's how it goes, on and on throughout the game, battle after battle. After a while, the battles on both land and space do get really boring, so it's helpful that you can auto-resolve each battle if you wish, the ironic reality being that you actually seem to do better than you would have if you played the battles yourself. Unfortunately, Empire At War simply doesn't have the gameplay, the sound or the visual flair to make you want to keep playing, whether shifting your troops via the galactic map or fighting off enemies on land or in space. About the only thing that's really going for it is that it's based on the Star Wars franchise, something we're getting pretty used to with Star Wars games on the whole. It's sad that there's no single aspect of the game that stands out and grasps your interest. There are too many games out there that do all the stuff that Empire At War tries to do and do it so much better. Ground battles - check out the pace and visual impact of Dawn Of War. Tactical maps - they're so good in Rome: Total War that you almost don't need to play the real-time battles. Space battles - try Homeworld 1 or 2 and you're in for a visual treat and a half. Plus none of these games are boring and that helps - believe me!

As much I hate to say it, Star Wars: Empire At War isn't worth the entry fee. This is a terrible shame, since it had such promise from the pre-launch screenshots, but sadly the repetitive and shallow gameplay, combined with the below par presentation and ludicrously high difficulty level, simply can't compete with the best of the genre. Let's hope LucasArts start playing some of their competitors' games and learn from their mistakes, because seriously, one day these guys will release an absolute cracker! Hopefully that time is not too far, far away…

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).