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Preview: Star Wars Episode II: Clone Wars
First we brought you the screens, now read up on all kinds of info for this upcoming Star Wars vehicular strategy/combat multiplayer...aww, just read it.

Last updated: 05/08/2002

The Star Wars series has always been a major source of inspiration for videogames, and Episode II: Attack of the Clones will surely be no exception. LucasArts has already announced Bounty Hunter for GameCube, THQ is publishing a side-scrolling game for GBA, and now…Clone Wars.

Due out in the fall (the GameCube version is expected to release about a month before the PS2 version), Clone Wars is an adventure game based somewhat on the new movie. It will include the fairly standard third-person on-foot gameplay that licensed games always seem to revolve around, but there will also be a heavy emphasis on vehicular combat. So far at least five playable vehicles are planned, and many more will be used by allies and enemies.

The three playable characters are, unsurprisingly, the three main action-type people in the movie: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu. (Call him the Token Black Guy and he’ll break your face with great vengeance and furious anger.) Graphics are pretty nice from what we’ve seen so far, with detailed textures for all the various types of landscape you’ll be traversing, and some intricate vehicle models. The game’s sound is being handled by Skywalker Sound, making Clone Wars one of the first two games that division of Lucas’s empire has ever worked on, the other being Bounty Hunter.

Gameplay details are scarce at this point, but it seems that on-foot and vehicular portions will be seamlessly integrated into missions. Thus, you may be able to zoom around in a hovertank blowing up enemy structures, then get out on foot and go take care of the details with your lightsaber and force powers. So far there are 16 campaigns spread across six different worlds.

A key detail here is the developer: Pandemic Studios. They are mostly known for strategy games, from Dark Reign to the recently released Army Men RTS and the critically acclaimed shooter/strategy hybrid Battlezone. The latter actually seems to be having a strong influence on Clone Wars. We already know that the multiplayer modes (up to four players for the GameCube version) will incorporate real-time strategy elements, and that could very well hold true for the single-player missions as well.

Speaking of multiplayer, you and three friends can participate in these fine modes: Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Conquest, and Jedi Academy. Conquest is a strategy-heavy mode in which you compete to control bases, which allow you to produce more units. Jedi Academy sends wave after wave of enemies at you and is reportedly a little like Galaga.

We’ll have more info on Clone Wars very soon, and it is expected to be playable at E3 2002.

Very special thanks to THX 1138 for gathering most of this info at the Star Wars Celebration II event in Indianapolis!


Jonathan Metts, Senior Editor, Public Relations