MY VIEW
Games: 'Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith'

By Julius Pecson
Special to The Advertiser

The Verdict: THE RATINGS 5 — Outstanding: Add it to your collection now. A must-have. 4 — Great: Buy it or rent it — definitely play it. 3 — Good: Worth playing despite some flaws. 2 — Fair: Unless you're a fan of the license or series, don't bother. 1 — Poor: You'd have more fun playing Pong.

Console: PlayStation 2 (also on Xbox).

Developer/Publisher: The Collective/Lucas Arts.

Genre: Action.

Number of Players: 1-2.

ESRB Rating: Teen (violence).

The premise: Following the events of the upcoming Episode III film, players can experience epic Jedi action as Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, as one Jedi's hunger for power leads to the ultimate confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

Game play: Throughout the 16 missions, players will need to combine their lightsaber and Force skills to battle their way through hordes of droids and other enemies. Lightsaber attacks can be strung together into some basic combos, and the characters can manipulate the Force in a variety of ways, such as the ability to levitate people and objects, project Force waves, and even trick the minds of enemies to turn against one another. The single-player campaign features basic RPG-style character development, which rewards players with experience at the end of each level that can be used to upgrade their character's attacks and abilities, rising up through the ranks until ultimately becoming a Jedi master. In addition to incorporating over 12 minutes of footage taken directly from the film, the game includes a two-player cooperative mode and a multiplayer duel mode.

The good/bad: The game starts off really slow, since you don't get access to any of the particularly good combos or Force powers. You'll find yourself executing a whole lot of the same moves and mashing the same button over and over again. Not only was this extremely tedious, but it lasted for about two-thirds of the game. Fortunately, once the combos and roster of Force powers became cooler and more robust, the characters became a lot more fun to play around with. However, this doesn't take away from the fact that you're facing wave after never-ending wave of the same droids and foes every time you enter a new room in linear fashion. It's difficult sometimes to utilize all these new skills when it's just much more effective to simply abuse the one main attack button.

From the musical score to the sound effects, the audio is excellent, as with all Star Wars games. This is in contrast with the emotionless dialogue between the characters, especially Anakin. The main story mode can easily be completed in a just few hours, and the multiplayer is easily forgettable, but the cooperative mode can be quite fun.

My take: Even though everyone already knows that Anakin becomes Darth Vader, "Revenge of the Sith" is still an extremely spoiler-heavy video game, giving away a lot of plot details, as well as the ending of the film. Therefore, I strongly urge gamers to see the movie beforehand. Although the game's linear game play and brevity prevent me from recommending a purchase, the cool Jedi abilities make it definitely worth renting, especially for fans.

Julius Pecson, a student at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and a longtime gamer, reviews games on various consoles for The Honolulu Advertiser.