Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3973 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2006-10-27
• Platform: Windows XP

Amazon.co.uk Review:
In a nutshell:
The Empire at War universe expands with a whole new faction of criminals and scoundrels, with dozens of new units and an engaging new single player campaign.

The lowdown:
Star Wars hasn’t had a lot of luck when it comes to strategy games but Empire at War is certainly the most convincing yet, with a clever mix of grand strategy and both space and land based real-time combat. The original game featured the two obvious original trilogy factions, but this includes a third in the form of a criminal empire lead by Tyber Zahn. As such, you no longer invade planets but corrupt them, enabling you to siphon off money and sabotage ground installations. Apart from this, the core gameplay hasn’t really changed but the new single player campaign is excellent, with a good variety of missions and cameos obscure and obvious from the classic trilogy.

Most exciting moment:
The best bit about the new single player campaign is the imaginative range of missions you must complete as the Tyber Zahn, in order to successfully corrupt planets. These include kidnapping, piracy, assassination and various other forms of skulduggery that are much more interesting than just destroying all the enemy units on a map.

Since you ask:
Zahn’s criminal consortium has all its own unique ships, but the most anticipated new units are those MIA from the first game, such as the B-wing, TIE Interceptor and Super Star Destroyer. A few units from previous Star Wars games also appear including TIE Defenders and Dark Troopers.

The bottom line:
One of the rare expansions to prove almost a necessity for fans of the original.-HARRISON DENT

Computeractive
This is a highly recommended update that adds plenty of new content.

Manufacturer's Description
In the best-selling Star Wars: Empire at War, you controlled an entire war for the Star Wars galaxy as the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Now, face off against them in Star Wars Empire at War: Forces of Corruption This expansion pack presents a new, unique point of view of the Galactic Civil War as, for the first time ever, you play as an aspiring Underworld figure. Corruption runs through your veins and drives your desire to become the most notorious criminal leader since Jabba the Hutt.

The Rebels have just destroyed the Death Star, and the galaxy is in turmoil. In other words, it's just the time that you, an ambitious criminal genius named Tyber Zann, have been waiting for. Quench your thirst for power as you build and lead your own forces of scum and villainy. Spread corruption throughout the galaxy using new strategic gameplay elements to influence other factions, steal their funds, slow their production, spy on them and more.

Exciting new land-tactical options like customizable, upgradeable bases and guerrilla warfare allow for innovative battlefield tactics. Take command of and confront new fighting units for all factions (Rebel B-wings, Imperial TIE interceptors, Super Star Destroyers and more). Take down anyone who stands in your way of ruling the Underworld, be they new battlefield heroes like Luke Skywalker and Yoda, or even your most bitter rival - Jabba the Hutt.

The ultimate prize awaits: an immense Super Star Destroyer known as the Eclipse. Spanning the length of nearly 11 of the Star Destroyers seen in the original Empire at War, this deadliest capital ship in the galaxy comes equipped with a superlaser rivalling that of the Death Star. With it under your control, no one will remember the name Jabba the Hutt - Tyber Zann will be the most feared crime lord the Underworld has ever seen.

Customer Reviews

Interesting...
I've only just put in a few hours on this add-on. The AI is much improved, as the units automatically use there 'special weapons' when you need them too, i.e. the speeder bikes drop charges before they're wiped out. Also, some units seemed to have gained a bit more stamina, rather than just falling over at the 1st laser shot. Overall, It's great to be able to play a more difficult game with some new challanges, I just wish my 1.6ghz laptop had a bit more umph! Buy it, you won't be disappointed.

A Great Expansion
Great to play, must have for any Star Wars fans, graphics game play are the same as SWEAW, but some of the new units such as the super star destroyer is amazing, the Zann Consortium (ZC) has a upper hand in space conflict with advanced tech available sooner (for example by the time the empire has victory classes, the ZC has battleships, the ZC however lacks ground defensive capabilities and is best suited to offensive than defensive. There is only one story based campaign for the ZC, but unfortunately the Empire cannot build the Eclipse, it is only available in the story based campaign.

Lucas Arts... bit of a pest!
I've had hours fo fun with the original Empire at War and this was supposed to build on that experience. Opening up new resources and campaigns, having already completed the limited set with the original game.

Everything's as you would expect from Lucas Arts... Easy to install and a good set of clear guide notes that explain all the changes, units and background. There is however one small little snag...

If you don't happen to have broadband (ie. ME!) then you probably don't bother with the online play feature... "Fine, no problem..." the single player option's good... but the game will not install and run "Out of the Box".

You need to go to the Lucas Arts website and download a patch for the original game (v1.5?) which is something around 25+Mb in size... You MUST have this patch before you can play the expansion. That's roughly ALL weekend with my (flakey) dial-up. So, I've now had to find a access point that allows me to save files to a USB drive and take the patch home... Not really what I had planned.

How about including the pre-requisite patches on the disc next time!? (Grrr).

...Other than that, it's pretty good! (end of rant).