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Battlestar Galactica
Score: 7.6 / 10
In gaming, the science fiction genre is one
dominated by a couple major franchises (Star Wars and Star Trek) and
filled with smaller series trying to aspire to the same level. For
Battlestar Galactica, though it may feel like a cheap way to gain
publicity for the show (past and present), which it is, you’ll also find
that it is playable enough for all Sci-Fi gamers.
The game is set forty years before the current TV series. After setting
out for space exploration, a group of human colonists set up twelve
colonies on different planets in the Cyranus system. As any human would
do, the colonials decided to eliminate the inhabitants of the worlds,
known as Cylons. As you would again suspect, a
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raging war begins between man and machine,
humans and Cylons.
Battlestar Galactica (BG) is extremely user friendly. By that I mean you
can pick up the controller and start a game, without ever being
completely lost in terms of control, objectives, and so on. Accelerating
and decelerating is done using the two triggers (L and R) while shooting
is done with the A and X |
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buttons. Though these remain the standard buttons used, there are also
more combinations and moves, ranging from barrel rolls to guiding
missiles.
Played through the 3rd person, the Viper (the fighter you control for
most of the game) is always presented in the center of the screen. This
makes spotting enemies near and far easy, but takes away from an
effective feel of speed. When boosting for higher speed the feeling of
speed isn’t really felt – in fact, it can feel like you’re not moving at
all. That said, this doesn’t hurt the game too much.
Enemies sometimes come out of nowhere but are embarrassingly easy to
destroy. Even in the hardest mode, when the ships were more agile,
laying the smack down is easy – destroying a ship can be done by firing
at it a few times, nothing special.
Throughout the entire game you’ll be flying through some graphically
beautiful levels shooting down enemies in what ultimately becomes a
semi-sweet experience. The amount of mission variation is desperately
lacking, making a linear experience. Some levels do allow you to man the
guns of battleships and destroy planted structures, though it doesn’t
spice up the gameplay the way it was intended to with, again, linear and
straightforward objectives.
Since BG is/was a popular show the detail to minor items is good but the
voice acting deserves the most applause with many cast members lending
their voice talents. The composed music is played through every level
and most enjoyed in the menu screen. During the fighting moments, the
music is barely audible. Other sounds, such as missiles and weapons cast
off the same style as other games in the same genre, though with its own
unique taste fans of the series will recognize. Overall, the sound of BG
is the only department without any critical flaws to be found.
Visually, BG is very appealing and perhaps the best part of the game.
From the earlier missions this might not be apparent but the later
missions throw you inside some stunning portals and settings that take
advantage of the hardware. The CG cutscenes is another great example of
great graphical achievement, though the same quality is not experienced
in the actual gameplay, it’s nice to see the story played out with full
details. The battleships and other such vehicles remain rather stagnant
in damage detection (meaning that the health of your character cannot be
noticed simply by looking at the ship) and takes away from the chaos of
battle. With that in mind, the only way you can tell the health of
objects is by looking at a small bar next to the object.
The visually impressive aspects of this game do make it appealing for
Xbox gamers but the linear system of gameplay makes getting through
Battlestar Galactica a journey to unlock some of the special features
like deleted scenes from the show, concept art from the game, and other
equally striking features for the Battlestar Galactica fan. This space
shoot-‘em-up should be passed by the average gamer, but for the space
gamer or Battlestar enthusiast, consider at least a rental.
- Eric Lahiji
(February 15, 2004) |
