Star Wars: Force Commander

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $6.33

Accessories:
Lego Star Wars Death Star II	PC Gamer (1-year)	LEGO Star Wars Imperial Dropship	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	LEGO Star Wars Rebel Scout Speeder

Customer Reviews:

What you need to know about Force Commander... [Posted on 2001-02-22]
As there is a huge discrepancy among the reviews of Force Commander, both from players and reviewers, I decided to try and clarify certain aspects of this realtime strategy (RTS) game and to provide some effective methods to address people's perceptions of it's shortcomings. I didn't want to simply say why I like the game as so many people have said why they don't.

Many have stated that they try the game for a few hours and then return it the same day. I will try to convey why it is so necessary to be patient and develop skills crucial to enjoying this game. In Force Commander (call it FC) you are forced to provide alot of "direction" to your units. At first, without the experience obtained from many hours of playing time, you will likely become frustrated by the camera control and unit pathfinding. Without experience, your control of your units and their resulting performance will most likely be miserable. To truly appreciate FC and the enjoyment that comes from successfully commanding your forces, there are many skills YOU MUST MASTER AND EFFECTIVELY USE. I cannot stress this strongly enough - if you don't master these skills, you WILL be disappointed by FC. These include:

1. CAMERA CONTROL: Use the mouse for panning, zooming (scroll wheel) and orbiting the camera - very effective when combined with the other hand on the W,A,S,D keys! Don't try to do all camera movements with just one hand. Quickly relocate the camera to troublespots by clicking on the strategic map where units are flashing - combat! Double-key a group's number to quickly relocate the camera to that group.

2. UNIT GROUPING AND ACCESS: Use the F9, F10,and F11 keys to quickly access units effective against infantry, armor, and air respectively. Form "squads" and assign them to the number keys for quick access. Group your units intelligently so you can respond quickly to any trouble.

3. UNIT CONTROL: You must provide your units with detailed waypaths - do not expect them to navigate well without them! Move other units out of the way if necessary. Try not to bunch units in tight places. In FC, your units are only as dumb or brilliant as you make them and without an experienced hand they can be quite dumb.

4. CONTROL INTERFACE (BHCI): Memorize all keystroke shortcuts and then hide the control interface if you like! Using the BHCI takes your eyes of the "screen" forcing you to re-acclimate to the "situation" every time you use it. By controlling your units "on-screen" as much as possible you stay in better touch with what's going on. Only bring the BHCI up when absolutely necessary. Keep the strategic map up at all times for reference and quick camera relocation.

These are just some of the methods to learn to make you more successful and the game more enjoyable. I highly recommend the Prima Strategy Guide for FC available right here at ...

As FC is one of the few entries in the field of 3D RTS gaming, people's expectations varied widely. Most likely, some did not know what to expect. Take note of the following:

1. FC will never be remembered as a classic RTS with groundbreaking and innovative features but many people enjoy it immensely.

2. FC's graphics are only adequate for a 3D game by today's standards due to its lengthy development time and "late" release.

3. Many people don't like the techno remix of John Williams' classic Star Wars score. Some do. If you don't like it, you can turn the music off.

4. FC is a huge system hog! It runs better on some machines than others without apparent reason. DON'T try to run it on a wimpy PC.

Your enjoyment of FC will also hinge greatly on how much micromanagement you like to do. If the game somehow took care of camera control, pathfinding, and all the other "tedious" functions, leaving only the "fun stuff" up to the player, I think more people would have praised this game. But these tedious and "difficult" functions are left to the player. In doing so, Lucasarts may have given the player a noose to hang himself. Some of us enjoy mastering these skills - ALOT OF PEOPLE DON'T!. PRACTICE! BE PATIENT! PRACTICE MORE! CAMERA CONTROL MUST BECOME SECOND NATURE TO YOU! The better you get at this game the more you will enjoy it! Use your imagination - try different strategies and tactics. Try the demo. Give it time. If you find the game becomes enjoyable after you garner experience, pick up the game.

Force Commander is the best!! [Posted on 2001-02-24]
For all you Command & Conquer/Star Wars fans this game is for you!

Too bad about the interface... [Posted on 2001-04-14]
This would have been a great game except for the actual user interface. What a mess! Unless you are a 5th dimensional being with 20 eyes, you got lost while trying to manage the games meandering views. Locking onto troops in order to give them orders is a tortuous exercise.

I gave up after two hours and uninstalled this programming mistake. This is another LA game that does'nt live up to it's promise.

A Good Game But Still not as good as I hoped [Posted on 2001-07-16]
Like I said in my title, a good game but still not as good as I hoped. First of all to make the game perfectly smooth, you have to have a brand spankin new computer. I have a 450 mhz pentium 2, 128 mb of ram, and an excellent video card. If your comp is anything less, I recommend upgrading your computer befor purchasing this game. The game play is good though. The mission and skermishis are fun, but the game is very limmiting. It's imposible to have as many units on the front intro all at the same time. And the fighters can act stupid sometimes. And something weird is on the back of the box, it shows A-Wings, yet there are no A-Wings in this game. The camera buttons are also very hard to learn, so playing the tutorial is a MUST if you don't know them by heart. The graphics and sounds on this game are remarkable. I mean Even the smallest Stormtrooper, or the largest AT-AT is detailed to the bone. I think this game is supposed to be a recovery for the not so great game, Star Wars Rebellion. (I also have a review about Star Wars Rebellion) Next time, I hope they make a game more like rebellion but much better. With Rebellion a good idea back fired. This game also doesn't hold your intrest very long, at least it didn't for me. Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Force commander is awsome [Posted on 2002-05-19]
lets cut to the chase this game is one of the best games out there because of the STORY you're Brenn Tantor
A stormtrooper that gets promoted to a luitenent in the Imperial army the first level has you looking for the escape pod from episode
IIV and ends after episode V the graphics are cool and so is the music But I still Really like the STORY.

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