Game Review: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

As part of my goal to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of arguably the best Star Wars film, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; I’ve taken it upon myself to dive deep into the expanded media from the movie. Part of that desire is to revisit an old relic from a more civilized age in which movie tie-in games actually had genuine effort and value to offer.  As part of the lead up towards the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, a video game adaptation was released 2 whole weeks prior.  Despite it’s early release, me and my brother bought the game soon after watching the movie and I have very fond memories of playing it together with him. When I think back to my time playing PlayStation 2 games, this is one of the major titles I remember.  I figured it was time to revisit it and determine if the legacy this game defined on my childhood was as well-deserved as I remembered.

Developed by The Collective, this studio had earned a reputation in the early 2000’s as a developer primarily focused on movie and TV licensed games.  Their list of credited games is small and the studio doesn’t really have much of a foothold in the current market, but their legacy (for good or worse) is tied to adapting established properties into video games.  With the aid of the game’s official publisher Lucasarts, the Revenge of the Sith video game serves as a third-person action game which took a lot of the established narrative behind the film as well as some cut content and adapted them into a sequence of action-packed levels to experience. It was noted that there was a great sense of synergy between the game team and the movie team to ensure the game fairly represented the movie’s most iconic elements. Released on May 5^th 2005 across PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the mainline version of Revenge of the Sith received notably mixed reviews from critics but did end up selling enough copies to warrant a Platinum sales awards, with total units sold being touted around 2 million in 2006.

The story behind the game is as previously noted, directly adapted from the movie itself.  Set in the final days of the Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith follows Anakin Skywalker has he tragically falls to the dark side under the influence of the evil Darth Sidious.  After a successful rescue of Chancellor Palpatine in a battle over Coruscant, Anakin’s trust in the Jedi is tainted as he is asked to serve as the Chancellors personal Jedi representative and spy on him.  Meanwhile Obi-Wan Kenobi is tasked by the Jedi Council to venture to the Outer Rim planet of Utapau to locate and neutralize the Separatist leader, General Grievous in hopes of ending the Clone Wars for good.  As the two friends are set on separate paths, tragedy unfolds as Darth Sidious enacts his final plan to destroy the Jedi and bring forth the rise of his new Galactic Empire.  Anakin becomes a willing apprentice to the dark lord as he aids in the destruction of the Jedi.  This sets him and Obi-Wan on a collision course which will define their very fates with a duel which will leave both men scarred for the remainder of their days.

With the game being represented in segmented levels, it’s a notable issue transcribing all of the emotional depth and complexity of the movie through the game.  I think The Collective and Lucasarts do their best to highlight key context of the movie with synopsis screens and movie clips, but it’s not something which works completely.  I think the game’s narrative is shadowed in the games focus to showcase of more action-orientated moments of the movie. I understand the decision to do that in the case of the video game, but my main point is this game shouldn’t be looked at as an comprehensive reflection of the movie’s narrative, because there’s a lot of stuff that is omitted or poorly showcased which adds pivotal context and understanding behind Anakin’s turn to the dark side and why events play out in the way they do.

The game has over 17 main levels as well as 5 bonus levels to play through.  You’ll be playing the main levels as either Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Each of the levels focuses on a primary objective set within the confines of a location from the movie.  The first set of levels are set on the Invisible Hand, General Grievous’ Separatist flagship in which you’ll spend a fair bit of time navigating hangers, corridors, fuel tanks and elevator shafts as you work your way to save the Chancellor.  These levels serve as a solid introduction to the gameplay and ease you into the enemy variety as you take on the droid army.  As Obi-Wan and Anakin are split off over the course of the narrative, some of the games levels will focus on Obi-Wans mission on Utapau as he fights against not only the droids but also the Clones as Order 66 is enacted. While in turn Anakin’s later levels focus on his turn to the dark side as he aids Sidious in destroying the remaining Jedi at the Jedi Temple and then ventures to Mustafa to destroy the last remnants of the Separatist leadership.  I like how distinct both Obi-Wan and Anakin’s levels feel, with the enemy variety and locations being notably different it allows things to feel fresh between them while also allowing the player to experience a variety of encounters.  Special credit goes to adapting cut or unseen elements from the movie, especially when it comes Anakin’s sacking of the Jedi Temple, those levels were and still remain my favourite parts of the game.

What defines this games legacy amongst players though is the notorious difficulty tied behind the games combat. It was noted by developers that the lightsaber combat was a key element they wanted to get down, so much so they got stunt coordinator Nick Gillard and Hayden Christensen to come to the studio and offer input on the way combat should be tailored to be identical to that seen in the film.  The combat system is simple to start with, but as the game progresses, you’ll be tasked with mastering it’s more adept elements to take on the games harder assortment of enemy’s and bosses.  While I appreciate the effort to be authentic to the movie, I can’t help but feel even now the combat was way too difficult.  I know we can sit here and argue about whether it’s skill issue, but I genuinely believe some of the combat encounters, especially in the later stages are just unfair.  Enemies can deflect your attacks with ease, even if you string together a serious number of combos.  There were also a fair few enemies which are just pure rage-bait with the way they can stun-lock you into a no-win scenario.  I think the boss fights themselves can be a serious barrier to entry for some and I found myself having just as tough a time fighting them now as I did when I was a kid.  It’s not an issue on the combat itself though, as I did enjoy how extensive it was and how different Anakin and Obi-Wan felt to play.  I just think some of the encounters were not well-considered when it came to giving the player a fair challenge.

There’s a nice bit of bonus content to play around with in this game too which I find gives it extra value.  Mentioned earlier are the 6 bonus missions, which will put you in the role of unique characters instead of Anakin and Obi-Wan as they are tasked with dealing with a survival or timed encounters.  They’re fun in a sense because you get to play as unique characters.  There’s also the versus and co-operative multiplayer modes.  I can’t tell you how many hours me and my brother lost fighting each other as characters in the versus mode, there’s a nice range of characters to play and it always made for a fun yet tight encounter whenever we faced off.  Additional content also comes in the form of concept art from the developers as well as clips to replay from the movie. All in all, this is a fairly substantial offering of additional content which I appreciate whole heartedly.

In terms of presentation, the game once again does a good job trying to emulate the visual style of Episode III.  Characters and set pieces all feel ripped from the movie and look genuinely authentic.  A lot of the movie cast didn’t come to reprise their roles in the game however, so we get James Arnold Taylor and Mat Lucas from the original Clone Wars micro series filling in for the character. While I like James’ interpretation of Obi-Wan, I never got on with Mat Lucas’ personally, I found he just always gave Anakin the same monotonous tone with little inflection or range which is pivotal to tell his story from the movie. There’s no original score for the game as the game has the liberty of using John Williams fantastic movie soundtrack to serve as the backdrop for a lot of the key moments.

I tried not to let nostalgia blur my objective review of this game, which is difficult when you consider how much I love this movie and in turn the game associated to it.  I don’t think anyone is wrong in saying this game feels too difficult, I genuinely feel the developers went way too hard in some encounters and in turn made the game more a grind to work though at times.  Yet despite my issues with the difficulty, the rest of the game showcases to me a product of genuine value and care.  This wasn’t just a quick push to market release like most movie tie-ins were at the time, you could tell Lucasarts and the Collective wanted to make a game which was every bit as genuine as the movie it was adapting.  I think on the whole they delivered a solid game despite it’s flaws and I had a really fun time revisiting it.