Only after finishing the Sewers of Emperial City, were we slightly excited - but still, this kind of level can be found in Duke Nukem, Quake, or even Dark Forces, where they're more complex and more intricate. They're simply not as exploratory as any decent Doom-style game on the market. In terms of level design, the "walking" levels are vastly empty, with few surprises or bonuses in them, an occasional Challenge Point, and little ingenuity in the puzzle design. And the villains that Dash is supposed to knock off actually wait for him to catch up! In this case, the level design breaks down to a confused obstacle course with no street signs, with a level that's neither fun as a racing game, nor a bumper car sim. On a similar complaint about the movement, the speeder bikes in Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon prove jumpy and strangely awkward.
Three of the four viewpoints are useful during various stages of the game, with the exception of the movie angle, which directly faces Dash Rendar or follows him at "movie angles." What's the point of this angle - ever? It's faster to turn around then it is to flip to this. Dash falls off cliffs, ledges, trails, and buildings that he's not supposed to, despite the players' skill levelĪccompanying the movement tragedy is the Movie Angle. Yes, there's a learning curve, but the control doesn't get any better once you've learned, and more often than not you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. With the Doom-style levels of Escape from Echo Base, Gall Spaceport, Emperial Freighter Suprosa, the Sewers of Imperial City, and Xizor's Palace making up half of the game, one must wonder who approved Dash Rendar's annoyingly anti-gravitational, unrealistic, and just plain poor movement.
But after the Battle of Hoth the game takes a slow careening slope downhill until the Skyhook Battle. And dusting off the Sky Hook's core is extremely satisfying. Skimming the snowy surface of Hoth is something everyone has wanted do since The Empire Strikes Back. Relative to the other eight levels, the first and the last are by far the coolest. N64.com likes LucasArts (and many of its games on other systems - Dark Forces, Sam and Max, etc.) just as much as anyone, but we were disappointed again and again at this game's terrible control, its mediocre gameplay, and the overall knowledge that, once having finished it, you knew that the developers from LucasArts could have orchestrated a much better piece of videogaming. But sadly, Shadows of the Empire falls sharply into the category of games that are "wide but shallow" - it's full of different gaming genres, but not one of them is much good. When most people get their hands on LucasArts' newest Star Wars game, Shadows of the Empire, they will feel secretly happy knowing that they've got one of the most highly anticipated Nintendo games of 1996.
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