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Preview  Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2
- By Mike Schneider [Editor In Chief]


The Facts:

- Eleven missions based on real Star Wars environments such as the Death Star, Hoth, Bespin, Tatooine, and more.

- Pilot the best of the Star Wars vehicles such as the X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing, and Snowspeeder. In multiple missions, mid-level vehicle switching can be done by flying through a special icon. This not only adds variety, but also gives you what essentially turns into an extra life, if you are to switch when you were almost destroyed.

- Similar medal scheme as Rogue Squadron for N64; however, no platinum awards. Gold, silver and bronze exist, and achieving extra medals opens up various goodies such as being able to use the Millenium Falcon. Less usage of the first person targeting mode allows you easier access to higher medals.

- Realtime environmental effects that change during the course of the level. For example, twin suns in Tatooine rise and set.

- Issue commands to your wingmen by using the d-pad.

- Bonus missions include being able to play as Darth Vader and battle against Luke Skywalker and company in the Death Star level.

Cube Club Impressions, November 5th:

Wow. This game is like fine wine. As good as I remember the demo at E³ being, the final version of Rogue Leader totally eclipses that first experience.

This time around, I was able to get some prolonged playtime with many of the one player missions -- even beating some of them. I'd say, in all, I probably played about 2 hours worth of the final version of Rogue Leader.

The first mission in the game, Death Star Attack, is impressive graphical as you see what appears to be hundreds of radar towers on the base of the death star, coupled with wave after wave of TIEs trying to ambush you. The objectives in the level [WARNING: Mild spoiler ahead -- if you don't want to know the mission objectives, skip to the end of the warning] -- destroying all radar towers, eliminating the TIES, and surviving through the ever-so-famous trench run – [END WARNING] are fairly straight forward, fun, and serve as an excellent way to get acquainted with the controls and the awesome game.

The second level in the game, Ison Corridor Ambush, is a total graphical wow (then again, every environment in Rogue seems to be). What's particularly impressive is the usage of fog as a graphical effect. The atmospheric fog is as lifelike as one could possible desire from a videogame. And, on top of this, the level essentially forces you to be flipping back and forth between the 3rd person view and the cockpit view that highlights enemies for you. If you don’t do some 1st person action, you’ll quickly discover that locating TIES amidst the foggy mayhem is an exercise of great frustration. [WARNING] Ison’s primary objective has you protecting transports; in which, midway through the mission, you enter an extremely foggy nebula and have the option of switching from an X-Wing to an A-Wing if you choose to. [END WARNING].


Using the cockpit view to help you out in Ison – this is a necessity unless you enjoy seeing the words “Mission Failure.”

I could go on and on describing more of the missions and how much they rock, but I think that’d get to be a repetitious read for you. Comparing Rogue Leader, on a technical level, to everything else at the Cube Club isn’t even possible – Rogue was miles beyond Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race, or any other game. You’ve viewed enough screenshots by now to see it. I can tell you that the sound effects and music are so crystal clear, so crisp, and amazing – that if there was ever a single game that demanded you play it on surround sound, it is this one.

So, I’ll end this by saying what you’ve been waiting to here: Rogue Leader is the launch game to pick up, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. You’ll be wedged in your couch for days as you let Luke Skywalker guide you through a gaming force unlike one previously experienced. Weak Star Wars puns aside, do yourself the favor of reserving this game now if you haven’t done so already.

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E³ Impressions, May 18th:

Rogue Squadron 2 was simply amazing; everything about it was mystifying. In Lucas Arts demo, they’re showcasing 3 of the stages: One that was an excellent reenactment of the death star trench run from the movie, another that is over a planet filled with buildings that look similar to oil rigs, and another that took place in space, with a star destroyer taking center stage. It is said that the final version will feature eleven exhilarating air-to-ground and air-to-air mission scenarios over planets and in space, including the legendary battle on the ice planet Hoth. The game also includes numerous bonus missions, which players can unlock by completing various goals throughout the game.

The graphics were unbelievable, surpassing even Nintendo’s best efforts in their 1st party games. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get the game to move less than 60 frames per second, be it continually barrel rolling while shooting our weaponry, all with zillions of enemy laser shots spraying the air, or other slightly less drastic efforts. Furthermore, some of the textures on aircrafts were unbelievable. I’ll save more specific talk about textures for whenever I’m able to pull some quotes from our interview we had with Lucas Arts today, but let it be known that there might not be a better looking game at the show then Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2.

Furthermore, it seems that Lucas Arts/Factor aren’t just resting on their laurels and trying to keep gameplay on par with Rogue Squadron; namely, there are a few innovative enhancements that make this game a damn worthy sequel. First and foremost, is a special targeting mode you can use, when using a cockpit camera angle view, that highlights pivotal targets for you and helps keep everything more easily distinguishable. Secondly, Lucas Arts has included a camera feature so that when you get a bogey on your tail, the camera angle zooms back, thus allowing you to locate the enemy, see what it is, and it more easily allows you to make evasive maneuvers.

I also got a nice demonstration of the surround sound in Rogue Squadron 2. The word “awesome” is an understatement! Base booms like never before, aircrafts shriek by you in entire 3D, and even the music changes tempo and style on the fly to accompany the on-screen action.

Finally, Lucas Arts has essentially utilized every button on the GameCube controller. Perhaps it would have been nice for Nintendo to have given one or two more buttons on it?

In any case, Rogue Squadron 2 is a definite showstopper that has garnered a ton of attention. Too bad there are only 2 kiosks with the game, you can imagine the length of time you have to wait in order to play it! Rogue Squadron 2 will be a launch title.

More in the coming days.
-Mike, 1:30am PT, 5.18.01

- 11.5.2001