Shadows of the Empire manages to throw out most modern common game design sense (By way of predating it) in a clunky but ambitious action game that somehow ultimately has enough cool factor and atmosphere to make just fun enough to still keep playing.

Despite the loss of the more visually appealing still-cutscenes in exchange for chunky 90's CG cutscenes, the smooth framerate, customizable controls, and support for a number of resolutions makes the PC port the definitive way to play this in 2020.

Boba Fett made me give up.
Edit: tried again on easy and made it.

Boba Fett me fez desistir.
Edit: tentei de novo no easy e consegui.

Forma parte de los cuatro juegos de Star Wars lanzados para la gran N64 y siendo el primero de ellos, aun contando con un limitado aparatado gráfico y unos controles que sin duda alguna pudieron haber sido mejor desarrollados, es un cartucho con mucha calidad, que nos cuenta una historia digna de ser escuchada y nos presenta unos enemigos dignos de ser derrotados. Contando con una banda sonora orquestada completamente nueva e implementada en el gameplay, con una dificultad que raya lo absurdo en algunas ocasiones y presentando a un personaje bastante peculiar, Shadows of the Empire es uno de esos juegos que se consideran de culto y al cual muy pocas personas le dan la importancia que se merece.

Também um dos mais jogados, perdendo apenas para o SF64. Também já peguei o Master no retroachievements.
É possível fechar em 1 dia, não e difícil se souber o macete de como jogar, no nível Jedi é bem surreal o dano e a mira, caso não saiba jogar nele, a tela de game over será frequente.
Única coisa que esse jogo peca é em seu conteúdo, deveria ter mais um extra além dos challegers points, missão ou usar outros veículos sem o uso de "_Wompa__Stompa".
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Also one of the most played, second only to SF64. I also got the Master in retroachievements.
It's possible to close in 1 day, it's not difficult if you know the trick on how to play, in the Jedi level it's quite surreal the damage and the aim, if you don't know how to play it, the game over screen will be frequent.
The only thing this game lacks is in its content, it should have one more extra besides the challenger points, mission or using other vehicles without the use of "_Wompa__Stompa".

Played on PC, at medium difficulty, capped at 30 FPS

Dude honestly this game is a lot of fun!

So let me start off by saying, this game will probably not be a 4 star for you, it might not even be a 3 star for you, but I just found this game to be a lot of fun and enjoyed it despite all its flaws.

So to start off, the biggest flaw is the controls. It controls like straight up shit, it is some of the most asinine controls I've ever encountered, but you can still kinda get used to them. One thing you can never get used to is the camera though, it's just really fucking bad. Typical early 3D game with horrendous camera.

Next flaw is the enemy placement: it's cheap. Enemies will literally be on every door or corner and they will shoot you the first frame they appear on your screen, hell sometimes they'll just shoot you through the wall.

Some levels can be relentless, there are pretty huge difficulty spikes sometimes and it can be quite painful. There's one level halfway through the game that takes legitimately 30+ minutes to get through, then you must fight Boba Fett, who has two phases. If you run out of the 4 lives you're given, you have to start all the way back. Most other levels aren't that long though so it's not that bad, it's just this level in particular was annoying.

So, if you can look past the control/camera/difficulty flaws, it's a really fun game. In terms of diverse gameplay it's like a prototype for future Sony exclusives if that makes sense. You can be flying and shooting, whilst cabling AT-ATs, then running and gunning, platforming, on a speeder bike, controlling a ship turret, tons of unique boss fights, there's just so much action packed into its 5 hour run time. All the levels are extremely unique and awesome as well.

Continuing on with that, the aesthetics of this game are so awesome, just really charming. This is the peak of gritty Star Wars aesthetics. Combining this with the legendary Star Wars music we all know while adding some new music that also goes hard as fuck, it's a game you can't help but be charmed by.

This game 100% deserves a remake, so far this is the best Star Wars adventure game I've played. I haven't even mentioned the story and characters but they're all awesome as well, and there's even a novel and comic books that tie into the story.

If you can get pasts its glaring flaws, you'll find a really fun Star Wars adventure. I can't imagine how hard this would be on Hard or Jedi difficulties, so if you're anything like me stick to medium.

(See all my Star Wars Rankings and reviews on my profile here, the list is titled "Star Wars Ranked.")

La historia de "El Imperio Contraataca" y "El retorno del Jedi" vista desde la perspectiva de Dash Rendar, un contrabandista que por un accidente en el que se vio envuelto el verdadero villano de esta continuidad, Sol Negro, lo perdió todo.

Si quieres saber cómo le siguió la pista a Han Solo, ver quien intenta matar a Luke para que Vader no lo entregue y fracase en su misión y ayudar a los bothan a robar los planos de la Segunda Estrella de La Muerte, atraviesa una mezcla de niveles a pie, en vehículos, en naves y enfréntate tanto al Imperio como a la más baja calaña que te encuentres.

Cuando era chico los juegos 3D me producían cierto temor (y tengo que confesar que todavía me hacen sentir un poco de nervios los juegos 3D de esta época). Así que decidí intentar perder mis miedos jugando este juego.

Es un shooter 3D del montón, pero como tiene temática de Star Wars enganchará a más de un fan (como a mí).

Mención especial al nivel de Boba Fett, que fue cuando logré superar mi miedo a los juegos 3D.

I'm gonna let you know right now, this game is getting a wholeass star for that Hoth level.

If you were born after 1999, then you do not know a time in which Star Wars wasn't an inescapable part of American media. The original trilogy was a big deal, highly influential not just for how it changed the art of filmmaking but for pop culture as a whole, but the early-to-mid 90s were a period of stillness. You could find Star Wars media fairly easily, but you could just as easily avoid it - a far cry from yearly films and big budget television streaming series, and people getting irrationally upset over Sweitt Concorkill on the internet, or whatever. The release of The Phantom Menace changed that, but any conversation about Star Wars' reemergence as a media juggernaut that doesn't bring up Shadows of the Empire is one that doesn't respect history.

Shadows of the Empire was a multimedia event, deliberately treated with the same gravitas as a motion picture release in an effort to revitalize Star Wars' brand power. They even released a soundtrack for the novel. Lucasfilm wanted people to not only think this was a big deal, but to treat it as one. Now I ain't never read the book on account of me not being so good with words and junk, but I did read the comic, because it had pictures of Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett in it. I remember going to pog tournaments (which were held in an empty, unfurnished room on the second floor of a comic shop) then heading downstairs to thumb through issues of Shadows, and going home to play with my Shadows of the Empire toys. I did my tour of duty.

If it wasn't for the success of Shadows of the Empire and the special editions of the original trilogy (which released around the same time), The Phantom Menace might not have been made. Can you imagine how wonderful that would be? Just close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world where kids didn't suck on Jar Jar Binks' candied tongue. Doesn't that just calm you? Unfortunately, you don't live in that reality. You live in the one where Therm Scissorpunch - a character first introduced in a Denny's commercial - has his own carefully crafted backstory. God damn I hate it here. And yet, when people look back on Shadows of the Empire's legacy, they rarely talk about the novel (arguably the centerpiece), or the comics, or the toys and trading cards... It's all about the game. It might as well be the only part of Shadows that exists.

Shadows of the Empire: The Game Based on the Novel Based on a Major Motion Picture is a third person shooter that puts players in control of side character and certifiable space himbo Dash "Shoulder Pads" Rendar. A lot of this game could be summed up as "what if Dark Forces was third person?" Sure, it's not as fast or fluid as that, but the way you approach levels is largely the same: awkwardly platform around various alien worlds while shooting storm troopers and completing a series of objectives necessary for progressing the story and level. You also shoot Boba Fett, so uh, it's basically the same thing??

Of course, being a fully 3D game also allows Shadows of the Empire to feature more dynamic set pieces and varied gameplay types. The train level is a personal favorite, it still provides a satisfying sense of speed and the platforming is really tense, plus it culminates in an absolute bastard of a fight against IG-88. However, Shadows of the Empire is best known for its Hoth level, and while it may not be the first video game rendition of the Battle of Hoth, it's probably the most significant. Having this level of control over the snow speeder, cruising around in a fully 3D space taking out probe droids and chicken walkers, running your tow cable around the legs of an AT-AT... It was incredibly immersive for its time and it was the closest a game came to making you feel like you were in the movies. The other vehicle levels are a bit more hit or miss (the asteroid chase is great, the swoop bike level is offensively bad), but Shadows of the Empire opens strong with Hoth, and broadly speaking, the rest of the game so perfectly captures and sights and sounds of Star Wars that any kid in the 90s would be immensely satisfied with it.

Shadows of the Empire certainly has its flaws though, and it can be especially difficult to come back to today given how refined the third person shooter genre has become. Dash feels stiff and clumsy and blaster impacts just don't have the level of punch you'd want them to. Levels can be a bit confusing to navigate and nearly all of them are too damn long, and the difficulty is all over the place. I mentioned IG-88, Boba Fett, and the swoop bike chase, all of which stick in my memory because of how absurdly difficult they are. The swoop bike sequence is especially frustrating given how lengthy it is, and how punishing it can be to die right near the very end. It was always the point in which the game broke me as a kid. The remaining few levels are like drinking a warm, flat soda. Just a total bummer how weak the climax is, though it's entirely possible I think this only because I cannot perceive them through the lens of nostalgia as I can for the rest of the game. Going to guess I would've never liked Imperial City Sewers, though.

I do like the look of the cutscenes, although the story sometimes lacks gravity due to the fact that Dash is a largely reactive character, and much of his story is informed by events occurring in the novel and comics, which you don't directly see. Luke shows up, but like, Luke is having his own whole adventure in another medium. He may not be the main character of this story, but he's still the main character of the larger story that this one is a part of. It's weird, but also part in parcel for something like this. You can also only do so much cinematically with a Nintendo 64 game, and it's perhaps best that they kept things as brisk as they did.

To say Shadows of the Empire is antiquated feels insulting and rhetorically dull, but it is very much a case of a game having its time and place. It exists entirely because and within the context of Star Wars in the mid 1990's, and I think trying to excise it from the whole of what Shadows of the Empire is risks appreciating it less. In that sense, I find it both fascinating and a little difficult to reapproach. A lot of what I enjoy about it is steeped in my memories of that time, and for anyone removed from that period, it likely holds little value outside of being a time capsule representative of a grossly different media landscape. I certainly think it's worth playing for that reason, the point I'm trying to make here is swoop bikes fucking suck, they fucking suck so much, you don't have to play past that