Caution: This review contains a description of the mission featured in the demo. If you want to explore the demo for yourself, you should hit the "back" button. Otherwise, read on.
"What a piece of junk!" The British PCGamer review somewhat failed to get me 100% looking forward to Battlegrounds. Altough I was excited by some elements, I just ended up quoting ANH in my inner mind. But as I learned that it was about to be released as a demo, and as I saw some more screenshots actually looking good here at the site and on Lucasarts.com, I knew this was something.
The demo, or trial, as LEC seems to like to call their attention grabbers, contains a single mission where you control Darth Vader and a group of stormtroopers as they search for Dodonna, a rebel leader, on Yavin IV after the destruction of the Death Star. You'll have to take down several rebel bases on your way to clear a path and receive reinforcements. For example, at one point in the game, you have to destroy a group of Anti air towers to allow a TIE Bomber group to attack a certain building. Some structures are hidden, tough, and destroying these will give you more effective forces, like AT-PTs. You can also convert units to your cause with lord Vader.
I have yet to try the multiplayer game, and hope that someone else can write a review on it below. Thank you.
Demo contents: 1 Single player mission (Search and Destroy), MP support (King of the Hill, or in this game, "Commander of the Base")
Graphics: 90%
Gameplay: 100%
Music: There is no music in the mission, only on the startup screen.
Sound: 90%
Total:
90%
The Galactic Battlegrounds demo is a lot like the AOE2 demo...except with less:( . You can only do one campaign as Darth Vader. You don't build anything or set up a base. You just take out various Rebel bases while reinforcements keep coming to aid you. One cool thing though is that Tie Bombers come in several times and bomb Rebel bases. The best aspect of the demo, is the Multiplayer. You can only advance to Tech Level 3 and you only have the Rebels and the Empire at your disposal. The map size can't be enlarged either, which sucks! You can't complain though..it's free:) . There are A LOT more units than in AOE2. They all look great and each serves it's purpose. The only thing that bothered me, was that the units seemed to move a little funny...could just be me though. Never the less, this game is going to be awesome and for all of you having trouble downloading, don't give up! It took me 6 hours...and I have a cable modem.