Shadows of the Empire - An Extensive Star Wars Retrospective

oh man I think they got him hey remember when Star Wars was filled with a robust passionately made expanded universe that wasn't written exclusively for a paycheck by people who hate the source material and repeatedly announce how much they utterly loathe and despise the fan base I do ever heard of Shadows of the Empire if not you may be wondering what it is is it a game a book a toy line the answer is yes it's all of those things and more see when they were around LucasArts was a studio filled with some of the most Innovative and creative people in the entertainment industry and with George Lucas about to release his special edition of the original trilogy LucasArts got together and pitched one of the most ambitious Star Wars projects seen to date in an attempt to bridge the gap between episodes 4 and 5 LucasArts conceptualized what they referred to as a multimedia project they called Shadows of the Empire which surprisingly we have the dark forces Project Lead John Knowles to thank for that as setting it between four and five was actually his idea the goal was to create a single Star Wars story and tell it through multiple different forms of media all connecting to create a massive experience without using a movie this included everything a book a game a comic book series trading cards Micro Machines toys models and even an original soundtrack performed by a live Orchestra for the story to accompany however you were choosing to consume it we all know now that Star Wars has been a cultural phenomenon for decades having overtaken the hearts and minds of the populace with its movies books Comics toys and of course video games this multimedia project was a huge factor in actually making that happen in the mid 90s priming the industry for what the prequels would eventually bring at the turn of the century look this channel is no stranger to Star Wars games at this point with me having already covered Star Wars Bounty Hunter for the PS2 and most recently the rebel assault games today I wanted to do another extensive retrospective on yet another old Star Wars game Shadows of the Empire except since it's actually a fairly short game this won't be quite as long as my other extensive videos released for the Nintendo 64 all the way back in December of 1996 three years before the first prequel even existed Shadows of the Empire isn't actually its own original game but serves rather as a pseudo adaptation companion game to a book released of the same name as but one piece of a full multimedia project so in my typical fashion I pulled out all the stops and actually read the full book by Steve Perry alongside playing through the game so that I could fully immerse myself in the experience of this title in every facet it had to offer although as stated earlier the game is more of a companion piece to the book where the main story actually is Star Wars Shadows of the Empire the book is actually the glue between episodes 5 and 6 of the original trilogy focusing on how Luke Leia and Lando discovered the location of Han and what they had to go through to set up their rescue plan also included are a lot of other cool insights such as a much deeper look into Vader's character how Luke built his green lightsaber and more so I'd say it's actually a pretty good read so with that in mind I will be bringing up the book frequently throughout the video to inform you guys what's happening in the main story as we work our way through the game's side Adventure not too dissimilar to how I handled my Dante's Inferno video so let's get started foreign [Music] ER to Echo base please respond [Music] Captain I've established contact with the rebel outpost on off this is dash rendar tell the princess I've got that shipment of assault Blaster she's been waiting for copy outrider we've been expecting it you are clear to land in phase three [Music] [Music] levo get this stuff offloaded and into those transports before they take off I just found out the Empire is about to ruin our day Han Solo told me that Imperial walkers have been spotted on the East Ridge I'm going to jump into a speeder and help Rogue group slow them down but it's been quite some time since you've owned an airspeeder in combat and don't get your servos in a Twist pal just make sure you collect the money for this load by the time I get back and be sure to count it this time will you for playing the game I opted to go with the PC port on Steam which to my surprise was relatively easy to get working there was no need for any patches or anything on my end and I was able to set the resolution to 2K to fit my monitor with ease in the settings of the launch menu can't ask for more than that although it doesn't work with cutscenes unfortunately so they'll be in their original resolution and I'll just have to stretch them across the screen for this I played on the controller for a portion of it but obviously found that mouse and keyboard was significantly easier to control after testing between the two granted nothing makes the game control super well but that is just due to its age and the platform it was built for the game itself follows the character of Dash rindar a rogus Smuggler who has been helping the rebel alliance in exchange for credits and has no fond feelings for the Empire interestingly enough Dash was sort of included into the movies retroactively when George Lucas had his ship the outrider added into the VFX of episode 4 A New Hope although Dash doesn't play a massive role in the book his character is crucial in the events of the overall story which is what makes playing the game with the book so cool as we get to play out the things he was doing while the book's events took place the game actually starts before the book showing us how Dash was involved in the Battle of Hoth Dash being here is actually Canon to the book too when Luke and Leia meet dash for the first time Luke says he looks familiar and dash reveals that he was indeed on Hoth and did take out an imperial atat just like he does in the game so it's cool to have that level of continuity between these properties this section is fantastic too it could just be that since I just finished playing Rebel assault games with their awful controls and mediocre settings that the freedom of movement and fun to control snowspeeder felt better than it normally would having the game open on a snowspeeder section is just great we see all these probe droids and atsts alongside the atats and even get to make the iconic cable run where we fly around the atat to trip it up just a great opening here this is how you start a game give us something exciting and fun right off the bat [Music] Nebo I'm through messing around out here fire up the ship I'm coming in [Music] following this Dash lands and gets ready to run to his ship and get off of Hoth this is where we get to see what will be the majority of the gameplay this third person shooter style is how we'll play most of the game with the exception of the occasional vehicle level now if I was playing this on an N64 I can only imagine the hell of trying to control this character but since I'm on a mouse and keyboard it's not so bad I actually do own a USB N64 controller but since I'm playing the PC Port of Shadows I figured mouse and keyboard was fair game for an authentic experience I will be using this for a few upcoming in 64 videos I have planned though so stay tuned for that starting off we run through this Hangar and we actually get to see the Millennium Falcon fly away just like in the movie except where's Vader he should be standing right there okay well my head Cannon is going to be that Dash hid out back here and waited for Vader to walk away before pursuing down these Halls speaking of the Halls back here we find a challenge point and a Wampa which we spam with Blaster shots until it dies so we can access this equipment we're gonna need it [Music] I don't know whose idea it was to make navigating slippery edges a key element of a game that controls like this but I'd like to have a word with them repeatedly I am just walking and minding my own business when Dash slips and falls to his death which is damned annoying I want to be frustrated but then I remember that speedruns exist and I have to remember that no matter how badly a game controls the problem is always that I just need to get good you've got Psychopathic autists giving in to the force to speedrun and complete these levels like they're one with the game itself reminiscent of Luke turning off his targeting computer and using the force to destroy the Death Star so I'm just swallowing the truth I suck at the game that being said we briefly get back into my favorite aesthetic of old Star Wars games gray steel rooms don't worry these areas actually play a surprisingly minimal role across the game as most of the environments are outside which is a very welcome facet of the game overall there is a hidden room with three more wampas in it but I didn't get footage of it just putting that in there getting into this massive room we come across the generator room for Echo base and due to the Imperial attack the generators have gone offline so Dash needs to reactivate the generators before you can get to his ship and leave following this as we're trying to get to our ship the ground starts to break apart under us forcing us to jump to stay alive I loved this inclusion I had no idea or expectation of anything this interesting happening in a game this old I know it might seem so menial and small but it's Dynamic events like this that make the difference between a game that keeps us engaged and one that numbs our brain we're finally at the first boss battle of the game well it's more of a mini boss but it's still pretty hard so here's an embarrassing admission I didn't know you could look up when I started playing this so I thought you had to whittle this thing's Health down by just shooting its legs repeatedly causing me to spam all my rockets and then strafe around and just pour Blaster shots onto its legs until it died writing this in hindsight I am now aware of how much easier it is to kill these things if you just aim up and shoot their head but that's why the footage is the way that it is so we run down another Hall leap off a cliff grab a challenge point and there's our ship all right I've gotta nerd out a little bit I love the outrider this ship is a YT 2400 carillion Light freighter a newer sleeker model than the YT 1300 life Raider which is what the iconic Millennium Falcon is the book even confirms that the outrider is smaller faster and better than the Falcon would be without the added modifications from Lando and Han as far as looks go I think the outrider looks significantly cooler than the Falcon and despite all the hate the special edition Trilogy gets the inclusion of the outrider gets an approval from me it's a good thing I like the ship too because we're about to have a whole level in it the next mission is short but sweet we leave Hoth and fly over a star destroyer and through an asteroid field as we try to bypass the Imperial blockade and escape this is a really simple Mission but it doesn't take away from how sick it is as we dive deeper into the field and prepare to make the jump to hyperspace we have to destroy 60 Tie fighters it's on the rail and we can only control the weapons but I really enjoyed playing this level speaking of levels the game itself is split up into four different Acts or what it refers to as Parts each one accompanied with its own traditional Star Wars text crawl and each of those four parts has three missions in it in previous videos I've talked over and over about developers putting their best foot forward when releasing a game well Shadows of the Empire started us in a snow speeder fighting in the Battle of Hoth then had us escape the echo base Under Siege only to throw us into a space battle fleeing a star destroyer through an asteroid field fighting Tie fighters and bookending act one with another vehicle mission this is what I'm always talking about with First Impressions after destroying the fighters and getting free from Imperial sight Dash makes the jump to light speed and we move on to the next part of the game where we'll be taking on a couple of the Galaxy's most notorious bounty hunters [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign meeting with the emperor went well as planned Prince she's or of course I promised 300 ships for his Majesty's construction project on Endor I bowed and scraped to every one of Lord Vader's demands they couldn't have found a more amenable business partner or a more dangerous enemy you've informed Jabba's bounty hunters that Lord Vader's ordered to capture Luke Skywalker alive has now been changed yes and no one will know that the New Order to kill Skywalker came from you excellent my hand must not be detected in this Vader will surely suffer the emperor's wrath when he fails to deliver Skywalker alive as promised with both of them out of our way and the emperor's growing dependence on black Sun's substantial resources there is no limit to the power I will Attain you are correct Captain ig-88 is down in the junkyard outside the city of ORD mantel I told you Princess Leia hired the right guy Libo after their nasty dogfight Boba Fett took off to some Safe Port for repairs and ig-88 limited ship here to scavenge for spare parts I'll bet that Droid knows exactly where fed is hiding and that's what I'm gonna find out come in Libo did the scanners find ig-88's exact location S engine core I can shut off the auto brake remotely and easily crash the train through the door easy you say there's a Time skip between part one and two of the game that I think we should cover before we get to the next missions part one of the game actually takes place during the First Act of Empire Strikes Back but part two and on of the game actually happened weeks after Empire Strikes Back ends so we're gonna have to catch up with the book to know what's happening but don't worry I'll keep it brief after Luke lost his hand during his confrontation with Vader he regroups with the rebel Fleet and they give him a new metal hand which we see at the end of the fifth movie following this however Luke actually splits off and returns to Obi-Wan's small house where he first met him in the fourth movie A New Hope this is where Luke actually lives for a while and studies the notes and research Obi-Wan had left behind Luke continues to learn more about the Jedi way and also instructions on how to create a new lightsaber so the book actually shows us as he's in the process of creating it Leia meanwhile is meeting up with Lando to try and find out where Boba Fett has taken Han they already know he will be delivered to Jabba at some point but their plan is to find fet and take on away before he can be delivered to Jabba at all there's a whole other plot line happening as well about the head of a criminal organization called the black Sun named Prince shizor plotting to have Darth Vader shamed and killed so he can have more Sway in the Empire I'll talk more on that later point is Dash knows there's mad credits in it for him if he can determine the location of Boba Fett and while trying to deliver Han to Jabba Fett was attacked by ig-88d and fled to hide from other bounty hunters and repair his ship this is where Dash comes in tipped off to their Skirmish Dash hears that ig-88d took a lot lot of damage in the battle as well and retreated to the junk Planet ORD mantel to repair himself so with his line on finding Boba Fett and hoping to deliver the location to Lando for his reward Dash sets a course there and we begin our next mission to find ig-88d again this mission is really interesting our Droid Libo drops us onto this moving automated junk train headed straight for ig-88d's location and we have to jump and Dodge these different obstacles it took me some getting used to with these controls to be honest but I'm not going to pretend I wasn't having fun doing this we get to jump across to other moving trains take down enemies trying to kill us shoot out force fields that would kill us it's a fantastic level that offers way more than just running from one end of the level to the other while killing everything in between it's also not a very long level due to this but I like that about it it's exactly as long as it needs to be not overstaying its welcome when we reach the end of this level we finally confront ig-88d who reveals us that he does indeed know where Boba Fett fled to Captain [Music] but you are mistaken to believe far outmatch sounds like you got your wires crossed ig-88 as there is a zero percentage probability that you will survive this encounter I see no risk in informing you that I have tracked my esteemed competitor to the jar system where he will soon lose Captain solo to me now I must conclude this introduction you will detain me no further then begins our epic battle against the Droid Bounty Hunter the battle itself isn't super hard but it is definitely challenging in a good way though the design of the Arena offers some room to move verticality and even some resources we can use to survive against the droids multiple different attacks or you could just get frustrated and cheese him like this anyway we take him down and move on to the next level [Music] before I fried his circuits ig-88 said Boba Fett is here in the jar system most likely he's at the Imperial moon base on Gaul now that we're on the Empire's Hit List the only way in there without being blasted out of the sky is to hide the ship in Smuggler's Gorge then I'll have to sneak in the hard way so far so good levo it looks like I go in on foot from here we touch down on the moon of Gaul in the Tsar system opting to hide the outrider in a location called Smuggler's Gorge there's a nearby Imperial base Dash suspects Boba might be hiding at but we're going to have to sneak in and verify it before we can take the info back to Lando this mission is a little frustrating but it's not bad it's got kind of a desolate vibe to it which I like and it is cool to jump from Cliff Edge to Cliff Edge like this there's also so many probe droids I get why they used them so much but the point of probe droids is to scout areas where the Empire isn't currently located we are at an Imperial base what are they probing for the level gets a lot better once we get inside of the Imperial base in my opinion but I can't undermine how cool it is to be sneaking alongside a Cliffside to infiltrate said Imperial base also what the hell is this is that a sand whomper they didn't have to do this and they probably shouldn't have I can understand feeling like you've wasted development time making a Wampa model and only using it in one level but I mean this isn't a thing wampas are native to Hoth I'm pretty sure never mind let's just move on we sneak inside the base by killing the guards and opening the door I like your style Dash from here it's just a matter of carving your way through the base the Dasher in our way [Music] [Music] eventually we get to a tower which gives us the location of the slave one and this next level changes everything The Gorge is far larger and less forgiving in this section and there's no way Dash can navigate it on foot good thing the Empire left a jet pack in this tower for just this occasion strapping it on we now have to learn to use the jet pack so we can get through this massive Canyon and it's actually so much fun I enjoyed using this jet pack way more than I did the one in Bounty Hunter and that game was literally designed for it it's slow clunky and fits the level perfectly I loved having to Pace my fuel and gauge my jumps appropriately to actually make them work after making our way across this Chasm we snag a speeder and use it to make our way around into the Imperial base only to see a shuttle departing things like this really make the game feel alive in a big way seeing a shuttle departing and going out makes the player feel like the base they are infiltrating is a real Dynamic location and this subtle touch is so welcome except there's an atst waiting for us there so we take it out but it's way easier this time since I figured out you can Wreck The Thing by hitting its head we jetpack and Buzz around the thing like a gnat until we see it collapse Dash hoping to avoid going through the heart of the base for fear of having to take on more than he can chew opens up these Vents and sneaks through the base's ventilation shafts as expected the ventilation shaft exits into a massive mined out pit where we jump out and fly up headed towards one of the Ship Repair Bays where we believe the slave one is hiding but before we get there we have to commandeer another speeder making our way around the back of the base we head through a hangar and there he is foreign Boba hoping to defend his ship and location engages in combat with Dash as the two face off but Dash manages to get the upper hand if temporarily Boba then heads into the hangar and tries to escape with the Slave 1 before Dash immobilizes it with a handful of secret missiles and then immediately Retreats back to his own ship the outrider this boss is actually pretty cool facing off against fed with a jet pack to hold him off until we can damage his ship further to keep Boba stranded here and then getting off the planet several games let you fight Boba Fett actually but it doesn't take away from this being a really cool instance of it and it feeling pretty fun to do it's a challenging and rewarding boss battle this is the end of Act 2 of the game overall it manages to be a fun well done section of the game with a lot of style to it but there's more yet to uncover and you'll never guess where we're headed next [Music] Skywalker was spotted at Kenobi's old place Jabba will pay extra to the one who blasts his bones let's fry him foreign I mean is it even a real Star Wars game if we aren't forced onto this hell of a sandy desert Planet I don't like sound okay so why are we back on tattooing well there's actually a half decent reason this time and to understand the story we're gonna have to check back in with the book if you'll recall earlier I mentioned that Luke was staying in Obi-Wan's old house which is of course on Tatooine well after Dash revealed to Lando Luke and Leia That Boba Fett was on goal he guided them there while Luke took Rogue Squadron and attacked the Imperials above the Moon to distract them so Lando and Leia could save Han well as they got there Dash bailed on them and went back to their base claiming he wasn't being paid to fight with him just to guide them following That Boba Fett's now repaired ship flies up and nearly destroys the Millennium Falcon as he takes off and escapes in space one of Rogue squadron's Astromech droids starts malfunctioning and causes an X-Wing to nearly blow Luke to ashes thanks to the force however he survives this encounter then as they land back at base after totally failing their mission one of their mechanics attempts to assassinate Luke by shooting him as Luke just barely survives this as well turns out the mechanic was bribed by the aforementioned Prince she's or of the black Sun the team then splits up with Luke going back to Obi-Wan's former house and Leia asking Lando to set her a meeting with the black son Syndicate before splitting however Leia offers to pay Dash rindar to watch out for Luke and prevent more assassination attempts to which daesh agrees after haggling with her about how he will receive the payment which leads us here as Dash takes up in Moss Eisley while keeping an eye on Luke's location until Leia and Lando return from their mission Dash snooping around looking for any potential dangers to Luke overhears some mercenaries talking about Luke's location as they head out on their speeder bikes dash of course pursues after them this mission is nearly impossible to control honestly but it's admittedly fun I mean it's really just too damn fast they should have slowed the thing down but I enjoyed flying through the streets of moss Eisley at Mock a million speeds [Music] we eventually take them down and arrive to Luke's location where a cutscene plays showing them talking what are you doing here Princess Leia asked me to watch your back Luke good things she did because while I was sniffing around in Moss Eisley I overheard that gang talking they worked for Jabba the Hutt and they had orders to kill you something's not right I have a feeling someone else is pulling Jabba's strings where's Leia now Leia's trying to find answers Luke she thinks by infiltrating black Sun's spy Network she'll find out who's behind this black Sun one of their agents just delivered to us the time and root of an imperial freighter supposedly it's carrying an encoded supercomputer with detailed plans for a major Imperial construction project I wouldn't trust those gangsters if I were you I don't trust them but we can't afford not to check it out it may be vital to the alliance want to come along Dash why not gotta earn my pay it has aged terribly but I like the writing and execution silly as it might be one thing I really don't like is how Luke is wearing his all-black outfit from Return of the Jedi already this feels like it wasn't earned yet and I like Luke's look on the book cover I wish they'd have communicated more with the author and artists to make Luke's appearance here match his look for the book cover the tan jacket he's wearing here is cool and it reflects what his design was in this era of the story between episodes five and six just feels like a missed opportunity where they grabbed his iconic look before he should really even be seen in it I mean come on the Dark Horse Comics even kept us look consistent moving on dash flies the outrider and docks with a ship to search for a supercomputer as Luke covers him from his X-Wing I'll cover you out here for that super computer Dash good luck [Music] wait what what Imperial supercomputer oh okay gotta check the book so in the book Luke and dash are actually contacted by a boathan spy on bothuania in an attempt to reach Leia to offer a tip about a top secret super computer being carried on a disguised Imperial transport so Luke and dash go there and lay a stead and meet with a bath and spy about the situation they agreed to work with the contact and board The Vessel to attain the plans in the book this is actually a pretty key event for Dash as he believes his actions caused the death of six both and allies to the rebels so the events in the game are kind of stretching what actually happened in the book a bit but they do explain why Dash is on board this Imperial vessel and of course this is how the rebels get their hands on the plans for the Death Star too you know the line from the movie which boards the ship and we get some classic old school Star Wars game aesthetic fighting our way through these sci-fi corridors and murking Stormtroopers left and right the puzzles in these levels are actually the most annoying too it's like the game wanted to be a puzzle platformer but only sometimes so every once in a while we have to navigate some absurd obstacles or solve a simple environmental puzzle I don't mind it too much honestly it really carries with it that 90s early 2000s video game charm with it the mission itself is actually fairly short too which is nice that it doesn't wear out its welcome but now it's time to square up with our boss battle what could possibly follow up ig-88 and Boba Fett you might ask a Loader Droid I know it's kind of lame but it's mercifully easy and with that Dash steals the plans from the Imperial supercomputer calls in the outrider and they get out of there I like the mission overall honestly and it does have some annoying aspects but it's cool and I'm pretty sure that makes part three of the game the shortest one it certainly feels like it because although part 4 isn't technically much longer it's definitely far more frustrating good [Music] before we go any further I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all so much for watching and to talk to you briefly about introducing Channel memberships see I don't have sponsors or anything at least not right now but I really do love doing these videos for you and this is a great way for you to be my sponsor and support the channel directly right here on YouTube so if you're loving the content I bring you be it the music the reviews or these retrospectives you can become a member of the channel and gain access to my weekly updates exclusive polls monthly live streams Early Access and more but most importantly you'll be helping me out and you'll be supporting original content creation here on YouTube again thanks so much to those of you who just watch like comment and subscribe that is always immensely helpful to creators and it is more than enough but for those of you wanting to go that extra mile I'll look forward to seeing you as members on the channel now let's go invade a crime Lords Palace [Music] this foul smelling Place Sky High just be sure to make it back in one piece now in the book Parts one through three of the game have already resolved by chapter 20 and since there are 40 chapters in the book there's roughly half of the story Untold unless you read the book much of which deals with Vader's Dynamic with Prince she's or Luke's value to the Empire Vader specifically of course and even a sequence where she's or attempts to seduce Leia of course that doesn't work and she overcomes it eventually however both our alliance Heroes and Vader himself get fed up with shizor's Antics and decide they've had enough so the game picks up with the Falcon and the outrider flying side by side through these city streets into the palace interior and the cutscene is honestly awesome the plan is for Dash to infiltrate the palace Place some charges and blow it up so in order to get into the palace dash of course takes the sewers and Sewer levels in Star Wars always mean the same thing dionogas is that how you say that these things are vicious and disgusting and you might recognize them from the trash compactor scene in the Death Star seen in episode 4 when it almost killed Luke well this time Dash has to gun through a handful of them as he tries to get through this vast sewer instead of fighting Imperials in this Mission it's just dozens of blacks on Mercenaries guarding these sewers to keep dash out we do get the jet backpack however and get to use it to navigate through a surprisingly vertical map all things considered again I do enjoy the jetpack movements for this game so this was a welcome addition to the level eventually we reached the end of the level and fight a lovecraftian level Eldritch Horror of a giant dianoga horrifying but cool compared to Bounty Hunter this game actually has some really creative and interesting end level bosses it's not all just shuttles or Longo two guns the boss itself is fairly easy we fire off some secret missiles and Dodge some tentacles what a fantastic spectacle of an end level boss they didn't have to go that hard but they did and then we have our final on foot level and the hardest one in the game shizor's Palace I hate this level every potential flaw in this game is not only highlighted but accentuated by this level and it is awful aesthetically it's really neat and I love that they used the song written for this area in the original soundtrack that was written for the book helps to tie together the idea that it's all one big multimedia project gameplay wise however it's bad most of the issues in the level can be reduced down to these little remote droids they shred your health and you can't aim at them manually without having to stop and take immense amounts of damage and Dash's auto aim doesn't really work on them since they're either too high or too low for him to see them if this enemy type was removed from the game altogether it would be an overall Improvement for the whole game and I stand by that without the remote droids this level would be a challenging but interesting level to play through but the simple inclusion of this enemy turns the level into a slog of repetition and relying on Dash's auto aim RNG I do like the design and the layout of the platforming challenges in this level they're interesting and fun but again the fun is Zapped by those [ __ ] remote droids this final area is just a slog you have to fly between these three platforms and plant the charges that will blow up the palace but since you can't aim down without being hit you'll end up just jumping down in blind fire spray and pray until you get through it hoping you don't take too much damage before you take them out getting through some platforming sections we come to our final boss of the game pretty much and the layout of this level is cool first we get this cut scene of Dash finally facing down a hologram of schizor [Music] you have been a persistent form in my side not to mention a most disruptive Uninvited Guest of my Palace I apologize that I am unable to give you a guided tour as I have more pressing buttons to attend toward my Skywalk however I remain a gracious host and leave you with the company of my favorite Gladiator drawers I help you find him as entertaining as I have over the years [Music] then we Face Down a gladiator combat Droid this boss fight is either stupid hard or easy if you hoard your disrupter ammo you can take him down very quickly if you miss even one of your three shots however you're done for because your jetpack stops recharging at this stage so you only have a limited amount and the boss has three stages to overcome first in his full form where he's actually pretty harmless he just walks around and you can Circle strafe him to death then a stage is just a torso where the ground opens up around you dropping you into a labyrinth with hidden enemies and ammo he's very dangerous in this form lastly his third stage is just his floating head and this is his most dangerous form because due to this game's atrocious aiming and unreliable auto aim RNG hitting your shots without taking damage is impossible if you have disrupter ammo now is the most important time to use it but it's also the most likely time where you'll miss your shots because Seeker Rockets will not hit it if you aren't parallel to it which you can't be since your jetpack is so limited and you'll run out of it while trying to dodge its attacks so the challenge being from unreliable controls in Tech and too much RNG makes this final level a slog instead of a spectacle finally after defeating the Gladiator Droid we're shown a cutscene if she's or fleeing his Palace before it explodes and retreating to his Skyhook where Luke Leia Lando and dash all give Chase and their respective ships [Music] here we go a massive concluding space battle to end the game we get back into an on-rails turret section cutting through the various blacks on starfighters swarming around us like bees taking out as many as we can while we are on Route to shizor Skyhook this part isn't bad if you can get the hang of the controls take out the missiles before they hit you and spam those turbo lasers a few dozen dead black Sun later we make it to our destination and see shizor Skyhook station in all of its Glory this is it the final conclusion and I'll just say it up front even though it doesn't control well it's still awesome the game really wanted to conclude on a Fantastical space battle climax like the book does and so it takes you off the rails and gives you total control of the outrider what we have to do now is take out some Tie fighters in our way and blast these turrets guarding the entrance to the station's core and we get our traditional Star Wars tunnel run flying through obstacles to fire off missiles into the falling's fist station core we have to make this run several times actually with each entry showing the core being more and more on fire and in disarray than it was before just like in the main game you can even choose what perspective you want and play it in first person which is such a neat addition but I prefer third person since it feels like it was designed that way at last Dash fires off his final missiles and the core begins to erupt we make one last run through the core towards the exit as the tunnels explode around us until unfortunately Dash is shown to be caught in the explosion [Music] I can't believe Dash didn't make it Leia he was such a great pilot I know Luke but he didn't die in vain thanks to him the alliance no longer has anything to fear from black sun and the Imperial computer he captured is being decoded right now it may well contain information worth the price he paid with his life foreign Luke Leia Lando and Chewie's perspective where they watched the station explode before the outrider makes it out and immediately lose contact with Dash shortly after they touched down on the planet's surface to regroup and Luke laments that he had misjudged Dash as a selfish braggart and he's regretful that he died in the explosion and if you only read the book you're basically assured that Dash is dead if you play the game however it shows you a final cut scene of Dash and hyperspace he made it out Captain I do not understand why do you not want Commander Skywalker and the others to know that we survived and made the jump to hyperspace well as much fun as that was I don't see us joining the ranks of that crazy Rebellion too dangerous and too much money to be made elsewhere my friend on top of that someone from black sun will take she's worse place and when that happens you can bet your Servo Motors they'll send Every Thug in the Galaxy after us but if everyone thinks we're dead who's going to be looking sides it's good to be remembered as a martyr without actually having to be dead wouldn't you say and wanted the alliance and Empire to think he was dead so that he wouldn't be roped into any more epic skill conflicts he wanted to go off the radar and make money doing smuggling runs not fight a war with that the credits roll and we conclude our journey with Star Wars Shadows of the Empire although we have seen the adventure of Dash rindar the plot of Shadows of the Empire is actually far more complex and interesting back in the 90s I'm not sure the industry had ever seen something like this attempted to this magnitude although I spoke about plot points from the book the full narrative is told across not only that novel but the game and dozens of comic books expanding on a huge story meant to fill in the gap between two of the most influential movies ever made the full narrative explores the backstory of Prince she's or in his rivalry with Darth Vader Vader's feelings around Luke being his son Luke and Leia's complicated feelings towards each other not yet knowing their siblings but feeling a strong bond Vader's Dynamic with Palpatine and just so much more and all of this even predates the Star Wars prequels by several years which is almost hard for a lot of us to imagine the game itself however is fun but flawed I enjoyed most of my time with it but the parts I didn't like I really didn't like it is however almost as old as me and so the standards and capabilities of video game Hardware simply were not then what they are now I'm still glad I got to play it and I had a blast making this video talking about it and most importantly I'm glad you've shared this experience with me today so thank you all so much for watching if you love these kinds of long-form retrospective videos consider liking this video and subscribing to the channel I'd also love to hear what you think so drop a comment about your experience with shadows of the Empire or maybe suggest what game you'd love to see me cover next I already talked about memberships so if that's something that you're into please consider it as we continue to shape the direction of this Channel I want to ensure I'm covering an Eclectic variety of game content but there's something about Star Wars I just enjoy too much to stay away from for long so we'll be back in that galaxy far far away before you know it until then I hope to see you in the next video and that's all I've got for you

Channel: Evan Prince

Views: 82,889

Keywords: Star Wars, Bounty Hunter, Legends, Star Wars Legends, EU, Star Wars EU, Star Wars Expanded Universe, Expanded Universe, Jango Fett, Komari Vosa, Count Dooku, Mandalorian, The Mandalorian, Din Djarin, Season 3, Mandalorian season 3, Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, LucasArts, LucasFilms, George Lucas, Disney, Disney+, Dash Rendar, Prince Xizor, Shadows of the Empire

Id: vEphUegDSY0

Length: 44min 30sec (2670 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 25 2023