Stormtrooper's-Eye View Doesn't Give Strategy Game Enough Force

By AARON CURTISS

April 27, 2000 12 AM PT

Even Imperial Stormtroopers, it turns out, have feelings. Such is one of the first lessons of “Star Wars Force Commander,” a real-time PC strategy game set in George Lucas’ mythical and melodramatic universe.

Infamous for their anonymous white and black body armor, Stormtroopers form the backbone of the Imperial Army--ruthlessly carrying out the Empire’s orders from Dagobah to Alderaan. But in “Force Commander” they have hopes and dreams just like the rest of us.

And so it is that a humble Stormtrooper who watches his brother get shot on routine patrol rises up through the ranks of the Imperial command to lead invasion forces complete with Dewbacks, Speeder Bikes and AT-ATs.

“Force Commander” follows the military career of Dellis Tantor as he implements the Empire’s will across a range of environments familiar to even the most casual “Star Wars” fan--the desert planet of Tatooine, the snowfields of Hoth, the meadows of Yavin. Dellis begins commanding small squads on humdrum seek-and-destroy missions, but evolves--if players are good enough--to command full-scale assaults with all of the Empire’s fanciest war machines.

But aside from being set in the “Star Wars” universe, “Force Commander” is a fairly standard real-time strategy game. Players dispatch units to explore territory and secure a perimeter while building up a support base in a defensible position. Then, when everything is ready, players launch carefully orchestrated attacks and hope for the best.

“Force Commander” offers above-average play, but that often gets hampered by a novel interface that allows players to change their view of the action. Most real-time strategy games provide a top-down view, which players can pivot or zoom in and out of to get the best battlefield perspective. “Force Commander” lets players spin and pivot and move up and down and in and out.

The idea: To provide such refined control that players can see exactly what their troops see on the ground so they can make a better tactical decision. In fact, though, there are so many choices and commands that it becomes difficult to quickly zero in on critical bits of information during a heavy firefight.

Sure, players can get right down behind the knees of their Stormtroopers for a cool combat view, but that doesn’t do much good if the only thing they see is those Stormtroopers crumpling under enemy fire because it took so long to get there.

The thrill of strategy games is the strategy itself. Fans of “Starcraft” and “Age of Empires” crave the planning and the tactical implementation of strategy more than the actual battle sequences. If I want to be on the ground with a weapon, I’ll play “Dark Forces.”

“Force Commander” would have been more enjoyable if designers stuck with the proven top-down perspective. For an added thrill, the game could have included the sort of first-person vehicle piloting that made “Urban Assault” such fun. Fans of real-time strategy will find much to like about “Force Commander,” but it may take a few hours to get completely comfortable with the camera controls because you can’t kill what you can’t see.

“Star Wars Force Commander” requires a Pentium 266 with 64mb of RAM, 454mb of available hard-disk space and a graphics accelerator with at least 8mb of video RAM.

Syphon Filter 2

What man among us does not secretly yearn to be a secret agent? Not the sort who listens to cell phone conversations 9-to-5 in some Virginia industrial park. We’re talking about the ones who live only in novels, movies and, of course, video games--the guys who travel aboard black C-130s and spend their workdays shooting it out with narco-terrorists or rogue spies.

“Syphon Filter 2” for Sony PlayStation gives players the opportunity to slip into Kevlar and fight the forces of evil as they plot to create a terrorist superpower by delivering a deadly chemical agent called “Syphon Filter” into the wrong hands. Objective: Kill the bad guys.

And although “Syphon Filter 2” depends on plenty of gunplay, it also requires players to think and act like a spy. Players control either Gabriel Logan, a handsome operative for the super-secretive Agency, or Lian Xing, an attractive Chinese turncoat, as they unravel a plot to poison the world. If nothing else, players get to assume identities far buffer and leggier than anyone in the real world.

From a third-person perspective, players guide Gabriel and Lian through some hairy shootouts as they clamber over snowcapped mountains, sneak through abandoned streets and infiltrate secret labs. Armed with a full complement of weapons--from a trusty .45 to a crossbow--players use their wits and a sharp aim to stay alive.

Despite some really bad voice acting by some of the characters, “Syphon Filter 2” is one of those rare video games that actually has a decent story behind it. Players want to finish each level so they can understand what’s happening and why.

Great fun.

Rayman 2: The Great Escape

“Rayman 2: The Great Escape” helps to fill a big void in Sega Dreamcast’s library: Fun games for kids. Sure, the 128-bit box hosts racing games that parents can buy without worry and, of course, there’s always Sonic. But there’s a real dearth of titles designed specifically for children.

“Rayman 2” is a standard three-dimensional platform game a la “Super Mario 64” in which players hop from spot to spot in hopes of saving the planet. Rayman first showed up on Atari Jaguar as a mascot whose head, hands and feet show no apparent connection to his body. He has since migrated to other consoles, but his outing on Dreamcast is the best so far.

The worlds Rayman explores are colorful and full of fantastic creatures--from zombie chickens to flying frogs. What violence there is consists mainly of bonking bad guys on the head as Rayman fights futuristic pirates who want to take over the world.

“Rayman 2” is the kind of game parents can feel good about letting small children play unattended. Or they might even enjoy sitting down and playing some of the multi-player mini-games on the disc.

Aaron Curtiss is participating in a Times management training program, where he currently serves as assistant to the senior vice president of advertising. He has no financial dealings with the companies he covers. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

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Essentials

Star Wars Force Commander

* Platform: PC

* Publisher: LucasArts

* ESRB rating: Teen

* Price: $39.99

* Bottom line: Good and bad

Syphon Filter 2

* Platform: Sony PlayStation

* Publisher: 989 Studios

* ESRB rating: Mature