By now, you've probably finished your list of New Year's Resolutions for 2016, right? Great! How about a new resolution? “Play a bunch of awesome Star Wars games.”
With 2015's release of The Force Awakens, Star Wars fever is back in full swing. Fans are getting back into the Galaxy Far, Far Away, and looking for anything that will hold them over until the new movies come out. There's a whole bunch of books and TV episodes to enjoy, but we're all here for games, aren't we?
Here's 10 incredibly fun Star Wars games, covering many different genres and play styles. We'll cover what they are, what made them great, and why you should play them if you're a fan. Hit the hyperdrives, and dive in!
10. Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005)
The game puts you right into the helmet of a clone trooper and his squad.
It's rare to play a Star Wars game where you're not a lightsaber-swinging Jedi. Star Wars: Republic Commando is a first-person shooter (FPS) that features the often-overlooked troopers that do all the shooting across the movies, specifically for this game, the Clones. Before the Clone Wars cartoon series started showing Clone Trooper personalities, there was this game, which gave you 4 different squad mates, all with their own characters, equipment, and abilities.
Your squadmates all have distinct personalities, despite being clones.
As you shoot and blast your way through the missions, the game gives you a really great squad control system inspired by classic military titles like Rainbow Six. Looking through your Trooper helmet (a cool way to design a HUD), there's context-sensitive actions like breach-and-clear, which are easily highlighted and quick to execute, but you can also tell specific members to go to a point, defend, attack, and more. Different squad members bring different talents to the table, which are all needed for different objectives, whether it be Sev's sniping, Scorch's demolitions, or Fixer's hacking. The AI is good, and the teamwork works really well.
The game gives you a great look at a side of the Clone Wars that you didn't get to see, while also providing some exciting, strategic FPS gameplay.
9. Star Wars: Battlefront I & II (2004 & 2005)
Rushing into battle with dozens of other players, red and green blasters whizzing past.
Not to be confused with the 2015 release, which left players a little disappointed with its lack of content or variety, the original two Battlefront games provided players with huge, large-scale battles that featured tons of different units, vehicles, and heroes to control across a great variety of maps and campaign missions that include both the original and prequel trilogies.
Battlefront's matches can be up to 64 players, and can be played either in single-player scenarios, or online matches. Gameplay is a third-person shooter, with most of the mechanics revolving around taking over control points so you can spawn your characters closer and closer to the goal. There are 4 distinct classes like snipers and engineers, and more than 25 vehicles you can hop in and control directly. There's also Galactic Conquest, which plays like a strategic game of Risk. You command large fleets of ships, and when two opposing forces try to capture the same planet, the game has you play it out on the ground.
Vehicles offer a strategic advantage, and an interesting gameplay twist.
Battlefront II plays much the same, but introduced a stronger story mode, told through the eyes of a former Republic trooper who became a Stormtrooper in Vader's veteran forces, the 501st Legion. In addition, if you've done well enough and gotten enough kills with a normal character, you have the chance to control a hero unit like Han Solo or Darth Vader, who have unique abilities and are even more fun to play. The heroes and villains add a powerful new element to the shooting gameplay.
Battlefront II also included excited spaceship combat, where you could engage in dogfights, or land on an enemy ship to continue fighting on foot.
All in all, if you want to know what engaging in one of the wars in Star Wars is like, the original two releases in the Battlefront series offer a lot of multiplayer shooting fun.
8. Star Wars: Empire at War – Gold Pack (2006)
Massive space battles play out in real time, which are exciting and great to watch.
Ground combat and shooting not your thing? Are you more of an Admiral Viet than a Darth Vader? More of a Mon Mothma than a Han Solo? Do you enjoy games like Starcraft, Civilization, or Command and Conquer? If you like to direct units and plan big strategies, this RTS is the game to play. Star Wars: Empire at War should play familiarly to any fans of the RTS genre: you manufacture and battle groups of units and vehicles both in space and on the land, trying to out-maneuver and out-fight your enemy while managing resources and production times.
Empire at War features story campaigns for both the Rebellion and Empire, with unique units and buildings for each side, which demand unique approaches and strategies. With this game, you can take control of either side of classic battles like the assault on the snowy base on the planet Hoth or the Battle of Endor.
You can combine tanks, ships, and trooper units for large ground battles.
While the ground combat is a lot of fun, and similar to Starcraft and Age of Empires, the space combat plays a little differently, and looks gorgeous. Tons of small fighters swarm around huge warships while red and green laser blasts criss-cross the screen. All of this takes place with classic Star Wars music accompanying the whole thing for a good, epic battle feeling.
In addition to Empire at War, there's another Star Wars RTS game for PC called Galactic Battlegrounds. However, where Empire at War tries to do a lot of new things specific to Star Wars, and presents a really engaging in-universe experience, Galactic Battlegrounds is literally Age of Empires with a Star Wars skin. 100% the same. If you like Age of Empires and Star Wars, and would like to play more of that, check out Galactic Battlegrounds, too!
7. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007)
Not only can you recreate the movies in LEGO form, but there's many new jokes and fun to be had.
Alright, alright, hear me out! If you're a fan of Star Wars, the LEGO games are fun and hilarious. The games are full of in-jokes and references to all six movies, making fun of the things that don't make sense, and provide a good amount of laughs. The gameplay is full of solid platforming, collecting, and building using a combination of LEGO blocks and Force powers.
While you're doing that, you're also trying to solve puzzles, complete bounty hunter missions, find secret areas, and more. It's a fun, easy playthrough that will hopefully have you smiling and remembering some of the not-so-serious parts of loving Star Wars. There's also something to be said about the destructive fun of running around with a lightsaber and swinging it at every character and environment you can so that they explode into piles of LEGO blocks. Good stress relief!
You can play as good guys or bad guys, with over a hundred playable and customizable characters.
In addition, the game is really fun to play with a friend, running around with lightsabers and trying to push each other off of cliffs. A lot of parents also enjoy playing the games with their children, or some gamers play with significant others! It's really a game that everyone can enjoy.
6. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D (1998)
Rogue Squadron lets you fly X-Wing fighters and more in a variety of missions against the Empire.
A big part of the Star Wars movies are the exciting space battles, and if you ever wanted to try your hand at flying in one, Rogue Squadron 3D brought that experience into a fun arcade-style action game that really nailed the feeling of flying and dodging your way through a bunch of spaceships.
Taking control of Luke Skywalker, leader of the Rogue Squadron, players have 4 unique ships and plenty of missions from the films, which all sound and look perfect. The sounds of an X-Wing and TIE Fighters are well-known to fans, and will instantly take you back into that sci-fi feeling.
You can also play from the cockpit in first-person view.
A lot of the missions recreate things from the movies, like flying against the Death Star and shooting a rope to trip some AT-ATs on the snowy planet of Hoth. You'll be doing everything from reconnaissance to escorts and search-and-destroy missions. You can even fly the race in Beggar's Canyon that Luke mentions in A New Hope.
If you like flying games, there's also X-Wing Alliance, which is a bit older and requires a joystick, but provides some great gameplay and lets you fly the Millenium Falcon!
Caution: Rogue Squadron 3D reportedly has issues on Windows 10 at the moment, so check before buying!
5. Star Wars: Dark Forces I & II (1995 & 1997)
You'll be shooting plenty of Stormtroopers with a variety of guns in Dark Forces.
The Dark Forces series was designed as LucasArt's answer to Doom. A FPS set in the Star Wars universe, Dark Forces I & II focus on Kyle Katarn, who joins the Imperial Army as a Stormtrooper after his father is killed, only to eventually join the Rebellion with the help of Jan Ors, an Imperial double agent. Both characters, and the story overall, are incredibly popular with fans, and even saw LucasFilm releasing official toys of the two.
As a first-person shooter, the game mainly focuses on levels full of enemies to shoot at with a variety of guns and powerups. In addition, there are interesting environmental puzzles and platforming elements, which give a good feeling of exploration through familiar locations like a Star Destroyer, Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, and the planet of Coruscant (which hadn't actually been seen yet).
In Dark Forces II, you start to learn how to be a Jedi, which means lightsaber combat!
As Kyle's journey goes on, he begins to discover that he can use the Force, and begins training as Jedi, which leads to new combat and puzzles involving lightsabers and Force powers. Lightsabers are used for everything from deflecting blaster fire to lighting a dark room. For powers, there's 14 total that you can upgrade, including Force abilities for light, dark, and neutral Jedi.
It's a cool progression, going from Stormtrooper to Rebel soldier to Jedi, and watching how the gameplay and levels change for that. If you enjoy classic shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein, definitely check out Dark Forces to start Kyle Katarn's story.
4. Star Wars Jedi Knight I & II (2002 & 2003)
Jedi Knight had improved graphics and gameplay, and mixed first and third-person action with amazing multiplayer modes.
The Jedi Knight titles are technically part of Kyle Katarn's story, continuing from where Dark Forces left off. However, the gameplay is so different that they merit their own entry, and Jedi Knight can be played without having played Dark Forces beforehand. The two Jedi Knight games also remain the more popular of the series, and even still have a dedicated multiplayer crowd. (Note that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast actually came out first, then Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, so the order is a bit confusing.)
In the two Jedi Knight games, you get to finish Kyle Katarn's story, playing as he becomes a Jedi master and takes on a new pupil in Jedi Academy. It's a great complete story across 4 games, that happens alongside the original movies and fills in some interesting gaps in what's happening outside of the crew of the Millenium Falcon.
Multiplayer is one of the highlights of the games, with frantic fun lightsaber combat.
The Jedi Knight games are a mix of first- and third-person action, leaving behind the Doom gameplay of Dark Forces and expanding your choices for mobility, combat, and Force powers. In fact, the Jedi Knight series is still considered the best games for lightsaber combat ever, mixing dangerous speed and chaos over a variety of fighting styles. You can use a single or double lightsaber, or a lightsaber staff, while lightning and Force pushes fly around. Want to redirect a rocket using the Force? You can do that in this unique game.
3. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008)
The Force Unleashed takes you to a variety of interesting locations as you fight with lightsaber and Force powers.
Released in an updated version in 2009 for the PC, The Force Unleashed is a thrilling action RPG that is kind of like Star Wars fan fiction, but in a good way, with a brand new character who secretly works for Darth Vader and is also totally powerful. This ridiculous setup, however, makes for some incredibly fun moments of using lightsabers and Force powers to absolutely destroy tons and tons of Stormtroopers.
Force powers in the game feel super super powerful and cool. Toss around Stormtroopers, destroy the environment, block lasers, jump 50 feet to slice with your saber, and pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky. The game features great graphics and fast-paced combo action. Physics in the Force Unleashed are fun and were a major selling point of the game, like Stormtrooper holding on to rails so you don't throw them into the sky, or wood and glass breaking realistically.
All of us who watched the movies wanted to use that Force lightning. This games makes it very fun.
You even get to play briefly as Darth Vader, massacring Wookiees like it's nothing, walking slowly and menacingly with your red lightsaber.
The story, which is admittedly a little cheesy at times, bridges the prequel and original trilogies, showing the start of the Rebellion and even explaining how the famous red symbol came to be.There was also a sequel, but it's only OK. Improved combat and production values, but you don't really need to play it.
2. Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011)
Players can all join online with their unique characters to experience an epic story and battles.
The Old Republic, and MMO title created by BioWare, is the only Star Wars game that's still going and updating, with lots of players and new things to do. You can create a character in the Star Wars universe, and decide what you want to do with 8 classes and 8 races offering tons of customization for how you encounter the epic story set thousands of years before the movies. Because it's Bioware, there's lots of great story writing and dialogue with other characters, letting you make choices that impact how things play out. In a unique twist on the MMO genre, you can actually play through these stories with friends, making choices together, and having everyone's character participate in scenes. It's really enjoyable to have your calm Jedi try to negotiate while a friend's hot-headed bounty hunter causes trouble.
As an RPG, the game has all the interesting RPG class progression, skill trees, and equipment upgrading and looting that you would expect. The classes all balance pretty well with each other, making running around with a group an interesting experience. The Old Republic is great if you enjoy MMOs like World of Warcraft, with good matchmaking and social tools for meeting new players of your level and interests, but the game's story content can also be played solo thanks to some recent updates, and the story content ties into other Star Wars properties and history from other games and novels.
As you level up and get stronger, your Force powers and abilities get better and better.
In addition to the main story, there's also fun competetive events called Flashpoints, which offer arena control point combat that hearkens back to massive battle games like Battlefront.
Did I mention the game is 100% free to play? You can go through the entire story without ever paying, although monthly subscribers get a whole host of cool benefits for those who want to dig deeper into the game and do more with their time online. But if all you want is some fun Star Wars RPG time online with other people, The Old Republic is a great, great experience. It's still not my #1 recommended Star Wars game though...
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (2003 & 2004)
Knights of the Old Republic takes you to incredible new worlds alongside great, unique companions.
Not to be confused with “The Old Republic,” Knights of the Old Republic is a single-player only RPG from BioWare, and is generally considered to be the #1 Star Wars video game experience. If you are a Star Wars fan and, for some reason, have yet to play this game, just go do it right now.
BioWare brings its usual humor and interesting character backgrounds to the game, and you have the chance to interact with everyone from noble Jedi to crime bosses and a killer assassin droid who kind of hates you, but does what you say.
The game offers you constant choices to balance towards either the Light or the Dark side of the Force depending on your actions. This influence extends to your companions, and can alter their appearance, dialogue, and behavior. If you go hard to the Dark side, you may find your other party members following your lead and becoming more violent and angry.
Your companions also have a light and dark side, which can be influenced by your actions.
The game offers you a variety of ways to play and develop not only your lightsaber fighting, but also what kind of Force user you'll be, whether it's more based on stealth and deception, protection and healing, or vicious attacks. You can also customize a lot of equipment as you go. Who hasn't dreamed of constructing their own lightsaber? When you reach the point in the game where you finally get one, after a few hours of using weapons that aren't lightsabers, it feels so good.
Battles play out in semi-real time, with you choosing skills to activate in a queue with other party members. This brings out a little bit of strategy and planning to the combat, which will be familiar to those who played Dragon Age.
Knights of the Old Republic fills in information on lots of planets and history that have only been hinted at in books and comics, and gives you a chance to explore and interact with them. On top of that, the twist of the first game is still one of the best and most memorable in any game, Star Wars or otherwise, so you're in for a treat if you have yet to be spoiled on it. Seriously, just go play it now.
And that's all we have! No matter what genre of game you enjoy, if you're a Star Wars fan, there are plenty of games for you to spend hours and hours playing while you wait for the next new thing.
How about you? Any Star Wars games you remember fondly? Any new ideas you'd like to see? Let us know in the comments below!
