I am not a star wars nerd, I don't know all the characters or the plots of all these sub stories and spinoffs but I will tell you this... whoever was involved with this game had guts to release it into marketplace knowing star wars fans might go apes over the fact that you cannot play as a lightsaber swinging jedi known as Luke Skywalker.

Shadows of the Empire supposedly takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. Being the first Star Wars game for N64 and it doesn't even use lightsabers is really an achievement itself. And to put light on the saber the main character is not Luke Skywalker, its Dash Rendar. Who is Dash Rendar? I have no clue LOL but he apparently has access to the millennial falcon and Hon Solos pistol.

As Dash Rendar you shoot your way through the game, fly around in jet packs, take the millennial falcon for a spin, ride on speed racers and kill some familiar enemies seen in Empire Strikes Back such as Boba Fett, AT-ATs and even Wampas... you know that furry looking bigfoot creature in Empire Strikes Back that captured Luke Skywalker at the beginning of film? I don't recall any Ewoks but there are definitely Wampas to kill.

While I have played this game many times as a kid I do not recall the plot or the ending, sorry. But if you are like me and don't really pay much attention to characters or plot you will have some senseless fun just running around in a star wars universe and do pretty much everything you could want to do except use the force as a jedi and engage in lightsaber battles.

The overall atmosphere of game is dark including the music which they did a phenomenal job with, levels are quite interesting and they do a good job of mixing things up level to level, gameplay is fun but very difficult at times especially against the boss fights. The major drawback is that the camera angles are very bad during moments in the game and you might end up losing against the Empire because of it.