An Insightful Analysis of a Disappointing Game
An Insightful Analysis of A Disappointing Game
When I first received Lethal Alliance as a gift, I never got addicted and played it a little for a few days and ultimately stopped.
My goal is to examine the flaws of the game to see what aspects lose the interest of the player. While I don’t recommend that you buy this game, the critical analysis is unbiased so that you can make your own decision.
I also hope to examine both the positives and negative aspects of the game without disregarding it from the start.
Released in 2006,
Star Wars: Lethal Alliance immerses you in the Star Wars universe. As you blast your way through the levels, you, Rianna, are accompanied by a droid nicknamed Zeeo.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
Graphics: 8 / 10
A strength of the game, the designers put true work into the graphics to make them look decent. The 3D models was well designed and rendered with colors nicely.
Luminescent animated components of the graphics, such as blaster fire and electric currents, looked realistic and their widespread use added to the atmosphere of the futuristic universe that Star Wars exhibits.
While seen minimally, 3D graphics were seen rendered on 2D surfaces. While this problem was only seen on walls and objects, they show that the designers did not create fine 3D detail on objects and took an easier route. Although this minimally impacts gameplay, it lessens the impressiveness of this category.
Decent animation of characters help the graphics. The 3D model is impressive, rendering even the apparel in fine 3D, allowing you to see straps and weapon packs.
While the graphics are more than decent, only negligible problems bring the score down. One only wonders why so much time was spent on the graphics and so less on game-play.
8 / 10.
Sound / Music: 6 / 10
The music tracks do fit with the game. I found the scary, slightly eerie tracks to bring an exciting, dangerous atmosphere to the game. The music does not get annoying but a little tiresome after hearing the somberness for many minutes. I recognized many of the tracks from the movies, leading me to believe that none are original works made for the game.
On the other hand, the sound effects are a weakness. They sound low quality and their lack of variation makes them annoying. For example, using a turret to blast enemies gives a headache, since the sound effect for laser fire repeats over and over. During parts where you duck under moving electric barriers, the annoying sound effects for electricity keep playing.
The sound effects slightly outpower the music tracks. While this in itself isn’t bad, the low quality of sound effects make it.
While the music was an impressive facet, the annoying sound effects lower the score to 6 / 10.
Addictiveness: 3 / 10
While the game brings initial excitement, the feeling quickly fades when you realize that the fighting is terrible. The game aims for you and all you have to do is keep blasting. The severely limited options for fighting takes away one of the most crucial parts of any Star Wars game.
As the title states, the alliance between Rianna and Zeeo is deadly. However, you have few opportunities for cooperative play between the two. While Zeeo does help with fighting and air ducts, it’s more effective to keep button smashing as Rianna.
Zeeo does play a major role in the minigames. In fact, you play as it. However, the three minigames quickly get boring, so they don’t provide much addictiveness to the game.
With the game quickly plummeting in addictiveness very quickly, the score remains a poor 3 / 10.
Story: 7 / 10
With a decent plot set after the most recently released Star Wars movie (Empire Strikes Back), you play as Rianna, an ex-slave. She joins the rebels and goes through missions with a droid nicknamed Zeeo for security. You try to steal the plans for the Death Star.
With a plot that ties in with the fourth Star Wars movie, it’s easy to get disconnected by the confusing narrative scenes.
With a decent storyline, the story rates 7 / 10.
Depth: 6 / 10
With the normal play with Rianna, the mini-games with Zeeo, and the in-story rails, the game has decent depth. However, each of these three has it’s own faults with depth.
The normal play consists of an auto-target that severely limits fighting. The fights remain fairly simple and most of it is button mashing, to try to win first. The minigames allow you to play, first-person, as Zeeo. However, they don’t provide much to the game and quickly get boring.
The collaboration with Rianna and Zeeo plays a small role. While the in-story rails exist, there are few times where it’s advantageous to use Zeeo when fighting.
While there is depth, there are numerous weaknesses that lower the score to 6 / 10.
Difficulty: 7 / 10
The difficulty of gameplay arises from design errors versus difficulty of enemies. Since the battles use an auto-aim and you just move around and fire, they don’t pose much difficulty.
With a very limited area to move, glitches lead to automatic deaths, since they easily put you outside the playing field. Furthermore, the DS controls are difficult. Since you can only choose targets your auto-aim detects, you have less options to get rid of enemies.
On the other hand, you have very limited movement. Without the ability to jump, it’s not difficult to progress through the game.
From the very start, it takes practice and concentration to stay in first. One of my first NFS games, I had to practice using the controls. After months without practice, I quickly lose control of my speed, especially when using Nitro.
With an easy game with difficulty arising from design problems, the difficulty scores 7 / 10.
Overall: 5.9 / 10
Graphics : 8 * 25% = 2
Sound / Music : 6 * 20% = 1.2
Addictiveness : 3 * 25% = 0.75
Story : 7 * 10% = 0.7
Depth : 6 * 15% = 0.9
Difficulty : 7 * 5% = 0.35
Sum = Overall Score = 5.9 / 10
This mathematical comparison of important categories leads to a decent overall score of 5.9 / 10.
While the game had decent sections, it only stood out in graphics. As a result of too much attention put in graphics, the gameplay suffered. I consider addictiveness to be tied for most important characteristic. With very poor addictiveness, the game is not worth getting.
However, you might decide to buy it because you:
1. want to add this game to your Star Wars collection
2. want to see where the plot of this game connects with the Star Wars movies and give additional details
3. don’t care about bad gameplay as long as it looks nice
In these three scenarios, this game might work for you. If you’ve had experiences with it, please share! Any comments are appreciated, too!
Thank you for reading!
Graphics
8 Sound
6 Addictive
3 Depth
6 Story
7 Difficulty
7
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