What’s the best Star Wars game of all time? | Team Talk

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With Star Wars Celebration bringing us news of a brand new adventure from a galaxy far, far away in the form of strategy title Star Wars: Zero Company, we’ve been thinking back at our favourite games from years past.

This new title is a strategy game from Bit Reactor, former developers from Firaxis Games, which brought us Civilization and the original XCOM, and marks the first time we can remember in a while that Star Wars has had the strategy game treatment – outside of mobile games at least.

Star Wars and gaming has a long history, with the first tie-in released back in 1982 for The Empire Strikes Back, so there’s plenty to choose from. Which game is strongest in The Force for you? Let us know in our Discord.

​by Team PTC

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​​@pass_controller

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The Force Unleashed and Rogue Squadron | James Parry

While I touched on The Force Unleashed back in 2019 when we talked about licensed games, I think it bears repeating just how precedent-setting the game was. Indeed the voice actor from the game Sam Witwer is now Darth Maul in his own animated adventure, so its legacy endures in more ways than one.

The reason the game tops my list is because it feels like Star Wars, and that’s where Rogue Squadron and its sequels come in.

The excitement of the trench run in the original film, and the feeling of piloting all those exciting space craft, is what captures the spirit of the series for me, and trying to get gold on all those missions in the first game was a huge gaming moment for me.

On top of that, the soundtrack to Rogue Squadron and its sequel Rogue Leader in particular is masterfully created by Chris Hülsbeck to evoke John Williams’ score, and all the laser sounds and ship noises all come together to put you in this world.

In all, how Rogue Squadron sets the stage for many incredible Star Wars experiences which followed it, and the folks at Factor 5 did an outstanding job of capturing what makes this franchise special.

Knights of the Old Republic| Chris Brand

I've waxed lyrical about Knights of the Old Republic before, but it deserves another mention as one of the greatest Star Wars titles ever conceptualised. Though it was close between this and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, KOTOR just edges it with its more fluid approach to storytelling.

Whilst Cal Kestis is undoubtedly one of the good guys, KOTOR presents multiple moral quandaries which can shift your Dark/Light alignment, allowing you to be the exact kind of hero, or villain, you desire. The freedom to make sure each character gets what they truly deserve is something I'd like to explore one day, however, every playthrough so far has seen me drift over to the Dark Side.

Though I can't be sure of this, it certainly feels much harder to resist the pull of the Dark Side than in other titles with a morality, or reputation, system. It could be that this was an intentional development decision to give the story a bit more of a bite, or maybe if I turn the microscope on myself I'll find that I'm just not a very good person. Given that my player character usually ends up with "Darth" in their name before I've even started playing, it's probably the latter.

As much as I enjoy revisiting KOTOR, it's a hard game to recommend today due to its advanced age. It can run a little slow, is a tad too choppy at times, and the controls are just good enough to be passable, while still feeling like nothing is quite right. I'm almost certain that you, person reading this, have fought through worse games before just to give them a fair chance, but the long-awaited remake could potentially fix most of these issues. A virtue, patience is.​

The Clone Wars and Bounty Hunter | Liam Andrews

With James championing Rogue Squadron (which is the correct choice for best Star Wars games) I thought I’d use this opportunity to talk up two of my other favourite games set in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars probably wouldn’t be most people’s choice for best Star Wars game, but I thought it was very enjoyable. The Jedi hover tanks were super fun to control and taking out waves of droids with the LAAT clone trooper ships and their big green lasers was very satisfying.

I also really enjoyed the game’s multiplayer modes, especially the Geonosis level where you tried to last as long as possible against waves of enemies in the arena, which was great fun with friends.

My other pick is another Clone Wars era game: Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. I always like it when tie-in games expand upon the source material’s story, and Bounty Hunter does that nicely, explaining how Jango Fett comes to be chosen as the blueprint for the clone army. It’s also a lot of fun playing as a Mandalorian and using a jetpack, wrist mounted flamethrowers and double blaster pistols to take out enemies.

Honourable mentions go to 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront for its highly addictive Drop Zone game mode, as well as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for its superb story and combat.