Last Friday, Lucasarts made available a demo version of their upcoming real time strategy (RTS) title, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds (SWGB), for the PC. Using Ensemble Studios game engine for Age of Empires II, Lucasarts has remained true to the core RTS design pioneered by Ensemble, while at the same time bringing the rich Star Wars universe to life and adding some significant changes to the gameplay.

SWGB does not veer too far from the path beaten down by Age of Empires II, a game that I hold as the very best example of the RTS genre to date. Age II players will feel comfortably at home after a few minutes of play. Obviously, many aspects of the game had to be changed to make the transition from the feudal world of Age II to the sci-fi environment of Star Wars. The first of these involves the resources you’ll collect throughout the game. Food is still called food, although you can now build an Animal Nursery and her nerfs into it, creating a steady supply of food. Farms are still in full effect, with their support building, the Food Processing Building. Wood has become carbon, but is still harvested from trees. Gold has become nova crystals, and stone is now called ore. Aside from these name changes, resources in SWGB act exactly as they did in Age II.

Base building is familiar as well, with a few of big changes. You’ll need to build power generators to support your buildings, increasing their research and build speeds. Shield generators can also be built, doubling the HP of all buildings and units under their influence. Jedi (or Sith for the bad guys) play an important part in the game, and you’ll be able to build the appropriate temple in your base and create these powerful melee units. Jedi act like powered-up Monks from Age II – they can convert enemy units to your side, and they can carry objects known as Jedi Holocron back to their temples to create a steady supply of nova crystals. They are also incredible melee units, cutting through infantry and mounted units with their lightsabers. However, unlike Age II’s Monks, Jedi and Sith cannot use healing skills on your units. For this, you’ll be able to create medic units. Finally, aerial units add a new level of strategy to the game that Age II couldn’t deliver for obvious reasons. X-Wings and Tie Fighters can take the battle to the skies, and your base defenses are appropriately bolstered with anti-air turrets, troopers and mobile units.

As in Age II, you’ll progress through 4 "ages," here called tech levels. Each tech level adds new options for research, buildings and units. At the highest tech level you’ll have access to units such as AT-ATs, Jedi and Sith Masters, and powerful siege weapons. There are also various victory conditions besides the standard "destroy all enemy units." You’ll be able to build a monument (the Wonders from Age II), and defend it for a set amount of time to secure a victory, or you can grab all 5 Jedi Holocron and deposit them in your temple to start a victory countdown. This level of variety did wonders for the longevity and freshness of Age II and it’s sure to do the same for SWGB.

The downloadable demo (available at www.lucasarts.com, and weighing in at 70MB) contains one playable mission and one multiplayer map.

The single player mission comes from the Imperial campaign from the full game, and you’ll be able to control Darth Vader and a contingent of stormtroopers through a series of rebel bases, wreaking havoc as you go and ultimately capturing General Jan Dodonna. It’s a big mission, and there’s plenty to see – Tie Bombers will make strafing runs on enemy bases as you go, and dropships will bring you varied reinforcements, from troopers mounted on dewbacks to powerful AT-ATs.

The multiplayer options in this demo are even more robust. Allowing for up to 4 players, you can wage war as either the Imperials or the Rebels, and reach tech level 3 before being cut off from additional units and buildings. You’ll be able to try out an impressive array of units and technology, including Jedi Knights and Sith Lords. The demo allows you to set the starting resources, but you’re locked into a specific game type called "control the command center," where a centrally located building must be fought over by all sides. A countdown begins when someone captures this building, and the winner is the player in control of the building when the timer expires. This makes for a frantic race to build up your army while fighting over the command center and making sneak attacks against enemy bases to disrupt their resource and building supplies.

After spending some time with this demo, I can say that Lucasarts is on the right track, and I am looking forward to the final game more than ever. Recent news reports have the game solidly on track for an early November release date… just in time for Rob’s big LAN party! Get ready for the Wookie invasion, everybody! And look for a full review from me after I get my hands on the final game sometime next month!