Star Wars is
one of the most venerated franchises in modern science fiction. Its
blend of space combat, high fantasy themes and good vs. evil has
resonated with fans since it was unveiled in the late 70’s. Few other
franchises have been able to replicate the broad range of success
across so many mediums. There have been relatively few struggles for
this juggernaut, but LucasArts’ and Sony Online Entertainment’s first
attempt at a Star Wars
MMOG, Star Wars Galaxies,
and the ongoing relationship between LucasArts and SOE, stands out for
most gamers. Star Wars:
Galaxies
, despite the controversies surrounding it, still
marches on, however, and retains a loyal fan base of dedicated players.
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While recent development of the second style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars MMOG— style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars: The Old Republic,
developed by BioWare in conjunction with LucasArts--has garnered the
lion’s share of media attention, LucasArts and SOE quietly went about
creating their own second installment, a browser-based free-to-play
that takes place in the highly popular Clone Wars era.




Using the Saturday morning cartoon franchise as a stylistic blueprint, the team
at SOE has taken their considerable expertise with browser-based gaming
and fashioned a highly entertaining MMOG aimed at younger and older
players alike,
developed by BioWare in conjunction with LucasArts--has garnered the
lion’s share of media attention, LucasArts and SOE quietly went about
creating their own second installment, a browser-based free-to-play
that takes place in the highly popular Clone Wars era. Using the
Saturday morning cartoon franchise as a stylistic blueprint, the team
at SOE has taken their considerable expertise with browser-based gaming
and fashioned a highly entertaining MMOG aimed at younger and older
players alike.

Cautions

This isn’t a traditional “kill 10 rats” MMOG; it’s a unique world of
fun and socializing that thrives on mini-games, character
customization, player housing development and humorous interaction.
Players looking for a hardcore gaming experience and large scale raid
dynamics may want to consider other options.



I also want to take a moment to explain the grades in this review.
When, for example, I give a graphics grade, I am not grading it against
AoC or Vanguard; I
am grading it against similar browser-based games. I am also giving the
grades based on what this game is ultimately about, and who it was
designed for.

Clone Wars Adventures is rated E.

Gameplay - 95 / 100

Like FreeRealms
before it, Clone Wars
Adventures
crams multiple levels and styles of gameplay
together – allowing players to choose their own adventures and roam
freely about exploring if they so desire. A new wrinkle here, however,
is story driven game modes that take players into the fight for
domination of the galaxy. These linear style missions take you through
various scenarios, pitting you against the AI, most feature three
difficulty levels so that players of varying skill can always feel
sufficiently challenged.



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Gameplay is guided via an easy to find green arrow in the lower right
hand portion of the UI that brings up a browser window, allowing
players to navigate the various game modes without ever having to move
inside the world. If you do wish to explore and interact, you can also
uncover these games by speaking to their representative NPC and
entering that way – some of the most famous names in the style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars universe
act as your guides, so true fans will definitely want to explore a bit.




Some of my favorite games included Stafighter, Lightsaber Duel, Star
Typer and Republic Defender. There are games available here for all age
ranges and skill levels, so everyone should be able to find something
that speaks to them with relative ease.

Graphics - 95 / 100

The term “highly stylized” may feel a bit overplayed these days when
describing an MMOG, but truer words couldn’t be used to describe Clone
Wars Adventures. Having a very similar look and feel to the popular
cartoon, the world is smooth and colorful – drawing you in with your
eyes right from the start.



There aren’t many settings to tweak here, but cranking them all up to
max (my resolution of 2048 x 1152 was supported by the game) gave it a
much crisper and cleaner look.   The numerous
mini-games also have their own look, and quality varies depending on
the game itself.


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While I am certainly no programmer, one can imagine that the majority
of load time issues on a browser based 3D game are graphic related –
and the balance here is almost perfect. Clone Wars Adventures looks to
have improved upon the first generation graphics of FreeRealms in
subtle ways. Even if the technology supported infinitely more realistic
looking graphics, they would feel out of place here and would probably
triple the load times.

Sound - 100 / 100

The distinctive sound of John Williams’ epic masterpiece style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars Theme
accompanies the loading screen, setting the tone for the rest of the
game. Ambient sounds of droids, lightsabers, laser fire, and even a
cantina band will keep you immersed in the Star Wars universe as you
explore.  The sound is as rich as one would expect from a
client-based game and never strays far from the staple sound of the
movies.



The major NPCs are voiced as are the introductions to the mini-games.
Voice acting is solid and consistent throughout, adding a nice boost to
immersion without going overboard.  The sound in style="font-style: italic;"> Clone War Adventures
may provide the most fitting and well-constructed soundscape of any SOE
game to date.

Multiplayer - 87 / 100

Many of the games in
Clone Wars Adventures
are solo-based, and a lot of the
game feels like a single player sandbox with other players scampering
about you as you play.  The deeper you get into the game
however, the more multiplayer options you will find, and the number of
in game friends you make will also impact the amount of multiplayer
content you will see.


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The most compelling content is the content with the most multiplayer
interaction. My two favorite activities so far are speeder racing and
lightsaber duels. Both have a single player option, but the multiplayer
is easily the most fun. When FreeRealms
launched one of the first knocks against it was that there wasn’t a
plethora of group content either, so with less than two weeks under its
post-launch belt, it doesn’t make sense to crucify style="font-style: italic;">Clone Wars Adventures
for that particular shortcoming. So with that in mind, the jury will
remain out on this particular facet of the game for now.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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