Star Wars: Commander

Gamer reviews for Star Wars: Commander

Begun, the Clone War has

Begun, the Clone War has

Star Wars Commander is the latest in a long line of Clash of Clans clones, but catches the attention due to it having possibly the best license in the industry. One of Disney's first productions since acquiring the license, much of Star Wars Commander is a by-the-numbers reproduction of Clash of Clans. It does have a few unique features, but, having been released in August 2014, could do with quite a few tweaks before it can seriously compete with Supercell's triumphant combat strategy games.

First things first, this is unashamedly a Star Wars game. You get droid noises giving you notifications, epic and authentic music playing throughout, and all the units, locations and characters are pretty faithful to the films. The main unique feature in the game is the ability to pick your side. Either choose to fight for the Rebel Alliance, or Darth Vader's Empire. Your choice governs the style of your buildings and the type of troops you can command, and ensure you will only end up fighting against the opposing force, even in PvP combat.

Being a combat strategy game, there are two key elements to Star Wars Commander. The first is base building. You must collect resources and plan your base layout (including defenses such as turrets and shield generators) to keep enemies out. The second is combat. Building armies at your base and then attacking other players' territory is a big part of the game. It begins with a lengthy tutorial, which anyone familiar with similar games will breeze through. The only real innovation comes as mentioned with the picking of a side. You are also presented with numerous 'single-player' missions, which allow you to avoid fighting any other humans for the most part. These can involve tasks as simple as upgrading a Barracks to defeating AI enemies, all wrapped up in reasonably compelling Star Wars storylines.

This is a freemium game but contains in-app purchases of Crystals. In fairness, the game never prompts you to purchase them unless you go looking for it, and you start off with 600, which will last you a long time (though 250 are required instantly to buy an additional Droid, which lets you build or upgrade two things at once). Droids are the main thing to purchase with Crystals, as two is never really enough. Leveling up your HQ takes a very, very long time and tons of resources, and the end result is that you end up with heaps of resource vaults and resource collectors, all of which need regular upgrades to be worth having. These upgrade can take an entire day to complete, so only having two Droids is very problematic. You cannot afford a third Droid based on what the game provides you, which makes for a slow and grinding game.

Undeniable nice touches come from being able to recruit heroes such as Han Solo and Chewbacca (if you are on the Rebel side) to fight against other players, and being able to build some of the more interesting vehicles and eventually starships from the films. Once you get these, it really starts to feel like a Star Wars game rather than a quick cash-in. However, there are several areas where the expertise of Supercell would have made all the difference too. As soon as you build a unit, it goes to wait in your Troop Transport. You can't pick which troops to take with you - as soon as the ship is full, that's it. So if you train 30 cheap soldiers, and then 30 really strong tank units, the first 30 will fill up the ship. As units take different times to build, this is a really frustrating oversight. It's made all the more annoying by the fact that any units you choose to deploy in combat will be expended, regardless of whether they are damaged or not. This isn't new for a game of this sort, but when you bear in mind the hassle of building them, it is a definite pain. Of course, upgrading your Transports to take more troops is the answer, but again, with limited Droids, this is time consuming.

Star Wars Commander has good production values, allowing you to zoom in close on the action and see the detail on some of the more familiar troops and vehicles in the game. Audio is a definite strong point, with the music really making it feel like a proper Star Wars game. The storyline is another plus, and it is definitely more compelling than similar games, despite the frustrating upgrade times. Being able to pick a side and then fight for it gives you a real feeling of affinity for your chosen team.

The game is let down in several areas, however, most notably the huge wait times for upgrades. In these sort of games the idea is to always give the player something to do. But in Star Wars Commander, you will log in every hour or so to collect resources, maybe attack an enemy, and then literally there is nothing left to do until you build another army, or more resources build up. Not enough happens regularly enough to hold your interest, and you will find yourself playing something else as you wait for the game to tick over. Definitely worth a play for any Star Wars fan, as there aren't many licensed games around nowadays, but be warned that it can be a frustrating experience.

3.0 / 5.0
 
Review by MongooseGeneral | Oct 22nd 2014

Total Reviews: 3


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Review by GuestJun 27th 2019

It's very fun and easy to progress and it highly rewards people that spend money but they don't get special units if they shield up so it's a good way for it to be fun for heavy spenders and f2p

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Review by GuestJun 15th 2018

AWSOME!!!! I Loved this game!

So sweet! best strategy game ever!

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Review by GuestAug 29th 2015

This game would be awesome if it were more like clash of clans or boom beach. Please give me a reason to continue playing by adding a squad vs squad war . Other than donating troops there is no point in having squads. #frustrated

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