Introduction

It took a long while and Star Wars fans had to endure a lot of poorly done PC strategy games (Rebellion and Force Commander still send shudders down some PC gamer’s backs for how poorly they were handled), but developer Petroglyph Studios finally delivered to publisher LucasArts what so many others could not do; a good strategy game in the Star Wars universe.


Star Wars: Empire at War brought the original movie trilogy conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire into a well done and great looking RTS title. Now Petroglyph and LucasArts are teaming up yet again for an expansion pack to the PC game set for release later this month with the rather long title of Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, and LucasArts sent over a late beta of the game over to FiringSquad for some hands-on action.



The big twist in Forces of Corruption is the new playable faction that’s been added to the mix, and any fan of the Star Wars universe could maybe figure out what that faction might be. Underneath the epic battle between the Empire and the Rebels is the organized crime aspect of the universe. Unfortunately Jabba the Hutt is not the leader of this new faction (although Jabba does have a role to play in the game; we won’t spoil it here), but rather Tyber Zann who leads the not so modestly named Zann Consortium.


Zann and his new group have a number of new adventures and missions to deal with in Forces of Corruption’s single player campaign, which takes place just after the destruction of the first Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope. Zann and his forces encounter both the Empire and the Rebels in the game.