Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a 2002 video game, made by Pandemic Studios for Lucasarts, set in the Star Wars Legends continuity, and released for the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox.
The game is mostly vehicle-based, a mix of both ground-based combat (with craft like tanks, STAPs, and the occasional AAT) as well as air-based combat in the Republic Gunship.
The game starts off directly before and during the climatic battle of Attack of the Clones, putting you in control of Jedi Master Mace Windu. The rest of the game puts you in control of Anakin Skywalker, who, along with Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi, uncover a plot by the Seperatists to salvage and exploit the power of the Dark Reaper, an ancient superweapon capable of draining the Force from everything around it.
Other than a name, characters and time period, it is unrelated to the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which started production six years later and got its own video game tie-ins, Star Wars: Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance.
Tropes:
- Action Prologue: the game's first few levels are set on Geonosis, during the climax of Attack of the Clones, and sees Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli clear a path to the arena that Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme are held hostage in.
- Arc Welding: The game bridges together elements from the Star Wars prequels with those of the Old Republic era of the series. The Dark Reaper is an ancient superweapon from the latter era, and Anakin is forced to venture to the planet Rhen Var, the final resting place of the Jedi who destroyed the Reaper, Ulic Qel-Droma. From Ulic's ghost, Anakin learns how to resist the weapons effects and destroy it.
- Artifact of Doom: The Dark Reaper, a devastating force-draining superweapon built during the days of the Old Republic. The Force Harvester serves as one of its major components.
- Big Bad: In addition to being one of the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Count Dooku is also the mastermind behind the "Rebuild the ancient weapon of mass destruction plot".
- Call-Forward:
- The AT-XT is a precursor to the AT-ST from the original Star Wars movies. Fittingly, the Imperial March plays when you use it in one level.
- A few of the levels are set on Alaris Prime, a moon in the Kashyyyk system. After he is captured by Dooku, Anakin and a smuggler named Bera must work alongside the Wookiee population to help get into contact with the Republic. This is quite similar to the original concept of Return of the Jedi. To top it off, the Battle Of Endor theme even plays during the first two missions of this arc, making it very reminiscent of said movie.
- Chicken Walker: As the ancestor to the AT-ST, the Republic's AT-XT is an two-legged assault walker that closely resembles the chicken-legged AT-ST.
- Degraded Boss: The Protodeka, a massive droid weapons platform. It is first fought as a boss on Raxus Prime, after it single-handedly destroys a Republic armored platoon, leaving you to take it on alone. Two more are fought in the game's penultimate mission (as regular enemies), but this time, you have allies to help you.
- Drop Ship: The LAAT/c is built to airlift fighter tanks and AT-TEs onto the battlefield with its magnetic claws.
- The CIS also employs a shuttle for their larger war machines, except that it's larger than the Republic's gunships. It is also completely defenseless.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Alaris Prime, a moon of the Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk, is the setting of a few of the game's levels, three years before we saw the planet in Revenge of the Sith.
- The Corporate Alliance droid tanks make an appearance in this game, before their official appearance in Revenge of the Sith (they were in a deleted scene of Attack of the Clones). They only appear once in the campaign, during the Thule Moon mission.
- Expy: Cydon Prax, a mercenary Count Dooku has hired, is basically a stand-in for the late Jango Fett.
- Gunship Rescue: Occurs twice during the fourth level, when Anakin has to fly an LAAT/i to a relatively remote location to rescue an group of allies who are under attack by the Separatists.
- Hover Tank:
- The TX-130 Saber-class fighter tank, the vehicle you'll be riding the most in the game. It's a floating vehicle armed with twin lasers and a complement of missiles.
- The Trade Federation AAT, which pops up as an enemy vehicle. You get to pilot it for a mission on Kashyyyk.
- The CIS also has the GAT (Ground Armored Tank), a lightly armored droid tank that regularly pops up as a mook (the most common enemy in the game).
- Landfill Beyond the Stars: A few of the levels are set on the junkyard planet Raxus Prime, where the Seperatists find and salvage the Force Harvester.
- Leeroy Jenkins: To his mentor's dismay, Anakin Skywalker routinely insists on charging into battle instead of waiting for help or taking out an enemy supply convoy.
- And for a gameplay-related example, the Hailfire Droid prefers to charge hell-for-leather at its target while showering them in a torrent of missiles. And then it makes a failure of a U-turn to continue the cycle, while the other droid models and AATs are content to lumber towards their victims at a leisurely pace.
- Lightning Bruiser:
- The TX-130 Saber-class fighter tank, the game's standard vehicle. It has good lasers and heavy-hitting missiles, moves fast, and can take a licking and keep on kicking.
- The Republic Gunship. A fast, sturdy transport that is armed to the teeth. It has front-mounted guns, devastating homing lasers, and its missiles make quick work of anything that crosses its path.
- Lost Superweapon: Hailing all the way from the Old Republic's past, the Dark Reaper is an ancient Sith superweapon that siphons the living Force from every living thing around it. The game's plot is about stopping Dooku from unearthing the thing or at least learning how to destroy it once he does.
- Mecha-Mook: Almost all of the enemies you fight in the game are Seperatist droids and vehicles that are either operated by droids or are droids in and of themselves.
- Mighty Glacier: The AAT. It moves at an embarrasingly slow speed, but it has more than enough heavy firepower and durability to make up for its shortcomings.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The "Spectral Guardians" are a ghostly trio guarding Ulic Qel-Droma's tomb. Despite being nonphysical, they breathe fire, and destroying their coffins is the only way to defeat them.
- Outrun the Fireball: On Alaris Prime, Anakin escapes a Seperatist camp he's trapped in and hijacks a STAP to escape the devastating effects of the Force Harvester being turned on the forest.
- Regenerating Shields, Static Health: All of the playable vehicles have a protective, regenerating energy shield that prevents them from actually taking damage. The only way to restore health is to collect the coresponding items (which are usually limited in in quantity), which means that survival is based on keeping your shielding intact.
- Spirit Advisor: After retaking Rhen Var from the Separatists, Anakin seeks advice from the ghost of the once-fallen Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma, in the hopes of destroying the Dark Reaper. Throughout the final battle against the weapon, Ulic will provide advice on how to deal with its weapons.
- Splash Damage Abuse: Although the argument is moot when driving an fighter tank, the Heavy Artillery Guns fielded by the CIS tend to miss by a few yards when aiming for your AT-XT. But the burst radius of their shells are large enough so that a near miss will deplete some of your health.
