Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (PSP)

When Disney acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise, they found the tale of how the Rebel Alliance acquired the plans for the Empire’s Death Star superweapon to be fertile ground for a film. Rogue One created new characters and situations for its prequel story, but before Disney got their hands on it, the greater Star Wars universe already had an explanation for how they were acquired in the form of Star Wars: Lethal Alliance. There are certainly things to enjoy in both Disney’s version of the franchise and the old Expanded Universe, but in this case, the point has to go to Rogue One, for the game that originally told the story hardly even seemed to care about storytelling at all.

 

Star Wars: Lethal Alliance begins with the player playing as the loner Rianna Saren, a member of the Twi’lek alien race who does dangerous work for hire. Her expertise attracts the attention of the fledgling Rebel Alliance who begin hiring her for attacks against the evil Galactic Empire. What begins as a job just for the money quickly evolves into something personal though as a figure from her past is revealed to be a member of the Empire’s forces, but she begins to see the value of the resistance as well as she sees what the Empire is doing behind closed doors. Unfortunately, Rianna doesn’t really have much to her, so while she does undergo this change, it’s very by-the-numbers, the player not really knowing her before or after well enough to appreciate this change in mindset. It’s not handled particularly well either, particularly in regards to her encountering the droid who would accompany her on her journey, Zeeo. The floating robot meets her on a mission gone awry, Rianna resisting any help until he saves her once and then she’s suddenly very affectionate and accepting of her companion, a partnership that should have grown over time rushed through before the early moments of the game are even complete.

 

The worlds of Star Wars aren’t given too much attention either, mostly serving as functional areas for shoot outs and hoping your familiarity with them will make them see more interesting. Rianna’s missions will take her from the city world of Coruscant to the deserts of Tatooine, from the lava planet Mustafar to the Death Star itself to steal the plans so the rebels can counter it in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. While these do add a little variety to the visuals, the locations seem to mostly exist as part of pandering to series fans rather than opportunities to shift up gameplay or introduce new gimmicks. Even Despayre, a planet not featured in the films, ends up feeling more like Endor from Return of the Jedi thanks to the presence of forests, speeder bikes, and the AT-ST mechs you’ll encounter. The story mostly seems to be there to push you from location to location, with even the key rebel figures Rianna meets barely getting introductions. As far as this game is concerned, Kyle Katarn and Princess Leia are less characters and more voices that tell you what to do next. Star Wars: Lethal Alliance ends up in an odd spot because of these choices, featuring the Star Wars elements that likely drew a player into playing it but not really offering up much of substance for what recognizable locations and characters it does feature.

It’s pretty clear Star Wars: Lethal Alliance isn’t too concerned with its plot though, so the gameplay ends up being the element given the most attention. Most of the experience will take the form of a third-person shooter, Rianna packing a blaster fit for most fights but later unlocking stronger options like a sniper rifle or a faster-firing laser rifle. Turret sections break things up a bit as well, the player having a powerful and fast-firing stationary gun but needing to tell Zeeo whether to manage the weapon’s heat or heal it while its taking fire. Some of these turret sections even take place as space battles where you’ll need to shoot down Tie fighters from your own starship. The firefights you’ll end up in are a bit of a mixed bag though. Starting off, Rianna can defeat most of her foes with light strafing as she fires at them, the player locking onto targets to usually guarantee a decent level of accuracy with their shots. As the game continues though, the enemies you’re facing get stronger and come in more difficult arrangements, the player having to actually search for cover, pick off dangerous foes early, and manage ammunition a bit more. There will still be tedious battles to fight where the enemies keep slowly trickling in and don’t require too much thought to defeat, but the game does get better at putting legitimate threats in your path so the battle system isn’t worthy of complete dismissal. Most of your enemies will be aliens or stormtroopers packing weapons similar to yours though, so save for areas where the heavy duty troops come in or you fight off some large bosses who require different approaches than just shooting to defeat, things do blend together a bit and struggle to rise above passably entertaining.

 

The shooting will comprise most of the experience, but Star Wars: Lethal Alliance does dabble into other mechanics to mixed success. Rianna packs a melee weapon she can use when in close range, the slashes stronger than shots but not totally reliable. When you’re moving in close but before you’re in the proper area to actually connect with the weapon, Rianna will automatically switch to it, implying that it’s good to go. However, if you start swinging then, you might awkwardly and slowly swipe at the air, the enemy backing up and potentially getting some free shots on you. The game does feature some cramped areas where it can be used more reliably since you can move in safely, but its detection issues make it more a last resort or one best fit for the game’s stealth segments. Over the course of the game you will unlock some new melee options as well, but since all your enemies have guns, these are too situational to really alter your approach to combat despite being more useful and reliable than basic attacks.

Also joining you in combat is your droid companion Zeeo who has a few different roles. Some battles are less about survival and more about protecting it while its trying to access terminals, Zeeo never able to truly die but being rendered non-functional if damaged extensively. When it’s not serving as an object to be protected though, Zeeo has some use in combat. Zeeo can be launched at an enemy to stun them if it successfully hits them, making it a good way of incapacitating a pesky foe momentarily. Zeeo can still be damaged during this though and has a tendency to hitch on walls or objects, so its not an abusable option. More useful might be the shielding option where Zeeo will sacrifice some of its health to deflect enemy lasers back at them, although again, the health sacrifice makes it balanced rather than overpowered. Neither option changes the flow of combat too much to really push it into new territory, especially since most fights can be handled well enough without the droid’s help, but the game does attempt to reward you for using Zeeo with an alliance bar. Fill up the alliance bar by doing actions like the stun attack a few times and you’ll get an imperceptible bonus to your abilities, the bar diminishing when Zeeo loses too much health. On the one hand its usefulness is minimal, but since its so easy to fill up its almost not worth ignoring.

 

While the combat’s main issue seems to be a lack of too many exciting moments, the platforming is actually downright bad when it crops up. Rianna has no normal jumping option, instead relying on a forward roll that requires a running start. The roll has a lot of forward momentum to it and many of the gaps it needs to cross are positioned just so that you need to be facing straight or else you’ll mess up your rolling leap and drop to your doom, this awful jumping mechanic worsened by the fact failure results most often in instant death. It’s not in every level or so common that it’s always dragging the experience down, but any stage that does feature it is worse for it. Breaking away from the core design to test the player on half-baked platforming elements that are essentially a pass/fail system definitely seems out of place, but there are some simpler navigational moments as well. Walls will have little nodes to jump from that don’t really test you too much but do get the job done of moving you from place to place with a small interactive challenge, and sometimes the player will send Zeeo into small little mazes to activate systems that also progress things without engaging weak mechanics. The last change to typical play featured would be the flying segments where Rianna will hold onto Zeeo as it flies through dangerous areas, the player needing to position them right to survive to the end. Admittedly simple, it does break up the shooting action to avoid it getting too dull, so it’s easy to appreciate its presence even if its not too thrilling on its own.

THE VERDICT: Rianna and Zeeo’s battles against the empire are sadly rather dull ones. While it throws plenty of recognizable Star Wars imagery and locations in your face, its story is pretty flat and the action often rather lifeless.  The game does gradually get better at trotting out enemies and bosses that will require some strategy and smart movement to defeat to counterbalance the many simple firefights it takes to get to them, but then it ruins things with mandatory rolling jumps over gaps that are finicky and punished with death if done slightly wrong. Working together with your droid to change the style of battle or fly through dangerous areas is somewhat interesting, but most of what you’ll face in Star Wars: Lethal Alliance are increasingly similar fights that are occasionally broken up with poor platforming.

 

And so, I give Star Wars: Lethal Alliance for the PlayStation Portable…

A BAD rating. I did waver on whether or not to give it a worse rating, but the bulk of the experience is the shooting, so it was the deciding factor. When rolling over gaps crops up it’s absolutely terrible, but it’s not so common that it can be said to destroy your enjoyment of the game overall. The diversions can be annoying or just passable, but the combat at the core of everything mostly just suffers from a few weak design decisions. Many similar enemies and limited options for the player to pull on mean that the fights are lacking most of the time you encounter them, with things like the lock-on system perhaps making many of them a bit too easy. Better arrangements and boss encounters can shift that dynamic a little though, so the fights are broken up by their own internal variation enough to prevent it from getting unbearably stale, it’s still just not enough to salvage the weak gunplay. Even the sniper rifle, the weapon with the most room to shift the style of fight, is hampered by its slowness and enemies usually being able to fire on you if you can spot them with your zoomed in sights.

 

While Ubisoft did put in some effort when it came time for them to develop a Star Wars game, it doesn’t feel like they had any big ideas guiding the project. A lot of what is done in Star Wars: Lethal Alliance feels like what is expected of the genre and the franchise, leading to an experience that doesn’t really give the player anything too interesting or well-developed to work with. While Star Wars invalidated many incredible stories when it’s old canon was relegated to Legends, Rianna and Zeeo’s adventure doesn’t seem to be too much of a loss.