Hoth battle live in Star Wars Galaxies

By Oli Welsh Published 21 November, 2008

MMO gets classic film sequence at last.

Even those MMOs that don't have a new expansion pack this winter have saved up their tastiest updates for the run-up to Christmas, and Star Wars Galaxies is no exception.

The Sony Online Entertainment MMO is doing what upstart sibling The Old Republic can't, and cashing in on the most memorable sequences of the classic Star Wars films.

Chapter 11: The Battle of Echo Base launched yesterday, and adds vehicle combat to the game in a recreation of the battle on the ice planet Hoth that opened second movie The Empire Strikes Back.

The "heroic encounter" allows players in groups of up to eight to take control of Rebel snowspeeders or Imperial AT-STs in the iconic fight. Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 all show up to cheer you on, too.

The battle has multiple stages and objective-based missions for players who've picked a side in the Galactic Civil War.

Star Wars Galaxies celebrated its fifth birthday this year. We'll be revisiting it soon.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Madafunkola #1 3 years ago

    Is star was galaxies stil running???!!!

  • iokthemonkey #2 3 years ago

    I wish I still played SWG as I'd love to be a part of the recreation of the Battle of Echo Base.

    All those JEDIZ LOL jumping around and shouting PWNED at each other. It's like a scene-for-scene recreation of the movie!

  • Vistrix #3 3 years ago

    This is what needs to be done:

    1. Scrap SWG totally.
    2. Start from the ground up to compete with Star Trek Online & EVE.

  • iokthemonkey #4 3 years ago

    Scrap SWG totally.

    ---

    Or roll-back to the pre "improved combat" version, remove the JEDIZLOL and restore it back to the innovative, brilliant game it was before some numpty in marketing decided that it was a good idea to listen to the 11-year old players who all wanted to be DARTH MAWL.

  • kipper #5 3 years ago

    Eight players per side doesn't exactly sound like Massively Multiplayer.......

  • iokthemonkey #6 3 years ago

    Eight players per side doesn't exactly sound like Massively Multiplayer.......

    ----

    That's about half the server population in SWG.

  • shamblemonkee #7 3 years ago

    raped and pillaged :( poor swg.

  • ruttyboy #8 3 years ago

    Erm, I don't get it, does this 'Battle of Hoth' go on forever, or does it get repeated endlessly? Either way it doesn't really make sense.

  • iokthemonkey #9 3 years ago

    Erm, I don't get it, does this 'Battle of Hoth' go on forever, or does it get repeated endlessly? Either way it doesn't really make sense.

    ----

    It'll be an instance-type thing I presume, or like a WoW battlefield.

  • Wyrm #10 3 years ago

    *Or roll-back to the pre "improved combat" version, remove the JEDIZLOL and restore it back to the innovative, brilliant game it was before some numpty in marketing decided that it was a good idea to listen to the 11-year old players who all wanted to be DARTH MAWL.*

    This.

  • Lemming81 #11 3 years ago

    Or roll-back to the pre "improved combat" version, remove the JEDIZLOL and restore it back to the innovative, brilliant game it was before some numpty in marketing decided that it was a good idea to listen to the 11-year old players who all wanted to be DARTH MAWL.

    ============


    It's very popular to say that, I know. But see, you set off my selective memory alarm.

    SWG was always a shit Star Wars MMO. It may have been an interesting maybe even innovative game, but it was shit Star Wars game.

    A Star Wars MMO should have been what and where WoW is now - Appealing to the masses and straightforward. not some niche design.

  • defdaz #12 3 years ago

    I miss the Pre-CU/NGE SWG :(

  • Shrike #13 3 years ago

    SWG was one of the last generation of MMOs that actually tried to make something of the genre's promise: player-run, persistent, social, creative. I think it deserves some respect for that.

  • Lemming81 #14 3 years ago

    "I disagree with you, Lemming.
    The original SWG offered players complete choices of what they wanted from the game. "

    =======


    As long as that choice was nothing to do with Star Wars. Unless I missed all the factory running, mining, furniture building and bio-engineering in the movies.

    It was too much of the niche beard-stroking and too little of the heroic story telling that makes Star Wars what it is.

    I had no problem with the design of SWG (pre-CU) as a random sci-fi game. But get that shit out of my Star Wars, TBQFH.


    Would have made a good Dune licensed design, actually.

  • Freek #15 3 years ago

    If there was a list of overused gaem scenarios, Hoth would be on it. But only at the number two spot, under Normandy Beach.

  • sirtacos #16 3 years ago

    Too little, half a decade late.

    I agree with Lemming. Galaxies was always a shit MMO, more so if you consider that it was supposed to be set in the Star Wars universe. It wasn't bombastic, fun or grandiose in any way, and failed - utterly - to recreate even a modicum of the atmosphere or excitement of the films.
    Swashbuckling it certainly wasn't - sterile and humdrum it was.

  • iokthemonkey #17 3 years ago

    SWG was always a shit Star Wars MMO. It may have been an interesting maybe even innovative game, but it was shit Star Wars game.

    ----

    I thought it did a really good job of capturing the spirit of the movies. Sure you didn't get to blow-up the Death Star or engage in epic battles but keep in mind that a lot of the PROPER SW movies (not those shit-awful prequels) were pretty low-key for a lot of the time and were about small bands of rebels fighting agents of the Empire.