Developer: Team 5

Publisher: Lucasarts

2000

Arcade style action

 

In this article I will examine a real pearl, a retro game, that is a ’must play’ for every real Star Wars fan. It was released more than a decade ago, but its experience is tremendous till today. It is trendy to criticize every game with its graphics, and if there is no visual orgy in it, that a bad game. This is not true. The visual experience is ONE from the game factors, and all factors all together make a game good or poor. While I was preparing for this article, I read old comments and old articles about this game, which declared this game a modern piece of game with a wonderful graphics. Of course, these articles are old, and what they stated was true in that year, today there is no sense to search graphical orgy in the game, or we will be disappointed. But if we are open the real Star Wars feeling, wonderful music, authentic sounds, unique vehicles, and a great story, Battle for Naboo will be your game. It's based on the occurrences in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but gives more by looking behind the scenes, giving more than the movie with fictive events and by real background stories. The game focuses on the actions of one of the members of the Royal Security Force. We will be Gavyn Sykes, a young cadet, who became popular and well-known in the Expanded Universe. We will see the events by his eyes, while we control him. With his acts and missions we will completely get to know this interesting Prequel Trilogy era.

The game was released for Windows in 2001, before that is was only available for Nintendo. Oh, what we struggled to get the game, to be able to play with it! We were chasing it for night and day, but the only Hungarian PC game store in that times has not this game on shelf, especially the paper box version was not available, but the plastic box version was also not available. For years. Many Hungarians were forced to order it from abroad, but it was a privilege for a few. The game Galactic Battlegrounds was such difficult to get in those times, I have mentioned it earlier, an US girlfriend of mine sent me that game. But that Nintendo heritage is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Good, because we can calibrate almost everything. For example we can calibrate the mouse axis, changing X for Y. That was a sensation in that time, just remember the game Phantom Menace, the other game which is from the same era, and the that game the control was fix, cannot be changed! The Axis change is important for the flight parts, when we control airplanes, and when we push the mouse up, but the fighter turns its nose down! Rebel Assaults were ruined with this, especially when the infantry mission had normal control method, but the flight missions was inverted! Battlefront games are newer, but remember how many times have you crashed in to the ground because of the stupid inverted Axis method. So while Battle for Naboo is an old game, but this thing is developed great in it, and the control is perfect.

System requirements are pretty low. This is good, and it also came from the Nintendo heritage, and the old age of the game. It runs on Win98 perfectly, but XP is also able to play the game, especially on older machines. If the game does not run, there is an XP patch that emulates the game for your PC, and you’ll get even a NO CD feature.

After a successful install the start of the game will be a great experience for a Star Wars fan. The Lucasarts logo gold man is racing on a stap, because two stap droids are chasing him. They are firing for the gold man, who is speeding away from them, but accidentally hits the large L of Lucasarts, finally forming the logo itself. We are smiling, and the game even has not been started! It is so funny, and a great intro idea. But they have an other surprise, for the haters of Episode 1, especially the gungan haters. Jar jar comes from the right, heading to the middle of the screen, where suddenly the Star Wars letters fall down, right on poor gungan boy. Although I like the Gungan civ AND Jar Jar too, I know many Americans, who just hate them, so this intro part could be a real joy for them.

And here comes the first screen, with the menu. Amidala is sitting in her throne room, in front of her naboo personnels, Sio Bibble, royal guards, soldiers. And there a wonderful music can be listened, during all time time while you are in the menu. Original John Williams themes, Episode 1 musics, like Duel of the Fates. But if you click on some menu row, R2-D2 will beep, which is really cool.

Like in almost all games, it is suggested to check the menus. For example in the Options menu you can memorize the key board config. Learn all, because you can use every movement during the game. If the default is not good for you, just calibrate wherever it it better for your needs. You’ll find a function, called ROLL. It is very important! However Naboo N1 is one of the fastest fighters in the Galaxy, if somebody is in your tail, firing constantly at you can quickly kill you. Using the Barrel Roll ability correctly will save you hits from enemy fire, because your fighter will roll quickly, making it almost impossible to hit, almost all blaster fire can be avoided, so it will conserve your health. Use it whenever it is required, because you can get rid of your enemies behind you, or at least can avoid their fire!

You’ll see an other important thing, called Quick turn. It is useful for avoiding enemy fire, but also for speedy 180 degree turns in case you wanna make a quick turnaround, or don't have a lot of room. And there will be plenty of locations, where you won’t have too much space, like in canyons, crowded areas, or while you are attacking towers. Use the Quick Turn button a often! Holding this button down while flying your fighter will drastically make it more responsive, and will help you avoid incoming enemy fire faster and more efficiently than before. It will also allow you to turn back around and locate your target quicker, and therefore increase your chances on getting a shinier (practically gold) medal you've been working oh-so-hard at lately, when every second counts when you wanna finish a level quickly.

Well, after you finished the configurations, and memorizing the config, it is time to start the game itself. Usual as always, the yellow letters will start moving up in the black space, and we can read the synopsis. Trade Federation invaded Naboo, you’ll be Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes our commander will be Captain Kael, we are everyone’s hope, and whatever. Then comes an open screen of the next mission, with a small briefing. The next wow is coming, it will be read by Captain Panaka (Jeff Coopwood). Whoever loved The Phantom Menace, or like Battle for Naboo, they will be grateful for Lucasarts. And if you OK the mission, you’ll be navigated in to the hangar, where again cpt Panaka will be introducing the actual vehicle for us. This voice is just great! And I have arrived to the next great thing of the game: the hangar. You’ll be just enjoy the large variety of the vehicles! Players have access to several Naboo and Trade Federation aerial and ground vehicles. Many of them are absolutely unique, which you could not use ever, in any other game! There are some vehicles, which is available in some other game, but in that case it is important to know, that they were playable here first, here in Battle for Naboo. I have already mentioned Naboo N1, which is a great fighter to play with, but if I tell you that its older and stronger brother will be also available, you may be surprised. Yes, the Naboo bomber is ready to fly with you! All right, it is slower of course, but has a large bombing power. A much slower aircraft than the N-1, the Bomber is meant for heavy attacks on ground targets. The blasters fire the slowest of any craft, but the bombs can really cripple ground-based enemies. Or just to mention a Police cruiser, a similar to N1, but blue. A bit slower, because it was used for guarding, escorting, or forcing intruders down to ground. Many of us know the Flash speeder, the green speeder from Battlefront, which was playable, and looked awesome, but this time you’ll be introduced the other naboo speeder, the Gian speeder. I’ve known it from Galactic Battlegrounds, but there I could only click on them, watching them from above like small dots, since that was a strategy game. But this time you can hop in it, drive it, or fire with its cannons, you can hear its sounds, the firing, the engine, which is just gorgeous. A Gian might has been in the movie, maybe when the naboos and the gungans are planning the battle, the infiltration into the palace, we could see a Gian in my memories. Or let’s mention the heavy stap! Wow, a real miracle, awesome design, cool sound, I have made a custom vehicle about it. It is more like a motorbike, than the normal stap, it has a robust body, stronger, but slower. You can sit on it, not just stand on it like on the basic staps. You can play with it on many levels.

Sometimes you’ll be able to control enemy vehicles, too. There will be a water tank, the Trade Federation Gunboat. It is a real joy, its engine sound, its firing voice, wow! We have to capture a Trade Federation Gunboat in a mission, then we have to sneak past many water mines on the river Andrever, while we can hear the voices of the Naboo animals in the forests on the shore, Vultures fighters are flying above us, we attack a camp, gosh, it is one of the best missions! Oh, by the way, Vultures! Many opposing Vultures are fighters, but in this game we will meet the Vulture Bombers! Galactic Battlegrounds was the other super game that gave us playable Vulture Bombers, and we could see some in the Clone wars, when the camp where Antilles stationed had been bombarded or in the Wat Tambor episodes, but remember that these were much later then BfN, about 10-15 years later! Enemy aircraft are primarily composed of Trade Federation Droid starfighters and air mines. Ground defenses are more varied and include normal B1 battle droids and destroyer droids, laser and missile turrets (against air and ground), Armored Assault Tanks (AATs), Multi-troop transports (MTTs), gunboats and Single trooper aerial platform (STAPs). Incredible amount of vehicles and installations, mostly turrets, but there will be mines in the water or even in the sky, too. So many unique and new things that 2-3 other games would show us! And we haven’t mentioned units that we can not control, we cannot fight them, just escort, or protect, or simply level ornaments. For example there will be a naboo houseboat, a vehicle that provides shelter for the Naboo civilians, and they could even travel with them on water, or swamp. There will be a level where Tradefed gunboats will attack them, we have to save them, 3-4 unarmed, slow, civil naboo houseboats have to be protected early in the mission. A+ for them, superb concept and innovation. Or there will be Borvo the Hutt’s frigate, and his special fighters, these are also great and new innovations. Not to mention those prisoner transports, which later can be seen in the Rebels, almost the same concept. Or in a secret mission Darth Maul’s infiltrator will appear, or in an other secret mission a Republic transport ship.

If you start the first mission, you’ll be in a Flash Speeder. You’ll see a round icon in the top right corner. That is a Radar - it shows everything that you will need to know and to see to beat each level. It shows the terrain you are on, it shows enemies and allies, as well as the direction you need to go. Green dots are of course the allies, red dots are the enemies. Other Dots shows your goal and their direction. An orange cone will tell you the direction you need to fly in to complete your objective.

In the upper left corner there is a damage gauge. This is the little icon of your fighter or armored vehicle, and it shows how much damage your ship has taken. The gauge moves from green to dark red, then you blow up. Green is fine condition, then it moves from yellow to orange then red. The flashing red is 96%-99% damage, the 100% equals death. If we have secondary weapon, it will appear next to this Damage gauge icon. It show how many bombs, proton torpedoes, special ammos we have. But these ammos are limited, so you’d better save them for the larger enemies, like AATs, large targets/ships, and even Darth Maul in one of the bonus missions. It's good to conserve your larger ammo for the larger foe. However it is good to know that if you „die” (means one of your life was wasted) the next time you respawn all of the secondary ammos will also be full. So if you are in a hurry, or your medal goal let’s you waste 1 or 2 lives, just fire those secondary missiles away. It is better to spend them out, then take them into you grave. I often follow this tactic on silver missions, where you are allowed to die once. For example if you have to protect 4 allied vehicles in the very beginning of a level, I fire out the secondaries very quickly onto the incoming AATs, then I DESTROY MY SHIP crashing it into the ground. As the vehicle respawn, I get an other set of secondary missiles, that are a great gift if you are in a hurry, and you have to protect civilians. But of course you have to be cautious not to loose any more lives, but if the majority of the potential dangers were destroyed with the help of the two set of secondary missiles, there won’t be so much threat neither for you, nor the civilians. Important to know, that these secondary weapons can be upgraded by the secret upgrades (hidden in some levels in special areas) so not only your primary weapons, or you shields can be upgraded, but also these secondaries!

This leads us to the next thing: the bonuses. Hidden in some levels in special areas you have to search everything if you wanna make benefit of their upgrades. This is not easy, because you have not too much time on higher levels, to fly up and down searching for bonuses, because you miss the medal if you spend too much time. And the developer have hidden the bonuses well. It is a fact, that if you have to protect someone, the developer knew that the player will escort the target person wherever he goes. So it can be suspicious if the protected ship goes right, the bonus will be somewhere on the left. This was on the Borvo the Hutt mission, where a former man of Borvo wants to help us, asking us to protect him while he shows the way to the Hutt. But that idiot seems to negate all the turrets that are constantly firing at his fighter. So the average player goes with him, and clears the way for him, destroying everything in his path, otherwise if the person is destroyed, the mission was failed. When he finally reaches the spot where he went, a demo comes, and we have to fight Borvo and his fighters so we won’t have time to search bonuses. Then arrives 2-3 N1 fellow pilots, but they are your wingmen, none of them is allowed to loose, or guess what, mission failed. So you have to be efficient and quick, cannot leave them alone, flying away for bonuses. And if you kill the enemies, the mission is over, the level has been finished. So you have to find the bonus in the early stages. I finished the level for a few times, and learned everything, the location of the towers, enemies, and the bonus. Then if the time has come, I risked, hasn’t escorted the Borvo pilot, but rushed to the bonus area with full throttle. It is on a small island, among some trees, jumping up and down, it can be hardly noticed. You have to aim it when it comes down, get it, then quickly rise your fighter up from the trees, and hurry back to that idiot, who is crying into you ears, that he was shot, damaged, and almost dies, praying to come and help him. It is a concept, the developers planned it that way, because many of the players will rush to his aid when he hears his cry, but if the player goes with the target person, there won’t be time to find the bonus. But do not forget, the N1 is one of the fastest fighter in the Galaxy, so rush to the bonus, ignore the crying in your radio, get the bonus, and hurry back. You can make it in time, you’ll find the target person damaged, but alive. And you’ll have the game’s best bonus, the homing torpedo, which finds target automatically, it is enough to acquire the target, when the crosshair goes red, fire a torpedo, then you can fly wherever you want, to the next target, your missile will finish the work alone. So this bonus worth the risk. But others, too. Some will be hidden in a house for example, where you can not see it. So you have to destroy buildings to find bonuses. But keep in mind, they are mostly allied buildings, where the Naboo live. But without destroying it you won’t know if it’s hide bonus or not. Glacial grave level is a good example. Advanced bombs is hidden somewhere. Near the end of the level, there is a domed building guarded by three blaster turrets. As you leave the area, your group of fighters will fly in a valley off to the left. You'll want to go to the right. You'll come upon a small outpost that has four Laser Turrets and one Missile Turret defending it. You're gonna take some serious hits here, but it's worth it. Blast the round structure in this outpost and the bonus will be revealed. Grab it. Advanced bombs upgrade the projectiles on the gunboat too! But you needn’t destroy every buildings. On a level, a civilian will open it for us, if we save him. But not everyone figures out he has to be saved, and many do not succeed in it, because either the staps destroy the civilians, or YOU destroy him as you try to get those staps in his back. After you destroy the offending STAPs, the civilian will tell you to follow him to his house. Do so, and you'll eventually reach a small farmhouse with a large fence around it. As he approaches, he'll drop the gate, allowing you access to the advanced missile technology bonus inside. The next trick that the developers apply is they hide the secret near the level end. When the player sees the end line, where he wants to get as soon as possible he doubles his steps. The level Sanctuary is similar. You have to escort civilians to a place that seems like the Gungan scared place, finally you get there, you are happy, you wanna push them through the finish line, just to get rid of them finally. And the developers know that, that is why they hid the secrets there... Just before you reach the entrance to the ruins (it's got a little rock pile next to it), you'll see a small ravine leading off from the main canyon. Follow it to find a roughly circular, open area with a plateau in the middle. There is a landing strip behind it, and you will find the bonus there. At the end of the runway, you'll see your bonus: Rapid-fire Blasters. The rapid fire lasers increases the blaster fire rate on all vehicles. But there will be a bonus right on the first level, too. There the developers thought the player is novice, his vehicle is weak, he will follow captain Kael, and won’t face an AAT which will fire at him from above an alcove. We can not get behind it, just if we destroy it. But behind him there is a bonus. So you have to destroy the AAT with your initial Flash speeder to get behind it where advanced shield technology waits, which will give better shield for all your vehicles. Mission Camp 4 also has a bonus. This was one of the most difficult for me to find. There will be plenty of enemies, which will keep respawning, the level is large, the time is little, especially if you run for gold or silver. But the notorious Camp 4 worth exploring. We heard about it in the movie, but knew nothing. Trade Federation imprison here the naboos, behind large walls, reflectors, shields. But almost everybody would like to explore the camp, enjoying every minute as droids are on the walls, turrets and AATs everywhere, and even heavy stap droids are patrolling. We have to climb narrow paths up a hill that leads to the shield generators, so we can blow them up. Our Gian speeder can easily slide down, and there are tanks and turrets on the hill, too, so the player is happy to reach the top, blow up those stupid generators, tries to turn back and come down somehow, but you mustn’t, because there is the secret area! We have to continue up the hill past the generator’s ruins (head a little to the left and hit the wall, because it's kind of tough to crest a little bump there). Continue on to a little pocket in the canyon, and you'll find your delicious bonus just sitting there. Grab it, and Advanced Blasters will be yours. It is not easy! We can see now, the developers were clever, the bonuses are well hidden. Tactically it is needed to explore the maps well, slowly, careful. Many times if needed, no matter, as you are playing in the meantime anyway. If you go slowly while exploring, you will fail the time requirements of the medal, finishing the level is not our goal at this time. You can play the mission once more if you turn back the level select with those planet icons, but if you get a shinier medal that it was needed, you can fail the bonus mission. Simply told: if you are aiming a full bronze medal game, do not be so quick, otherwise a silver may come. You can play exciting bonus missions, if you have accomplished all mission with a kind of medal. If you have finished all level with a bronze, you’ll get a bronze secret mission, called Trade Federation secrets. I was very happy, when it became evident for me. You have to protect a fortress with your Naboo N1, because it is sieged by staps, tanks, and Vulture squads. Naboo commandos have taken over that Trade Federation facility, and now they are trapped inside. We have to protect the base until the commandos can be airlifted to safety with a red Republic transport ship. It can be tough, but those you got here are not rookies at this point of the game. And the found bonuses had made your Naboo N1 a real killer, so you have a good chance to fulfill your mission. If you are clever, you can destroy the tanks and/or the MTTs ON THE WAY to the base, if you get behind them as they are trying to reach the fortress, you can kill them all easily. They are stronger, so taking them out makes the Vultures alone, and they cannot do too much damage while you are doing this. Finally the transport arrives, but it is not over yet, you have to escort it to a point, where it can jump to hyperspace. It is an awesome level, worth playing all bronze of the 15 normal levels. So that is why a silver is not welcomed in this process of collecting 15 bronzes. An other trick could be to shoot all the time. Just constantly fire while in combat if you are trying to earn a bronze medal in a mission. Why? Well because it drastically drops your accuracy down, keeping you down on bronze, avoiding to meet the silver requirements. Otherwise you can erase the silver missions, and play them again. The silver requirements are harder, you have to be faster, more accurate, you have to conserve 2 of your 3 lives, which means you only have 1 life to be wasted. But if you are curious for the silver secret mission, you will do your best to reach these. If you are successful, Coruscant Encounter will opens. Darth Maul has attacked a Naboo delegation upon arrival at Coruscant. We have to destroy the Sith Infiltrator before Darth Maul causes more damage. It is a crazy run between the high skyscrapers. I don’t like this. Frankly, I do not know why became this level the silver bonus mission, why is it higher level, because I think bronze bonus mission was much much better. But about the gold I cannot say too much. I can finish some missions with gold medal, but finishing all levels with gold was impossible for me. Just take a look at this picture. It can be seen, you have to match ALL requirements. It means if there are civilians, you have to protect them, you have to kill many enemies without loosing a life and very quickly. If there is a bonus on the level, you have to find it and collect it. In addition with 50% accuracy, which means every second shot needs to be accurate hitting the enemy. It is impossible. In many air fight there is a dogfight, as we are racing in the air, it is hard to find target. If you fire a missile that does not count! Only your primary weapons. You can make your accuracy a bit better if you do not fire your missiles or proton torpedoes on the larger enemies, like AATs or MTTs. This is a good plan, because if you don't want to miss the target just fly against the AATs with just your blasters firing them, and since they are large, you fire will be accurate, every shot will be accurate until the tank explodes, so you cannot do this all day. Do not forget, one accurate shot and one miss is 50%, but 1 accurate shot and two miss is only 33%, so you’ll fail! So every shot counts! It is madness for going for gold, you fly behind a fighter very closely, do not fire, just waiting for the best moment to be accurate with your shot. That is not a game, it is a pain. If you’ll be successful somehow, and get 15 golds, you can open the gold bonus level called Dark side, but I do not have a screenshot about it, I never played that. However I have read about it, so I know that this time instead of protecting the Naboo Forces and fighting the "good-fight", you take over the role as Darth Maul himself, and join the Dark Side, probably that is why Dark side is the name of this level. Your goals are to protect your Trade Federation Forces, as well as destroy all Naboo Forces, your fellow brothers, N1s, Police cruisers, and everything with your Sith Infiltrator. You can kill Jar Jar Binks, too, and that is a joy for some people, for me it is not. Anyway, replaying this game is one of the strengths of BfN. First when you explore the maps, then the bonus thing is the second reason to repeat levels, than the three kind of medal missions, so the game is enchanting, there are many new things in it, the challenge is great, and since it is more and more difficult on each medal level, it does not matter that you know everything, your fighter is stronger, faster, with better shield, BUT you have to kill more opponents, faster, more accurate, so if you play it again the challenge will be totally new on a silver level that it was on bronze. During the game, our character, Gavyn Sykes will be promoted from the initial security cadet higher and higher. You can check his rank on that screen, where Amidala gives you the medals. But the Elite Officers menu also gives you details on your medals and rank. The most successful naboo soldiers are listed there. The shinier is your medal, the higher you can get. So a single silver can overtake 2-3 bronze, or a 5 bronze officer can be overtaken by 2 silvers. But you do not have to play medal oriented, because it is plenty enough to be immersed in this Universe, when we can be a part of the events, liberation of Theed, or the siege of the mighty droid control ship. So take a look at the events from inside, as it was never seen in the movie!

Trade Federation invaded Naboo. The droid army are on the streets of Theed. Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes is a volunteer member of the Royal Security Forces. He is assigned to patrol Theed during the Blockade, when he is being informed via the radio of his green Flash speeder, that his Captain is trapped near the RSF headquarters. Kael has a has a weapon malfunction during the opening stages, and he is in trouble, needs to be rescued. Sykes brakes through the droids, and arrives there in time, because Kael had four Destroyers on him. Sykes rescues him, and the two advances forward together, destroying droids and tanks in the city, rescuing civilians too. Kael gets other hits, his Flash speeder is more and more damaged, and Kael will have another problem, this time with his engine. They decide to leave the Flashs behind, and change to Heavy staps to leave the helpless city, and hide in the swamps. The Trade Federation has taken control of the entire planet, and only the swamps appear safe. As they arrive, they are shocked to see a bunch of STAPs threatening the farmhouses, the farmers are running up and down from their burning houses. Kael ans Sykes help them, attacking the droids. Their staps are stronger, so the two has the advantage, and get rid of the first wave of droid staps. But suddenly Vultures are appearing, and some AATs, so the naboos run into a Security Hangar to change for Police cruisers. On the way they see droid staps even killing the naboo animals too. The Neimodians want to destroy the resistance, even burning down the houses, plundering the crop, or killing the animals so the Naboo should have no chance to survive. The two naboo soldier destroy so many enemies that are possible, then they head to the swamp. A trader village is hidden deep in the heart of the swamp, where traders, and families live. The traders may provide valuable information and allies to the Resistance, but first they need help. They have houseboats, where they live, which are under attack at the moment when the naboo soldiers arrive. Trade Federation gunboats are attacking them, 3-4 have to be destroyed first. After the tanks were destroyed, a local civil, Rohan Wayside says thank you for saving him and inform the two naboos that one of his men, Vedd Deviss, is pinned down nearby. He is hiding on a small island, and he could help Sykes to find an ally IF they help him out from trouble. Vedd is surrounded by enemy Vulture fighters and bombers. After the enemy was shot down, Deviss join Sykes and Kael with his Police cruiser, so now they are three. And he mention a mysterious smuggler hiding out in the mountains who might be able to help. The three Police cruisers enter the mountains in search of the mysterious smuggler who could become a powerful ally in the fight against the Trade Federation. Suddenly Vultures attack them, and Sykes’ cruiser will be hit and because of the damage he have to find a Flash speeder in a near hangar. So he has to advance on the ground while his police cruiser escort cover him from above. A radio message arrives again, a freighter is under considerable fire from enemy AATs. This is the smuggler friend. A Gran, identifying himself as Kol Kotha and requests help. As more and more AATs arrive, taking good positions on the edge on the canyon, and they fire the slow freighter, its deflector shield can not last for ever. The task now is to protect the freighter as it runs down the canyon to safety. If the RSF help him, he promises to take them to Borvo the Hutt, a local Hutt criminal, who could be the valuable ally. Sykes attack the AATs, while his friends are taking out the Vultures above. After the battle the naboo pilots are addressed by another occupant of the freighter, a female human, called Adela Tyche. She'll explain that the owner of this freighter is Borvo the Hutt. She asks Kael and Sykes to protect the vessel in the way back to the Hutt’s base. Once at the base, Borvo's own pilots will join in the fight against the Trade Federation. There is a cool place nearby, a kind of factory, where Naboo N1 starfighters are produced, owning that factory would be a large benefit, but that's under Trade Fed control at the moment, and has to be captured. Those N1s would be great to enter the space, as the little company plans to attack a satellite. They plan to assault the Trade Federation base on Naboo, however, before the attack can take place, they must disable the communications web controlling the target base. So they pinpoint and destroy the control comm satellite to disable the web. The little squad manage to capture the factory, and with the newly required Naboo N1s they enter the darkness of the space. Soon they spot Comm 4, but there is a mistake, it looks heavily shielded. So first they have to locate the shield projectors that feed its blue sphere of shield. There are 3 of them. As they run to the first one, they eventually see a whole mess of red dots on their radar, many Vultures and Proximity Mines. There was a big fight between them, but finally they managed to destroy the fighters, mines, and the 3 shield projectors, and then the naked Comm 4 at last. They've just put a Trade Federation base out of commission down there, no time to waste, they rush back to attack that sleeping base ASAP. They return to Naboo and attack that base, their goal is to destroy as many Trade Federation weapons, vehicles, and turrets as possible in the first surprise, and capture or let’s say steal a Trade Federation Gunboat for the Resistance. Sykes takes a bold move, and enters a lone hangar in the chaos, and manages to steal a Gunboat, and runs away with his prey on the River Andrever. The Trade Federation has established labor camps on the banks of the Naboo river, which are heavily guarded. But a Trade Federation Gunboat may enter in that camp without drawing attention, so with it Sykes can liberate these camps and defeat the Neimoidian slave drivers. Sykes travel down the silent river at night, but he was stopped by mines. He has to shoot the mines that are in his way, but the large detonations and the firing draws the attention of the Trade Federation. Soon some Vultures arrive to scout around, Sykes stops, and waits, until the fighters leave, as they thought an own Trade Federation gunboat was under them on the water. But soon they recognized him, an other Trade Federation gunboat spotted him as Sykes was firing at turrets and mines, so the enemy Gunboat will try to make an escape and warn the main camp, so it started to race back to camp followed by Sykes. But he cannot follow him with full throttle, because the other gunboat will start dropping mines behind it to slower Sykes, and do not forget the river was full of mines and turrets anyway, so Sykes has difficulties. (This scene is very similar to that movie part, where the Falcon chased a Tie fighter to be able to shoot it down before it gets back to the Death Star, or maybe when Luke and Leia chased the speeder bikes on Endor.) Anyway, Sykes ends up at the the main compound, guarded by a Turrets, but he entered the complex, where bombers, fighters, gunboats attacked him, and the laser turrets of course. He had not assistance, yet. But fortunately Vedd came to help, saying he'll come in to provide air support with his N1, but only if Sykes take out all the missile turrets in the area. Sykes did that, Vedd intervened, and from above he destroyed the main generator, disabling the whole compound. The prisoners are free! The rescued civilians are now in Sykes’s care. He has escort them to the rendezvous point in the northern ruins, where Borvo picks them up to his ship, and transports them to safety. But first the civilians travel with very vulnerable houseboats, to cruise down the river, so they need to be protected. When they finally arrive to a bay, they change to speeders, and Sykes changes for an N1. Many AATs will be spilling out of a tunnel to destroy the small team of runaways. From now it is is a classic "protect the weak" mission. Sykes makes risky runs to attack and destroy the tanks before they could destroy the civilians. But they keep pouring of from the tunnel, so that becomes his first priority. He fires a long burst of fire to block it, while the tunnel collapses. Hurray, can take a deep breath. For a minute. The Trade Fed „navy” arrives, the first wave of fighters and four bombers come to attack them. A Naboo N1 comes to aid Sykes, but still they are underdogs. Especially that the pilots have to keep an eye on the slowly moving civils as they struggle to the sacred area with those special head sculptures. Hollis finally fires a rock pinnacles, which falls down to the road preventing or at least slowing down the tanks that follows them. They take care of the Vultures too, so they manages to get to safety, again. They seems to be lucky, but their happiness will turn to anger and sadness as they were informed that Captain Kael has disappeared. Sykes friend and superior was shot down and missing in action. Sykes hops in a Flash speeder and races to locate his downed Naboo Starfighter and to protect him at all costs. Kael was last seen around a mining colony. But that colony is under attack, there are STAPs and a few Tanks harassing the colony. Sykes helps them, and gets rid of the enemy vehicles. Once he finished with the Tanks, the colony head will turn against him, telling him that this is a legal operation. He'll refuse to give you any info about the captain, and he turn all defensive turrets in the area up on Sykes. Sykes does not understand it, but he has to protect himself. He takes them all out, and some ground transports which try to make off with the crystals they mined there, illegally for sure. As there will be silent at last, a radio call arrives from Hollis, he tells Sykes he found the downed Starfighter, and that it doesn't look good, and it is under attack by some Vultures. It has to be Kael’s! Sykes rushes to the area, and shoots down those Vultures with his Flash speeder’s cannon. He quickly runs to that N1, and he really find Kael inside. Kael, with his dying words, tells Sykes that Borvo the Hutt has betrayed him, and everybody, and the people they rescued are going to be sold into slavery. Then he dies in Sykes hands.

With vengeance fueling Sykes, he heads to his N1 Naboo Starfighter and hurries after that slimeball Borvo. But the Hutt’s base is not so easy to approach. The Hutt’s contingent of fighters is in a valley to intercept the lone N1 pilot. But they can stop Sykes, who destroys them all. Kol Kotha will show up, a renegade man of the Hutt, who offers help. He guides Sykes through the valley right to the base. But the defensive turrets damages his fighter, and can’t help Sykes any more. But the angry RSF soldier does not mind, he attacks everything alone in his fury. Hutt Turrets, and Missile Turrets starting to fire at him, and about six Hutt Fighters will be launched to attack the lone N1. But fortunately 2 Naboo pilots arrive to help him, Vedd and Hollis fly in to give him backup. They destroy everything and hit the Hutt's ship just enough, so the whole back end blew up, while the front area still being able to fly, the Hutt runs off. Borvo flees Naboo, and the slaves are re-liberated. The naboos turn their attention back to the Trade Federation occupation. Now in charge of the resistance on Naboo, Sykes leads a mission to liberate the Camp 4, a detention center where the Trade Federation has placed most of Naboo's important leaders. We heard its name in the movie, as some leaders, handmaids, Sio Bibble and some more people were escorted down on the stairs of the palace, a droid commander says take them to Camp 4. And we go there now! But with a Starfighter it is not wise to go there, so Sykes has an idea: changes to heavy stap, and mingles in the crowd of a Trade Federation convoy, which is heading in the Camp 4. As the friendly convoy approaches, the shield of the gate will be deactivated to let them inside. So Sykes is in, but it is just the beginning. Angry droids are coming to attack the intruder, with heavy staps and AATs. Turrets are activated, and droids on the wall everywhere. It is tough, they are many, and strong. Some reflectors are lit, and the alarm is loud. Sykes needs some stronger. Changes to Gian speeder, and he just fires, fires, and fires. But some more rayshields separates him from the rear sections of the camp, and the droids won’t deactivate those shield for sure. He is going to have to find a way inside the encampments on either side that have prisoners in them. Sykes finds and detonates the Shield Generators, disabling those shields. He fire holes in the prison doors, to rescue the prisoners. Leaders, pilots, and many other Naboo personnel are just pouring out from those cells, so some transport is needed for them. Speeders would do, so a small group of vehicles break though the droids, and escapes the notorious Camp 4 to safety.

Captain Panaka and the Queen have returned to Naboo, with Amidala's grand plan for freeing Naboo. We join the story after the Gungans agree to help the Naboo. The Gungan Grand Army create a diversion on the Grassy plains of Naboo to distract the feared Trade Federation's forces guarding Theed, while a smaller squad qith the Queen plans to enter Theed in a bold attempt to capture Nute Gunray, then enter the hangar, recapture the Naboo N1 fleet in order to the pilots could make an assault against the droid control ship in the space. But the Trade Federation know about this plan, and regroup a quite big armored contingent against the Gungans, so Sykes'll be sent to clear out that convoy that could make some serious trouble for the Gungan army. Sykes rendezvous with Panaka near the sacred place, where the captain tells everything for the brave soldier. The convoy moves slowly, so Sykes has to destroy as many as possible of the armored vehicles mostly AATs and MTTs, or at least slow them down, until a commando group is leaving thermal detonators on a bridge in order to blow it up. Sykes can take a Naboo Bomber, the strongest ship of the Royal Naboo navy. It has a large power, but yet, this mission seems to be a kamikaze mission. Especially that the convoy is being escorted by many Vultures. So the aim is not the annihilation of that convoy, but to slow them until the bomb was layed. Then Sykes can fly away as fast as that slow Naboo Bomber is able to run. So Sykes decides to bomb the high peaks in the valley because they are unstable, so he blast them until they fall over on the road. Also, he bombs huge craters in the ground, and destroys several large armored vehicles, so the remaining vehicles could advance slower, maneuvering around those craters trees and debris. The plan works, a commando vehicle arrives on the bridge, it drops off its payload of detonators right before the first convoy vehicles appears, but they cannot detonate the bombs, they have to run away. So Sykes hit the detonator with his bomber from above, activating it, blowing the bridge up finally. This action prevents this convoy to take part in the battle, which is a great thing for those poor Gungans on the grassy plains.

But there is no time to relax. Sykes changes to Gian speeder, and races after the others, who are gathering near Theed. It is supposed to be a large armored vehicle battle, every vehicle and man is needed. When Amidala signs with that light, a Flash speeder opens fire, and destroys an AAT, and the when gets unleashed. Naboo vehicles are storming through the gate, and attack the tanks and droids. The surprise attack give them an early advantage, but the Trade Federation soon reorganize its army, and a fierce battle erupts in the wonderful streets of Theed. The Naboos are advancing from corner to corner, but Sykes is not alone at least now, they fight for freedom together with other fellow naboo soldiers. But they can’t liberate the whole city now, and this is not the goal now. The plan is to reach the palace and hangar. The canonic story here becomes a bit contradictory, in the film the naboos breach the hangar defenses, save the pilots, INCLUDING SYKES himself, while in the game Sykes enters the hangar from outside with the other, and he saves the others. Anyway, the good guys acquire starfighters at last, and the captive pilots after freed hop in them, and fly out from that hangar, where an AAT is firing at them from behind a sniper position. But the majority of the N1s fly to the space.

Bravo Flight is approaching the Vuutun Palaa, the Federation's Droid Control Ship. They stare at the mammoth, feeling something similar that the rebels could feel when they attacked the Death Star. In both case, small mosquitoes flew against the mighty mammoth, their hearts are beating fast. Sykes was out here, when attacking Comm 4, that was also fearful, but the Lucrehulc is bigger. But they cannot retreat. Everyone is counting on them. Down on Naboo the Gungans are locked in a bitter struggle with the main droid army. The Queen is after Nute Gunray, fighting droids on the corridors of the palace. The Jedi are dueling with Darth Maul. Everyone’s life depends on this mission. The success of the whole fight depends on this mission. Naboo’s fate depends on this mission. As it wouldn’t be just enough, from the mighty Lucrehulc station as angry bees, Droid Starfighters emerge, and attack the incoming N-1s. It is a very tough battle, although the Naboo N-1 is a shielded ship, while the Vultures has no shield, and the N1 has an onboard astromech, who can make repairs on the fighter if needed and she doesn’t get more or lethal damages, but despite all of that the Bravo Squad has not got too much chance. They do their best, speeding up and down destroy many Vultures, but the main target should be the Droid Control Ship somehow. Sykes saw one of the fellow pilots destroying a tractor beam generator, then getting sucked into the beam itself. Pulling closer and closer to the station, and finally a turret decimating his N1 into stardust. Now it's clear, the new job to destroy the other 3 remaining tractor beam generators. Bravo squad have no schematics on the station, so they firing everything that seems to be the tractor beam generator. Finally they figure out where to find the remaining generators. Guess who has to attack them? Sykes, of course. After he destroys the other 3, they can fly closer to the station risking that the tractorbeam catch them. The next target is the Control Ship's shield generator, which protects the Lucrehulk itself. Sykes is going… The other pilots try to provide him cover. Sykes knocks out the Droid Control Ship's Shield Generator. Suddenly an N1 arrives from Naboo, in it a small child sits, who enters the Lucrehulc. It turns out, it was young Anakin Skywalker. He makes something inside, because the Bravo squad happily notice that the control ship is shaking from detonations from inside. The slim N1 races out from the Lucrehulc, behind him large fire comes out. Sykes and the others cover Anakin, and retreat. The Lucrehulk is destroyed, victory! The Bravo pilots are returning Naboo with joy and euphoria, but they are not happier than the Gungans, who had been defeated on the Grassy plains, and surrenders, when all the droids suddenly deactivated around them collapsing down to the ground. The commando in the palace is also happy, the droids also deactivated there, too. Naboo is free! The returning pilots are being celebrated and promoted, the medals are shining like the sunshine on the golden N-1s. There are Police cruisers and N-1s pulling above them on the sky - weird, but I could see more celebrating ship then it was in the final battle. Fireworks on the sky, the Naboos and Gungans are friends for the eternity. This end demo is for you, if you were involved, if you volunteered to control Lt. Gavyn Sykes, with this great job you can sit back and relax now, enjoying the celebration, fanfares, the hurrays, as you have just freed Naboo!

 

written and translated by: Norbert Rostas 2015.04.18