Story:

The rest of the stages offer some sort of vehicle to use in a more arcade-like experience. The first stage (Battle of Hoth) has you battling AT-ATs in a Snowspeeder on Hoth using a standard setup that allows you to do everything you could need to -- including flying a tow cable around those nasty AT-ATs.

The third stage (The Asteroid Field) is a Rebel Assault-like stage, with you at the guns of your ship. This stage seems more like Star Wars Arcade for the 32X in actual gameplay, so it's more involving than Rebel Assault.

The sixth stage (Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon) lets you pilot a landspeeder through Mos Eisley in a race to save Luke Skywalker from a gang of hired thieves. This stage offers almost a racing game setup and execution.

The last stage (Skyhook Battle) offers two types of gameplay. The first part is identical to The Asteroid Field, with you blasting enemy fighters. The second part of the stage gives you control over the ship as well as the guns. You must attack the Skyhook Palace and destroy its reactor core.

What's it like to play?:

How is it that I see a game most people are saying is only fair to good as intense and exciting? Several Reasons actually:

The graphics are extremely detailed , giving a true sense of the Star Wars universe. They even included the little chess board inside your Millennium Falcon-like ship! Not only are the graphics detailed, but there's a very, very fine static that covers the screen that honestly gives you the sense that the game is taking place as a movie or on a video tape. This also masks any of the fine imperfections that anti-aliasing can reveal, giving the setting just that much more credibility. The animation of Dash Rendar at the bottom of the screen is also stellar, adding to the realistic feel. He has complex facial features that you can see by messing with the camera position. Very cool-- except for the fact that he never blinks. The only draw back to the graphics is that the frame rate is lower than previous N64 games, resulting in quicker wear on your eyes than, say, Mario 64.

The actual design of the Dark Forces-like levels is also quite wonderful. Instead of creating contrived mazes for the player to navigate, the levels flow more logically than any "Doom-type game" I've ever played. For example, in the Gall Space port stage you are trying to track down Bobba Fett at an imperial moon base. You can't exactly storm through the front door, so the game has you winding through the canyons surrounding the base. You actually start inside your ship! You can then walk right outside and get on top of it if you want. It's all there, in wonderful detail. Once you get to the base you simply follow the corridors through the different docking bays (complete with ships coming and going) until you get to Bobba Fett. At least a half-hour after starting, you reach Bobba Fett, and you feel as though you've actually traversed the vast terrain to get to him.

The AI is also very nice. Storm Troopers will gang up on you, wait for you to walk into their sights, etc. I actually got a sense that I was fighting a troop of soldiers given orders to bring me in dead or alive! Now, I haven't played much Doom or Dark Forces, but I've never seen bad guys like this. One more thing, the enemies are all polygons --not sprites-- meaning they can move and act as realistic objects, be that kneeling or peeking around a corner. The only case where the AI isn't so hot, is in the landspeeder stage, where the enemies simply hover and wait for you if you fall a little behind.

The background music, despite being of a mildly low sound quality is straight from the movies (I mean really from the movies). This really adds to the sense that you're living a movie. The sound effects are even more impressive! The bass from the many in-game explosions is incredible, as is the wonderful spatialization of the effects that helps you track down where that nasty blaster fire is coming from. As with the music, the FX were taken right from the vaults at Lucasfilm.

Okay, so the game is engrossing, right? So why are most people bashing it? Well, there are some definite faults to the game:

The play control is extremely spotty, sometimes it's loose, sometimes it's too tight, sometimes just right. This can cause frustration, but I found the controls to be adaptable to my playing style. The most difficult problems were in the aiming department. In the Dark Forces-type stages, It can be downright hard to aim at some of the bad guys. Jumping in these stages can also be difficult. In The Asteroid Field, it is extremely hard to finely adjust the sight, resulting in many a TIE Fighter getting away. And in the land speeder stage, aiming your speeder can be extremely difficult. The control is extremely loose in this stage, meaning you swerve, not steer.

While I never really felt that the control problems went away, I did feel I was gradually learning to work around these problems.

The actual control scheme is pretty complicated, but customizable. Thank goodness the game has an in-game screen that lets you view/change the controller setup on the fly. It takes a while to get comfortable using the C Buttons as action buttons.

The game can be way too hard. It's no fun spending fifty minutes (that’s fifty -- 50) to reach Bobba Fett, only to be totally wasted and have to start over. Even with the non-boss characters, each shot takes 20% of your health (on Easy mode), meaning that by the time you track down where the blaster fire is coming from, it may be too late. I was able to beat the game on easy, but only in a final blast off with the final droid in the Dark Forces-type stages, simply hoping I'd be the one standing in the end.

The difficulty was probably the biggest problem for me. I don't think I'd ever be able to finish the game on the hardest setting with all the hidden "Challenge Points" (the silver Rebellion logos hidden in each stage). I don't like games that are too hard. I loved Zelda 2, until I realized that I couldn't finish it. Although I have tried many times to finish it, I have not been successful, and for that reason I no longer like Zelda 2. I think that trying to finish Shadows would result in a similar outcome. It appears that the only difference between endings may be the amount of the ending you get to see (this is what I gather after seeing the ending on Easy), so if you don't mind not finishing the whole game, you might not be missing much.

If you are a Star Wars fan, you will probably like Shadows a lot, if not, you'll probably just like it. This is by far the best Star Wars gaming experience I've ever had. It's all very cinematic and mostly enjoyable. It's most definitely NOT the ho-hum game so many reviewers are making it out to be. If you don't mind overly challenging games, you may want to purchase Shadows. If, on the other hand, you do mind an overly challenging game, then you'll probably just want to rent it.

No matter what, you should at least rent Shadows once -- I think you'll be glad you did!