Clone Wars is set immediately after Episode 2: Attack of the Clones which as you may remember (we know you've all seen it by now) the Republic army was battling the evil Separatists. Well in this latest game from Lucasarts the game starts off on the planet Geonosis supporting the Republic through the first few missions rescuing Jedi and other various objectives before its too late. From there you learn that the Separatists have uncovered an ancient artifact that harnesses the power to drain the Jedi's life-force.

Unlike some of the more recent Star Wars games such as Jedi Starfighter and Rogue Leader, there is more to the game than just flying ships. Sure there are levels that require pilot skills so don't fret, but that is just one aspect of the game as there are many different vehicles available throughout including a Speeder Bike, Fighter Tank, Assault Walker, Gunship, Assault Cannon and a Muru. Although most are just early variations of similar transport from the first trilogy, the Muru's are a new specimen. These creatures are found in the Kashykk system and have been domesticated by the Wookies that inhabit a small moon in which a few levels take place.

There are five planets in all that make up this game with a variety of missions on each. Some of the mission objectives require you to be on foot controlling one of three characters - Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi and of course the young Darth Vader himself, Anakin Skywalker. That said, thankfully the characters objectives are few and far between which means you won't be playing these characters on foot too much. Why is this good? Because controlling these characters feels somewhat clumsy and nowhere as good as it should have been.

Although the actual controls are very similar to most other vehicle control methods found in other games, there just seems to be something that doesn't quite feel right. All of the attack buttons are on the face of the controller and the shoulder buttons are used to strafe (except for the Assault Walker) but it just feels awkward, even with a Xbox 'S' controller.

As we mentioned earlier the levels in the game are each set on various planets and each planet has a distinct feel to it whether it is in the snow, forest or desert. With intense battles going on around you in some parts the overall feeling of participation is well represented especially in the sound department. All the Star Wars sounds have been added by Skywalker Sound, the official studio used for the movies and John Williams orchestral masterpieces, but of course who would expect less? The voices of the main characters are not the same as the movie, but are still pulled off well enough to keep the flow of the story moving. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the graphics.

Even though these do look excellent in some parts, especially in the battle scenes, the game suffers from terrible frame rate issues. It's not like the Xbox is being pushed to the limit in any way and why the frame rate suffers all the time regardless of how little is on the screen is confusing. This is something that is also an issue with both the Gamecube and Playstation 2 versions. That said the textures and effects are pulled off quite well and it is very noticeable during the early levels with explosions causing huge waves of sand being sent out within the blast radius. The draw distance does suffer for the most part with various landscapes popping up but doesn't detract from the game too much.

For those that have multiple controllers or other friends with Xbox's there are a huge amount of multiplayer modes available. Only one of these is playable with system link but all other modes are playable with either split screen or on Xbox Live (Officially unavailable in New Zealand at the moment) but for the most part, these aren't necessary. Unfortunately with the frame rate issues, this affects playing on Live and feels like it suffers from lag. The modes available are 'Duel', which has death match rules; 'Control Zone' that has 'King of the Hill' style game play; 'Academy', which pits you and your friends against the enemy in an arena and the last mode is 'Conquest' which pits two teams against each other trying to destroy the other's base.