Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire

Developer(s)	LucasArts
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Engine	INSANE
Platform(s)	PC, PlayStation, Mac
Release date(s)	November 1995^[1]
Genre(s)	Action (Rail shooter)
Mode(s)	Single player
Distribution	CD-ROM

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire is a 1995 video game developed by LucasArts. It is the sequel of the LucasArts action game Star Wars: Rebel Assault, set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

This part of the series contained mostly original filming with actors and stunts, while the scenery and the space scenes were 3D rendered. According to LucasArts' magazine "The Adventurer", this game was the first media to incorporate live-action actors and footage in the Star Wars universe since Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The stormtrooper armor, weapons, helmets and suits seen to be worn by the actors, were not made for the game, but are the actual props seen in the original trilogy, taken from the archive storage of Lucasfilm.

The game makes use of the INSANE game engine.

Here, the player Rookie One is clearly shown and is a male character. He commands ships not appearing in the previous game, like a YT-1300 Corellian Transport, a B-wing, a Y-wing and encounters new opponents, like TIE Interceptors. The fly videos now seem to move and rotate according to how the player 'moves', so that there is an illusion of 'steering' the ship (which in reality is following a 'rail' in a pre-rendered course).

Plot

After the destruction of the first Death Star, Darth Vader has begun a new project for the Galactic Empire. Meanwhile, in the Rebel Alliance, rumors have grown concerning "ghost ships" attacking Rebel patrols.

Rookie One (acted by Jamison Jones in cut scenes, his voice is provided during the "shoot scenes"), while flying with his wingman, receives a distress call from a YT-1300 transport being attacked by TIE fighters. The pilot has crucial information about the Empire's new project. After fighting TIE Fighters , Rookie One's wingman destroyed by one of the unseen attackers, and Rookie One's ship is shot down, but he is able to eject himself before the rest of his ship explodes and crash lands on the Corellia Star, where the captured transport has been taken. Having survived the crash landing, Rookie One follows a tracking scanner to an Imperial station, where the transport is. After fighting stormtroopers, he finds the transport and its information, but the station's doors close before he can escape, forcing him to go through mining tunnels. He was able to find another way out and escapes through hyperspace.

Back at Pinnacle Base, Admiral Ackbar (digitally copied from Return of The Jedi and inserted into the game) helps the pilots understand the message from the freighter. The Alliance learns that the Empire has constructed a secret mining facility in the asteroid Belt of Arah somewhere in the Dreighton Nebula and a squadron of X-wings moves to destroy it. Along the way, they encounter derillium mines and TIE Interceptors. The facility is not simply mining ore, but is instead supplying rare metals required to manufacture the new V38 "Phantom" TIE, equipped with a cloaking device invented by Grand Admiral Sarn. After opening a way into the facility's core, encountering laser guns, and destroying it, Maarek is killed along with Rookie One's wingman. Rookie One narrowly escapes into hyperspace. Back at Pinnacle Base, Admiral Ackbar comes up with a plan for 2 people to infiltrate the facility building the Phantom P-38s at Imdaar Alpha.

Rookie One takes a crash course in TIE piloting from Admiral Krane with two TIEs stolen from the Empire. Then, they head out to the jump point where they encounter TIE Interceptors. After defeating them, Rookie One heads to Imdaar Alpha alone and encounters laser guns and force fields along the way. He meet with Ru Murleen (played by Julie Eccles). They fly to an Imperial Landing Platform on the far side of the swamp on Swoop Bikes. Disguised as stormtroopers, Rookie One and Ru Murleen (from Rebel Assault) steal a Imperial shuttle and board Admiral Sarn's cloaked Super Star Destroyer. After defeating numerous stormtroopers within the Super Star Destroyer and later in the sewer tunnels, they steal a Phantom TIE from the hangar. After destroying the Super Star Destroyer along with many other Phantom TIEs, Darth Vader kills Admiral Sarn for his failures and escapes on a TIE interceptor. The Imdaar Alpha facility manufacturing the new fighters suddenly appears on Imdaar's moon. After destroying it and returning to a Rebel base, the leader of the Rebels thanks them for saving the day once again. Darth Vader informs the Emperor of what happened and the Phantom TIE at the Rebel Base self-destructs. There are three endings depending on the difficulty.

Reception