Star Wars: Lethal Alliance Hands-on (ign.com)

- ign.com -

November 29, 2006 - Any videogame born of the Star Wars license should rock. Taking the caliber of the source material, it seems like a logical thing to assume. But as most astute gamers will attest, that's simply not the case. It was in times past, back in the glory days of the PC, but not anymore. On the contrary, gamers now receive the announcement of a new Star Wars project with concern. After all, there's almost nothing worse than perfectly good geek material gone to waste.

The latest title to come down the pipeline is Star Wars: Lethal Alliance for the PlayStation Portable. It's only the second Star Wars title in development for Sony's handheld, which makes it even more of a special occasion than usual. To give IGN a look at the latest build, the folk at Ubisoft set up a demo at their offices in San Francisco. They only wanted a few particular levels talked about, which turned out fine since they provided a nice cross section of the action. The brief tour took place in a variety of Star Wars locations, including the Death Star, Tatooine and Danuta. At the heart of the adventure sits a curvaceous space pirate by the name of Rianna Saren and her sidekick droid, Zeeo.

After a life of petty crime and mercenary work -- usually against the Empire that enslaved her years earlier -- she decides to get serious. After an encounter with members of the Rebel Alliance, Rianna is tasked with sneaking into a secret research facility and stealing plans for the Death Star, which is still under construction. Along the way, she'll meet up with familiar faces like Kyle Katarn and throw down with the best the Empire has to offer. Her previous line of work did a fantastic job of getting her ready. Rianna has an arsenal of weapons at her disposal. She's also ridiculously limber and athletic, making her a fast-moving target and a tough opponent to beat in hand-to-hand combat. Plus, she can join with Zeeo, her droid, to perform a number of combo attacks and hack into enemy networks.

The action in Lethal Alliance plays in the third-person. Players control Rianna using the thumbstick and pan the camera using the two shoulder buttons. The game maps most of the actions -- firing, reloading and weapon selection -- to the D-Pad and face buttons. Like many PSP offerings, players can toggle a free-look option to scan environments using the thumbstick. Also, like other PSP titles, many buttons pull double duty to allow for advanced techniques. Rianna can evade gunfire by rolling (ever so gracefully) in any direction, for instance. With Zeoo at her side, she can even enter a form of bullet-time as she dodges, letting her take accurate shots before enemies have a chance to react.

Zeoo is hardly a spectator when the poop hits the fan. When Rianna targets an enemy, she can send the little droid sailing in their direction to stun them. He can also hack into security systems and help Rianna target those hard to reach enemies. Not only that, Zeeo can attach himself to specific slots in walls to let Rianna swing and sail over crevices, just like the ol' Prince of Persia. And guess what - that's not all. Rianna can also have her metal friend set explosive charges on unsuspecting foes and even repair turrets and other useful machinery. And just in case that's not enough, he can raise energy shields to protect his master when times get tough. In short, everyone deserves their own personal Zeoo droid. It'd be way cooler than getting a PS3.

In terms of actual objectives, players will lead Rianna through slugfests with Rancors and deep into the bowels of tie-fighter manufacturing plants. The former actually takes place earlier in the game, inside a combat arena found on Tattoine. Players need to attack the Rancor's back to piss him off, and then lure him to specific parts of the map where the ceiling is primed to cave in. But that alone doesn't do the trick. Players then need to play bait and actually let the Rancor grab them. It's then a simple matter of throwing some explosives down its throat and watching the fireworks. Tasty! Aside from boss encounters and the slaying of storm troopers, there's also opportunities to blast Tie-Fighters with turrets and traverse vast complexes filled with traps.

Star Wars: Lethal Alliance is scheduled to ship December 5. Look for the review sometime next week. Until then, eat buckets of fried chicken and a truckload of apple pies.