Walking the sands of Tatooine, giving orders to legions of stormtroopers, visiting an Imperial armory manufacturing plant, fighting to liberate Coruscant - these are just some of the experiences awaiting players of Star Wars: Force Commander, the real-time strategy computer game from LucasArts. But Garry Gaber, the game's Project Leader, has no doubt what will excite Star Wars fans most. "They'll finally get a chance to drive an AT-AT!" he says with a grin.

Because Force Commander would carry the Star Wars logo, the LucasArts team wanted to take the game beyond the traditional boundaries of the real-time strategy game genre. "We wanted to create an opportunity to expand on the Star Wars experience and allow the player to explore the previously unexplored corners of that universe," Gaber said. "We set out to create a full 3-D and story-driven experience... something truly cinematic."

As with a theatrical film, the game's cinematic ambition began with a script. The task was a challenge for Gaber. "In a movie script," he explained, "all the exciting parts are in the script. In the interactive medium, all the exciting parts are THE GAME."

Starting during the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Force Commander players take on the persona of Brenn Tantor. Script Supervisor Haden Blackman describes the character as an individual whose persistence and loyalty eventually earned him the title of 'Honorary Stormtrooper'. "The Imperials put an end to the civil war on the world where he grew up, so he looked up to them," Blackman said. "When his home was destroyed, Brenn and his brother Dellis were saved by stormtroopers. It became their sole ambition to become stormtroopers themselves."

"Brenn is a loyal and enthusiastic Imperial soldier," Gaber described, "but he's not a murderer in the Darth Vader mold. He's just a guy doing the job he's told to do and rises through the ranks." Somewhere along the way, Bren's conscience no longer allows him to blindly follow his Imperial superiors and he defects to the Rebel Alliance. "He realizes he's doing his job for the wrong side," Gaber said. "So the player gets the chance to revisit worlds they've helped to destroy and help to rebuild them."

While Force Commander's story is a self-contained saga, it does intersect with the classic Star Wars films along the way... Brenn and Dellis' first mission is to Tatooine to retrieve two droids believed to be carrying plans for the Death Star. During this training mission, the player is able to learn the basic game mechanics including the use of a rotating camera which allows the game play to be viewed from every conceivable angle - unusual for real-time simulation games. One can watch the ground battles from high above looking down, or bring the camera down to the heat of the battlefield for a first-hand experience. "You'll find out what really happened at that sandcrawler," Gaber hinted.

Players will also visit Yavin IV to rescue Captain Veers (the man who would later become a General and command the ground troops at the Battle of Hoth), whose shuttle to another mission left the first Death Star shortly before the Rebel attack. "As originally designed, the mission called for the player to rescue Vader," Blackman said, "but as the game became more and more story driven, we were trying to be very faithful to the established timeline which places Vader elsewhere. Once we thought of Veers, everything fell into place very nicely. Brenn is sent back to get Veers because Vader senses how important he will be in the future."

According to Force Commander's Lead Level Designer Christopher Ross, the invasion of the Rebel base on Hoth is not only featured, but the original inspiration behind the entire game. "You can count the number of ground battles in Star Wars on your thumbs," he smiled. "While the Hoth battle was very dramatic from a movie perspective, it was also a little too one-sided for strategic game play." It was Ross' job to flesh out the battle and determine possible variations and counter-measures. The AT-AT's vulnerability to fire-power is only hinted at in The Empire Strikes Back, but can be exploited in Force Commander. A new Imperial unit, the AT-AA (All-Terrain Anti-Aircraft weapon) was also developed to blast down snowspeeders to keep them from firing harpoon cables all day long.

The forest moon of Endor, the location of the classic trilogy's other major ground battle, is visited twice in Force Commander. "Brenn's crew is ordered to assist in clearing space for the landing platform and shield generator seen in Return of the Jedi. That includes clearing out some local inhabitants," Gaber said in a voice seeping with evil. But he added, "Keep in mind... you do have to come back later with Han and Chewie and befriend the Ewoks."

The fight for galactic freedom didn't end with the destruction of the second Death Star. Force Commander continues approximately two years past that event to the liberation of the Imperial capitol planet of Coruscant as seen in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi.

Great care was taken by LucasArts to bring Force Commander as close as possible to a cinematic experience that would enhance the enjoyment of Star Wars for die-hard and casual game players alike. For the game's fifteen minutes of movie-like "cut scenes", LucasArts artists visited the Lucasfilm archives to lift texture maps from actual models used in the films. Over 3,500 voice lines were recorded for the game in order to make each individual unit a personality rather than an expendable personality-less commodity.

Gaber is particularly proud of Force Commander's musical score. "Sound is as important to game play as it is to film," he said, "and this kind of game needs serious techno rock and roll." With the blessing of composer John Williams, Peter McConnell created a full soundtrack of synthesized music mixing traditional Star Wars musical themes with a hard edged rock sound. A taste of McConnell's creation can be heard accompanying the Force Commander demo video currently available at LucasArts' web site.

For full details about Force Commander, scheduled for release in mid-March, visit LucasArts.