The graphics for Battlestar Galactica are a little bit unbalanced in terms of their quality, much like the rest of the game, but not as badly. The strongest point of the graphics is that they create the perfect atmospheres for this type of game as well as the TV show. The space environments are both nostalgic for fans of the series and Colony Wars on the PS1. As I mentioned above, epic space battles occur, and they occur in almost cinematic glory. The colonial Vipers are true to their TV show counterparts. The original feel of their unique look is all there and this is a huge plus. The capitol ships as well as nearby planets make a huge impression with detail and an impending feeling of doom due to their size.
Most objects in space seem to use a fair amount of detail to add to the atmosphere, but some as important as enemy Cylon raiders seem to use a lesser amount of polygons in order to conserve processing speed, perhaps so that there can be as many on screen doing as many different things as possible. I feel that if they had gone ahead and spent more time on the models for the enemy ships and slowed the action down slightly, the game itself would have been more balanced for everyone.
The special effects themselves are fun to watch. The lasers and missiles that come from all sides will leave you dazzled and the explosions, unlike in a lot of games, are actually something to see. Asteroids, lasers, missiles, etc. provide obstacles flying in all directions, adding to the adrenaline pumping action of the environment.
The in-game cutscenes are exciting to watch as they keep you in the action and propel you into the story.
Music-wise, Battlestar Galactica is not that bad at all, especially if you are a fan of the series. I was quite pleased to see the original theme song make a comeback. That immediately made me feel welcomed into the world of Battlestar Galactica in a way I can't describe. Never in my wildest dreams as a kid did I picture myself actually flying Colonial Vipers in epic space battle missions and the graphics and sound presentation drew me right into this whole experience. The music during the missions, although it does not vary much, is reminiscent of the actual battle music from the original show and helps you get pumped up for the challenge ahead. Whether the challenge ahead in each mission is worth that much trouble is left to be addressed in the next section, but it still helps the overall presentation.
The developers decided to go retro with so many aspects of this game and that includes the sound effects. They sound very much like they did in the original show. This means that the lasers, explosions, and many more all sound like they could have been taken right out of the audio of the show and sampled for this purpose. The key word here is retro. While this idea sounds great on paper, a little more modernization of these sounds would have helped to get the attention of somebody who might be used to something more 2003. I think they should have kept the same basic sound, which to me is important because I love the retro feel, but added more to it. This is true with the music, too. Because of their stylistic choices, the game's presentation is not as accessible to all gamers as it could have been.
Like I said above, this game has many inconsistencies in its difficulty level and I also explained the reasons for many of them in the gameplay section. Replay value is where this game suffers the most. First let me say that there are some goodies to unlock by completing missions, which is always a good thing, but they are not completely worth it. If you get good rankings on missions (which I found incredibly difficult and not worth it half the time,) you obtain upgrades for the missions to come, which can also be a good thing.
Your biggest problem in this game is your Energy meter, that I mentioned already, which skyrockets the difficulty level to the point where, when you have to start your mission again from the very beginning, you're a lot more worried about how you are going to balance your Energy supply better this time between your actions, rather than have fun having another try at the action filled mission. It will take the average gamer on normal difficulty an inordinate amount of tries to complete each mission. In some games, especially ones with high replay values, this is not a problem. In fact, I enjoy the challenge in those games because it is fun to keep trying and most importantly, usually in those cases it helps to be able to earn more points and unlock more things from each try. See my review on Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven and take a look on the section where I discuss the replay value. Battlestar Galactica has none of those qualities that give a game a good replay value. There are few games these days where I abuse my controller to, anymore, but this one nearly caused me to throw it at the screen.
Now that I am done with the harsh comments that had to be made, I should mention some good things about this game's replay value. Like I said above, the presentation of the game is such that it makes the space battles feel epic. This game is a bit of a paradox. I would say only give it a rental, but you will not get far in it if you choose to do that. What happened to me here is that I was given a deadline for this review. Were it not for this deadline I wonder if I would have felt the pressure I did with completing each mission and not worried about how many tries it took so much. It is still definitely not as fun as other games to try and retry again to beat the levels, but it is not completely dismal either. I almost always wanted to know what happened next, but that may be the luxury of somebody who is a fan of the show.
The game feels engaging enough that, if you are frustrated with not being able to beat a level, you will at least be able to come back to it later with a fresher state of mind and try again. And you may want to, as well, because it can be fun.
Unfortunately, there is not much of a reason to play through this game a second time unless you find something in it that I couldn't quite grasp.
