The game also features other, non-shooter elements. In the game's opening level the player controls Rendar as he pilots a snowspeeder in defense of the Rebel base on Hoth. 360 degree space battles occur in which the player character controls the turret of the protagonist's ship, The Outrider. These levels task the player with destroying a specific number of enemy ships. Other space sequences see the player character pilot the ship, utilizing its forward cannons to destroy targets. In one sequence the player controls the protagonist during a high speed chase sequence on swoop bikes. In this sequence the player must both control the swoop and attack and eliminate an enemy gang before reaching the destination.
Plot
The game's story is divided into four chapters. "Part I: Escape from Echo Base" begins shortly before the battle of Hoth, as Dash Rendar and Leebo, Dash's droid co-pilot, arrive at Echo Base to deliver supplies. He briefly talks with Han Solo, who gets him temporary clearance to fly with Rogue Squadron. Dash pilots a snowspeeder into battle, and returns to Echo Base when the shield generator is destroyed, just as the Millennium Falcon leaves. He makes his way through the base, attempting to return to his ship, The Outrider. Dash encounters several wampas on the way, and has to fight an AT-ST, but eventually makes it back to Leebo and The Outrider, and they escape through an asteroid field.
"Part II: In Search of Boba Fett" begins after the end of The Empire Strikes Back, as Dash searches for Boba Fett, who holds Han Solo captive, frozen in carbonite. He hunts down and battles IG-88, who is attempting to repair his ship on Ord Mantell after an altercation with Fett. The droid tells him that Fett is hiding on a moon of the planet Gall. Dash finds Fett, and damages his ship, the Slave I, but Fett manages to escape. Believing that the Emperor will let him take Darth Vader's place if Skywalker is killed, Prince Xizor orders Jabba the Hutt to kill Luke Skywalker.
"Part III: Hunting the Assassins" sees Jabba send a group of swoop bikers to Obi-Wan Kenobi's home, where Luke is practicing his Jedi skills. Dash races them to Kenobi's, and eliminates all members of the gang. Luke informs Dash of a secret imperial supercomputer aboard the Imperial Freighter Suprosa, containing unknown important Imperial construction plans. Dash steals the computer, and battles with a cargo droid in a hangar.
"Part IV: Lair of the Dark Prince" begins with Luke, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and Dash infiltrating Xizor's palace on Coruscant to save Princess Leia, whom Xizor has taken captive. Dash enters the palace through the underground sewer system, and battles an enormous dianoga, before entering the palace itself. To stall the mercenary, Xizor summons his droid, which Dash quickly disposes of. After defeating the droid, Xizor flees to his Skyhook space station. Xizor's forces engage in battle with the Rebellion, but during the conflict an Imperial Star Destroyer arrives. The conflict turns as the Star Destroyer engages Xizor and his forces. Utilizing this distraction, Dash destroys the Skyhook's outer defenses and proceeds to fly inside the station, destroying its core. Dash is presumably killed in the blast, along with Xizor.
A short pre-credits scene shows Luke and Leia on Tatooine, mourning Dash's death. If the game is completed on medium or higher difficulty levels, this is followed by an additional scene of Dash and Leebo, who had managed a jump to hyperspace to escape the blast. Leebo questions Dash's decision to keep the illusion they had died in the Skyhook's destruction, to which Dash says, "It's good to be remembered as a martyr without actually being dead, wouldn't you say?"
Reception
Shadows of the Empire has received generally mixed reviews from critics. The most common comment made of the game was that the opening Battle of Hoth is outstanding, but all the other levels are mediocre. Some critics specified that while the different game styles represented give Shadows of the Empire variety, none of them offered anything new or were executed well. The first person shooter stages (which comprise the majority of the game) drew the strongest criticism, with reviews describing poor controls and camera angles which either give a cripplingly limited view or block the action with Dash's own body. Reviewers often praised the game's polygonal graphics as being convincing enough to affect the player's mood.
A reviewer for Next Generation remarked that the cartridge format was insufficient for a game of this type, resulting in issues — the lack of fluidity in the sewer waters, and the frequent looping of the music — which could have been easily solved with the greater storage capacity of CD. Chiefly criticizing the multi-genre gameplay, he said the game was especially disappointing in light of its great potential. Doug Perry of IGN similarly said that "we were disappointed again and again at this game's terrible control, its mediocre gameplay, and the overall knowledge that, once having finished it, you knew that the developers from LucasArts could have orchestrated a much better piece of videogaming." Writing in GamePro, Scary Larry highly praised the soundtrack, but concluded that the issues with the gameplay made it a must-have for Star Wars fans but a poor choice for anyone else. Dissenting from other critics, Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly asserted that all the gameplay styles in Shadows of the Empire are done extremely well, and said it was the best Star Wars game he had played on either console or PC. The other three reviewers for EGM were less enthusiastic, with Sushi-X in particular summarizing the game as "a poor first-person shooter on top of an awesome Hoth battle sequence". GameSpot's John Broady claimed that "...the control, camera angles, and frustrating save feature keep it from reaching its full potential".
