Clone Wars Adventures

For the 2008 T.V. series, see Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series). For other uses, see Clone Wars (disambiguation).

Clone Wars Adventures
Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Platform(s)	Windows, Macintosh
Release date(s)	September 15, 2010
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online adventure game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer, CCG
Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+
Media/distribution	DVD-ROM, digital download

Clone Wars Adventures is an online virtual world based on the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Players create and customize in-world avatars and can participate in a variety of Clone Wars themed mini-games and activities, earning Republic credits to purchase new weapons, outfits, ships, and furniture.

Clone Wars Adventures is free to download and play, but only those that have a paid membership get access to a majority of the game's features. Additionally, many outfits and premium items can only be purchased with Station Cash, a form of in game currency that players need to purchase with real money instead of in game credits.

Generally, the game is updated with new content from each new episode of the television show the night that the episode airs or just about every Friday.

The game follows a similar business model to the popular SOE MMO, Free Realms. However, unlike Free Realms, the game was released at retail, though the game is free-to-play.

Membership

Clone Wars Adventures is free to download and play, but free players will have restricted access to mini-games, equipment, and game areas.

For a monthly subscription fee, members have full access to game content, excluding any premium items that must be purchased separately with station cash such as original costumes or exclusive actions and housing items. Players can receive Station Cash by purchasing Clone Wars Adventures game cards at select retail stores or by using a parents PayPal or Credit Card. Each card comes with 1000 Station Cash and grants one of four parts of a costume including a Jet Pack trooper, Kit Fisto costume, and Anakin Skywalker robes. Rarely, SOE will announce days when players can receive double or even triple Station Cash. Players can also buy game Credits with Station Cash.

Jedi Members are given access to VIP areas, ability to wield dual-lightsabers, member-only items, and a special deluxe house. Members are also allowed access to more mini-games and extra game content.

Jedi Memberships:

• 1 Month Monthly - 599 SC or $5.99
• 3 Month Quarterly - 1499 SC or $14.99
• 6 Month Semi-Annual - 2699 SC or $26.99
• 12 Month Annual - 3999 SC or $39.99
• *Lifetime Membership (*indicates lifetime of the game) - 4999 SC or $49.99 and ongoing member-only items every month

Other Memberships include the "Season Pass" which grants a membership until the fourth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars ends and costs 1999 SC or $19.99.

Environment and Mini-Games

The in-game world of Clone Wars Adventures is set in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Here players can interact with popular Clone Wars characters like Anakin Skywalker, Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and play more than 20 different mini-games including Lightsaber Duel, Republic Defender, a tower defense game, and Speeder Bike Racing. Other mini-games are campaign based on Seasons 3 and 4 from Star Wars the Clone Wars. There are also several multi-player games including Card Commander, Force Connection, similar to Connect 4, and Attack Cruiser, two players battle enemy ships with their lone Republic cruisers. Players can challenge each other in these multi-player games to win Credits. Even though the game is based on the Jedi temple, players can travel to different planets like Ryloth and Mon Calamari when going to the hangar bay.

When exploring the different areas of the temple, players will often find blue or gold spheres that give free Credits when clicked on. The blue spheres give the player 25 Credits and the gold, which are relatively rare, give 100 Credits. Clone Wars Adventures also has daily mini-games that are played once a day, but reward huge amounts of credits. These games include a Daily Spin, Daily Holocron, and Trivia.

Sony Online Entertainment adds new game content every week, such as new costumes, furniture, or pets. Sometimes, whole new games will a[[ear including campaign mini-games like Mission to Iceberg Three or Geonosis Saga. Games with campaigns will often have a title or pet that will be granted to the player upon completion of the entire campaign.

There have been about 40 updates on Clone Wars Adventures with one of the largest ones being the Umbaren Battle Zone, which allows players to freely roam miles of virtual game space and finally have the opportunity to start collections or quests or even just play the New Airfield Mission itself. The battle zone also lets players purchase weapons and droids that will grant them power-ups and heavy firepower when battling the AI droids or Umbarens.

Crates and Codes

SOE conducted another recent update which allows players to collect crates everyday. The player will receive only one crate a day when winning any game, but also can collect another one by beating their high score in that game. If the player has SC, they can purchase an "Access Code" which will give the player the ability to open one of their crates.

What is inside each crate remains a secret until it is revealed when the player opens the crate. The crates can be common SC items like building materials, SC furniture, or rare red rancor pet. Even rarer items include a full set of player "Titles" that can be given to the player if they are extremely lucky. What is in the crates can be just about any SC item or items in the game.

Each crate costs 200 SC, but can be purchased for 100 SC if it is on sale that day for a 50% discount.

Player Housing

All players are given their own personal house in game. Free players are provided a Padawan Dormitory, while members are given the larger and more customizable Jedi Living Quarters. Add on rooms like the Droid Destruction Chamber or the Hidden Armory can be purchased with Station Cash.

Additional player houses can be purchased with Station Cash as well, like the Attack Cruiser house that gives the player access to their own Republic battleship, and a Mustafar Lot which allows players to customize their house on a volcano surrounded by rivers of lava. Each of these houses has its own set of furniture appropriate for its environment such as Cruiser sets and Mustafar furniture. Other lots include Ryloth, Iceberg Three, Kamino, Astroid, Umbaran, and other Lots.

Players can customize their houses with furniture and other decorations. Other players are allowed to rate each others houses. Some furniture sets can only be unlocked by buying Card Commander packs and winning certain mini-games. Other mini-games reward the players a virtual trophy after successfully completing a level or by performing certain tricks in the game. Some trophies can be placed in the player's house while others are auto-placed in their trophy room.

Non-Members are allowed one set of housing items based on lower city furniture, while Jedi members are given access to purchase over 30 different sets of furniture including regular furniture, turrets, and building materials using game Credits or Station Cash. Players are still allowed access to these even when their membership ends, but only if they still have them in their furniture storage. Station Cash furniture sets include Gungan furniture, Mon Calamari aquatic furniture, and special turrets such as the ARC Trooper Turret. A few items can perform actions when clicked on by the player like turning on lights or party disco balls.

Sony allows players to buy promotional items like tree lights, face masks, and sparklers on special Holidays such as Halloween, Valentine's Day, and Christmas (known in Star Wars as "Life Day").

With the recent games updates, players can now purchase SC or Republic Credit "Guests" to place in their houses. The guests include aliens, droids, or Force forms which can be placed in a house and clicked on and cause the guest to perform the special action that would be performed in a holo-projector.

Squads

Clone Wars offers Jedi Members to create squads as a way to talk to a large group of people, set up an organization, or just to get to know people. Special squads including ones that are created by Emissaries or CWA Counselors are strictly off-limits to any player. Players can also create squads that focus only of specific people groups like Clone Troopers, Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunters, etc.

When creating a squad, the player will be required to name the squad and submit it for approval by a Moderator. A notice will be sent to the squad create when their squad has been created so they may begin to recruit players. All squads have a limit of 100 members and are each given their own private chat that is only visible to squad members.

Upon recruiting players to the squad, the leader or leaders have the option to promote members. Only Jedi Members can be promoted; Padawans cannot. The player is given the choice on how high to promote the member. They are also given the ability to demote any member.

Promotions:

• Leader - Has total power in the group. Can delete the squad, remove or add members, promote members to general or even leader when using a certain glitch in the game.
• General - Can add or remove members and promote them to Commander. Can also change daily squad message.
• Commander - Can add members to the squad and change the daily squad message.
• Trooper - Can chat in the private squad chat and take party in special squad events. Padawans will remain this rank until they become a Jedi Member and get promoted. Their squad name will be displayed below their character name.

Players can only be in one squad at a time, but may decide to leave if they want to further explore different squads.

If a player ever creates a hate group or slave-trading squad, their account could be suspended or even banned from ever playing on CWA, since it violates the rules for squads on Clone Wars Adventures.

Companions

Players can purchase droid companions like R2-D2 or TO-DO to follow them around in game. There are also special attachments that allow pets to do new things, like a boombox to make other players dance, or mounted guns to fire lasers when clicked on. Players can unlock more droids by entering special game codes by purchasing Clone Wars Trading Cards or McDonald's Happy Meals. Other companions include adopted creatures such as the Jawa.

There are several Creature Pets available such as the Convor, a bird-like creature, with helmet attachments available for purchase. Other creatures include an Anooba, Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, a brown rancor, and a red rancor, which can only be obtained when receiving the pet in a special crate by purchasing a SC Code to open it.

Somedays, the game will have a pet and its parts or equipment in a bundle lot for a discounted SC price. Players can save a lot of money when purchasing bundles, especially if it is a pet that can only be obtained in a special holiday.

Development

Clone Wars Adventures was developed by Sony Online Entertainment, the developers of well received massively multiplayer online role playing video game, Free Realms. It was announced at E3 2010, and is based on the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The game was designed with young fans of the television show in mind. In an effort to support online safety for children, strict filters only allow pre-approved words to be shown in chat, restricting the ability of a player to communicate personal information to others in game or to use bad language. The chat filter also blocks out numbers or numerals to prevent the use of further personal information or private codes.

Reception

Clone Wars Adventures received mixed reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 65 on Metacritic. GameZebo gave it a score of 3.5/5, stating that it contained "Incredible variety of mini-games", and praised its presentation, commenting that it "matches the look and feel of Clone Wars series perfectly". They further criticized it because "Too much content is locked away." However, the game has prospered so much, that all reviews hardly describe the game itself now.

External links

• Official website
• Clone Wars Adventures Wiki
• Official Press Release