Most of the time you have to battle in space first before sending in the ground troops to capture each planet although the Rebellion side can head down to land first in some sneaky (there's that word again) operations. Space battles are in 2D although you can click on a button that switches to a 3D real time but non-interactive cinematic mode. Land battles are in full 3D and Petroglyph have added details like weather that can affect your forcess (you can't be an infantry trooper on Hoth without the cold getting to you). Reinforcement points are scattered on the map which need to be captured and held in order to bring in more troops.

While all of this may sound like Empire at War is very complicated to play, it really isn't. Petroglyph hasn't forgotten that this is an RTS game and not a turn based game which means lots of unit building, from infrantry to ATATs to the huge Death Star. As you may have guessed I like playing for the Emperor's side in this game and its a joy to take out the Rebel scum over the planet of Endor or on the surface of Naboo. There's the typical technology tree that improves your units and creates new ones for you to use. Of particular note are the "heroes" that you can have access to. For the Empire side you can actually control Darth Vader and The Emperor himself. As one might expect Darth is an excellent pilot in space and can use special powers like Force Push to take out tons of enemies. The Emperor is pretty powerful as well, especially with being able to actually corrupt enemy units to his side with his force powers.