What the Gold Pack includes
STAR WARS™ Empire at War - Gold Pack brings together the original campaign and its expansion, Forces of Corruption. In the base game you lead either the Rebellion or the Empire through a galactic civil war, commanding everything from individual ground troops to starships and the Death Star itself. Battles play out on the ground, in space, and across the galactic map, and there is no resource gathering to slow things down — you jump straight into the fighting. Over 80 ground and space locations are on the map, including Kashyyyk, Tatooine and Dagobah, each with its own strategic advantage, and your decisions carry forward so each battle shapes what comes next.
Forces of Corruption adds a third faction. You play as Tyber Zann, building a criminal empire with tactics like piracy, kidnapping, racketeering and bribery. It brings over 28 new underworld units, new Rebel and Imperial forces and heroes, and 13 new planets.
Playing it together
The pack supports online PvP, and the expansion's multiplayer runs three-faction battles, so your group can split across all sides at once. Mirror play lets two people take the same faction against each other, which settles those "who's the better Imperial commander" arguments. Co-op is listed among the tags, so there are ways to team up rather than only fight. Matches can be fought in space or on the ground, with heroes like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Boba Fett on the field and fleets of X-wings, TIE fighters and Star Destroyers overhead.
Before you start
This is a classic real-time strategy game with grand-strategy layers on the galactic map, so expect to manage territory and plan campaigns as well as control units in the moment. It is also tagged as moddable, which means your group can look beyond the stock content once everyone has the basics down. The singleplayer campaigns cover both the light and dark sides before Forces of Corruption offers the corrupt one, so if some friends want to learn the systems alone first, that is a natural place to start before jumping into multiplayer.