The missions are composed of rescue missions, defense, escorting ships, and striking targets. In addition, the ships maneuver differently, making one type more suited for some missions than others. Each of the ships has varying armor and weapon strengths.
Once you've gotten the hang of flying the craft, you can disable it. Auto-leveling keeps you from crashing and allows you to get a firm grasp on the control quickly and easily. The game plays like an action-packed Wing Commander game sans all of the crazy controls. The game has a very movie-like quality to it, mostly thanks to a lot of voice work and in-game cinemas. You play as Luke Skywalker (finally, no Dash Rendars or Kyle Katarns in sight) who leads the Rogue Squadron against the Empire.
Of course, spending an entire game in the snowspeeder, fighting AT-ATs, is something better left to that old Atari 2600 game, so some more modes of transport have been tossed in to spruce things up. Remember the first level of Shadows of the Empire? Remember thinking 'Gee, if only the rest of the game were like this, this game would actually be good'? LucasArts heard you and developed an entire game based around the concept.
