Star Wars Battlefront II
Fight on the front lines of the Star Wars galaxy’s biggest battles.
Choose your weapons or take control of a battle-ready vehicle. Battle
across the ice fields of Hoth, the forests of Endor, the swamps of
Dagobah, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the searing lava flows of Mustafar,
and in the vastness of space. Play as a Clone Trooper, a Super Battle
Droid, a Stormtrooper, a Rebel Soldier, a Jedi, and more.
(Lucasarts, 2005 - for PC, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PSP)
This sequel to last year’s Battlefront promised a lot of
improvements over that first game and whole new elements. The game
delivers admirably on both accounts.
Battlefront II retains the
basic game play of the original. You fight as one of dozens of
combatants in a variety of locations. Each side has different classes
of combatants including a basic soldier class, sniper, anti-vehicle/assault,
engineer, commander, and special units unique to each faction.
Availability of vehicles varies according to the map, so while the
Empire will have AT-STs on most maps, AT-ATs are only available on Hoth.
The biggest change from the original Battlefront is how
starfighter combat is handled. A number of space maps are now available
where all the combat occurs in orbit. Naturally, this necessitates combat
focusing on starfighters and capital ships. There is a good variety of
starfighters available, with each faction having a scout class (fast but
fragile; the dogfighter), general purpose (jack of all trades, master of
none), bomber (effective against capital ships), and assault (transport
for boarding parties). Depending on the play mode, the objectives can be
to simply rack up kills or to board the opposing faction’s ship and
sabotage critical systems.
A point system has been implemented in the game. Point totals unlock
the faction-unique character classes and hero characters. Certain
accomplishments will also activate bonuses like a damage bonus, better
weapons, or auto-heal. This adds some welcome depth to the game and
encourages actions (fighting with only the wimpy pistol, for example)
that otherwise wouldn’t be worth the effort.
The other big change is that the hero Jedi characters are now playable.
Certain conditions and point totals must be met, of course, but characters
like Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and even Boba Fett are
available to wreak havoc on the battlefront. Heroes are overpowered, of
course, but actually fairly easy to kill with the right tactics and weapons.
Also, there is a time limit imposed on hero characters. A time bar slowly
counts down. Damage will make it drop faster, but defeating enemies will
fill it back up. All hero characters have special abilities. Jedi have
various Force powers (usually push/pull, but also fun stuff like choke and
lightning) while “regular” folk like Han, Leia, and Boba Fett wield
powerful blasters (as a rule, one shot, one kill).
Game play modes have been revamped a bit, some more than others.
Campaign mode, featuring the 501st Imperial Legion (a fan organization
that’s managed to work itself into official continuity), includes a number
of objective-based missions. For example, the mission on Felucia involves
the recovery a power cell to power up a derelict AT-TE to facilitate the
destruction of the enemy’s defensive turrets.
Galactic Conquest has been extensively changed, successfully
incorporating the space-based fighter combat. Fleets are moved around a
map of the galaxy. If a map point is simply out in space and the enemy’s
fleet is there, space combat begins. If a map point has a planet, space
combat will commence if the opposing fleet is present, otherwise it’s time
for a ground battle.
Instant Action incorporates capture-the-flag, assault, objective-based,
and team deathmatch modes. The variety is very welcome, as is the ability
to play space battles as part of Instant Action.
Graphics in Battlefront II
are great. The environments from the movies are beautifully rendered with
a number of tweaks given to maps carried over from the original
Battlefront. The Felucia map is rather murky, but I guess
that’s consistent with what we saw of the planet in Episode
III. No complaints with the
eye candy.
Sound effects and music continue the established Star Wars
tradition. Lifted straight from the movies, the elements make
Battlefront II a very
immersive Star Wars experience. The random voice bits are
pretty amusing, too.
All those fine details are wonderful, but as Yoda might say, “Control,
control. You must have control!” The vehicle controls in the
original Battlefront left quite a bit to be desired. With the new
emphasis on space combat, that aspect has been greatly improved. On the
PC, at least, the combination of mouse/WASD was fine for on the ground but
didn’t work too well in the air. In Battlefront
II the controls have been tweaked
to make the game very playable with the default control setup. Extra
moves have been added to the piloting repertoire, too, making repeated
assaults and missile avoidance a lot easier. Controls for ground action
have been tweaked ever so slightly, mostly for turret control and weapon
selection.
Overall, Battlefront II is
a major improvement over the original game and a great game in general.
The wide variety of maps, characters, vehicles, and missions give the
game enough depth for enjoyable repeat playing. The graphics and sound
design transport you to that galaxy far, far away better than almost any
other Star Wars game. With the new space battles, playable
hero characters, new character classes, and improved gameplay,
Battlefront II delivers
everything a Star Wars fan would want.
This item is available in
theLogBook.com's Star Wars Store.
Rating: 
Four quarters - good, good. The Force is strong
with you!
Reviewed by Jeff
Godemann
theLogBook.com Staff Writer
 
 
 
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