Star Wars Battlefront II

I'm not a hardcore gamer by any stretch, and while I did manage to acquire a PS2 somewhere along the line, my pathetic library consists of titles scrounged out of the bargain bin. So I was surprised to find myself dropping fifty clams on the first Star Wars Battlefront game last year, and was equally stunned when I got bazillions of late night, procrastination-loving hours out of it. With a track record like that, I just had to run out and snag the sequel right away too. So how does Star Wars Battlefront II measure up to the original?

Old man alert

If you ask the Entertainment Software Association, the average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing games for 9½ years. So by that standard, I'm only a couple of years above the average. But my age does translate into real-world issues such as marriage, child-rearing, and (oh, by the way) work, which means that I'm a big fan of instant gratification. I don't have much time to immerse myself in virtual environments like those of The Sims or World of Warcraft, so I gravitate towards games that let me load up, kill things, and then promptly forget about them once the siren call of the spouse demanding garbage removal floats my way. That's why the original Star Wars Battlefront was perfect for me—it accommodated my head shot jones while wrapping me in the comfortable and nostalgic world of the Star Wars trilogies.

For those who happen to be unfamiliar with the original, here's a quick recap. In Star Wars Battlefront, you fought battles set in the Star Wars universe (in locations both seen and unseen in the movies). The battles were won by either dispatching all your enemies or taking over all of the command posts strategically placed throughout each map. Battles took place in either of two time periods (the Galactic Civil War of the first trilogy or the Clone Wars from the second) in maps that were loving recreations of places like Hoth, Endor, Geonosis, Tattoine, etc. Assuming the role of one of several types of soldiers fighting for either the Rebel Alliance, Empire, CIS, or the Republic, you ran around and tried to destroy everything that moves. The gameplay was fast and smooth, the maps very detailed, the controls simple and intuitive, and most of all, it was a hell of a lot of fun. But it was limited. I wanted to play as that Jedi that kept kicking my behind all over Naboo, dammit. I wanted to pull back on the stick and fly my X-Wing up to that Star Destroyer hovering over the Dune Sea and take it out from within. Alas, it was not to be. Fortunately, the developers of Star Wars Battlefront II (hereafter, SWB2) wanted to do these things also, and made sure that anyone could in the follow-up.

When the Rebels yelled, they cried, "More, more, more"

The overarching philosophy in SWB2 is more of everything, yet the game remains true to the feel of the original. Since the theme is "more," let's go over the steaming helping of more that SWB2 gives you:

More players and weapons. Oh sure, you can unlock new players like Bothan Spies, Rebel Smugglers, Clone Commanders, and Magnaguards, each with new and interesting specialties (the Clone Commander chain gun is especially fun), but for most of us SWB1 vets, it's all about the Jedi. Specifically, each map in SWB2 has a resident "hero," depending on the faction you're playing as. For example, if you're playing as the Confederacy on Coruscant, you can step into Darth Maul's boots (fig. 1) and kick the everloving snot out of legions of poor Clone schlubs. All kinds of heroes are in play, from the Fett family to Yoda to Count Dooku to the Emperor himself (or is that Himself? I wouldn't want to get Stormtroopered if I get it wrong). Each hero has their own set of weapons and special tricks, including Force powers for Jedi and Sith (the invisible choke grip is particularly entertaining). Some game modes work on the merit system to earn the use of Heroes, while some modes are more liberal in their granting of Hero status. It's a shame that Heroes aren't invincible the way they were in the original, but that doesn't make them any less fun to take out for a test drive.

Figure 1

There's also an award system, which grants you points for being good at things like head shots and pistol kills and other family-friendly accomplishments; accumulation of said points results in unlocking of different player types. Some of these awards are persistent across sessions (depending on the game mode you're playing), and some only work within the context of a single battle.

More game modes. The core of SWB2 is still Conquest mode, where you try to control as many command posts as possible, but, as I've been harping on, there's a lot more. First of all, there's an entirely new mode called Rise of the Empire, which weaves a story around the action by placing you in the role of foot soldier in a Clone squadron as they are dispatched to various planets during the Clone Wars. Instead of playing in Conquest mode, you are given a series of tasks to perform in each map in order to move on. It's novel, but ultimately you'll find yourself wanting more freeform action, which you get in Galactic Conquest mode, Instant Action mode (the game's crown jewel, in my opinion), and an entirely new mode, space battles.

In SWB1's implementation of Galactic Conquest, you chose a scenario, picked a battlefield, and then fought the battle. If you won, you would control the planet and whatever "Planetary Bonus" went along with it. SWB2's Galactic Conquest mode has been revamped to include a strategic element (fig. 2). It's more of a chess match, with you and either the computer or another opponent moving your fleet across the galaxy in an effort to control more planets. Planetary bonuses, along with soldier types, are now bought using credits you earn from winning battles. While there are several predefined scenarios, you can create your own when playing against a live opponent in 2-player splitscreen mode.

Figure 2

Instant Action mode has also been beefed up, and is still worth the price of admission all by itself as far as I'm concerned. In addition to the tried-and-true Conquest mode of playing, Instant Action has been enhanced with several new play modes: 1- or 2-flag Capture the Flag, Hunt, and Assault. Capture the Flag is pretty self-explanatory. Hunt pits you against the indigenous species of a world (or vice-versa), so if you feel like a free-for-all between the Rebels and Wampas on Hoth, go to town (fig. 3).

Figure 3

Assault mode is a race to accumulate points, and is mostly applicable to space battles, which we'll discuss in a minute. But by far, the most fun (and somewhat hidden) part of the game I've found so far is the Assault mode playable in the Mos Eisley map. It's the good guys vs. the bad guys from both trilogies in a massive smackdown of Force prowess. I've always wondered what it would be like for General Grevious to get into a life-or-death tussle with Han Solo, and now I've gotten my wish (fig. 4). This mode is already responsible for many, many lost hours.

Figure 4

Instant Action mode works on the Playlist model of its predecessor, but this time it adds handy "add all maps" and "play all eras" options to help populate the playlist quickly. There are also user-definable options for the various play modes, covering things like the AI level of your opponent or the various conditions under which you can play as a Hero. All in all, Instant Action remains the drug of choice for quick-hit fun in SWB2.

SWB2 has also added an ingenious space battle mode (fig. 5), the scenarios for which are accessible from any of the three main play modes in SWB2. Space battles work a little differently, in that multiple objectives come into play. Shooting down enemy fighters, bombing capital ships, and Die Hard-style takeovers of enemy ships from within are all objectives of space battles. The "ingenious" superlative is earned through the seamless transition from space (with its vertigo-inducing free movement in any direction) to the interior of capital ships. For example, you can commandeer a transport ship full of troops, slam it into an enemy hangar, and go all Borg on the hapless inhabitants of the other ship. It's a lot of fun to go back and forth from space to ship, especially so when you can carjack an enemy fighter for a little kamikaze action on external targets.

Figure 5

The last thing I'll mention is that while I didn't test it, SWB2 allows you to connect to other gamers over the Internet for multiplayer battles. But if you're limited to people you're stuck in the same room with, the splitscreen mode allows competitive or cooperative two-player battles either in Galactic Conquest or Instant Action mode.

More maps. What can I say? There are just a ton of new places to fight in SWB2. From the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to Yoda's home stomping grounds of Dagobah to the Death Star (fig. 6) to Bail Organa's Tantive IV ship, variety is the order of the day. Many maps also have a space battle counterpart as well. Some old favorites return also, albeit tweaked. For example, the Naboo/Theed map from SWB1 now takes place at night, and it's actually snowing and windy during the battle of Hoth (not to mention the Rebel Base sporting slightly new digs). It's good to be able to play some of the earlier maps with all the new bling, but I'm also glad they kept the recycled maps to a relative minimum.

Figure 6

More vehicles. You'll recognize a lot of the vehicles (tanks, AT-ATs, funky buzzsaw-looking things from the battle of Geonosis, etc.), but there are some new ones thrown into the mix (fig. 7), so there's always something to hop into. Of course, you can still steal your enemies' rides, which is half the fun. And with the new space battles, you can fly X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Jedi Starfighters, and even transport vessels.

Figure 7

More music. As something of an aside, it's a bit inappropriate to have the Sy Snoodles ditty from the 1997 Special Edition of Return of the Jedi playing in the background while I, as Mace Windu, try to exact revenge on Anakin Skywalker for killing me in Episode III, but that gives you an idea as to the completeness and breadth of music selections present in SWB2. I'll leave it at that.

"More everything" means nits, too

As much fun as SWB2 is, I do have some gripes. For starters, many of the soldiers have been tweaked slightly, and not for the better. For example, my player of choice in SWB1 was the Super Battle Droid, but someone decided that it shot too fast and slowed down its signature wrist blasters. I really don't like when the exact same players don't perform as least as well as they did in an earlier game, so this draws my ire somewhat.

I'm also not a fan of the AI in the game. There's still too much that you have to do by yourself. My so-called teammates always need bailing out, lose command posts, and are generally unhelpful. The old adage of if you want something done, you have to do it yourself doesn't work here.

There's also the issue of control complexity. Some additions are great and are a natural progression from the control scheme found in SWB1 (like stamina bar that enables enhanced moves like sprinting and diving), but on the whole, the controls have been made unnecessarily complex. The addition of a reticule muddies your field of vision, the new hybrid automatic/manual targeting system doesn't make much sense in the heat of battle, and weapons tweaks (such as the aforementioned slower firing mechanisms and the addition of weapons that overheat) take away some of the smoothness found in SWB1.

The biggest issue is that many of the maps are just unforgivably dark. From the night version of Theed to Jabba's Palace, sometimes it's almost impossible to see what's going on. This isn't Doom 3, people—let's make with the brightness. The beauty of the first SWB game is that it was very easy to combine the heads-up display map with visual cues to precisely target enemies. In SWB2, visual cues just don't exist on some maps because they're so stinkin' dark. If I hadn't found the target option that places a red cross-hair over the head of any living enemy in visual range, there would be many maps I'd simply steer clear of.

I'll wrap up my complaints with a couple of quick-hit gripes. One, I'm not a fan of the cheesy taunts. There's a certain immersion that should be inherent in a Star Wars game, and hearing "He blowed up real good" tends to spoil the moment. Two, can we please have on-demand save points? I can't always finish a battle, and it would be nice to have a save feature that can resume a fight in mid-brawl. Third, where did the random setting go in Instant Action mode? I love that you can add all the maps at once, but unfortunately, you're stuck playing them in the same order every time. Finally, the game is a little buggy. I've encountered various freezes and bugs (like complete audio silence). Since I have the PS2 version, there's no chance of a patch or anything, so it looks like I'm stuck with a randomly misbehaving product.

The bottom line

Despite the issues, Star Wars Battlefront II is one case of the sequel being better than the original. There's more of everything, and with the staggering number of ways you can play the game, there's no shortage of fun either. Strong Buy.

Star Wars Battlefront II
Publisher: LucasArts
Platforms: PlayStation2, PlayStation Portable, XBox, PC
Rating: ESRB-T for violence and mild language
Price: ~$50 street

Filed under: Review on November 14th, 2005

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