Much like how Battlefront II’s single-player campaign focused on the 501st legion of clone troopers, Renegade Squadron follows the story of the Renegade Squadron – a team of the galaxy’s toughest Rebel forces who have been brought together by Col Serra under request of his old friend Han Solo shortly after the events of A New Hope. The squad’s main objective is to provide support for the Rebel Alliance and take the fight straight to the Empire by conducting various retrieval, sabotage and rescue missions. To clarify things, although the story does centre around the original trilogy, players will still be able to take part in Clone War-themed battles in Battlefront’s staple Instant Action, Galactic Conquest and multiplayer modes.
A lot of the criticism the PSP version of Battlefront II received appears to have been taken aboard with Renegade Squadron. First of all, the control scheme has now been tightened to allow enemies to be locked onto by simply holding down the right shoulder button and similarly, when you’re in space, you can now activate an autopilot mechanism to hone in on unsuspecting targets. On the topic of space battles, PSP owners will be able to choose whether they land automatically or manually in a hanger bay as well as finally being able to explore the interior of capital ships which was left out of the previous PSP title. More importantly, space levels have been promised to include more objects such as space junk and asteroids to make them seem less empty and more action intense.
He currently seeks revenge on Obi-Wan for slicing off his lower half.
One of Renegade Squadron’s biggest features is that the unit class system from previous titles has been completely removed and replaced with a new customisation system. Here players are given 100 credits (the Star Wars equivalent to money) in order to hand-pick their unit’s abilities which includes speed, health, special ability (eg. jet pack), 3 types of weaponry and even the rate that they catch command posts. In turn, this allocates tactics on the battlefield based on your preferred style of play. For example, if you’re the sort of person who likes to go out in the open with guns blazing then you would have a bigger emphasis on offensive capabilities and health in order to take fire from multiple targets but also be able to deal with them quickly and effectively. Additionally, players will also be able to choose from four different head and body types for each character in the game and choose the colour of the uniform to add a bit more personality on the battlefield. In the case that you decide your unit doesn’t quite suit the terrain or opponent, you’ll be able to freely change any of their attributes at a resupply station mid-way through battle. Arguably one of the best functions of the customisation system is that each ability, weapon and body has an alternative for each affiliation and the game will automatically adjust your setup to correspond with this when you “change sides.”
Once again, hero characters are set to return in Renegade Squadron with the likes of newcomers Episode IV Ben Kenobi, Admiral Ackbar, IG-88, Kit Fisto and Asaji Ventress joining the entire cast from Battlefront II. Accompanying them, however, are new hero vehicles including the likes of the Slave 1 and Millennium Falcon as well as a new Hero Capture the Flag mode which turns the flag holder into the hero of the respected affiliation and level. Also new to game are a few selected weapons which offer some fairly unique uses to players such as the Carbonite Freeze Gun which can freeze targets and leave them exposed for an onslaught. Another new weapon is the Orbital Strike which apparently attaches a beacon to a target and has an after effect that causes an energy strike to build up and lay absolute wastage onto its victims.
Much like its predecessors, Renegade Squadron will not disappoint multiplayer fans and manages to have support for the surprising numbers of up to 8 players via Ad Hoc and up to 16 players in an online infrastructure match complete with leaderboards. In terms of the maps you’ll be playing on, it’s been confirmed that there will be a total of 20 new and redesigned maps ranging from the likes of Korriban and Alderaan to tweaked versions of the Hoth and Geonosis battlefields.
Renegade Squadron clearly puts Battlefront II to shame. Just look at the detail alone.
On the visual front (talk about bad puns), Renegade Squadron will be one of the first PSP titles take advantage of the full 333MHZ speed of the PSP's CPU with the unfortunate exception of multiplayer/online sessions due to the power consumption of Wi-Fi technology. The game will also boast a much higher texture resolution and drawing distance than that of Battlefront II – in fact you’ve probably already marvelled at a comparison shot we’ve included in this preview. We won’t comment too much more on the visuals until the game’s release but at this stage many of the first impressions that were based from first screenshots can safely be put to rest as Renegade Squadron is looking quite brilliant.
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is slowly looking like it will be another million-seller for the Battlefront franchise. Given the fact it will be exclusive to the PSP as well, we wouldn’t be all too surprised if the system sells quite well over the upcoming holiday season as eager Star Wars fans prepare to tear off the wrapping paper and once again, enter that galaxy far, far away.
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