Many of Battlefront II’s updates are merely incremental, but several of them really add to the overall experience. The single player mode has been extended, with a story mode focused on the galaxy’s famed 501st clone division, while the classic Galactic Conquest mode has seen a bit of a spit and polish. Space battles, which involve two fleets going head to head over a planet, are the best addition to the game, providing many thrills and spills. Hero characters (such as Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Boba Fett) were a good idea on paper, but don’t convert so well into the hectic equation of Battlefront II as well as we’d have liked.
Darth Vader's chest plate is not an ATM
For a sequel to a game that had a focus almost entirely on multiplayer, Battlefront II actually provides some reasonable solo fun. The story mode, Rise of the Empire, puts players in the shoes of the commander of the 501st division, a group of elite, can-do troopers that eventually end up under the direct command of Anakin Skywalker, later Darth Vader. The mode starts out on Geonosis, providing a brief tutorial on the basics of the game, as well as the newer and slightly more advanced features. The action eventually goes through the events of the Clone Wars, detailing the inner workings of the army of the Republic, as well as the extent of the pre-programming of the clones. Galactic Conquest is the other single player mode – this involves a series of turn based movements of your fleet around a galaxy (you can choose from four), with the aim being to capture every planet in the system. Battles can be initiated on the ground, or ship to ship above a planet.
The single player and multiplayer games pretty much play the same. Each side has a number of different class types, such as the regular soldier, sniper, engineer, jetpack guy, shock trooper and such, as well as a hero character that spawns every so often – usually based on a number of points you’ve captured (for multiplayer and instant action maps) or based on a scripted event (the main campaign). The heroes are extremely powerful, and really serve to unbalance what was otherwise a well-balanced game – a jedi can slay troops with such ferocity that ensures the team on the receiving end has absolutely no chance of coming back in the battle. Fortunately, heroes can only stick around for a certain amount of time; killing more opponents will extend their life, but being hit or having nodes captured will shorted their life.
A lot of the emphasis and power has been taken off and out of the vehicles – battles feel a lot more infantry-driven as a whole. Single player AI is still really quite stupid and is certainly no replacement for real human opponents – of which 31 can be played against (24 for the PS2 version). Xbox Live play can be a little spotty at times, but there’s no shortage of people to play with, provided you can put up with the occasional dropout and lag spike.
Don't be afraid men, they couldn't even beat a bunch of oversized teddy bears!
The number of levels has been increased for Battlefront II, with 24 maps now being playable (most of which are from the prequel trilogy, meaning new vehicles and such) – the newest maps seem to play and look the best, though, which will mean that many of the same levels will be played over and over. The game types haven’t been extended at all with just the node capturing and capture the flag modes available, though the 501st campaign will have you doing all sorts of objectives.
However, that’s just for the ground combat – the space combat presents an all new style of match. Each side has a capital ship loaded with a number of fighters – the aim being to take out the other ship. How do you do that? Suicide runs into the other team’s hanger, taking out the systems from the inside, while your team mates fight an aerial battle outside. It’s really quite cool, though our only complaints are having to switch between camera types constantly, as the first person view on the space ships is rather ineffective, and the control isn’t quite as fluid as we’ve come to expect from Star Wars games over the years.
Battlefront II’s presentation is on par with the standard Star Wars games – easy to navigate menus pasted over montages of footage from the movies. A lot of footage is used in the single player mode, particularly during the Clone Wars part of the campaign. The graphics are still pretty rough compared to other products in the market, but they get the job done. Animation can be a little bit simplistic, but given the amount of action on screen at any one time, there’s not a lot Pandemic could have done. Character models are solid, though a little lacking in detail. All of the vehicles are spot on with their on screen equivalents, and a lot of effort appears to have gone into ensuring they move and act the way that fans would expect.
The locations in the game vary greatly - from the sweltering heat of Mustafa to the icy wastelands of Hoth, each planet has been recreated with fairly good accuracy, though the textures and geometry do look a little rough, and someone decided to go a little too far with the bloom lighting. Frame rates can get a little scrappy at times, but never really impede gameplay. Battlefront II’s sound is immaculate, featuring all of the effects and music featured in the six films, as well as some really nice voice work, all of which is presented in luscious Dolby Digital 5.1.
To infinity - and beyond! Or maybe straight into the wall
Star Wars Battlefront II packs in about as many new improvements and modes as you can reasonably expect from a sequel with a short development life. While the base game remains fairly much the same, the new space battles are a real thrill – it’s just a pity that the hero system that appeared to be so promising really just serves to unbalance the experience. It’s also a little disappointing that there’s such a difference in the quality of maps – the new ones really overshadow the old ones. Perhaps this is something Pandemic will work out for the inevitable third game in the series. Fans of the first game and all round Star Wars geeks should give it a look, but just be wary that its not an entirely flawless experience.
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