Star Wars Battlefront II (PC)

Upon seeing reviews, vid clips, screenshots, etc., I decided to purchase this game, and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Don’t be fooled into believing Battlefront 2 is more suited towards multiplayer. Not only is there a large campaign mode, which follows a group of Clone Troopers all the way from the end of the Clone Wars up until Empire Strikes Back, but there’s also a strategic Conquer the Galaxy mode. In this mode, you choose which ever side you want: The Separatists, The Republic, The Empire or The Rebels, and move from planet to planet, invading and defending various territory. And although the core of the game is first/third person shooter ground missions, there are also plenty of intense space battles along the way.

And what happens when you complete all that? You still have plenty of mission points to gain for your player profile, which unlock special weapons and bonuses that you can use in battles.

To be honest, there’s not much I can find wrong with it. With the above modes it’s a decent length, the graphics aren’t bad, all the memorable characters and vehicles are there, the ground battles are very entertaining and the space battles are spectacular…well, aside from having to bomb an enemy command ship’s critical systems over and over to win most space battles, which can get a little tedious after a while. But even if you get bored of that, just fly into their hangar, run around their ship and bring them down from the inside.

Basically, this is a very well designed, entertaining game, whether you are a Star Wars fan or not. Not only is it huge, the bug testing, apart from a few minor things, must been pretty much spot on (which is a rarity these days).

Having played StarWars Battlefront to death, I was very excited to hear of the sequel. However, I did not rush out to the shops due to some articles and reviews which gave the fantastic guys at Lucas Arts a bit of a hard time. Having then played the game at a friends house, I can now confirm the almightyness of this game.

There are new units and vehicles for each team to play with,

Graphics are great and fast even on an average PC,

Gameplay has much of the same but with more vehicle related parts what with the addition of space battles,

The life span of the game is great. An abundance of instant action maps (including new capture the flag and other such games), bigger galatic conquests and longer more testing missions.

Finally the online gameplay is just as good if not better. The Maps are bigger, more units to choose from.

Do not be scared by other reviews, THIS GAME IS GREAT!

I heard about this game a few years back, but never really bothered since I thought you had to be online to install it- You don`t. I`ve discovered this now since I thought it was cheap enough to take the risk. Another reason I didn`t bother was because I don`t do Online gaming any more.

I have a little minor interest in Starwars and these reviews got me interested.

It`s much better than I expected. It`s a first-person or 3rd-person shooter where you play the Empire (bad guys) or Rebels (good guys) fighting it out on various battlegrounds.

This game has been well made with both the Online and OFF-line player in mind, unlike a lot of games of this kind which tend to focus on just multiplayer. Just about everything you can do online you can do offline against AI bots.

The battlegrounds are all very good renditions of the films. You get Hoth, Naboo, and most all the others. Special mention must go to Endor, Death star map and the ship scene in the 1st Starwars movie introduction- They are very nicely done.

The music is the authentic Starwars music that adds to the theme.

You can play just about anyone of the different types of troops or even as the Heroes\villains. But you can only play the Heroes\Villains in 3rd person, except for Boba Fett, strangely, at least so far.

There are plenty of vehicles, but again only in 3rd person- Why? Still the slow AT-AT at Hoth was very enjoyable to use though I wish I could`ve driven in 1st person. Interestingly, aircraft, spacecraft allow 1st person... Weird.

The battles with the AI bots can be quite immersive and, seeing that I`m a strict soldier of the Empire joined the Storm Troopers destroying `Rebel Scum`! I got a perverse pleasure out of wiping out Ewoks on Endor. Endor is one of the best maps made and watching AT-STs walking about as I run behind them really did bring me into the movie!

The AI is pretty good, but also not brilliant, sometimes seeming to forget what`s going on or running past each other in the frantic fighting (I wish they slowed things down just a tad to realistic movements). They also have the odd habit of standing right in my line of sight. They seem to follow my orders only when they feel like it, but maybe this depends on the troop-type I choose to be? They do, however, take cover and in the open-ended games take command points with their own initiative. Enemey rebel AI seems to like shooting my dead body out of anger?! Maybe cos I kept killing Ewoks. :)

There is also a certain amount of gun management to each weapon. Apart from the standard blaster which is great for basic blowing away of Rebels, you have many other weapons like the `shotgun` type blaster which kills at close range, or the sniper rifle for long range, etc. The minigun blaster is excellent for wiping out tough opposition and needs no reload, but takes a precious second to power up- When you have a maddened Jedi Master leaping for your face with his twin lightsabres, that one second is one second too long!

Sounds are very atmospheric with some funny quips from friends and enemy at times.

The space battles are quite impressive too and I found to get the best out of it you need to connect a joystick and have all your controls set-up. Can`t be bothered? then the game thoughtfully will allow you to skip to just the ground battles.

There`s an excellent, `realistic` 501st campaign about your tour with the Stormtroopers that I really enjoyed and an excellent, open-ended Offline Campaign where you or the AI try to dominate the galaxy. Very nice extra to keep Offliners going. Edit: It`s too easy and simplistic though. The Campaign AI gets cornered very quickly and beaten with a modicum of thinking. I`ve won every Campaign against it yet and that was even when I was at first rubbish in space battles and lost a few of those. The campaign`s not really made for anyone with even a little bit of strategic knowledge, unfortunately.

So to conclude, Good stuff:

Play as almost any trooper in first person.
Play as some of the Heroes\Villains.
Open-ended Offline big Campaign.
Space battles.
Just about all the vehicles to try.
Very immersive and hectic.
AI`s not bad.
No Online DRM or Steam.

Negaitives:
Land vehicles and Heroes\Villains in 3rd person only.
AI not very good at following commands.

Tech Probs:
Game ran very well on Win7 64 bit with Creative Extreme Music card. The only problem was sound, I was getting a lot of stutter sound, especially with the music. Noticed that EAX would not activated or allow me to use Hardware. I tried lots of things to rememdy this, but it wouldn`t work. EAX worked fine in Stalker, Call Of Pripyat, so I think the game`s the problem. Never affected actually gameplay though.

Recommended for Starwars, and even mild, Starwars fans.

This game`s a keeper.