I spent way too much time with the original Star Wars Battlefront that I should have, but given my odd gaming interests I'm hardly surprised. It was my first foray into the large-scale battle shooter genre and there was something about joining an army while taking on dozens of enemies at once that really mesmerized me. While the concept wasn't exactly unique, it was fun mowing down Storm Troopers, Wookies, even Ewoks and Gungans with extreme prejudice. So when Battlefront II was announced it immediately became one of the most highly anticipated games on my Christmas list. Too bad I had to open my present early. What I got was some surprises and a lot of disappointment. Now that the holidays are long past it’s time to get into the gritty details.
Gameplay
Battlefront II offers a few new modes of play. The capture the flag mode is fun, but it also has a bunch of AI issues. Battlefront II also introduces space battles, which allow you to dogfight and board capital ships and take them out from the inside. The Galatic Conquest is beefed up quite a bit more allowing you to build up a fleet and take on your adversaries all over the Star Wars Galaxy. Finally, you can also play as a Jedi, including two maps allowing only Jedi/Sith units to battle it out.
The overall gameplay dynamics of the ground-based battles are pretty solid, but the practical implementation really wasn’t considered. The standard trooper is still overpowered and the class of choice that makes the most difference in the outcome of the battle. Some of the new classes add a lot of potential, but rarely turn the tide of battle because they aren't as adept at dealing with the rush of players as does a class with the standard blaster rifle. Online this is mitigated a little more through creative placement of mines, auto turrets, snipers, and vehicles. However, all this potential is often washed up in the general isolated nature of the game. Rarely can you create a coordinated attack unless you're used to working together. Often most of the players involved will rush off to save the day using their own methods. So the best method of raking in a high score is to use the standard class trooper and picking off as many enemies as you can before getting blasted yourself.
The biggest deterrent to having an engaging single player mode is the enemy AI still leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, the AI will insist on taking the same route to a flag or command post each time. Therefore, it's as simple as finding a choke point to pick off the soldiers one by one. It makes it even easier if there's a health or ammo droid nearby. Also, the enemy and teammate AI just doesn't fight with the same ferocity as a human player would. The enemy can take your flag and your teammates will sit idly by for a few seconds, giving them a head start to get to the drop off point. While it's nice that the AI can play a capture the flag game, it doesn't do it very well.
The enemy AI will also pick on you with extreme prejudice. I can be just another random face in the crowd, but I'll see enemy soldiers just hammer away at my character ignoring teammates that might be closer in proximity or a more immediate threat. Switching from normal to elite skill levels doesn't do much to correct this either. The AI is slightly more accurate in that they'll get a headshot now again, but they're hardly any smarter much less more deadly. The AI really makes you out to be the hero, and that's what ends up happening in single player mode more often than not.
The ability to play as a Jedi is one of the best aspects of this game. During specific intervals of the game, a certain Jedi or Sith Hero/Villain becomes available. The more you accomplish as a hero, the longer you can use him or her. However, being a Jedi gives you a distinct advantage on the battlefield. Lightsaber wielders can block shots, jump excessively high, and use force powers. While other heroes like Boba Fett and Han Solo can do increased damage from their arsenal of weapons. The Jedi themselves aren't very balanced, as seen in the all-hero assault levels. The Fetts, Han Solo, and Princess Leia will really struggle to take out a overpowered Jedi/Sith like Aayla Secura or Darth Maul. Still, playing as a hero really does add a huge dynamic to the game. Unlike the previous Battlefront, these characters aren't invincible, but they do command the respect of everyone on the battlefield.
Space battles are pretty ridiculous and very repetitive. I admit that the dogfighting is really fun, but it's often a stalemate up there in the skies. Most bombers are sitting ducks, making it tough to do a bombing run. The most effective way to take out a capital ship is to focus on enemy transports and to send in your own assault transports to take out the enemy ship from the inside. The team that does that the best will win. Unfortunately, the enemy AI won't board a ship by itself, instead opting to do bombing runs. Overall, it's a very repetitive scheme, even online. There really isn't much strategy behind this mode and I found it a rather worthless aspect of the gameplay.
Playing Battlefront II online is the best way to avoid many of the single player issues. Battlefront II allows up to 32 players in one match on Xbox Live. However the matchmaking, while similar to that of Halo 2, many times doesn't completely fill out all 32 human slots. Also, when the game is filled with that many players it can get really choppy and laggy. However, given other games that boast the same in-game capacity, like Socom 3, Battlefront II performs much better. In addition to being able to play with your friends on Xbox Live, there's also free downloadable content.
Battlefront II has a medal system where when you accomplish certain tasks like get a certain amount of points, kills with a certain weapon, vehicles destroyed, you get a medal. The medal allows you to do more damage or gives you a better weapon. It's yet another way for the game to really make your character stand out as another hero rather than just another soldier.
Battlefront II keeps track of your career stats like deaths, kills, points per kill, etc. However, it really doesn't keep track of many useful statistics like headshots, shot accuracy, or vehicles demolished. It does keep track of your medal count and when you reach the elite level that power up remains active from the beginning of the round. It doesn't really seem all that fair because the more medals you get, the easier it is to get more, and when you reach an ungodly amount of medals the game inherently gets easier. I found myself making new characters just to get more of a challenge from the game.
Controls
The controls were pretty good in that they maintained the same mappings of the previous game, as well as stayed true to most shooter conventions. Still, this game lacks a control that allows your player to lie prone, which makes the sniper class much less effective as you're forced to run all over the place instead of sneaking into position. Another aspect of the controls that's lacking is detailed squad commands. You can summon and release AI-controlled teammates, but all they do is follow you. This can be annoying in a low unit capture the flag game where all but one or two of your teammates is playing defense. It would have been good to tell them to stand their ground, or go on the offensive from time to time instead of having them cover you.
One aspect of the controls I did like was the addition of a sprint/thrusters command by clicking the left analog stick. It helps the game to move away from its sluggish nature, and it's pretty sweet when you grab the flag and you can make a fast get away.
Graphics
The graphics have their great points, but also suffer from a lot of anomalies. The player models and animations have a decent amount of detail. Plenty of player animations make for a really immersive environment. Also the backgrounds and environments really include a lot of detail and seem really polished. That being said, the space allocation for each solider can get really screwy in tight spaces. When soldiers are grouped together they can appear to "jump" in order to fill their given space without clipping. This is especially annoying when you're a sniper focusing in on pinching said corridors. Finally, there appeared to be some jittery animations when characters are led into corners.
One of the most annoying graphical aspects to the game was the pop-up messages. Using split screen, they scrolled right into your crosshairs. It made playing capture the flag and other modes with lots of pop-up messages much more annoying than it should be and there was no way to turn this feature off. My other pet peeve with regards to the graphics was how dark the game was. The only way to really see your way around many levels was to wait until dark outside, then turn off the lights. I should have just turned up the brightness of the TV, but I shouldn't have to do that.
Sound
The sound has its moments. While I'd like to hear some more creative variations on the Star Wars themes, I didn't mind the music in general. The sound effects were also what you'd expect from a Star Wars game. They didn't scare you have to death with too loud explosions, but sounds were ambient and subtle enough to hear someone walking up behind you. Still, I did have one major gripe about the sound effects. When you are awarded a medal like endurance or war hero, your character will glow red and emit an alarm-like sound. This sound just does not go away and is very annoying. It's made even worse when your character has achieved an elite level of medals for one of these power ups and thus will always sound like a burglar alarm.
The voice acting was about average. It had its moments during capture the flag when you play as the Empire. The guy announcing the action is just hilarious and completely over the top. Still, on levels where many major events like flag captures or drops take place, the voice can really get annoying. The individual units will also taunt you during the battle. However in the case of the regular units, the voices are delayed a lot. Sometimes my teammate will yell "Get that Wookie" 3 seconds after I took him down. While other times, they'll commend me on a nice shot right away as if they were another human playing. It's clearly a sign of a lack of polish.
Replay Value
There isn't a lot of replay value in Battlefront II. The space battles will get way too repetitive. Meanwhile the other battles will really make you lose interest based on the horrible enemy AI. If you like to be a hero and dominate the battlefield, then you'll see renewed interest because there are many ways to dominate the enemy AI. Still, you have to be pretty inexperienced to get outclassed by the computer players. Online, many of the games play out the same way. While it's fun and interesting to take on new players with each passing game, the lack of teamwork and coordination really dulled the experience over time.
Overall Battlefront II, like its predecessor, is decidedly mediocre. Being able to play as a Jedi is definitely one of its strongest qualities, but it really doesn't make up for a really lackluster massive battlefield shooter. While it has many different gameplay dynamics, they aren't always utilized properly and rarely can turn the tide of battle, a burden that the player must often shoulder. With a group of friends this can be a really fun game; unfortunately that scenario isn't all that common. So if you were a fan of the first game, this one is definitely worth a shot once the price gets a little lower.
