Star Wars Battlefront (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

Ask any Star Wars fan and they will tell you that Star Wars video games have been going downhill since "Return of the Jedi" on the SNES with few excpetions. Only lately with games such as "Rogue Leader" and "Knights of the Old Republic" have fans been given a reprieve from the status quo of mediocre games. "Star Wars: Battlefront" is next in the line of good, albeit not superb, games of the beloved trilogy.


Gameplay: The bulk of the gameplay centers around a Star Wars version of "Capture the Flag". On each world that the Rebels/Empire, Clones/Seperatists, Gungans/Trade Federation, etc. do battle, there are five or six bases that either side can capture. You need to either capture all of the bases or kill all of your opposition in order to declare victory. On paper, a mix of Star Wars combat and Capture the Flag, doesn't sound all that appealing, but once you sit down and play, you'll most likely be sucked in and, before you know it, four hours of your life will have disappeared.

One of the nice things about this game is that you can choose which side you want to fight on in the "Instant Action" mode of gameplay. For each affiliation (Empire, Rebels, Trade Federation, Clones, etc.) there are numerous different soldier types that you can fight as. For example, if you decide to fight as the Empire as I like to do, (DIE REBEL SCUM! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!) then you can fight as a regular Stormtrooper, a Darktrooper, a Scoutrooper, an Imperial Officer, or others. Each different soldier has different strengths and carryies a different assortment of weapons.

In addition to fighting on the ground, in each level you can also take control of AT-ATs, AT-STs, AT-TEs, TIE Fighters, TIE Bombers, X-Wings, Y-Wings, Snowspeeders, Cloud City Fighters (I don't remember their name), Skiffs, Landspeeders, Tanks, and just about anything else your nerdy little heart could desire. You can also take control of enemy vehicles and rain death down on their unsuspecting troops. Be warned though, although you have a great many vehicles at your disposal, none of them control particularly well and so therefore, you'll probably be spending the majority of your time wth this game on foot, laying waste to Rebel or Imperial troops.

Graphics: The game takes place on such notable Star Wars locales as Hoth, Yavin 4, Kamino, Geonosis, Tatooine, Endor, Naboo and others, so the environments are quite varied and, considering the scope of many of the battles, the graphics are a sight to behold. The explosion effects are quite nice as well. You'll also get a sneak peak at Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld, which is said to play a part in Episode III.

Sound: Familiar Star Wars tunes and great battle sounds. The voiceover of commanding officers saying "Our reinforcements have been cut off!" or "Victory is imminent!" does get very repetitive after a while, but that's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

Misc.

-In each battle, whichever two sides are fighting always have the exact same number of troops. It would have been nice if in some battles, you were outnumbered, and had to formulate a strategy that would even things up.

-Watching your charater get hit with a grenade and go flying trough the air is great and NEVER gets old.

Star Wars Battlefront is an excellent game. If you are trying to decide whether to by Battlefront or Battlefront 2, you should know about some of the differences between them.
Battlefront has the following Battles
Tatooine- 2 maps
Kashyyk- 2 maps
Bespin- 2 maps
Rhen Varr- 2 maps
Yavin- 2 maps
Hoth- 1 map
Endor- 1 map
Kamino- 1 map
Geonosis- 1 map
Naboo- 2 maps

Troops with special weapons-

Rebel Sniper and Droid Sniper- Zoom x2
Rebel Vanguard- shoots 2 rockets at a time
Clone Arc Trooper- has 2 rockets loaded at a time (Fires 1 at a time)
Clone Pilot -Arc Caster (shoots electricity, can be charged)
Rebel Rifleman- Rifle is more accurate then other battle rifles

Things Batlefront has that Battlefront 2 does not

Maps are bigger in general, Maps appear to be more textured and better looking, The ability to lay in the prone position, Ground vehilces are more powerful and harder to destroy, the ability to use Space fighters in ground battles, 2 historical campaigns with loads of video clips, during galactic conquest games each faction has the ability to destroy or remove from the game an enemy planet after they have won 4 battles.

Heros in battlefront are not playable, and in general do not fight as hard if you are on their team, whereas if you are on the opposing team the heros are fight much harder and will gladly come after you.

Droidekas are also tougher in the first battlefront

Battlefront 2 has the following maps

Yavin, Hoth, Endor, Coruscant, Mustafar, Utapau, Kamino, Geonosis, Tatooine, Kashyyk, Felucia, Mygeeto, Polis Masa, Dagobah, Naboo, Tantive 4, Jabbas Palace

The only planet with two maps is tatooine (jabbas palace and mos eisly)

Maps that are also in the first battlefront have been changed for Battlefront 2

What Battlefront 2 has that batlefront does not:

The ability to run and roll forward, heros are playable, space battles, space Fighters are no longer used on land battles, vehicles are easier to destroy (specifically imperial walkers and Droid Spiders

Infantry weapons are no longer different like in the first battlefront (i.e. all snipers zoom in the same amount, and all rocket launchers work the same), there are also unlockable bonuses and special weapons.

New infantry are also added (i.e. Magna Guards, Clone Commanders)

Both Games are excellent and I highly recommend them, but at the same time both games have unique maps, weapons, vehicles, and game play that require the player to devise different strategies to win. And in my sons opinion Battlefront has more epic battles then Battlefront 2.

We came to this game from the Lego StarWars series when our 6 year old was ready to take it up a notch.

Hard-core gamers would laugh at the shock to my system. I still haven't completely grasped how to handle the ability to control in three dimensions (3D). But this game makes me want to try!

I always liked Capture the Flag while growing up, so the basic game-play is great here. I love being able to jump in and out of vehicles and actually use them (to the best of my abilities)! I also love being able to choose the characters. It helps that you can actually go into options and change most of the buttons as needed. And the splitscreen playing is pretty good, too.

Graphics are pretty good, although there are a few transition/visibility issues that are distracting, particularly if you are close to objects, but I find that switching from 3rd person to 1st person view helps a lot.

There isn't a lot of plot to the game, but that isn't really the point of the game. It's to jump into the StarWars battles. And it does that well. Your character is only a small part of the battle, and it seems that the winning depends less on superheroics and more on what your character does to help the team. The battlefield is big and there is 'action' everywhere, but you only see the small portion where you are at... fairly realistic.

It is, by the nature of battle, a 'violent' game, but they didn't include any gratuitous gore that would make game play offensive. Like the forms of 'bad guy' 'good guy' that I played outside as a kid, when you die, you 'fall down' and have to go back to 'base' before you can rejoin the game.

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: bargainzandmore

In a Galaxy far, far away...the battle between the light and the dark side continues.

Star Wars: Battlefront brings the adventure together in a spectacular first person shooter, choose your planet and let the battle begin.

Star Wars Battlefront lets you choose between the Empire, Rebellion, Trade Federation or the Clone Army. If you're a Halo fan this game could be for you, like any first person shooter you can only have so much fun playing against the A.I., and this is definitely a multiplayer game. You can fight up to sixteen players in massive online battles. Battlefront is available on the PC, XBOX and the PS2.

On a rating scale of 1-5, I'll give this game a 4. And may the force be with you!

Star Wars Battlefront for the PS2 is a good game at best.The premise of the game is pretty much the same as all the other first person shooters.One of the draws of the game is that you can fight in battles that took place in the movies.There are modes in the game in which you choose your side(Empire or Rebellion) and try to take control of the galaxy one planet at a time unlocking bonuses that can be used when you think it to be most useful.There are multipal characters that can chosen with their own special capabilities and weapons.Overall a good game especially from the standpoint of a fan of the movies.