Star Wars: Battlefront II

"Chewy to the rescue, and starfighters laying cover fire."

"An even better reason for a gamer to waste away at the T.V!"

Overview
Let me start by introducing my self. My name is Dale, and I'm just about to enter ninth grade. For those illegal aliens from down south who can't speak English, me llamo es Dale, I es loco en la cabesa. Yes I'm paraphrasing, I only attended most of my world lessons and Spanish classes physically, my mind was pickled in an air tight jar, if I had brought it with me to school, my grade would have diminished. (For those of you upstanding citizens that don't speak spanish, I was trying to say that I was crazy in the head, but I was unsuccessful.)Okay that's enough of that.
Star wars: battlefront II was surprisingly better than the original. It took time to adjust, because at first glance this is almost a perfect replica of it's predecessor, but as you get into the game, you realize all the differences. By differences I mean both pro's and con's, of course.
The first one, Battlefront (1) was one of my favorite games for almost 2 years, the count would have risen, if my cousin hadn't deleted my best save, and sentenced the game to the dank and dust of my closet.

Gameplay: 10/10

This game was a simple over-the-shoulder shooter in which you took over bases by standing near their center post. If you die, you can respawn at any one of the friendly bases. You can win by either taking all of the bases, or depleting all of the enemy troops, which, for most of the story mode, starts around 150-250, and for any "instant action" games, is adjustable by percentage. The maximum number of AI troops in any game is 16, but as before, Instant Action AI numbers are adjustable from 16 down. Most of the reader's who have played the first installment of this series will see that the above statements mostly concur with the original game. "Why do I want this game if it's just more of the same?" Much has been added, including a sprint function, the addition of a fatigue/stamina bar, Space flight missions (More on them below) and most of all, the ability to play as the completely overpowered Jedi.

The Jedi

After a certain amount of time (or kills depending on the level and settings.) little words appear at the bottom of the screen. "Would you like to play as !?!?" Where the question points and exclamation marks (or is it the other way around, I learned english in a test called "Can a boy with a fractured skull survive his infant years?" lol, just a joke. I think.) stand for the name of the Jedi you will respawn as, yes I said respawn, switching to a Jedi counts as a death, which may hurt your kill/death ratio, I'd explain that ratio, but the words themselves are self explanatory. The Jedi you become could range anywhere from Yoda to Boba Fett, who isn't really a Jedi in the first place. Jedi's or Genetically engineered mercenaries, in either case, your life slowly degenerates constantly, and only raises if you kill enemies. (Life pickups don't work.) Be aware though, that team killing lowers your life dramatically, and being hit by the enemy still injures you. Killing the enemy isn't very hard, considering the capacity for multiple kills in one strike, and the ability for most Jedi to throw their Lightsabers like a boomerang. Boba and his father, or was it son, whatever, don't use lightsabers, but stronger versions of the pistol, with limited ammo, and a secondary weapon, the only playable flamethrower, I'm not sure what Han uses as a weapon, but Chewbacca uses an enhanced bowcaster and time bombs. Instead of being able to jump multiple times in the air, like most Jedi's do, the two gunslingers (and han solo I believe) have jetpacks that act like the dark trooper's boosters, they have a separate meter vertically aligned up the left side of the screen, don't worry it replenishes, Some select Jedi's have the ability to hover, such as Darth Vader and The Emperor, although they use their own stamina bar for it. Chewy lacks any bonus in aerial acrobatics, or the supersprint that all of the actual Jedi's have, but he can take much more punishment than any other unit in the game. Nevertheless, he IS the worst Hero in the game, hands down. Before you can play as any of these veterans, you must first play as one of the basic units.

The Basic Units

Just like the first game, just before you spawn you may select which unit you wish to play as for this one life. As before, there are various units to choose from, each with their own weapon set, and the names and graphics of each set of units is dependant on which force you play this conflict as, just like the selection of which Jedi you play as. Each "race" has two special units that you can only play as after you earn a certain number of points. generally the first "unlockable" unit is playable after you earn six points, and the second after you earn 12.
Points
Similar to the very obvious kill system, which is also a large part of this game, points increase when you do different things. Killing an enemy unit, taking a base, and accomplishing an objective. Of course, your points also decrease if you die, or if you kill an allied unit. As a Jedi your points fall into a seperate category deemed "hero points" which work almost exactly the same way.

Flight Missions

Somewhere along the line, some person working on this game decided to create space missions, in which you spawn as either a pilot or a marine like unit, and get into one of many "racially" designated spacefighters. The point in these missions was to try to kill enemy fighters while simultaneously knocking out the shields, engines, life support, communications array, automated defenses, and others from the enemy command ships, before they get you first. As a pilot the life of your ship slowly regenerates, but rather than an energy rifle you get just a pistol, time bombs, and a fusion cutter. (Which as in the other game, repairs turrets and medical/ammunitions droids.) The importance of the armaments you are given is that, at some point in each space level, after you wipe out the enemy shields, you can board the enemy spacecraft and take out certain key elements of the ship from inside. There are four classes of ships, interceptor, bomber, fighter, and carrier. They all do things that are generally obvious, except for the carrier. If you manage to fly the slow and unwieldy carrier into the enemy ship, it functions as an immediate command post on their ship that you and your troops can spawn at- until the enemy destroys it. (average carrier life expectancy: -5 seconds until boarding the enemy ship. For those of you who don't understand, the ship doesn't even normally make it to the objective.) Your spacefighters also have their very own "sprint" function which works exactly the same as that of the normal units. The idea for space missions would have been great, if pandemic hadn't hired the lamest drunks to design it. One of the biggest downsides to the space missions is the almost impossibility to get many medals.

The medals

At the end of each mission, if you pay attention to the screen entitled "career stats" you'll notice that in the mostly blank spot covering the bottom half of the screen has words in it like Gunslinger, Frenzy, or Endurance. These are the medals you won during that mission. If you hit X again and look at the next screen, once again, in the bottom half of the screen you'll see these words (and others) next to numbers. I won't bother listing them all, as your appretiation for the game won't be affected by these little nuances, unless your neurotic or something. The numbers can go as high as you want them to, they represent how many time you have gotten the medal since you created the profile. Highlighting the medals shows you (in the text along the bottom of the screen.) what bonus the medal gives you. Every medal gives a different effect, and have different ways to earn them. In addition to the basic bonuses, getting the medal more and more increases the number next to it, and at certain ranks things like the ability to keep the bonus of the medal even after you die, rather than for just one life, or making it easier to get it become available. There are various ranks of each individual medal. They start at "green" move up to "veteran" farther onto "elite" and at 65 times, "Legendary". At legendary you start each game and life that you play with the full bonus of the medal you are legendary in. Be aware however, that the medals that give you new weapons, such as "regulator" (shotgun) and "Frenzy" (Blaster rifle) don't take immediate effect. Instead you MUST switch to your secondary weapon and back, before you get the bonus. As I stated above, under normal circumstances, all bonuses from medals go away, and have to be regained, when you die, the only upside is that you can earn them again.

Audio: 7/10

Wow that was a wall of text, I'll stop I promise. The sound effects, screams, and blaster fire, were all exceptional on this game. I didn't particularly like the in-game music at all, of course, I normally turn off all the music on every one of my games, so that was a biased opinion anyway. That better? That's it, audio is finished, hit the mute button already.

Replayability: 9/10

The story mode on this game was long enough to engage me just once, so if there was no splitscreen, galactic conquest, or instant action, the replayabitlity of this game would be extremely low. This game also has online capability, but I still haven't hooked my playstation up and tried it. My friend said he had rented this game and loved it, but the online mode was horrible. So I'll leave you to the opinion of online playability and end with just local play.

It's Finally over
Not quite yet. I'd like to tie it up with some quick notes I forgot to add. Many of the Jedi have secondary attacks suck as force push/pull, (use is obvious) Force Choke, and lighting. You can't earn any medals as a Jedi, but if you're legendary in endurance, war hero, or guardian, they affect your Jedi like any normal unit. Finally, If you like first person more than third person, the options have a toggle for that as well! Jedi's automatically switch to third person, except for the ones with guns rather than lightsabers. The first person gives a better feel for the game, but it's stiffer, with less peripheral vision, which makes dodging enemy fire and looking around corners more difficult. So it increases the difficulty of the game slightly, but I always play as it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06