Star Wars: Battlefront II

"Battlefront II: A lot of fun and a worthy sequel"

Battlefront II is the sequel to last year's Star Wars Battlefront. The original game was a lot of fun, and the sequel proves to be much of the same.

Graphics: The graphics on the PS2 look good. All of the ships, vehicles, characters, and locations look authentic down to the last detail. Take some time to study the backgrounds in some locations if you really want to get immersed; you will be. Felucia is especially nice as is Endor. The space battles have all of the floating debris from ships in the way long after you destroy them, which is very cool. The stars blur in and out of focus as you fly through waves of enemy fighters, and there is even space dust floating around. The graphics definitely are not next-generation, but they certainly give you a sense of being part of the action.

Sound: The sound is what you would expect mostly. A lot of recognizable music is put in that seems to pick up right when you get into the frantic action of space or the harsh ground combat. The voices for the characters are a little generic, but it doesn't get too irritating. The Jedi heroes all have pretty decent voice acting, but the heroes from the original trilogy movies don't sound much like who they are representing. What the heroes do say though seems to be very in character. Like Leia's "That was fun, let's try it again sometime," when she is defeated. All blasters and lightsabers power up, fire, and slash as they should. Overall, it's just a basic Star Wars soundtrack.

Gameplay: The gameplay is very different from Battlefront I in several ways. While the control scheme is still very intuitive, you will find that it does take a few minutes to get the hang of some of the fine points. The L3 button on the PS2 acts as the sprint button, and this tends to be a little sticky on new controllers, but if yours is broken in you won't have any problems. (This seemed relevant to my friend as his controller was brand new and he had a lot of trouble.) Another new element to the gameplay is the addition of power-ups that allow temporary stat boosts. If for instance you kill 12 players with a blaster rifle in one life, you will receive a special rifle that fires in bursts. You can also get these bonuses from characters like Bothans who allow characters to regenerate health over time. Space is a big new addition. You only have two kinds of units in space; a pilot and a marine for each faction. This would seem like a bad thing until you get to use these characters. The pilot offers regenerating abilities for vehicles, and the marine has good weapons for fighting ship to ship. The ships have changed drastically. You now have a new control on the right analog stick that allows ships to turn on their sides. This of course give fighters amazing maneuverability, but also makes them a little hard to control at first. It took me about twenty minutes to get into the pilot seat completely, but after I did space battles became a fun part of the game instead of a hassle.

Be A Jedi: Yes this is a separate section. Yes being a Jedi is very cool. Their moves are limited and so are their lives so they need to be used wisely and with some skill. One Jedi can mean the difference in a battle if the player is quite adept at using one. Yoda to me was a huge difference maker. In a Galactic conquest map, it was impossible for me at my skill level to take the planet without Yoda's assistance. Maybe I'm not very good, but that does testify to their abilities to change battles. Jedis include Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Yoda, Mace Windu, and a handful more. Additionally you can play as some other fun heroes like Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Boba Fett and even Jango Fett. Once you have gotten used to their particulars, the Jedi will become a merciless tool that can cut down enemy units as fast as they can spawn.

Multi-player: I personally cannot comment on the on-line play, but in splitscreeen the game is just as enjoyable as it is in single player. Me and a find of mine spent several hours just in space battles and had a blast just flying around and dogfighting each other. I could see this quickly becoming an on-line frenzy.

Replayabilty: This, in my opinion depends a lot on the player themselves. If you are a real fan of the series, you will love to play the same levels over and over again. Otherwise, there isn't any extra content other than what you start with. There are several game modes however, including hunt in which you kill natives of the given planet, a story driven mode that follows the 501st clone division, and some capture the flag kind of games.

Rent or Buy: Always rent first if you are unsure. I would say that most fans would enjoy the game, but it might be a irritating to people who play similar games. But as I said always rent first and you will have no problem.

Score: Why did I only give this game a 9? Well I thought that all of the new additions were really good, but the game feels a little stiff to me. I really liked Battlefront I, and this is just different. Still this is a great game in my opinion. I guess I'm an old timer...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/05