Star Wars: Battlefront II

"An almost great game, fun, but not quite worth $50 without Infrastructure Mode"

This game is designed for pick up and play modes, which in theory is perfect for PSP. However, it is quickly evident that there is a lot of "what could have been" with this game, and instead of accepting that this is merely a portable counter part to a fantastic platform game, you are left feeling cheated... here are some random thoughts...

PHYSICS: The game's FPS/3rd person action do not play as realistically as Ghost Recon or games of this nature. There is a feeling that movement is on ice, every one is skating and slipping around with ease, barely slowed by a change in terrain. It fits the hyper-fast and furious gameplay, but be aware that there is immediately a lack of physical realness to it.

CAMERA: Until you get used to the free look and targeting controls, the camera is pretty important. For the most part it works okay, but there are times when you are close to a large obstacle or are nearing a battlefield boundary and the camera goes nuts. There are even some bad collision detection problems. But that rarely happens since combat is 99.9% range weapons.

PLAY: The interface during play is nice. Everything stays out of the viewing field, but is big enough to refer to (such as maps, so on). The action is often TOO furious. I remember playing Rainbow Six when it first came out on PC, and how it was so slow and methodical, centering on tactical planning. Then you play online and it is a run and jump and shoot contest.

Battlefront is the same way. It has almost no tactical feel to it. Everything moves and shoots in every direction. It sort of hints at tactics... there are engineer characters that can act as saboteurs (can wreck parked enemy craft), and there are explosive devices to set and ignite from a distance... there are even a lot of snipers (with sub par aim control by the way)... but none of those things ever come in as handy as a Jedi or shock trooper just blasting and slashing everything in sight.

The game hints at unit play, but it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble. Charismatic players enhance abilities of the units around them, so if you move as a tight unit, you are stronger than the sum of your parts. This is a nice element that adds depth, but as I said before, the game is built to be a run and gun, so you are better off just rushing in headlong.

The space battles are a ton of fun though. The controls are perhaps overly simple, and dogfights can be frustrating... but they are a ton of fun. They sort of remind me of the Star Wars Arcade game for Sega 32X. However, I do not like the way that you have little control over throttle and roll. The space battles are a nice change of pace from the ground wars.

CONTROLS: The control schemes are nice. There are 3 or 4 to choose from. Each one offers a different layout. For this game, as most of us know from any multiplayer game, precision is often 2nd to comfort.

TACTICS: Squatters will be both happy and sad with this game. Happy because each team seems to have a sniper, and because each player has a zoom mode of one sort or another. Sad because weapons overheat or empty quickly.

GRAPHICS: The graphics are very nice, and fit well the SW motif. Not earth shattering, paired down a bit from PS2, but as fast as the play is, you don't notice it.

MODES: There are many play modes, ranging from campaigns to instant action. Lots of customization for the playground. Truly this UMD was designed for the PSP rather than existing as a mere port.

It is a shame that so many of us who do not know other PSP players will not get to use the ad hoc mode, because I read that it is pretty fun. For instance, bigger vehicles have more than one seat. So if you are playing alongside friends (co-op), one guy can sit as the pilot, and another can sit at the turret and play the gunner. That is an outstanding feature, especially since you can exit the craft at any time (not in space though, duh) and attack on foot. This is nearly Battlefield 2 in design... but in the end it is Battlefront 2 afterall when we realize that almost 90% of the play on PSP will be solo. Too bad.

Another shortcoming is the objectives... Blockbuster rents this game without instructions, so I rely on my past gaming experiences and the on-UMD tutorials. There are movements, commands, and abilities that are never explained. In the capture the flag game, when you manuever the flag holder to the icon on the map, it just disappears and the enemy gets the flag. I have no idea what I am supposed to do with it when I get it. This sort of "tip" (tips litter the load wait screens) should be clear to the player. Most of the time I find myself letting the NPCs grab the flag and I just play lead blocker for them.

SOUNDS: The sound is a lot of fun. SW music and sounds, as well as some voices here and there.

LOAD: Load times are not horrible. The worst load times I found were during the viewing if the tutorials. Those are rediculously long. Not sure why.

FAN SERVCIE: Darth F'ing Vader. Mid play in Instant Action, you can often change to one of the icon characters from the movies. When you are Darth Vader, you walk around the battlefield like you are god... and you have some sweet force moves. Nothing satisfies you more than force choking Han Solo to death WHILE you slash down a rebel infantryman.

My biggest gripe with the game right now, though, is that you cannot view the stats of your profile from the options menu/start menu. Why have a stat keeping element to the game if you can't review it? You can tell that they focused so much energy in not limiting unit variety, space combat play, and maps on the PSP that they forgot to polish the interface and bookkeeping. If you look at X Men Legends, you have instantaneous access to data at almost any point of the game. Even Ape Escape had a way to look at your accomplishements.

SUMMARY: Mostly this game is for SW fans I have determined. All of the shortcomings sort of feel alright when you see snow troopers descending en masse on the rebel base on Hoth, complete with trenches and turrets and the M. Falcon parked in the hanger.

For the rest of us, it is a good game, worth buying in the absence of other choices... but if you want a warfare game with any strategy, any setup, and any feel of realism in physics... wait for SOCOM. And to reiterate what I said above, the lack of infrastructure hurts this game's value badly. They must have knew this, because the pick up and play levels are modeled to feel and move and look like online multiplayer experiences.

My final judgment on this game is 7/10. Not worth $50, but would be worth buying used (maybe... EB still has used Dynasty Warriors priced at $45 which makes no sense to me at all) or getting as a gift (which frees up your own hard earned money for a real good game). It is ideally suited for rental, and it is a nice time killer. In the face of some killer releases for PSP, BF2 will be lost... except for fans who love to relive moments from their Star Wars obsession. But in the end the game is about as rewarding as Untold Legends and not even as addictive as UL. SOCOM next week... a game that wasn't even on my map until I played SWBF2.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/05