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The best in Star Wars gaming just got better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 104 / 112
Date: November 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Star Wars Battlefront II (2005.) The second game in the Star Wars Battlefront series.

INTRODUCTION:
In 2004, Star Wars Battlefront was released. Although not wildly popular at its time of release, the game gradually won many gamers over with its awesome gameplay. The deathmatch-style gaming in a galaxy far, far away ended up becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time! Still, while it was one of the best Star Wars games ever, it did lack in a few areas, and it left fans yearning for a sequel. One finally arrived in the Fall of 2005! Is it an improvement? Read on for my review of Star Wars Battlefront II.

OVERVIEW:
Star Wars Battlefront II was released in America on November 1, 2005 - the same day Episode III was released on DVD in the United States. The game features single player and multi-man action alike. There are a ton of different characters, classes, locales, and game variants. The game is available for Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, XBOX, and PC.

REVIEW:
I had high expectations for this game, being that the first Battlefront was one of my all-time favorite Star Wars gaming experiences. The sequel takes this already-excellent formula, and makes it even better in a number of ways! Let's see how it fares.

-THE GOOD:

-THE GAMEPLAY THAT MADE THE ORIGINAL BATTLEFRONT SUCH A GREAT GAME MAKES A COMEBACK HERE. The original game was a Star Wars fan favorite, and I'm not at all surprised that the basic gameplay concepts, for the most part, remain unchanged in most modes of play.

-THE STORY MODE HAS GOTTEN A REVAMP. Rather than just generic battles aroun the galaxy, it has become mission and objective-oriented. The alteration makes for a refreshing change of pace from the standard battle games.

-TONS OF NEW LOCATIONS TO TAKE THE FIGHT TO. The locales you'll explore in this game have greatly been expanded. Now, you can fight in a great deal more places than the first game. Episode III worlds like Utapau and Mustafar are now playable, as well as other classic Star Wars scenes like Dagobah and the interior of the Death Star.

-SPACE COMBAT! This is the thing the game is getting a lot of hype for. You can now do your battles in space! The sheer amount of options in such a battle makes these some of the funnest things the game offers. You can fly a starfighter and attack enemy ships from the outside, or land in their docks and cause destruction from the inside out (and maybe even steal an enemy fighter!) This is definitely one of the game's best features.

-JEDI/SITH CHARACTERS NOW PLAYABLE. Such characters were just "extras" on the battle scenes of the first Battlefront, but now they are playable! In your battles, sometimes you'll get an option to play as one if you fulfill certain objectives. Now a whole cast of them is available for play, and it definitely makes your fights more interesting.

-LOTS OF OTHER NEW STUFF. For instance, in some battles, you can earn points by killing foes, and my killing them and getting these points you can choose from other character classes that weren't available at the beginning of the battle. There are also tons of new vehicles, including many that premiered in Episode III.

-GRAPHICS ARE BETTER THAN EVER! If you thought the first Battlefront had great graphics, you haven't seen anything yet. This is about as good as a game of this type could possible look.

-THE BAD:

-THE OBJECTIVE-ORIENTED STORY MODE CAN BE FRUSTRATING. I myself would have preferred it if Story Mode has just kept the standard gameplay styings. However, I am NOT saying that this chance to the gameplay was all bad, it's just not what I was expecting in some ways.

-LEARNING CURVE IS STEEPER THAN MOST STAR WARS GAMES. The Battlefront series was obviously designed with PC gamers in mind father than the console crowd, so these games are a little harder to learn than the other Star Wars titles. Give the game some time before you reject it - you may end up liking it more than any other Star Wars game!

Overall, the sequel to the best-selling Star Wars game of all time is even better than its awesome-in-its-own-right predecessor. If you liked the first Battlefront, you're bound to like the second one even better. I give it my highest possible recommendation if you're a fan of Star Wars. Pick this one up. It may be a little hard to learn if you're new to this sort of thing, but ultimately, you should agree that this game rocks.

EDITION NOTES:
This game is a very recent release at the time I write this review. Accordingly, you really shouldn't have any problem hunting down a copy of it for yourself. Just about every place that sells video games should have plenty of new copies, just waiting to be sold.

amazingly stunning STAR WARS game for the xbox

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 36
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well these things have been said over and over so I will spare the you the repititious "this is the sequel to the best selling star wars game" stuff that everyone feels so necassary to include in their reviews.

Instead let us get down to this game itself and not the series history as I'm sure many of you are well aware of.

Battlefront 2 is an epic title from the explosive opening to the "oh whys it have to be over" finish. Any fan of the first game will undoubtebly love this game, especially on xbox. Seriously, what fan of BF1 wouldn't get excited over 4 player split screen. thats my favorite addition for sure as I have many Battlefront buddies. The fact you can now play as jedi and sith is a brilliant addition and it works great. I loved the Episode III game for its playable jedi and awesome lightsaber action. I gotta say though, BF2 does the whole jedi thing much better. Now I'm not raggin on ROTS, I gave it 5 stars. But really, the addition of lightsaber weilding characters is not just a cheap gimick. Its done very well. Space combat is another great addition to the BF universe. And although its recieved tons of hype, it doesnt need a whole lot of explaining. you fight in space battles now such as the ones from episode 3 and 5. Its all great and feels like rogue squadron did on the n64...awesome. There is a storyline but seriously Im more into the action than a storyline. For some this will seem to be a big plus, and justifiably so, the story is handled very nicley too.

Graphicly BF2 is all that it can be on the xbox...wonderful. I liked BF1's graphics alot, and these are so much better. All the new weapons, ships, planets, characters, their all here, in mass proportion. This is truly the complete Star Wars action game. You've got Naboo, Tatoinne, Coruscant, Utapu, Fellucia, Mustafar, Dahgoba, may more. Play as Boba and Jango Fett, Obi-Wan, Mace, Anakin, Vader, Yoda, many more, including the trechorous bothan spy. You must get this game if your a fan of Star Wars or just searching for a great action title.

I hope this review was helpful to you and I gaurentee if you like Star Wars you will love this game.

impressive...most impressive...i actually liked this game its MUCH better than the first one !

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: November 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

okay, i wrote a review for the first battlefront a while back and it was a negative one, but... on november 1st when i got the revenge of the sith dvd i tried out the 2 demo levels of battlefront 2 and i have to say i was hooked ! the gameplay was richer and the controls were so smooth..it looks like they learned their lesson from the first one about the control issues.. i went out and bought a copy and i liked what ive been seeing..the graphics are improved the locations are updated you can fight on mustafar, utapah, the rebel blockade runner (tantive IV) and various star wars locations..and i especially liked fighting on dagobah, and then theres my favorite taking on the coridors of the death star !! lots of fun...
the space combat is a great addition to the gameplay the dogfights are detailed and fast..the way they should be.. and playing as a jedi is well as vader would say.."most impressive"
and the ability to jump into any vehicle is always fun ..

to sum it up.. although i was not a fan of the first battlefront i like the second one..it looks like they actually took their time with one...the single player mode(where you play a trooper in Darth vader's elite 501st unit) is challenging and worth it..if your not into online gameing like myself..

you know..the new x box 360 system gets released in a few weeks, and this game would have been a great launch title for that system it could have been the first next gen star wars game! but if you get the 360, and u dont like any of the games that are on the release day pick up a copy of battlefront 2 its compatible with the 360 since it plays regular x box games as well...

my only gripe is that they still have the clunky camera angles in some areas but it can be overlooked perhaps it will be fixed on battlefront 3 but overall, this is a fun game and if you are a star wars fan you owe it to yourself to pick this up...

Blasters on the Brain

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

(editors note: this review does not cover the multiplayer mode, and goes into needless detail about various minutiae, and is way too long. But it's more than you'll get anywhere else)

The original Battlefront was a good game, even a great game, for the true Star Wars fan. For the first time ever, you got to be a lowly grunt in the Star Wars epic, using your trusty blaster to make a difference. You weren't a specially trained commando, or a Jedi - you were some dude in a uniform, or in some cases, a droid. Battlefront should be credited with glorifying the poor saps that actually did 99% of the dirty work in the Clone Wars and the Rebellion, saps with names like Jans Hanotar, Omicron 643 and THX 113.

Battlefront II is less about the grunts, and more geared to the hero-worship that fuels the Star Wars universe. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - the new playable Jedi heroes, in addition to a slew of other changes from the original, make Battlefront II a significantly different, and better, game than its predecessor. And at its heart, it's still about the one Stormtrooper who made good against all odds...I mean, the one Stormtrooper that blasted a whole bunch of Rebels and retired to Coruscant.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics and sounds are markedly similar to the original, and that's all that needs to be written - still stellar, visually and audibly. That being said, here's my take on what's different elsewhere and what it means.

The Troops and Their Gear

As every other review no doubt relates, the four factions (The Clones, the CIS, The Imperials, and the Alliance) are back, and instead of five troop classes, we now have six with the addition of the new "commander" class, While the commander class is a significant addition, the bigger change here is the elimination of the pilot class from ground combat, which gives rise to the engineer class.

Anyone who loves close combat (and fusion cutters) will love the engineer class, pure and simple. Armed only with a shotgun (the odd `blast cannon' laser-shotguns from the original have been replaced by a very 20th-century combat shotty), the engineer can mow down the opposition with well-aimed fury, in addition to dispensing ammo and health to those that do not make fun of his fusion cutter and inability to automatically repair vehicles. He also gets remotely detonated explosives for those times when you absolutely have to blow something up from a distance.

The rest of the troops have minor changes to their gear. The sniper rifle is standardized across factions (two zooms, six rounds), and snipers now deploy `auto-turrets' (mostly harmless floating orbs equipped with a blaster) instead of recon droids. Recon droids, now the providence of the commander class, no longer call in orbital strikes, but instead blow themselves up. Keeping with the theme, Pandemic blew up the grenade/conscussion grenade/EMP grenade trio and has given combatants the thermal detonator, which is effective against man and machine alike. Additionally, snipers and heavy troops now only have two thermal detonators, while the regular infantry dude (not you, Super Battle Droid, not you) now gets four across the board.

The big loser here is the heavy (rocket) class, getting a big tune-down. His rocket launcher (which is standardized across factions) no longer homes or double loads, and the thing takes an awfully long time to reload. Still, it does the trick against densely packed groups of enemies and unwitting vehicles. Mines, one of my favorite toys from the original, sadly now come with safety lights. Yes, for thirty seconds after they're deployed, a mine shines a can't-miss red light so the enemy knows not to step on them. Since when did consumer advocate groups get into made-up ordinance? At least they still explode with a satisfying pop.

Since there's more emphasis this time around on down and dirty combat, the jet trooper class (Imperials and Clones) suffers. They get less armor, fewer grenades, and seem marginalized in the grand scheme of things. Their mobility advantage has been lessened by the "sprint" feature available to all classes, and the Dark Trooper has been given the awkward ARC Caster. While good in close versus large groups of foes, it's useless beyond close range, and a pain to charge. The Jet Trooper's EMP just ain't what it used to be, as well.

Finally, the all-new commander class is a bit scary. The Clone Commander comes equipped with a chain gun that, well, does what a chain gun might be expected to do. It shreds - Jedis, robots, your teammates that walk through the stream of ordinance. It is, however, ineffective against vehicles. The MagnaGuard, no longer wielding his force pike, now wields an EMP launcher and the hard-to-use-but-worth-it radiation launcher. If any one class is capable of hurling glowing ordinance all over the place, it's the MagnaGuard, who also has the weird ability to poison clones that get too close. The Imperial Officer has the rad launcher's deadly cousin, the grenade launcher, and a decent but none-too-awesome sonic blaster. Finally, the Bothan Spy has the special ability of going into stealth mode and releasing his deadly disintegrator (think flamethrower), but he has no long-range weaponry and looks like a hideous camel-human hybrid...George Lucas must have had a personal hand in his development.

The Jedi and Their Famous Friends

There's no need to go to heavily into this - the Jedi and other `hero' characters (i.e., Solo, Leia, Jango Fett) are available during Instant Action mode after enough points are scored, and in Galactic Conquest mode only if they are activated via a bonus.

The verdict? They rule. They rule with violence. Whether you get your kicks choking someone to death with Vader or lighting them ablaze with one of the Fetts, the Jedi/hero class is almost uniformly deadly and a blast to play (only one hero so far, Chewbacca, seemed pedestrian and not worth using).

They're not invincible, either - using a Jedi/hero forces the player into an accelerated mindset, because you light a fuse the moment you choose to become one. Kill to live, as it were - exciting and a great addition.

Planetary Destinations and the Exciting Vehicles You'll Find There

Much was made pre-release about two things: 1) many maps are re-used, and 2) every planet only has one map (with the exception of Tatooine). First off, many of the `re-used' maps have been altered, some radically - Geonosis is no longer the Geonosis of yesteryear, and Kashyyyk bears no resemblance to Battlefront's home of the Wookies. Two planets have disappeared together - Battlefront II won't let you duke it out on Bespin or Rhen Var. Alas.

But the volume of new maps is decent and the emphasis has shifted from epic scale to claustrophobia. Is this a good thing? Yes, if you like closer quarters. No, if you prefer hiking for two minutes just to get blasted by a Super Battle Droid. I prefer the new close-quarters action, especially Polis Massa and Mustafar, where hallways and rooms become off-the-wall explosion fests for you and your men.

Pandemic has toned down and smoothed out vehicular combat, and I think it works. Vehicles will still make the average grunt's life miserable, but they are no longer invincible juggernauts, offensively or defensively. In Battlefront, one of the most devastating things about virtually any vehicle was the `exploding laser' phenomenon - for example, an IFT-X could completely miss a group of droids with a laser blast, but the explosive nature of the laser would area-effect kill them. In Battlefront II, the exploding laser has been excised.

Also, engineers (formerly the pilots) do not automatically repair their rides without an earned award, making on-the-fly fusion cutter repairs a necessity for any vehicle jockey. Furthermore, the vulnerability of the vehicles has increased - as stated before, little old grenades now do appreciable damage, and mines, det packs and timebombs are all ready to rip holes in your AT-ST. Finally, all vehicles now have a "critical point" or weak point that a grenade or rocket will cause massive damage should it connect - the damage from a critical point rocket approaches 33%, no small change when AT-ATs or AT-TEs are concerned.

Also note that aircraft are no longer included in maps, with the exception of the Snowspeeder during the Hoth battle. Aspiring Snowspeeder pilots take heed - one blast from an AT-AT will knock your craft out of the sky.

Clones...In...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace

I've read reviews faintly praising space combat and some heavily criticizing it. I'll do neither - it's pretty awesome when you get used to it, and even better when you view it as it should be viewed, a break from ground combat. It's a chance to get your TIE Bomber on, a chance to use time bombs as they were meant to be used, a chance to take a 3,720 to 1 chance of taking out an Imperial Star Destroyer by yourself.

Space combat needs work before it becomes great, but much like the nuanced ground combat (i.e., do I want to be a sniper? A grunt? A Jedi? Should I build a turret?), space combat gives you a multitude of fun options. Do you want to dogfight and do nothing else? Go ahead. Or maybe man a turret and try to down starfighters? Be our guest. Or perhaps bomb the crap out of the enemy frigates and capital ship? Indulge! How about taking a shuttle and five other troops and trying to create havoc inside the enemy ship? Rock on with your bad self!

Or better yet, do a little of each within one battle.

The Nuts and Bolts - Gameplay and Control

Little has changed in control since Battlefront, and this is good. The little that has been altered makes a noticeable difference, though - weapons overheating and a "stamina bar" that governs your ability to do combat rolls and sprint.

Previously, pistols and vehicle blasters would "max out" and take a fixed time to recharge or become active again. Now, they overheat. While the dynamic is similar, it takes forever for an overheated weapon to cool off, forcing the player to really keep an eye on weapon heat or suffer 10-15 seconds without the weapon.

The stamina bar is a cruel mistress. Once you start sprinting, you don't want to stop. But your trooper will get tired if you push them too hard, and being slow means being vulnerable. The player needs to plan ahead how to use stamina effectively, meting it out between sprints and combat rolls and saving some for crisis situations. Having a little gas in the tank to avoid a thermal detonator is the difference between life and respawning.

This time around, telling an AI trooper to follow you will actually cause an AI trooper to follow you. This can be a useful tactic once the "General" rank is reached, as you can assemble a small posse of troops and attack and defend as you please. Your squad mates will generally shoot at immediate threats, take cover, and basically take blasts for you, a huge improvement over the lackadaisical AI squad mates from the first game.

Curiously missing this time around are lying prone (kind of neat for snipers) and on-the-fly in-cockpit views for vehicles smaller than an AT-TE.

Awards for Valor, Stats for Tracking

Another nice addition to Battlefront II is the stat tracking dynamic. Not only do you get to follow your crucial death-to-kill ratio, but you earn medals for glorious achievements. Not only does this appeal to the hardcore gamer's deep need for accomplishment, but you actually get things once you accrue enough medals.

For example, the "regulator" medal is given when a player gets nine shotgun kills in one life. Once you earn the medal four times, you get an upgraded shotgun every subsequent time you get the medal. Earn the medal enough times, and the standard to get the better shotgun drops from nine to six kills. Earn even more medals, and you automatically start the game with the upgraded shotgun.

It's a clever reward device that for some reason has me trying like hell to get all the automatic medals. Why? I don't know. But if you like that sort of thing, and I suspect a lot of gamers do, the earned rewards are stylin'.

Modes

In terms of Instant Action, Battlefront II still has the tried and true Conquest mode, which involves slugging it out for command posts. On selected maps (generally space) we get Assault, which awards points for kills, and most maps support Capture the Flag, which isn't my cup of tea, but there it is.

Finally, for a surprising challenge/offbeat fun, there's Hunt mode. Some hunts are fairly lame, but some stand out as insanely fun/difficult: for a wampa good time, try the hairy beasts out versus the Rebels on Hoth. It's hard to get tired of whacking the crap out of Wookies with a good wampa. For a frustrating experience, take the Scout Troopers out against the vicious Ewoks on Endor. Those rocks and pointy sticks hurt, man!

Galactic Conquest is nicely revamped and actually makes sense now. Capture planets, buy upgrades, duke it out in space - Galactic Conquest is solid and engrossing.

The only real letdown here is the Rise of the Empire, starring the 501st Legion. The missions are simplistic and occasionally frustratingly difficult - you always have a finite reinforcement pool, while the enemy has an infinite amount of reinforcements. It's nice to have a "from Episode I to V" story arc, but you get the sense that the narrator is the only member of the 501st to have survived from the unit's inception. That must be one lonely clone.

Wrapping Up

The action is frantic, the options are many, and this is just the singleplayer version. If you liked the first Battlefront, Battlefront II is a must-have. If you missed the first one, give this a test drive: good, mindless Star Wars fun. Probably even better on-line, where you can find out if trash-talking 13 year olds pwn you or you pwn trash-talking 13 year olds.

BEST GAME EVER

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: November 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you liked the first Star Wars Battlefront game, this one is 1,000 times better. This game has maps, characters, and music from all 6 Star Wars films and you can play any hero character this time around. What's not to love? The online play is great with capture the flag, capture the command posts, and even a hero deathmatch. I will be playing this game long after XBOX 360 comes out. Don't rent, buy this one.

Reporting for duty, SIR!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game series is simply, hands down, the most entertaining game series I have ever played -- with a caveat -- to get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of these games, you *must* play it in multi-player mode.

I have never had more fun playing a video game, than I have when this game (or its predecessor) with a buddy or two in either split-screen or system link mode. Although I wouldn't recommend playing over X-Box Live, due to all of the racist, sexist, screaming, lamers on that service -- but I guess if you do so without the headset, then you are okay.

Improvements over the last game, which I love:

- Multiple game modes! You can now play capture the flag (1 and 2 flag versions), assault, and a new type of mode, called "hunt." Hunt is basically the local, indigenous species, versus a human team. So: Ewoks vs. humans, Gungans vs. humans, Hoth Ice Creatures vs. humans, etc. It is a lot of fun.

- More than 2 players in split screen mode! You can have up to 4 players in split screen mode now. This was really needed in the last game, and I am glad to see they added it.

- Better balance! They have balanced all of the player classes against each other better. The basic solider class is now less powerful (their blasters don't shoot as long, or in a straight line as long, when constantly firing) -- Engineers (the old "pilot class" in the last game) now have a shotgun, instead of that stupid scatter gun, and they now have explosives they can use -- making them an actual, playable, class on the ground.

- More levels! That is always a bonus, but they have also better balanced the levels, to support the new game play modes -- which is cool.

- Player awards! You can now earn rank in your profile (allowing you to command other troops -- up to 4, once you reach general), and you can earn medals while playing and doing well, that grant you special bonuses (such as increased damage from your attacks, or increased weapon recharge rates, etc.).

- An actual single player mode, with an actual story! Enough said, although ... I would prefer to play the "good guys" over the bad guys ... but I digress.

- New and improved Conquest mode! The new layers in strategy and overall game play for the conquest mode, make it much more enjoyable.

- Intelligent AI! The AI of your allies is much less idiotic (although they do still get stuck in corners, etc.), and allows you to control up to 4 other AI soldiers which will follow you around like wingmen -- MUCH better than the "follow me" command from the last game, which would grab your AI compatriots attention for about 15 strides, and then they would get distracted again. In the new mode, they will stay with you and follow your lead, until you die or they die, or you release them.

- Space combat! There are now game modes, and encounters that exist only in space. You can choose to play as a "space marine" and just board an enemy ship, and blow it up from the inside, or you can man a turret on your own ship, and just shoot at enemy ships and their fighters. But, if you have the knack for flying, the space fighter combat as a pilot, is where it is really at.

I highly recommend this game. It may not be a Halo (but you can play it in first person mode, if you so prefer) -- but then again, even Halo fans, I have spoken to, weren't all that fond of number 2, while every Battlefront fan I have spoken to, has *loved* the sequel to the original.

Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 22
Date: November 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I LOVED the original game and played it over and over again.

With this game I am quite disappointed.
Yes, you get to fly more vehicles but the controls are weird and for me it ruins the game quite a bit as they force you to play some of the space battles if you play "conquest" mode...if you play "instant action" you can pick what battles you want to play but it doesnt "flow" like "conquest" mode does. They did make it where you can bypass SOME of the space battles which is GREAT specifically if youre not into that sort of thing but occasionally you are forced into it and its do or die and you can quit but you lose that round. Playing as a Jedi was a good idea but the way they did it was awful...you cannot start as a Jedi but have to "earn" them....once you do you have a limited time to accept them. If you do you can only play as the Jedi for a short period of time and/or if youre killed in battle you no longer get to play as that jedi and go back to grunt status. Playing as a Jedi also isnt all that spectacular in the fact that part of what makes a Jedi so powerful is his/her ability to block laser bolts and other saber attacks. In this game you hit the white button and the Jedi will block for a short period of time which ends at times and you take LOTS of laser fire. It should have been made like "lego Starwars" or even "Jedi Power Battles" to where you can deflect things back at your enemies....ultimately it is sad and very disappointing..... You also have to BUY more characters to play this time around, for example when you start as either the Empire or Rebels you can ONLY play as a "stormtrooper" or a "rebel trooper" you have to purchase others to play and then earn points to unlock them for play....what the?!?!! BAD design there!!!

The basic part of the game is still in tact and plays much like the original. Take on a Jedi as a grunt and you are going to die pretty much! All in all the new stuff "Playable Jedi",the "new space battles" and buying your troops and characters to play just arent all that impressive and I dont think this game will last too long for me due to the "forced space battle stuff". Bottom line I give the original game a 4 star rating as it could have been longer and allowed for more customization etc.. This game stays on par if you want to just play "Instant Action" but if you desire "Conquest" you'll have to get good at the crappy flight controls to make it past some levels and buy and unlock more characters to play. In the end the extras hurt it quite a bit for me....they had a good thing with the original but ruined the game this time around.

The Only Thing Missing is Jodo Kast.......Just Kidding

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Most people have covered what it is I have to say but there are things I would like to mention. First of all the air vehicle combat has been made much better with tighter controls, when you combined this with space battles the fun is outrageous. The revamped story mode is well done and surprisingly by the end I cared about every character in my company even though they were all genetically the same. There was one thing that scared me immensely about this title and that was the ability to play as heroes. However my fear turned out to be misplaced since heroes are no longer the mortal gods they once were. Heroes are now fun to play as and more powerful than regular troops but while playing as them you can not earn rewards from medals, you can not heal normally only slaying an enemy recovers health, and like everyone else your only one rocket away from the end. All in all this game is great and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the original game, star wars, and for all those like me who suck at halo.

The same in many ways, the new in many others

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I, for one, am normally terrified by change. In the weeks prior to the release of Star Wars Battlefront II, I couldn't decide whether I should get it or stick with the original. When I finally gave in, I wasn't the least bit disappointed. There was a new auto-target system that I didn't like, which was also using the old reload button. I immediately dropped the auto-target and put the reload button back where it belonged. The rest of the game was smooth sailing from then on. The same four armys (empire, rebel alliance, the trade federation and the republic) are back, each one having an extra unique unit added to the selection, while keeping all of the old unique units. The empire now has an imperial commanding officer, armed with a sonic blaster and a grenade launcher, and an attack upgrade power that works on friendly units within his range, the rebels now have a bothan spy, armed with an incinerator gun and has the ability to turn invisible, the trade federation has an assassin droid with a rapid firing rocket gun, and the republic now has a clone commander with a chain gun and a defense boost power. The old unit classes have been heavily balanced as well. One major problem with the original was that many of the classes had unfair advantages and disadvantages next to the same unit type of a different side. The pilot class was the worst case of all. The rebel pilot was armed with a deadly shotgun, while the trade federation and the imperial pilots had a hopelessly inaccurate grenade launcher that rarely delivered a kill shot unless it hit the target directly. The republic had the worst of it, with a pilot that had an almost completely useless electric bolt caster that did about as much damage as being hit with a baseball. All the pilots now have enhanced shotguns and remote bombs and are now my favorate combat units. There is also a new sprint feature that allows a player to get across the battlefield on foot faster than before. The graphics haven't changed much aside from the much better looking explosions, vehicle destruction, and smoother character models. They also added lots of chatter during battle in an attempt to add to the intensity of combat, but just ends up being annoying. However, this can also be turned off. There are tons of new levels and some of the best old ones as well, such as Hoth, Endor, Kamino, Geonosis, Mos Esley and Yavin 4. One disappointment is that they took out the random order setting in instant action. At least they added 2 extra split screen slots, for four players at once. The new campaign follows the elite imperial 501st devision, from the clone wars to the galactic civil war. The objective based missions are supprisingly fun and challanging, forcing you to make your way across the battlefield to destroy certain targets, retrieve items and capture specific command posts that follow along with the story of the infamous 501st. The new capture the flag game mode is fun, but hunt isn't all that great. I was happy to be able to play as Ewoks and Tusken Raiders and other creatures that are in the movies, but it's basicly the same thing as normal battle with no vehicles and poor weapons (if using weapons at all). The space combat is my favorate new addition to the game. The starfighter controls are strange at first, (using the left thumbstick to pull up, nose down and control the pitch while the right thumbstick controls the roll) but makes sense as there is no up and down in space. You can either get on one of your capitol ships gun turrets and defend it from fighters and bombers or jump in a fighter and attack the enemy capitol ship from the outside, engage in dogfights with enemy fighters, or land inside the enemy capitol ship and destroy it's internal systems or turn it's own gun turrets on itself. There are also many new fighters that you can fly into battle with, such as the ARC-170, V-Wings, Vulture Droids, TIE Interceptors, A-Wings, ect. The most anticipated new feature is the ability to play as jedi. While you can only play as jedi after getting a certan score in each battle, the jedi are tons of fun to use and have dramatic affects on the outcome of each battle. Hacking your way through a clone trooper filled Mos Esley as Darth Maul never seems to get old. Star Wars Battlefront II has a lot of new things to make it actually stand out as a new game, and leaves a lot of the old things that made the first Star Wars Battlefront so great.

A Star Wars gaming classic falls to the dark side

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, I am an avid Star Wars gamer. I have played pretty much everything Star Wars for Gamecube and Xbox.

I am a huge fan of Battlefront 1 and have invested many hours playing it. So, when Battlefront 2 was announced I waited with great expectations. On the day of release I was there picking up my copy.

Unfortunately, after a month of playing, I find myself wishing I had been sick that week and waited before I pluinked down my hard earned cash.

Simply put, they (read: the developers) went and horked up the game. I assume they believed deep in their hearts they were improving things. Or at least I hope they were. But, as often happens, a follow on development team takes over a classic and decides to make "just a feww tweaks". Arrrgh!

The gameplay has declined from BF 1. Yes, you have more worlds to play in but they are smaller, less grand than the original. Where is my huge battle of Geonosis I came to love? Gone. Now it is a smallish arena with no major feature of interest. And that's one point gamers of BF 1 will see playing this game: There are no memorable features to any of the battlefields. Case in point: What happened to the command post names? Gone. On Yavin 4 temple I miss seeing the "Dry Pool" fall and rush over there to retake it. I miss hitting the overlook early in a gambit to eliminate sep tank production. In BF 2 there are no place names for the command posts, just an audible "A command post has fallen". Arrrggh!

You can't play several of the characters immediatly from the get go in a mission. For example, the Clone Jet Trooper, by far my most favorite unit is not available until I have killed a certain number of enemies. Also, the unit has, in gaming terms, been "nerfed". In other words, made less powerful than his old version.

Here's a killer for me: The old method of giving commands to other friendly characters has been changed. From an available four commands I am now reduced to two. "Follow Me" and "Disperse". Follow Me used to mean in BF 1 that nearby units would follow along with you and take action but generally stick with you. Now I use that term "stick with you" to set you up for my description of the new "Follow Me". In BF 2 a nearby unit will now EXACTLY mimic your every move. Stepping when you step. turning when you turn. At one point I had two other clones with me and I formed a dance line with them. My kids were rolling on the floor with laughter! The look and the action was absolutely rediculous.

The space battle capability is mediocre and after the novelty wears off you realize that it is not nearly as fun as what you imagined it would be. And they took away the the LAAT/i gunships in land battles for that! Arrrghhh!

Another last point and a deep deep dispointment. The big guns of the game are gone. The main gun on the AT-TE shoots little tiny blasts that must hit precisely to do real damage. I miss the devestating firepower of the BF 1 version where the cool-down was long but when that puppy connected every sep in the vicinity said good night. The same goes for the AT-AT guns in the Hoth battle. They have been reduced to pea shooters not the devestating guns they should be.

I could go on but I leave it to you gentle gamer to decide for yourself. My reccomendation is to wait until this game becomes used at 24.99 or less, or even just go rent it and try out the jedi and work your way through the story-line game.
Why did Lucas Arts and Pandemic fall down completely on what should have been a blockbuster follow-up? I can't say. But I hold the development team at Pandemic and the approvers at Lucas Arts responsible for letting this chum out of the bucket.

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