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| Can't say I remember Stormtroopers with jet packs. |
Star Wars is always something of a shot
in the dark when it comes to games. My first memories running across
the sands of tatooine or facing off against the death star were in
the Super Star Wars games for the Super Nintendo. Sadly for every
Super Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic and Rogue Squadron there
were equally it's own weight in Masters of Tera Kasi, Jedi Power
Battles and any of the direct movie tie-in games. On the outside,
Star Wars Battlefront looked exactly like one of these poor examples
of a Star Wars game. A generic third/first person shooter with
mindless base capturing objectives right? Well yeah, that's exactly
what it is but still...Maybe I was a little bit hasty to skip it.
Story.
This is a little bit of a null point
for the game as it does not really have a story. The campaign has you
playing through the prequel trilogy before jumping into A New Hope
through to Return of the Jedi. You have to option of starting with
Episode 1 or jumping straight into the original trilogy. This is
great for those who cannot stand the prequels but it's still just as
solid a game throughout. Each battle is introduced with a frankly
short clip from the respective film before forcing you onto the most
practical side for playing that battle.
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| Rebel battle on Tatooine? |
The main problem when the prequel
trilogy is concerned, is that Battlefront was released before Episode
III was released. This had led to some battles that speculate further
into the rest of the plot. Thankfully, you are not really playing
Battlefront for the story. It's all about the...
Gameplay.
As I said above. Battlefront is a
third/first person shooter where the objective is primarily to
capture all the enemy bases and hold them until the short timer runs
down, or at very least to aid you in cutting their respawns down to
zero. While alone at the enemy base, it can be hard to capture their
post as they will respawn quite tenaciously as you wait for the base
to finish being captured. The friendly A.I. Can be helpful in regard
to keeping the enemy busy but do not expect them to give a big push
to victory.
To aid you in your effort to destroy
your enemy, you have multiple classes to choose from. These vary
slightly from mission to mission and each side has slightly different
performance but most missions you will have a front line trooper, a
anti-vehicle unit, a sniper, a pilot and a specialist unit.
Your basic front line trooper will be
perfectly serviceable for most situations. Their blaster rifle will
take down most units with a variable of efficiency. I found the
anti-vehicle unit to be far less useful. I would often jump into a
vehicle of my own before tempting fate against an AT-ST with a rocket
launcher. The sniper is a useful unit in that it can deal heavy
damage while still being able to handle itself at close range. The
pilot often has a shotgun of sorts but once again, I could find
little use for him. The specialist unit varies greatly depending on
the faction you play as. The Rebel Wookie Smuggler I found to be
quite impractical where as the CIS Droideka was outright broken.
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| Hoth is still the best battle in Star Wars to me. |
The level design is really quite good
in the game however it's just too small for some of the aerial
vehicles like the X-Wing and Tie Fighter and sometimes too big for
you to cross the field on foot. One of the Cloud City maps leaves a
lot to be desired where as Hoth is as brilliant as it appears in The
Empire Strikes back.
Music.
Thankfully, the music in a Star Wars
game is often very easy to talk about. It's nigh on always fantastic
and Battlefront is no exception here. The sweeping sounds from the
movies translate well into the game and really help set the scene. I
don't think a Star Wars game would quite feel right without the
music. You may also be happy to know that all the famous sound
effects feature into the game perfectly. The only problem is that
when you hear the sound of a Stormtrooper firing his blaster you tend
to expect in the back of your mind that he will always miss...Sadly
it's not always so in Star Wars: Battlefront.
Visual.
Star Wars: Battlefront was a game released in 2004 but the graphics are very good considering this. I played the PC version with all of the settings at maximum and it was very pretty. I also got a solid performance throughout, being that it's an old game by PC standards. You will easily discern each unit from a glance and all of the battlefields look great. Sometimes they take some lenience with the design to make them more practical for competitive play. Nothing quite beats the feeling of facing off against an AT-AT with just a snowspeeder and a tow cable. The only major complaint is there are no space battles to be seen. This is somewhat a huge blow as that is practically half of what makes Star Wars.
Final Thoughts.
Star Wars: Battlefront is a game that falters very little in it's effort to really make you feel like a Rebel on Hoth or a Stormtrooper at Endor. It's a shame that the third part of the prequel trilogy is missing and that space missions are largely absent but Star Wars: Battlefront is arguably one of the better Star Wars games to date, and I hear the second one is even better.
