by John G - October 17, 2004

Star Wars Battlefront is a team based shooter set during both the original trilogy and the newer movies. This is the first Star Wars game that will have content mixed from the old movies and the new movies. Star Wars fans will find themselves thrown into the big battles from George Lucas' movies, complete with pretty accurate maps, weapons, plenty of vehicles, and much more.

In a galaxy far far away...

Similar to Battlefield 1942 and similar games, Battlefront focuses mainly on multiplayer gaming, but also has a single player component to it. There are a few different game modes, including instant action, where the player can dive right into a battle, after they pick a map and which side they want to be. The battle then begins once a class is picked, and a spawn point, similar to Battlefield. There are 16 different maps location on 10 different planets that can be seen during any of the movies.

The maps available in instant action and multiplayer are fairly well made, and very varied. From the thick jungles of Endor to the snowy landscape of Hoth, you can experience it all. In single player, the opponents are bots, which have a decent level of artificial intelligence. They will not pose much of a problem to expert players, but the difficulty can be set from three options. Bot allies sometimes throw health or ammunition toward you when you need it, but they don't do it all the time obviously. They will also control vehicles, battle, repair, and even listen to a limited number of orders that the player gives. There are only four, but are easy to use. The directional pad is used for issuing these commands, like: follow me, hold position, ect.

There are four playable factions within the game, the ones seen from the movies. The separatists and republic, and the empire and rebels. Only the two enemies will fight against eachother, they won't mix like separatists against imperials, and so on. Each faction has four normal units, which have different names and appearances, but generally do the same thing. Classes like scout, who use a sniper rifle, an assault class, a pilot, and a heavy artillery class with a rocket launcher type weapon. Each faction also has a unique unit. The rebels have a wookie, who uses a bowcaster as his normal weapon, and can take quite a bit of damage. The republic and empire both have a special unit with a jetpack, allowing for rapid upward movement. The separatists have the destroyer droid, which can curl up into a ball and roll, and also use a small shield.

These are not the only units that might pop up on the map though. Firstly, you might encounter some familiar Jedi that are seen in the movies in certain situations, like Darth Vader, Luke, Count Dooku, and Mace Windu. There are native units to certain planets that you will encounter in the different game modes. You can see the Tuscan raiders on Tatooine, the Gungans on Naboo, and so on. These natives can either aid or hurt you, depending on what side you�re on. Besides instant action, there is also the Galactic Conquest and a campaign mode. In the campaign mode, it does a general run through of different battles in the movies, and some that are not. You can pick from the two eras, the clone wars or the civil war. The civil war goes through Tatooine, Hoth, Endor, and some others. The Clone Wars are fought on Genesis, Naboo, and others in the two more recent movies.

The point of a battle is to kill all the enemies on the map, take different command points, and make the enemies reinforcement count go to 0. Control points work similar to Battlefield 1942. You fight your way to an enemy command point, and if you�re able to stay there without getting killed, it will count down until the command point becomes neutral, and then counts up until it becomes yours. Taking these control points allows you to respawn there. Taking all the command points on the map can also lead to victory.
 

After 900 years, look this good you will not.

The graphics for Star Wars Battlefront are pretty good on Xbox. On a side note, Battlefront looks much better on Xbox and PC over Playstation 2. The soldier models look decent, and the maps look a lot like the movies in many spots. Each environment has a distinct feeling thanks to the visuals. Star Wars fans will enjoy seeing the recognizable characters, worlds, and vehicles from the movies. The game allows you to switch between first person view and third person, which can be accessed in an options menu. There are different scenes from the movies before each campaign mission, and every mission beaten on a planet will unlock concept art in the special features section. If you were wondering, the title is a quote from Yoda that has little to do with the games graphics, but overall the graphics do a more than good job of getting the point across.

Award winning music

Obviously, the award winning Star Wars film music is put right into the game, both on the main screens, and during the battles. The music is well placed, and still sounds great. The sound effects for blasters and starfighters seems to be right from the movies, which only adds to the feeling that your fighting the movie battles. The vehicle sounds are also pretty good, like the speeders and AT-AT�s. The vocal sounds within the game can be a little competitive and annoying, but in now way ruins the experience. Overall the sounds definitely add to the Star Wars experience.

Star Wars skirmishing...with friends

Like stated in the beginning, Battlefront is a multiplayer dominated game. Despite this, I still believe that the single player alone is worth a try, with good multiplayer added in. There are a few options for multiplayer. To the delight of many Star Wars fans who own an Xbox, it is Xbox live compatible. Here you can battle online with up to 16 human players. This is another difference between the versions. The PC allows for up to 32 human players, because the PC is capable of more. The Playstation 2 is a lot weaker with multiplayer, needing special items to allow for more human players. The Xbox version is right in the middle in regards to multiplayer. A nice feature I got to do was the splitscreen multiplayer, which seems outdated compared to Xbox live, but still holds up, and is fun to play, for those who don�t have the modem connection. There is also an XBox system link option that allows for 2 players minimum and 10 players maximum.

Killing with large toys

The vehicles are by far the nicest thing with battlefront. Not only are there a wide variety of vehicles, but also they are pretty accurate to the environment. A good example of this is the battle on Hoth. The objective of the empire is to destroy the rebels shield generator, and the empires AT-AT walkers are there on the battlefield, putting fear into the hearts of the rebels. But on the other side the rebels can ride on the tauntauns, which are seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Even better yet, the rebels get the rebel fighters at echo base, which can fly and shoot wire at the AT-AT walkers, and make them fall over, just like in the movie. Other land vehicles including speeder bikes seen in the endor scene, plenty of turret guns, all the vehicles seen in the Genesis battle in the second movie, and that is only a few of them. Tie fighters, rebel X and Y wing fighters, and some other flying vehicles are available, and flying is much easier than in Battlefield 1942. The controls are pretty easy to use as well.

These ships are not available on all maps though. They are mainly seen on platform maps, such as the Cloud City. Here there are turrets that can shoot down the Tie Fighters or X wings. Different platforms will have various ships on them, that is, if a bot does not get to it first. On such maps there is usually fighting up above, and ground battles down below. Ships can also be seen on Hoth, and some other maps. The controls are generally easy to use, traditional team shooting controls. For Xbox, the right trigger shoots the current weapon, the left trigger is an alternate fire, usually grenades for infantry. Each class usually has a second weapon, which can be changed with the black and white buttons on the controller.

Vehicle controls are relatively simple, move, turn, shoot, get in/out and so on. But that does not mean moving a massive AT-AT Walker and obliterating everything in your path isn�t fun, quite the opposite. Large vehicles can be very strong, which adds to the realism of you running up to a vehicle that is 100 times your size. Taking down these massive things is also harder than in other games like Battlefield, where a person could take down a tank with little effort, if they were good. Another fun thing to do is to go behind enemy lines, and take one of their own vehicles, which can be either devastating to the enemy, or you fail. The main interface at the beginning has a catchy design, and it is easy to use. All the options and game modes are right on there for easy play, as long as the player remembers to plug in the second controller before searching for splitscreen (which took me a minute to figure out�) Some tactics to win a mission may seem restricted compared to other cooperative and team based shooters, but I don�t think it is that bad. There are also a few gripes with the AI, but multiplayer can usually counter that if you find it that big of a problem.
 

Help us Battlefront, you're our only hope!

As stated, there are some differences between the versions on different platforms, but the point of this review is to review the Xbox version, but the differences are worth mentioning. For those who like bigger multiplayer action, PC is probably the version for you. For decent graphics on a console, Xbox is your choice, and the Playstation 2 Battlefront version trails behind. Now, overall Battlefront gives the fans what they want, Star Wars battles over two time periods, with vehicles, different factions, and decent maps. The idea for Battlefront is great, but the AI is lacking a little in some areas. Any Star Wars fan with an Xbox should give Battlefront a try, and if they have Xbox live, or a friend to play splitscreen with, it is definitely worth a look. PC gamers have many team shooters to choose from, but Battlefront could very well be the only hope for a great team shooter set in nice locations, with vehicles, battles, and good multiplayer for the consoles. Overall Battlefront delivers the Star Wars experience with great music, good visuals, and an interesting concept.