Star Wars Battlefront II

You want to buy some death sticks? Christopher Taylor sure does.

Star Wars films have always been known for their epic battle scenes both on the ground and in space. Countless games have attempted to recreate the tension and excitement of these memorable movie moments, occasionally coming close. Star Wars: Battlefront II attempts to take this one step further – as the title suggests, it’s all about the battles.

Much like in Battlefield, players align themselves with a team and fight it out on maps based on locations in the Star Wars universe, ranging from the icy world of Hoth to the capital of Naboo. Each side comes complete with an arsenal of classes, weapons, vehicles and heroic characters - powerful warriors which can be unlocked only after a certain amount of points have been amassed.

In an interesting move that deviates nicely from the formula, Battlefront II includes space combat. While obviously more simplistic than the old X-Wing franchise, the space combat makes for exciting game play with each side having four different space craft to choose from, ranging from nimble fighters to bombers and transports. Despite initial appearances, this component of the game doesn’t feel gimmicky – the craft all handle well and are nicely balanced, perhaps better than the surface vehicles. One of the best features in space combat is the ability to enter the hangers of enemy capital ships, place explosives on key systems and escape by stealing a fighter.

Surface combat, on the other hand, is hit and miss. The Empire and Rebel Alliance feel somewhat neglected in comparison to the CIS (droids) and Republic, meaning despite the fact the films they featured in were rather lacklustre, the prequel forces are a lot more fun to play. This bias towards the new films carries over to vehicle, weapon and map design. Certain aspects of surface combat feel poorly designed, such as the rather dull hero characters and the overly powerful caterpillar-tank employed by the droids on Kashyyyk.

As is the norm for this type of game, Battlefront II focuses heavily on multiplayer, with support offered for split-screen, system link and Live. Single player is still offered, however, providing a stock-standard instant action mode, a campaign that follows the rise of the Empire and Galactic Conquest, a game mode which provides a simple turn-based strategy interface that lets you fight battles in the order you see fit. The campaign is perhaps the weakest of these offerings, serving only to highlight the weak AI and the poor design of some of the maps.

Battlefront II is a typical Star Wars game: it’s a good idea and it’s a hell of a lot of fun, but there’s simply too many ill-thought out features and poorly realised concepts to make it a classic.