Star Wars: Battlefront II Review (no fat)

Game Description

SWB: II- Big Screen

A new trend by LucasArts is taking away the normally talkative elements of their games and replacing them with more game time. In a likely attempt to appeal to the casual gamer instead of the diehard Star Wars fanatic, LucasArts creates a nice addition to multiplayer gaming. Even the single player mode in Star Wars: Battlefront II is not too shabby, solo missions are a lot harder this time around even with the inclusion of special characters.

All this plays out not too satisfying on anything smaller than 19 inches, it would benefit gamers to make that investment into the 19’er soon. It isn’t unplayable, but the ‘wow’ dramatics is slightly lowered. To really appreciate the graphics engine that SWB II boasts gamers can climb into online multiplayer and watch as 30+ other players fight amongst themselves, with crisp enough visuals to make you think the PS3 is an unnecessary buy…well, momentarily at least, then back to cold hard reality.

SWB II- Game play and Controls

One of the more original modes of the few, Rise of the Republic, is a Darth Vader Campaign. As exciting as it sounds, it is pretty much a couple of missions with an above average storyline attached to it. Truth be told that if the entire solo game was Rise of the Republic with the extras of the other single player built in, this would have been a tasty Star Wars title just for the single player.

Galactic Conquest is an interesting little concept that plays to the Starcraft crowd. Using similar concepts in this mode, your goal is universe domination, using turn based controls players move their fleet through the galaxy. Planets that players own give them bonuses, a needed bonus plus in the battles.

Land battles take place when your fleet positions itself over an enemy planet and space battle when your fleet meets with the enemy’s. All in all, a nice little addition to the solo play that gets a respectful nod.

SWB II Multiplayer Competition

The two most interesting modes in single player pale in comparison to the multiplayer games. Online multiplayer is a huge plus to the title, and gives it legs to win a marathon on. Lag is pretty dependent on your side of things, but various testing may prove otherwise. It really is a try and find out type of play, but eventually whatever problems there are should be ironed out.

Since this is a Star Wars franchise, there will be plenty of competition, meaning no waiting. It is pretty easy to jump into the action, so wasted money does not really creep into a gamers head knowing that the title will be well supported online by its fans.

SWB II Graphics

The maturity of the PS2 shows that once complicated visuals are now done easily. Developers now have a feel for the system and can do a lot more than what was first expected years ago. Not the best graphics on all the versions, but certainly a close landmark for a PS2 game. Dogfights in space on SWB II will set a new standard for SW games.

SWB II Sound

Even with 32 players on one server the sound stays intact, there is usually no misplaced noise and it sounds like you are in the middle of a huge war. Very pleasing to the ears is also the usual Star Wars music, which also plays in the menu.

SWB II- Summing up

Star Wars Battlefield II is an interesting new edition to the series, especially in some of the single player modes. The ‘hero’ bonus, collecting enough points during battle to bring out a special character is very lazily done, and misplaced in the game.

There are also a lot of similarities to the original Star Wars Battlefront, but not to the point where gamers can beat that fact to death. Its essentially built upon a successful game, made improvements where needed (missing a couple), and in the end made a quality cleaned up sequel.

But not ruining at all the massive online play, where various modes, maps, and dedicated fans make it quite easy to jump into a game and enjoy. There are a lot more comical fights in the online play than expected, which leads to tons of fun. Even the offline split-screen mode is good for some play, overall making this a good pickup for all types of gamers.

SWB II Cost

At the time of writing, Star Wars: Battlefront II retails for $45.98US.