Star Wars Battlefront

Star wars battle front for the x-box and play station 2 took a different approach to a star wars universe game. While previous tittles put you in the role of a main character out to save to universe, battle front makes you a nameless grunt and throws you into the fray to fight against enemies on equal footing. You play as one of five classes: soldier, demolitionist, sniper, engineer, and specialist. None of these soldiers have actual names or a story to follow, but rather appeal to the style of the individual player.

In single player you can go through a historical campaign which lets you fight through the major battles of the movies in order, or you can do a galactic conquest campaign in which you fight over worlds until you win them all. In either mode you can play as either the separatists, rebels, republic, or the empire. If playing online, you can play in a number of matches which can be set to your own preferences.

Each of the worlds for galactic conquest has two maps that must be won in order to control it. Once a world has been won, you can select the bonus it offers to assist in the next battle such as healing or a Jedi hero to fight along side you as an almost unkillable NPC. You win these battles by reducing the enemy reinforcement count to zero, or by controlling all of the command posts on a map. You capture these command posts by killing any enemies near it and standing next to it while the enemy color empties from the gauge and your team’s color fills it up. The more of your team that are near it, the faster the gauge fills. You can spawn from any command post that your faction currently controls, and so will vehicles and the allies for your group. During online matches there will be a countdown period for you to respawn. If your faction loses control of the command post before you are brought back into the battle, you are returned to the map and must select another.

Whenever one side gains the majority of the command posts, the other side’s reinforcement count begins to steadily decline, making these locations very important and allowing for strategies other than simply killing larger numbers of enemies. During online matches, once your reinforcement count depletes to a certain number, NPCs will stop spawning, allowing you to perform an effective last stand which can yield surprising results. I once single-handedly won a battle when the enemy had over a hundred reinforcements, when I was the only remaining member of my side, by hovering over my last command post in a gunship and killing anything that came near me.

The controls themselves handle pretty well. You can switch between your main and secondary weapon, throw grenades, zoom in, and reload with the press of a button. A map can be brought up during the battles which display the positions of enemies and allies, and even the direction they’re facing. You can also crouch or lay down to take better advantage of nearby cover. You can even dive to the side to avoid incoming fire. The game allows the option for over the shoulder or first person view, as well as auto fire, friendly fire, and difficulty settings. The game keeps track of how many people you kill, how many times you die, and how many bases you take over which allows for bragging rights online when you do much better than the other players. My record is 212 kills on Endor.

The game also tells you the number of headshots you landed, favorite class and weapons along with who killed you the most, and who you killed the most. During online matches special titles are given to players for different things such as dead eye, traitor and public enemy. Bantha Fodder is one you certainly do not want. Sadly the game holds no permanent record of these scores

You can also command nearby soldiers to either follow you, stay where they are, move out, or to get into a vehicle with you. The computer AI is rather loyal, but they aren’t very smart. I usually drag some along in the hopes that they will take a hit instead of me and thus alert me to an enemy threat. It’s somewhat fun to tell a group of soldiers to stay still while you throw a grenade at their feet without them making a move to save themselves. The one thing the computer excels at is manning the turrets which can make mincemeat of a soldier, or the AA guns that can shoot down an X-wing before it can react.

Each unit plays a little differently than the other. The most numerous and well rounded is the soldier who has a rapid fire blaster. Its accuracy deteriorates with sustained fire, so shorts bursts work best especially when aimed at the head which yields more damage than a body shot. Snipers can zoom in long range and can deploy a small bot which can move about the battlefield like a drone and call down orbital strikes which can devastate the enemy. Perhaps the most unique unit is the droideka for the separatists. This unit walks slowly, but it can turn into a ball and then move faster than any other unit. However, while traveling it is unable to attack. While on its legs, the droideca can deploy a force shield which makes it invulnerable to harm. This shield drains over dime, and even faster while taking damage, but the rapid fire twin blasters used by a skilled player next to a health droid can make this unit a formidable guard.

Demolition units can lay down mines which can slow down an enemy advance, as well as fire a rocket launcher to take down vehicles. Engineers can build or repair turrets, health, ammo, and repair droids, dispense health and ammo to their fellow soldiers, and repair vehicles that they are in. All of this helps to offset the fact that they have pathetic weaponry. The clone jet trooper and imperial dark trooper both sport jet packs which allow them to reach spots other soldiers can’t, and the wookie warrior has more health than any other unit along with a chargeable bow caster.

Aside from the soldiers, many of the classic vehicles of the star wars universe appear in the game and can be piloted such as the X-wing, chicken walkers, and even the giant ATATs. Vehicles provide protection, speed, as well as formidable firepower, but they are not invulnerable. Many vehicles can prove difficult to handle, and are unable to go down paths that soldiers can take and hide in. a well placed landmine can destroy a hover tank in the blink of an eye, and star fighters have a tendency to crash into the ground while trying to strafe soldiers.

Aside from the vehicles, droids are scattered about the battlefields. They will either heal you, give you ammo, or repair any nearby vehicles. There are also mounted gun turrets that you can man. These platforms provide you with some cover, but you are unable to move while using them. Unlike vehicles which respawn during the battles, droids and turrets must be repaired by engineers, or Jowas if you’re fighting on Tatooine. Some maps will also have a native species which can be neutral, hostile to both sides, or allied to one and hostile to the other. Regardless, killing these natives does not count against the enemy reinforcements.

There are many strategies to winning battles, and many roles to play. You can assist your team by finding a good vantage point while you pick off enemies to help your men overtake a position. You can run around fixing turrets and providing your friends much needed health and ammo. You can blast your way into an enemy positing with a tank. Or, if you’re like me, you can take to the sky and become an ace pilot, mowing down the grunts below you in between epic dog fights.

As you play through the game’s story mode, you are shown clips from the movies that relate to the world you’re about to fight on. The same thing is done for the end movie, but this isn’t the kind of game you buy to play through the story mode. The real place the game shines is in the battles themselves. No two are the same in this game. Oh sure you can play the same maps a dozen times, and you can use the same strategy, but every battle feels unique as unexpected conditions and events can change the course of battle and influence your next move. There are winning strategies to each map, but one stray blaster bolt to your head can ruin the best laid plans. And when you play online with friends you can have some real fun.

The game truly shines when played online, especially for X-box live. Get some friends, form a team, and work together to dominate the other players through winning strategies and team work. Have a friend mine the entrances to a tunnel while you take a speeder bike to an enemy command post, or run across the field while you buddy covers you with a sniper riffle. With this game online, everyone has a role to play, and you can get into the feel of being a clone trooper or rebel as you develop your own strategies and battle plans for each individual map.

The games only real weakness is that the it takes little notice of your actions during single player. You can kill a hundred enemies and yet still lose because the enemy AI rolled over your own and took all the command posts, or you can do nothing and your side will still win. Although this furthers the feel that you’re not a hero and just a grunt, it can be very frustrating when you’re losing a battle despite your best efforts because you simply can’t be in two places at once, and you can’t rely on your AI to do anything other than take a bullet for you. Another problem, though more of a nitpick, is that you can’t mix and match the armies. It would have been neat to see the clones fight the storm troopers.

Star wars battlefront is one of my favorite games of all time. A must buy for anyone star wars fan, war enthusiast, or adrenaline junky. It will provide countless hours of entertainment, especially for anyone who plays online. I have spent so much time playing this game and I like it so much, I’m going to offer some additional help based on my experience, so if you are a new player, or just want to improve your game, here are some tips to remember.

Headshots cause more damage, so aim high, and fire short bursts with the riffle rather than full auto. When engaging an enemy, move left and right quickly to throw off his targeting. In order to gain a little bit of extra speed, jump while you’re running to a place you need to be fast. Jedi can only be killed by landing a plane on them, or blasting them off the map. If you can’t do either of these things, then run, they cannot be shot and they kill with one hit. When a droideka deploys its shield, you can jump on top of it where it cannot shoot you. If you are about to storm an enemy command post, bring along a group of AI soldiers; they will help you take control of it more quickly just by being there.

I hope these tips will help you on your adventures as you fight off the droid armies. Good luck and enjoy!