Star Wars: Battlefront

The Good
Graphically this game is very good. You really do feel like a part of the Star Wars universe in this one. Graphics help bring you into this game. This was not made easy given the grand scope of the prequels. The detail of the Star Wars movies (up to 2004) is preserved in this game with great success. You can relive epic battles from the Star Wars movies with good detail.

Sound and music is also very good in this game. This is important in any game, especially if it claims to be a Star Wars game. Sounds are authentic to the movies, such as the fellow playing Jango Fett in Episode II. His clone troopers are recreated in this game with perfect detail.

There are numerous weapons in the game, and some five classes of soldiers for each side. There are lots of vehicles too, all of which can make the difference between victory and defeat.

This game is not like Battlefield 2, which records so many of the moves you make in the game. In Battlefront I no permanent statistics are collected. This makes for a much more casual game as it does not require you to be a perfect gamer to enjoy the game.

The main campaign in this game is well done, with cutscenes taken directly from the movies to fill in the story. It is great to play alongside Mace Windu during the Battle for Geonosis, especially after seeing the jedi master leading troops in Episode II.

The Bad
Gameplay is not bad in this game but the controls are somewhat unintuitive, even for a FPS game. You cannot run and when jumping you cannot shoot. Although this does put you on par with the other characters on the battle map it hurts your ability to make precision moves.

The AI is not very good in this game. That is the case for a lot of games though.

A major weakness in this game is the air vehicles (X-Wings, TIEs, snowspeeders, etc). You find yourself making a lot of tight turns in this game, hurting your ability to set up an attack run on an enemy position. This is especially true when playing the Hoth map as you fly a snowspeeder trying to take down an AT-AT.

One odd thing in this game is that to hit your target requires excellent precision. Even an AT-AT with its enormous guns must be as precise as a little laser pistol to hit its target, otherwise the guns have little effect.

The galactic conquest mode is fairly short. This is not necessarily a problem, but more could have been included to make this mode more fun (ie more planets).

The Bottom Line
This is a good, decent and clean game. If you want to fight some of your favorite Star Wars land battles, any way you want, then this is a good game to try. Star Wars fans will not be disappointed.