Review by Adam Silva (Sand Snipe) and Alex Bedard (Rabid Ewok)

INTRODUCTION
Lucas Arts is back with a sequel to one of the number one selling Star Wars game of all time, Battlefront II. Rabid Ewok and I will take to the trenches, skies and various worlds that are Battlefront II. If you have not decided to divert from your action figure budget or feel the first is good enough, maybe finding out how the Clones evolved into the Storm Troopers is good enough reason to give up your hard earned money.

DIFFICULTY
Sand Snipe: For the most part the game play is a lot harder than the first one. Upon playing the first level in “Rise of the Empire” (the story mode), I died pretty quick, even though I had been playing Battlefront the day before. The enemies seem to be getting smarter and stealing command posts is not always a walk in the park. Plus, for some strange reason, your enemies are able to steal command posts way faster than you. One second you have stolen one and you turn around to find that you already lost it. The area that the designers made harder was the allies. Your allies’ intelligence has gone down, forcing you to take even more control than the first game and win it for the team. I personally like the better challenge.

Rabid Ewok: BattleFront II is much more difficult than its predecessor. Even on Easy, I find that my enemies can actually kill me, whereas in BattleFront that was a very rare occurrence. I find that flying a spacecraft is a lot less dangerous than playing an infantrymen on a ground battle. It may seem that flying at the speed of light in a weightless environment with several other ships firing at you would be very hazardous, but it really isn’t. The AI could use a little work; I rarely ever get shot down by an enemy starfighter. Whenever I die in space it’s because I crash into a capital ship, or an auto-turret or turbo-laser gets me. On the ground is a different story. Ground battle has its own dangers, but it’s still relatively simple, much like it was in the first game. You may be thinking that playing as a Jedi is a walk in the park, well you’re wrong. You get a time limit, when it runs out your Jedi character “dies”. But, you can add time to the limit by slaughtering your enemies with your lightsaber, or your force powers. Unlike in the first game, Jedi are no longer nearly invincible.

GAME PLAY
Sand Snipe: The game play has really taken a giant step forward, making more variety in the way you play. Let’s start with Rise of the Empire or “story mode.” In this you play as the Clone Troopers/ Storm Troopers as you see the progression of how the Empire conquered the galaxy. You go through familiar places from the other game like Naboo and Hoth along with new ones like Felucia and a re-designed Kashyyyk. Throughout the levels you can get Jedi’s to aid you in the battles like Obi-Wan and Anakin, this gives you a major advantage. As soon as you finish being the Clone Troopers the main screen will come up, enter “Rise of the Empire” again you begin a new story with The Empire. Still, I felt as if the story was still a little too short but it’s definitely longer than the Battlefront’s story mode.

To people who’ve already played the first game, Galactic conquest is back, and better than ever. It is the same idea, steal planets but instead of only a few plants with two levels, there are eleven planets with only one level. I like this much better. Each player has a turn, there is a map and all the plants are spread out. In each player’s turn you are able to move one space. Every time you fight a battle, whether you win or lose you get credits. With the credits you can buy bonuses you can only use once like Jedi’s, sabotage and supply increases. Besides bonuses you buy troops classes. In the begging you only start off with a regular Clone Trooper and a Clone Pilot (space battles only). With credits your owned credits you can recruit the rest of your team, and yes, you only have to buy them once. If you land on a planet you fight, an empty space, you stay there but if you land on the same place as your enemy you fight in a space battle. Once you conquer all the planets you win!

All right now let me talk about the space battles everyone is talking about. Every team has two classes, a Marine or Pilot. The Pilot has a blaster pistol and time bombs and the Marine has a blaster Rifle and a rocket launcher. After you pick a class you hop into one of three ships every team has. Every team has a regular ship like a Droid Starfighter or an X-Wing, a bomber, and a speedy ship like a Star Fighter or an A-Wing. Plus every team has a transport ship, like the Republic has the gunship, and if you land that in an enemy cruiser, it’ll count as a command post. As I was saying, you hop into your ship and wreak havoc. Whether it’s landing inside the enemy’s ship and blowing up their systems or staying in space to blow up enemy ships and their command bridge, there are plenty of things to do in space. To tell you the truth though, space battles are a lot more fun when you fight against a friend or in Rabid Ewok’s case, your mom.

Instant action has many games to play; there is conquest, capture the flag, assault and hunt (in some levels). Capture the flag is all about stealing an enemy’s flag and bringing to your command post. Conquest is just like normal game play. The one that will have fans excited is assault and hunt.

Hunt is actually a thing I was excited about until I played it. This is only available in Mos Eisely, Hoth, Endor, Kashyyyk and Geonosis. There are two teams, the hunters and the hunted. Each team has an amount of people they have to kill and the first one there wins. In Mos Eisely you play as either the Jawas or the Tusken Raiders. The Jawas are equipped with a gun that shoots electricity and that’s it. The Tusken Raiders have two classes, a sniper and a regular trooper. Both teams are really slow when it comes to running and the Jawas have the more advantage. In Hoth is probably the most fun Hunt. It’s the Rebels with all their trooper classes versus the Wampas. The Wampas only can punch but do they kick ass. The teams are even in this one. In Endor, which was probably Rabid Ewok’s favorite, was Ewoks versus Biker Scouts. This is boring as hell. The Ewoks throw spears and rocks and run slow, so it’s hard to find enemies. The Biker Scouts have a blaster pistol, grenades and a sniper. They are not too strong. The Ewoks have an enormous advantage. Kashyyyk is Wookies versus CIS. The Wookies have two classes to choose from, both have Bowcasters but one has a fusion cutter and the other has grenades. The CIS have a Magna Guard, which is loaded with the Bull Dog RLR, Radiation Launcher, Nuero Poison (cripples nearby enemies), and a recon droid. In the end, the Wookies kick their ass pretty easily. The last one, CIS vs. Gungans has to be the lamest one. The Gungans are equipped with only grenades and the CIS has their Super Battle Droid. This fight is a non-stop grenade fight, so watch your step when playing this level. In the end it’s pretty balanced out.

Assault is only available in space battles and in Mos Eisely. The way assault set up is every team has to get a certain amount of points, you can set it for how many you want. In Space battles everything is worth a different amount, if you blow up an enemy ship it is only two points while blowing up one of their systems is worth twelve. First one to achieve the points wins. Assault in Mos Eisely is by far the best reason to get the game in my opinion. You choose from either Villains or Heroes in a classic good versus evil game and see which side can kill off characters faster. The villains consist of Boba and Jango Fett, Darth Maul, Anakin, General Grevious, Darth Vader, Count Dooku, and the Emporer. The Heros consist of Han Solo, Chewbacca, Leia Organa, Luke SkyWalker, Obi-Wan, Aayla Secura, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Yoda, and Mace Windu. I feel that the Jedi’s have an advantage over the bad guys just because they are the good guys. You barely have to try to win if you play as the good guys but if you’re bad, then you actually have to try harder than you normally would. In the end, the challenge is good.

Last, I’ll explain the Units. The Rebels have their normal guys with one addition. They have the normal Trooper equipped with grenades and the same Sniper now equipped with auto-turrents along with a recon droid. The Rebel Vanguard and Wookie Warrior are the same too. The Vanguard has his rocket launcher grenades and mines. The Wookie has the Bowcaster, grenade launcher, grenades, and a recon droid. The Rebel Smuggler has a shotgun, health/ammo packs, a detpack and a fusion cutter. The new addition to the team is the Bonthan Spy. He has the incinerator gun, which only hurt enemies close by. He also has stealth, making him invisible. The Regeneration skill he has heals allies close to him. He is a really good sabotage expert with his stealth and time bombs.

The Empire hasn’t changed too much and they also have a new addition. The Storm Trooper has stayed the same along with the Shock Trooper (Rocket launcher); they both seem to be the same as the rebel units. The Scout trooper is the same as The Rebel Marksman but the person who has change altered is the Dark Trooper. The Dark Trooper still has a jetpack and grenades but instead of a shotgun he has an ARC Caster, which shoots electricity and hurts multiple enemies. The new addition is the Imperial Officer; he is equipped with a Sonic blaster, a Motar Launcher, a recon droid and the Rage ability that increases damage to nearby allies.

The CIS has the same exact line up along with the Magna Guard I explained earlier. The Super Battle Droid still has a Wrist Blaster/rockets and a try shot and the Drodieka still rolls around. The Droid Assassin still has a sniper but has auto-turrents now. The Assault droid has rockets and the Droid Engineer has a shotgun, health/ammo and a fusion cutter.

I save the best for last, the Republic. The Clone trooper has stayed the same with his blaster rifle and with the Sharpshooter with his sniper and auto-turrent. The Jet trooper still flies through the battle with his EMP launcher and the Clone Engineer with his shotgun and fusion cutter. The person that makes them my favorite is the Clone Commander. He has a Chain Gun, which is equivalent to a machine gun today. It rips threw enemy’s with ease. He has the Rally ability with increases the defense of nearby allies and a recon droid.

The ships have all stayed the same but now every ship has rockets, like the AAT. Every person that has a fusion cutter has an advantage over a tank because with it you can hack into ships and steal them when enemies are in it. This is a whole a lot of fun to do.

Rabid Ewok: The game play hasn’t changed much, but I have noticed a few tweaks here and there. The aiming reticule has been altered a bit, and a few of the controls seem to have been changed as well. I played BattleFront on the X-Box, and now I am playing BattleFront II on the PC. So, the transition has been a little tough. I still haven’t figured out how to roll around or issue commands… Many of the problems have carried over from the first game. The two that immediately come to mind have to do with vehicle, and weapons when interacting with obstacles. Sometimes when taking cover behind a rock or box, I can clearly see that the object is not in the way of my gun. So I fire, only to see that some invisible force keeps my blaster bolts from hitting their intended target. This can be especially painfully with a grenade launcher. The next problem seems to only happen with the larger, slower vehicles (such as the AT-AT, and the AT-TE). Again it has to do with obstacles. Basically it’s the same as with the gun. You should be able to walk past an object, but instead it will get in the way somehow, and halt your already cripplingly slow advance.

I must say that it was a real treat to play the campaign. It was interesting to see the battles from the Clone Troopers perspective, how they experienced their faction’s evolution, their thoughts on Order 66, and the mission briefings.

AUDIO
Sand Snipe: The audio is nothing special, same blaster sounds and yelling. The only thing different is that now every team’s units say new things. For example the Empire says, “Rebel, take them out!”

Rabid Ewok: The audio seems to be much clearer now. The music, the voices, and the sound effects are fantastic. The ambiotic sound really helps to immerse you in the Star Wars universe we’ve come to know and love.

VIDEO
Sand Snipe: I thought the graphics were good. I liked how the Clones were re-done and they looked great. The way the ships were made was pretty good too. Space was probably the best thing graphic wise.

Rabid Ewok: The graphics in BattleFront II have been improved somewhat. The faces look a lot more realistic, the Wookies look great, and outer space is just wonderful. Although, some of the character models are still laughable. Count Dooku is the worst, his face is very blurry and he appears to have a polygon for a head. It was nice to see how the fabric acts in the wind. Darth Vader’s cape will move around as you make your way across the battlefield.

MULTIPLAYER GAME PLAY
Sand Snipe: I think that multiplayer is the main reason any Internet gamer should buy this game. There are those four game modes and a bunch of new levels so that means endless fun.

Rabid Ewok: Playing online is almost exactly the same as when playing alone. The only difference is it can be much easier, or much more difficult, and it can be extremely laggy (choppy animation, slow response). It’s a wild card really; you never know what it will be like. Personally I don’t like to play online very much.

REPLAY VALUE
Sand Snipe: This game has a lot of replay value if you play on the Internet or with friends. I can never get enough of Assault in Mos Eisely. Playing alone though has little replay value though.

Rabid Ewok: I don’t think BattleFront II has as much replay value as its predecessor. I don’t find myself playing it as much as the first game, I’m still going to hold onto it though. Never know when you might get the sudden urge to gun down some Rebel scum.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Sand Snipe: I thought this was a great game in the end. I love the new Republic design and the fact that you can run in the game. I guess it’s the little things that make this game great.

Rabid Ewok: The new content does add a lot more to the series, but if you didn’t care much for the first game, BattleFront II probably won’t change your mind. I would suggest renting it first, try out the space battles, try out the new classes and maps, then make your decision. But, if you loved the first game, then you might as well just buy this one. Chances are, you’ll love it more so than the last.

GRADING SCALE