My Top 100: #73 – Star Wars: Battlefront II

 

I’m not sure if Star Wars: Battlefront was rushed before its release in 2004 to coincide with the DVD release of the original trilogy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.  While it was a fantastic game in the spirit of EA’s Battlefield series, I couldn’t help but feel they left out a few little things that would have made the game much better.

The campaign modes weren’t all that different than your typical online or multiplayer match, and only showed short video clips from the movies to help move it along.  There were cameos from main Star Wars characters, such as Darth Vader or Mace Windu, but you couldn’t play as any of them.  I still enjoyed it, and played it quite a bit, but couldn’t help but think “what if”…

Of course, with the release of Revenge of the Sith only a few months later, LucasArts figured they’d release a new Battlefront game with new settings and characters from the new movie.  It came out a few months after Episode III was released, hitting shelves in October of ’05 – almost exactly one year after the release of the first one.  Not only were all the RotS goodies incorporated this time around, but there was a ton of extra features thrown in for good measure.

 

 

The most obvious and most hyped addition was the space battles.  Instead of hopping into an X-Wing or Droid Starfighter to do strafing runs on ground targets (which I always found to be a bit useless in the first game), the fight was brought to outer space.  You could get into dogfights worthy of a Rogue Squadron title, or if you felt ballsy enough, you could land on the opposing capital ship, get out of your shuttle and do some damage from the inside out.  It was a welcome addition, and really helped the flow of the brand new campaign mode.

Temuera Morrison, the actor who played Jango Fett and his clones in the prequels, narrates cutscenes for a campaign that follows his perspective of the 501st Legion of Clone Troopers.  From the early days in the Battle of Geonosis to the supposed end of the Rebellion at the Battle of Hoth, it’s quite interesting to see these seemingly lifeless Clones develop into fighting machines, and their unique perspective on the conflicts from the movies.  There were also special objectives to complete, aside from the usual command post capturing.  That spiced things up a bit!

Finally, once every battle, the game would prompt you to play as a special character for a limited time.  You got to mow through enemies as Ki-Adi Mundi, or get a bird’s eye view with Boba Fett and his trusty jetpack.

This game was a playground for Star Wars fanatics like myself, and I can’t wait to see what they can come up with for the third one…