Star Wars: Battlefront Review

Guest Review compliments of Laserfish

Star Wars Battlefront - Hmm... very mixed impressions of this. First thing, if you're planning on playing it mostly single player, you just want to move along. AI is missing the I for the most part, and it's frustrating watching your troops sometimes just stand there in the vague hope that the mission objectives will come to them.

Good points: The graphics are very pretty for the most part, and they do a pretty good job of evoking the Star Wars universe. Of course the music and sound effects are nice also, though the effects can get repetitive.

It is also fairly immersive, and since most of us already have a working knowledge of the battles it is easy to just sink right in and get involved. The vehicles are cool for the most part and it is incredibly satisfying opening up on troops from the forward guns of an AT-AT for example.

And, last but not least, you can kill Ewoks, and supposedly Gungans (though I have yet to see one).

Bad points: As pretty as the game is, it has the depth of a very small puddle of water on a hot day. I have to give it credit in that the 4 different factions are extremely balanced. But, they are balanced because, aside from one special unit, each side has almost identical troops.

Another pretty significant gripe is that there still seem to be some network issues that need worked out. I've been kicked to desktop from play multiple times, and even on apparently optimal servers I'm experiencing warping and other lag issues.

The cool looking vehicles from before? They control OK for the most part, but some of them like the x-wing seem to fly either like slow bricks, or extremely fast bricks.
The flying vehicles at least also don't have any tangible feel of drag, resistance, lift, or anything else for the most part. Just large levitating bricks with guns, and either slow or fast speeds.

Verdict: If you really love the universe, go for it. Some of the battles like Hoth are extremely cool, though some, like Kamino, leave a lot to be desired. It isn't a bad game for a quick diversion, but due to the simplicity of it, it just doesn't hold your attention long compared to better examples of the genre such as UT2004 or Natural Selection (shameless plug).

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Note: all screenshots here were skimmed from the official Star Wars: Battlefront site.

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