Star Wars: Battlefront

THE GOOD:
- A wide range of maps to play on, most of which are very impressive and unique
- A range of classes to play as in battle, and 4 different teams
- Good weapons for each class, and turrets, tanks and fighter ships to use
- Very nice graphics, with good detail
- Split screen and Online play is an enjoyable option
- You can get very involved in the battles, as you fight alongside your army
- Re-enact your favourite battles from the movies in the Historical Campaign mode (And see cut scenes from the movies)

THE BAD:
- No battles in space
- You can only run at one speed
- Jedi are not playable characters
- The Historical Campaign is too short

SUMMARY:
Star Wars Battlefront is the first of its kind in Star Wars video games. It mainly focuses on the troops from the CIS(Droids), Galactic Republic, Rebels and Galactic Empire, instead of the Jedi as main characters. This style of play is a dream come true for Star Wars game fans who were looking for a change, Star Wars Battlefront definitely delivers.

Not including Online mode, there are three different modes to play on as a single player, or on split screen with a friend. These are: Instant Action, Galactic Conquest and Historical Campaign. In Instant Action, you select the maps you wish to play, and choose whether you want it to be Galactic Civil War, meaning Rebels verses The Galactic Empire, or Clone Wars, which is the Galactic Republic verses the CIS. Not all maps have this option, such as Hoth, which is always Galactic Civil War, as seen in the movie. You can select any amount of maps, multiple times each, and choose whether to play in the order chosen or in a random order. These maps then continue on in a loop until you decide you are finished. In Galactic Conquest, you go up against the opposing team and win battles to gain control of planets. You start off by choosing which Galactic Conquest to do, some have different playable maps and involve a different two teams. Some may also be harder then others, giving a certain team a starting advantage. You then select which of the two teams you would like to play as (In Split screen you can team up with or verse your friend). A screen will display some planets, in green if you have control of it, red if you don't, or no colour if it is neutral. Depending on the planets you have control of, you will have different special bonuses to use in battles, and you can only use one in each battle. For example, if you have control of Tatooine, you will have the option of having a Jedi aid you in battle. The opponent all so has access to these bonuses. After you take over some of the enemies' planets, you will get the ability to destroy one of their planets permanently, and once you destroy their main planet, you win the Galactic Conquest. The Historical campaign is like going through battles from the movies, you have a choice to play either the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War. You then go through a series of battles in chronological order. You need to win your way through these to complete the mode. In this mode you will team up and face Royal Guards at Naboo, Ewoks, Wookies Jedi and other characters as seen in the movies.

Online play can be an enjoyable option also, if you have a good connection you can join a team with a group of other people to verse against a team of other people on any map. It is only worth it if you have a good connection though, as it can lag quite a bit. This is definitely a good way to compare your skills to other real people, and can present you with a larger challenge then Single Player or Split Screen.

Now on to the game play then, this is what really makes the game great. When a battle starts, all the units from both teams will spawn at a base that they own, which they will start with. You spawn at these bases after every time you die, and you can select which base of yours to spawn at. A map will come up showing all the bases, which are under threat, and which ones have vehicles. After spawning, your army will go off by themselves in the direction of a vehicle to take control of or an enemy's base. You can tell them to spread out or to follow you if you wish. You can only have a few units follow you at one time though. When spawning you have a choice of which unit you would like to use. Depending on which team and whether you are in Clone Wars or Galactic Civil War, your team will have units which no other team can use. Some of these include the Rebel's Wookie Smuggler, The Empires Dark Trooper, The Republics Jet Trooper and the CIS's Droideka, each of which have something unique about them. Every team has a form of soldier with a rifle, a sniper unit, a pilot and a heavy weapon unit. Each unit has its own purpose, Pilots can repair vehicles and ships while they are flying, Heavy Weapon units can place mines and have a big missile launcher, Snipers have access to a recon droid and a sniper with a scope, etc, and all units have got different weapons. When your army spawns at the start, some of all of these units will spawn. At the top of the screen you will see that it shows how many units you and you opponents have left next to the mini map. This is not how many units that are on the field though; this includes all back up units that will spawn each time one of your units or the enemy's units are killed.

During each battle, there are a few ways to win. On some of the maps, one of the teams will have an objective to complete, usually involving blowing something up, such as a shield generator. These objectives are not easy though, as the things you need to blow up can take a lot of damage and will require some powerful weaponry to destroy. They are also on the opposite side of the map to your bases, in the middle of enemy territory. Another way to win is to simply kill all of the enemy units until they have no back up left. The final way is to capture every single base on the map. To capture a base you just need to stand in range of the glowing light coming up out of the ground. If this light is green, the base is yours, if it is white, it is nobody's base, and if it is red, that mean the enemy owns the base, meaning you should be careful, as a unit could spawn there any second. Once you have all the bases, a 10 second count down will come up on the screen, and if you can prevent any enemies from getting a base in this time, you will win. Remember that if the enemy accomplishes any of these, they will win, so protect your objectives, and make sure you have got some bases at all times.

While playing, if you pause the game and go in to the options, you can select your difficulty, easy, medium or hard, whether you want auto aimer on or off (When on the cross hair kind of locks on to the enemy) whether you want a first or third person view and there are also other sound and control related options. Even once you master the game, with auto aimer off and with hard difficulty selected, some maps will still be a challenge, and you will have to rely on some strategy rather then going for the win by depleting all the enemies units. Some weapons will obviously do more damage then others; it will take longer to kill a unit with a pistol compared to a missile launcher. Head shots do more damage than a hit somewhere on the body of a unit. Wookies have the ability to take a few more hits than other classes. Using a pistol on a ship is pretty much pointless, as it does almost no damage, use of other ships, turrets, heavy weapons and grenades are the best ways to go when trying to take a tank or ship out. Around the maps you will see some little droids, usually at the bases. There are three different ones which have three different purposes. One heals units, one hands out ammo, and one repairs tanks and ships. If you shoot these they can be destroyed, but a pilot can repair them.

There is actually one level which has 3 teams involved, this is Tatooine Dune Sea. The third team are the Tusken Raiders, who are a neutral team, and have the ability to take bases (The glowing light will turn yellow). Just a warning for when you try to fight a Jedi, you will NOT be hurting them with any gun, even a tank, they simply block all attempts. The only way to kill them is to land a ship on them, run them down with a speeder bike or grenade them off of a cliff. This can be a bit frustrating at times, so it is best that you just keep your distance from the Jedi and focus on the rest of the army.

As you can see the game play has got a lot of great features to try out, and you will surely have fun master each of the different units and tanks/ships, keeping you busy for many hours.

The graphics in Star Wars Battlefront are very impressive, the units, tanks and ships look perfectly like they should, identical in detail to those from the movie, and the massive landscapes on each of the maps from each planet are amazing and have great detail. If you look up in to the sky you can see ships cruising along, and looking out to the battlefield you'll see lasers flying around wildly and explosions from thermal detonators. The sound matches up well with the graphics, sounding just like that from the movies. The background consists of everyone's favourite Star Wars theme music, which can get a little but boring after awhile, but you can always turn it off. The sound effects are perfect, the sounds of the weapons firing is like that from the movies also. You can hear other units calling out commands to each other from both teams, and the wild calls of the Wookies, Tuskan Raiders and Ewoks. Other effects such as the mini ground shakes when you are underground in Hoth and the landing of ships give that little extra touch which adds realism to the game. The graphics and sound really do give the game a great feel and with the game play make this game incredibly enjoyable to play.

Like most games, Battlefront also has got some things it could improve on. Jedi not being playable characters was a bit of a let down, especially since it is so frustrating facing against them. It is also a bit disappointing that there are no battles in space, like seen in the movies! It would have made flying ships have a lot more purpose, because in most maps you feel restricted. In space there would be a lot more room to fly around and some fun dog fights against enemies in ships. In the game you can only run at one speed, unless you crouch then you kind of shuffle along a bit slower. Being able to use bursts of speed would be useful and more realistic. The Historical Campaigns can easily be finished in a single day. I think they should be longer and more challenging, possibly with more of a purpose and things to unlock as well. This would increase the replay value of the game for sure. Although there are these problems with the game, the positives easily out weigh the negatives though, so don't let these put you off the game.

Overall I've given this game a 3.8 out 5. When it came out it was probably worth a higher rating than that, but since then the second Battlefront has come out, fixing all of the problems which I pointed out that this game had. This does not mean that you should just get Battlefront 2 though! This game has some amazing unique maps which Battlefront 2 does not, and it is definitely still worth getting. I recommend this game to any Star Wars fan, and pretty much anyone else with a PS2, as this rates as one of the best games on the console.