Star Wars Battlefront II Review

Single Player

The single player portion of the game has also been greatly improved. In addition to an instant action mode where you just pick where you want to fight and which time period to do it in, there is also an improved conquest mode and a new storyline driven campaign. In conquest mode you get to move your fleets around a galactic map like pawns on a chessboard and try and take planets from the enemy. You earn money for winning planets – some are worth more than others – which you can then use to open up new units, buy bonuses such as sabotaging enemy vehicles or having a hero join you on the battlefield. There is an element of strategy to it which makes it rather interesting. The main single player mode is called Rise of the Empire and puts you in control of Darth Vader’s special forces troop the 501st Legion. It retells many of the classic battles from the movies as well as fills in the gaps between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope from the perspective of a grunt on the battlefield. It is really well put together and very interesting to play through.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is ultimately the main attraction here and it is an absolute blast. There are now capture the flag, assault, and other game types in addition to the regular games where you capture command points, so there is a lot more variety this time around. Up to 32 players can play in a game on Xbox Live and bots will fill in any empty spaces in games that aren’t full of people. The online experience is very fast and smooth and, similar to Halo 2, you just jump right into the next available game. A nice feature is that you can play with the same group of people indefinitely because a new game will start right away (after a little bit of time to look over stats and scores, of course) and you just move right on to a new map.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Battlefront II is a great looking game that is noticeably improved over last year’s already nice looking title. The characters are just a little bit more detailed and the special effects are better, but most of all the environments are considerably better looking. The game runs smoothly even with a screen full of enemies, which is most impressive.

The sound is also very well done. The sound effects and music are straight out of the movies and are absolutely perfect.

Bottom Line

If you are a Star Wars fan, Battlefront II is a must own game. It is an improvement over the first game in every way and is an extremely enjoyable experience overall. Everything is much more balanced than before which makes the basic game even better, but now we also have hero characters, new game types, a real story mode, and new weapons and levels to top everything off. The space combat is also surprisingly well done here and is a good sign of things to come. I’ll admit that I’m probably blinded a bit by my Star Wars fanboyism, but this is a game that was created with die hard fans in mind and as far as I’m concerned it delivers thrills that few other Star Wars games can match. I highly recommend Star Wars Battlefront II for a purchase.