Star Wars Battlefront is not quite the game I expected it to be. In fact what it promises and what it actually provides are two different things, and the result is rather disappointing to say the least.
Since the unquestionable success of titles like Battlefield 1942, games developers have been trying to recreate that success with their own titles, and LucasArts has decided to jump on the bandwagon, and injected the Star Wars universe into that of online war games spanning the most epic battles across the entire Star Wars films, including environments from the yet to be released Episode III.
How does it compare to Battlefield? Well, visually it’s not bad, with much better detailed environments, larger landscapes and grand terrain. The larger vehicles and ships are quite magnificent to look at initially, and the whole game runs at a fair old pace with a high level of detail, even on older cards such as my Ti4200. The character models vary from detailed to low-poly rejects, but the vast majority are good.
Sound is also great, providing Dolby Pro Logic II set ups to be used to accentuate the already breathtaking environments, with the sounds of cannon fodder, ships landing and taking off, exploding enemy robots and the foot steps of the enemy surrounding you. It all adds to both a visual and sonic treat, but then this should come as no surprise, after all, this is LucasArts.
As mentioned the environments are quite amazing, and you actually feel as though you’re taking part in an epic struggle between good and evil, and as a foot solider, your fight along other foot soldiers, making the proceedings all the more important. In this game there are no Jedi or Sith to save your rear. The interactivity, like Battlefield, is also present, with the ability to man gun emplacements, and a nice variety of vehicles from those jungle speeder thingies in Endor, to even an X-wing.
Still on the control front, use of the vehicles is equally haphazard, making movement difficult and unresponsive
Actually although I say there are no Jedi, there actually are, although not under your direct control, but more of a bonus in one of the other modes that are available to play. In this mode, your job is to attack each planet, and essentially conquer them all, in return you get bonuses to use along the way which can be activated, such as the Jedi mentioned. It’s a really nice feature, but one that isn’t really extended beyond the rather limited scope they have introduced for its use. Disappointing really, as it could have been quite an interesting option on a grander scale.
Sadly, none of this can save a game, which overall seems rather lacklustre. I should that the game was played in single player mode, and I am perfectly aware it cannot be used as a fair comparison when online, still, I would argue that it can, if the AI and the maps are anything to go by, they won’t change much online.
Where as Battlefield provided some degree of strategy in taking over points, in Battlefront, the only strategy seems to be is to kill as many of the enemy as possible while capturing points. What I mean by this is, run, gun, don’t stop and capture points. It’s as simple as that. Games tend not to last very long, and it soon becomes rather tiresome, moving from one map to the next.
Talking of the maps, they are probably in part responsible for the ease with which this game can be completed . They’re very much open, but provide no strategic points. You can get from A to B in a short distance, by passing a huge horde of enemies, killing them from behind and then capturing the point. Unlike Battlefield, the terrain lacks any ability to provide cover, and so your team, and the opposition seem to just run at each other guns blazing, hoping to kill each other first, and taking down the respawn count at the top of the screen. Once everyone is killed and the capture points marked in your teams colour, the game ends. So you move on to the next map, which as easy as the last.
The larger vehicles and ships are quite magnificent to look at initially, and the whole game runs at a fair old pace with a high level of detail
Although the graphics are clean, and nicely detailed, they are less than what I was expecting from a game which promised much. Now, I’m not a graphics whore, but seeing as their work-in-progress title (Republic Commando) uses the UT2K4 engine, you would have expected something a little better. If you’ve seen the video footage for Battlefield 2, things are looking quite impressive. In comparison, Battlefront seems archaic, if functional. It’s a sign of the times, when a game is released, and already it seems graphically old, but I would have appreciated a little more effort on this part. Still, for what it does, it does provide some large environment, and impressive, environments.
Control is a little floaty as well. You never always seem to feel as though you have enough control over your character, and they also seem rather old aged when it comes to movement. It would have been a good idea to implement a sprint button (of there is one, I couldn’t find it), as your character moves at a rather pedestrian pace, making strafing a serious chore, particularly when you have a grenade beeping behind your backside and you have Storm Troopers popping your head with laser fire. It just seems a little lazy.
Still on the control front, use of the vehicles is equally haphazard, making movement difficult and unresponsive. When using flying vehicles, you find the problem of the restrictions placed in the environment, that of the invisible walls and ceilings, which essentially suspends any absorption in to the game. A higher level of restriction would have been better, because when it comes down to it, no one wants to disappear from the environment, they just want space to barrel roll, or to sweep the ground. Sadly these are very practical requests to execute such moves in the current maps.
Battlefront manages to succeed on some levels, but fails to really shine as a title that is outstanding and different from the competition. To be honest, I find BF1942 much more fun, and enjoyable even offline, and online is of course an enormously enjoyable experience. Battlefront doesn’t quite match up, even if the environment is one where all Sci-Fi fans which wish to be in. The irony is that this is one of many titles coming from Pandemic, who provided the not-bad Full Spectrum Warrior, proving that they can do something original without a license, and they have several other promising titles in development. A pity then that this is rather average.
Verdict: Promising, yet flawed BF1942 clone, with no innovation, strategy and little in the way of fun.