Star Wars Battlefront 2 Preview

Star Wars is one of the most famous movie series of all time. The games based on these movies have been launched from time to time by Lucas Arts but not all of them gained popularity like Star Wars Battlefront. Star Wars Battlefront is a first and third person shooter which became a top seller because of its interesting and unique single and multiplayer gameplay. Now, after almost a year Lucas Arts and Pandemic Studios announced the sequel to Battlefront and demonstrated the game at E3. Like its predecessor Battlefront II will have conquests to be carried out throughout the galaxy. This time though the developers have taken into account the feedback given by fans, mixed it with their ideas and developed the game expanding it in all the areas that made Battlefront so popular.

Tweaked to Perfection

Battlefront II has got all the major and minor tweaks that gamers longed for in the prequel. The weapons and vehicles are more balanced and your targeting abilities have also been tweaked. The HUD has also been revamped to allow a better view. Another addition is the ability to change the squad type by entering one of the command posts.

The graphics engine has been redone and features crisper graphics along with sharp particle effects. Another thing that gamers didn’t like in Battlefront was that the Jedi’s were controlled by the computer and they did not have any access to portray their character whatsoever. This time however, you are allowed to play as a Jedi warrior and even as Darth Vader on completion of certain missions. Apart from the Jedi’s addition there is also a sixth class on the clone side, namely Commander. This new class is to encourage team play by providing bonuses to its teammates. Also there is a space engineer class of troopers which are helpful in repairing components aboard the ship.

New Frontiers

To give the game more variety this time, Pandemic has chosen to spread out the missions over 12 planets, including locations like the Death Star, Jabba’s palace and Princess Leia’s Corvette. Also included are some planets from Episode III, such as the General Grievous hideout and the lava world of Mustafar where Anakin and Obi Wan fought.

Each planet will have one place where the action takes place, but it seems that none of the old maps will be included in the multiplayer mode. However the single player campaign will have some of the old maps. According the Pandemic Studios Single player campaign has been given more focus and will feature battles fought in the Star Wars movies. To give the game a new feel, a lot of movie scenes have been combined within the progressing story in the single player mode. The games’ biggest map is almost 33% bigger than the largest map of Battlefront I.

Space Battles

One of the major things missing in Battlefront was the absence of space battles. Lucas Arts learning from the fan feedback has included lots of space battles in battlefront II. Each of the four factions have got four controllable Spaceships, the Clone side has got the Tie fighter, Tie Interceptor, Tie Bomber and an undisclosed ship. The Republican army operates ARC-70, Jedi Star fighter, Republican Gunship transport and one undisclosed ship. The rebels have access to A-Wing-Wing, Y-wing and a transport ship.

During the Space battles the action reminds one of Rogue Squadron, but the ship control is responsive and quick. Although the larger ships cannot be controlled they will have hangars, armories and various other particulars.

Space battles will provide various different ways of completing the task assigned, you can hop into a fighter and destroy the enemy ships head on, or you can sneak into the enemy ship, board one of their ships or gun turrets and destroy the ship from within fast enough so that the engineer class is unable to build and repair the damaged components. Even though Space Combat is mainly about flying and shooting, it is a welcomed addition to the game.

Multiplayer Mayhem

The multiplayer mode will have many improvements over the prequel. Maximum players in Battlefronts multiplayer mode was 32 where as Battlefront 2 will sport a maximum of 64 players. The Multiplayer mode will also include stat tracking as well as an option for online buddy searching. There have been additions to other modes of gameplay as well. Significant details about the online mode will be revealed later. Pandemic intends to release a full set of software to allow gamers to host their own dedicated server, where as Lucas Arts will host dedicated servers itself.

From the looks of it, Battlefront II takes the same approach towards gameplay as its prequel, but with major upgrades and required tweaks. Space combat, addition of a new class of troopers and various new maps, show the extent of developments done in the game. The first game was a huge success and Battlefront II doesn’t seem it will disappoint either. If you are a fan of Battlefront keep an eye out for this game. The game will ship for PC, PS2 and XBOX during December

Karan Bajaj