Ever wondered what it was like to be an ordinary grunt soldier in the Star Wars movies? Star Wars Battlefront II makes it so. Battle on foot, in AT-ATs, in X-Wings and more.

Release Date

November 2005.

Pros

You get to drive AT-ATs and it is every bit as powerful as in Empire Strikes Back and also has the same weaknesses.

Play through the great battles of the movies and even execute the same manoeuvres as in the movies. Yes, tow cables work on AT-ATs, but you have to be good to pull it off and get a friend to co-pilot the speeder.

When there are enough people (or AI), it looks, sounds and feels like those battles in the movies. Of course if you have real people, it is more believable than the strange behaving AI.

It has been a very long time since I played multiplayer, but I remembered it was excellent. It needs quite a lot of people though. Five on each team is OK but the real fun starts when you have ten on each side.

The graphics and sound are great! Although not as good as SWTOR or even Empire at War.

For a multiplayer focused game, Star Wars Battlefront II has got a good single player experience complete with a single player story campaign. In Rise of the Empire, you are a grunt in the 501st Legion starting as a Clone Trooper and ending as a Galactic Empire’s stormtrooper.

Galactic Conquest is another nice addition to the single player experience of the game. It is a strategy-lite mode where you start of with only one soldier type and you have to conquer planets, gain credits and upgrade your arsenal. When combat is initiated, you play the FPS mode of the game.

The game is easy to learn and play. There are hint boxes that popup and they can be turned off for the seasoned player. There is also a very nice tutorial which doubles as an intro to the single player campaign.

When you meet certain conditions you can play as Vader, Chewbacca or one of many other heroes, complete with force powers. The special powers are not as comprehensive as other Star Wars games, but it is still great fun to Force Choke someone or throw your sabre into a crowd. There is also an all out heroes battle mode on Mos Eisley where it is just all heroes fighting.

Cons

The instant action options are not saved. Very annoying if you do not like the default options.

The AI is pretty dumb, but at the same time they seem to be all crack shots! They move around pretty chaotically and sometimes behave strangely, like circling a dead body shooting at it. Once they notice me though, it seems they take me down with 100% accuracy most of the time.

Other Points

The space battles are quite clever. You can fly ships and fight in space or you can land in the enemy’s capital ship and wreak havoc on foot. The idea is fantastic, unfortunately the interior of the capital ships are too small with only five rooms. There should be at least a few corridors to run around in.

The flying in space battles is very arcadey. It is still good fun, just do not expect it to be like X-Wing Alliance.

The game is clearly a multiplayer focused game with some single player fun. Other Star Wars games provide a much stronger single player experience including SWTOR, even though SWTOR is also a multiplayer focused game.

There is support for joystick, but there is no force feedback.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of the game.

The game plays very similar to Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2. I only played the demo for BF2 though. Overall I enjoyed SWBF2 more than the two old Battlefield games.

I really liked Serious Sam, all the Doom games, Quake 4 and Quake 2.

I also really liked F.E.A.R, Chronicles of Riddick, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, SWAT 4, Red Faction, Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Red Faction 2 and Painkiller Overdose.

I also liked Battlefield 1942, Delta Force and Spec Ops 2.

I have not completed the single player campaign.

DRM

A CD key must be entered during installation.

The disc must be in the drive to play the game.

Patches

1.1 – No comments.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

Computer: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer required.
Operating System: Windows 2000/XP required.
CPU: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ or faster required.
Memory: 256 MB RAM or higher required.
Graphics Card: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Sound Card required.
CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM drive or faster required.
Input Device: Keyboard and mouse required, Joystick or gamepad supported.
Connectivity Requirements: DSL, Cable or faster connection required for Multiplayer.
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c is included on this DVD.
Note: DirectX may require the “latest” drivers for your particular hardware.
Installation: 4.3 GB of free hard drive space required. We recommend that you have an additional 200 MB of free space available after installation.
SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:
- ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 familyt
- ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 family
- ATI Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800/X850 family
- NVIDIA GeForce3 family
- NVIDIA GeForce4 family excluding the GeForce4 MX
- NVIDIA GeForce FX family
- NVIDIA GeForce 6 family
- NVIDIA GeForce 7 family

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

To skip the introduction logos create a shortcut to BattlefrontII.exe and add the parameter -nointro. The file BattlefrontII.exe is in the GameData folder.