Star Wars Battlefront II
Forced Force.
Published: March 13, 2006
Technical issues aside, this is Battlefront and as such, the goal is the same: pick a character class (if you've gunned down enough guys in a level already, you'll be able to pick more powerful classes), pick a spawn point, and git to shootin'. Stand near an enemy capture point, and the meter will slowly drain from their icky red color and then fill with your majestic blue. All the while, you'll have to pick off any incoming enemies, since their presence interrupts the capture sequence, but effectively that's it.
One of the most impressive things about the game is that there are indeed vehicles, all of which you can just hop right in (if they aren't already manned by the enemy; your teammates will jump out if you hop into their vehicle) and tear ass through a level if you so choose. Larger vehicles have multiple weapons slots, and you can happily jump around between them to pick off enemies too. Since the scale of the levels is a little smaller, you don't quite have as much room to rip around in, but it's still nice that this part of the game wasn't taken out.
Though the detail obviously isn't quite there, the graphics are a very, very nice approximation of the console versions. Textures look good from afar (if understandably low-res), the animations are... well, they're there, I suppose, though the game certainly doesn't boast any sort of fluidity. Part of this stems from the controls, but the framerate is just as -- if not more -- guilty of making the game feel clunky. There are times where it's just downright hard to control anything, which is a shame.
The audio fares a little better, bringing over a nice selection of John Williams tracks, some clean, high-quality sound effects, and a general aural pleasantness that gives the game a nice sense of being polished aurally.
It's impossible to not play what-if with the PSP version of Battlefront II. Yes, it's a remarkable accomplishment, fitting as much content as the game has into a handheld, but beyond the control issues and the dodgy framerate, the game is just plain lacking on extended replay factor. Without a compelling single-player mode beyond the strategy-tinged Galactic Conquest and the sorely needed element of online wireless multiplayer (an online action game like Battlefront and the PSP's online functionality seem like the perfect marriage, too), there's just little reason to consider this game over the console versions.
If you absolutely must have Battlefront in one form or the other, this will satisfy the need for the core, basic gameplay. I Just hope you aren't playing for anything more than a train ride or commute to work, because there just isn't enough here to keep the game compelling for extended periods of time.
