Fans of Battlefield 1942 have been licking their lips in anticipation of this Lucas Arts version of the aforementioned hit.
But has the wait been worth it?
As fans of BF1942 are aware, a Star Wars mod has been available now for quite a long time in the form of Galactic Conquest, which unfortunately I have only played in its Beta form, so a real head to head review isn't possible, so I'll have to review Battlefront on its own merits.
First things first,
Graphics: Well, they are superb!
It really has the Star Wars look, from the ATST's to the ATAT's to the little speeder bikes from ROTJ it really looks the part. There's no point in judging the graphics by comparison with the latest system grinders that are Doom 3 and the yet to be released Half-life 2.
This game is a completely different kettle of fish.
The battles are on a much grander scale, allowing players to take control of all the famous (and not so famous) vehicles from the movie, but it still looks brilliant even when compared to the latest titles.
Sound: Well, all I need to say is Lucas Arts. They may not be known for consistency when it comes to actual gameplay, but find me one game with bad sound. All Star Wars sounds are present and correct, say no more.
Gameplay: Well, as usual it is going to come down to personal preference, but a good guide is: if you liked BF1942 you're gonna like this.
It follows the same rules: a battle of attrition, each army must fight to control spawning points on the map, obviously the team controlling the most spawn points controls the battle, but in addition to controlling points they have added objectives like, say: take out the shield generator (battle of endor map) this adds a little more meat to the game, and makes it feel more like a proper single player campaign, as opposed to Bf1942 and the lackluster standalone BF Vietnam, which concentrated a lot on multiplayer, leaving those unlucky people with no access to the internet out in the cold.
In addition to your normal teammates, you are also joined in battle by a "hero" like Darth Vader if you're Imperial or Dooku in the Clone Wars campaign, or Luke Skywalker or Mace "I can't act" Windu, they seem to be pretty unbeatable though, reflecting all your fire back at you.
They are also devastatingly effective, they cream through your forces, and you, if you get to close.
I was a little disappointed to see that the hero's dont seem to engage each other in battle, running by each other in favour of slicing up infantry. The maps are huge, but as I found in BF1942, not comfortably big enough for the flying vehicles, and if you tread too far from the battle, you are ordered back or "Face the consequences" ie: shoot you from the sky.
All in all it's a quality piece of software, well worth going out to buy, even more so (I'd venture a guess) if you have Internet connectivity.
- First and third-person gameplay
- Three single player modes including "Instant Action," "Galactic Conquest" and the story-based "Historical Campaigns" mode.
- Battle in more than 15 environments across 10 diverse planets from the classic Trilogy and Clone Wars eras including Hoth, Endor, Tatooine, Kamino and Geonosis.
- More than 20 different soldier types from 4 factions: Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Republic Clone Army and Separatist Battle Droids. Soldier types include standard infantry, scouts, heavy weapons and pilots - each will have their own unique abilities.
- More than 30 Star Wars weapons including blaster rifles, rocket launchers and thermal detonators, in addition to ground-based turret guns that can be manned and used to defend command posts.
- More than 30 diverse ground and air vehicles including the AT-ST, X-Wing, and speeder bike, as well as the massive Republic Gunship that can hold up to five different soldiers.
- Customizable controls.
- Supports voice chat via compatible headsets.
- PC gamers can battle against up to 32+ players on the Internet or via LAN.
Operating System: Windows XP
Processor: CPU Pentium 4 2.0GHz or Athlon 2400
Video Card: Geforce FX 5700 or Radeon 9600 or higher
CD-ROM: CDRom 52x or DVD Rom 16x
RAM: 512 MB RAM
Minimum
Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Processor: Pentium PIII 1000 MHz Processor or AMD Athlon
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce™ or ATI Radeon™ 7000 or higher
CD-ROM: 4X or Faster
RAM: 256 MB RAM
Review machine:
2.8ghz P4 1GB RAM Asus Radion 9800pro Graphics up full with AA x2
Score: 4 and a half out of 5
Full multiplayer review will follow.
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