Star Wars Battlefront II Preview

With the release of Star Wars Episode III just around the corner (early November), it seemed only fitting that LucasArts put together a little LAN party to celebrate the pending release of the newest video game in the vaunted franchise.

So, with the media properly invited, the entertainment giant broke out the PCs, PlayStation 2s and Xboxes for some serious game time at the Glass Palace in the Presidio district of San Francisco.

Now as this was a LAN party, the action concentrated solely on the multiplayer aspects, and bypassed the robust single-player experience that bridges the film series from Episode III to Episode IV.

For the record, in regards to the film single-player game, the game will sport open-ended, mission-based game play that will take players to 12 new locations, including Mustafar and the space battle above Coruscant. From Endor to Kashykk, the game embraces familiar characters in the current time line of the film but also plays homage to past characters.

But enough about the single-player, since that was not on stage at the LucasArts events. It was the multiplayer elements that took center stage and held it. It began simply enough – a game of capture the flag onboard a space station. Two sides, rebels and imperials, fought it out with the sonorous tones of Count Dooku keeping track of the possession of the flag and, more or less, threatening the Imperial forces when the flag slipped out of their control. While the game play mechanics did not slip too far from the standard for the type of shooter action, what did set it apart was the strong Star Wars flavor coursing through the scenarios.

On the imperial side, the classes included the storm trooper, shock trooper, scout trooper, imperial engineer, imperial officer and dark trooper. Each had a primary and secondary weapon, and each came with explosives that could either be thrown or dropped. The dark trooper did have higher class weapons and had the ability to jump longer distances (double tap on the jump bar) thanks to the jet pack he was equipped with. On the rebel side were the rebel soldier (the lowest of the builds available), rebel vanguard, rebel marksman, rebel smuggler, Bothan spy (had the ability to go invisible to short periods of time) and the Wookiee warrior (armed with the very deadly bowcaster).

One had to earn points in order to unlock the higher level characters, and those points were earned in battle. The voice-over work was a little on the repetitious side, but the entire audio score was pure Star Wars, and those who have a fondness for the franchise will be in heaven with the job done here.

After a quick server reset, it was onwards and upwards, with team deathmatches in various locations with new sets of characters. There was a battle in space (the aforementioned Coruscant locale), with players jumping into a variety of vessels, and attacking their enemies. A wayward Imperial actually was able to penetrate the landing dock of the rebel ship with his Tie fighter, and after being gunned down, the fighter was commandeered and flown by a rebel pilot into the fray.

And the fun was only just beginning. From there it was into Tattooine, where heroes amassed in a full-scale elimination team event. Yoda, Darth Maul, Boba Fett, General Grievous, Leia, Han Solo, Lobot and the Emperor were just some of the avatars available to play in this segment. Jedi powers were flashing throughout the streets as masters used triple jumps, force chocks, thrown lightsabers, force pull or push, and a host of weaponry in a clash to the finish.

There was a battle between Imperial forces and droids on Kashyyk and Mustafar, and then a battle between Imperials and Ewoks on Endor.

The game, though, was far from perfect. Some of the issues included inadvertently fragging one’s own teammates when going to try to help (or having a teammate throw a grenade that lands at your feet, explodes and sends you to the respawn point), through that feature can be turned off, and the ability to camp respawn areas (common to some other FPS titles). And in the huge battles, it is also apparent that voice communication (like using the Teamspeak client) would be boon to the action.

The graphics were stunning and many of the named avatars did bear a resemblance to their movie counterparts. The animations were also top notch.

The control schemes were very much in line with what one expects from a shooter-style title, and – for the most part – the controls were very responsive. The space element (piloting the fighters) was a little more ponderous than piloting combat fighters in Star Wars Galaxies.

But one has to go back to the whole angle that this is Star Wars and the robust flavor of the franchise was very prevalent in all the aspects of the multiplayer gaming.

(While the game was also available on the consoles, time only permitted playing the PC version and more of the levels were seen than what another reported seeing in the console gaming multiplayer aspects.)

Star Wars Battlefront II is not just about the multiplayer, but that element will make this game well worth the price of admission. The game is certain to have a broad appeal, not just with Star Wars aficionados, but with anyone who enjoys solid online shooter gaming.

What fun!