Starwars Battlefront: My review

[BadBadNeil]

Well picked this up and to sum it up im disappointed. I haven't tried multiplayer and perhaps that is where it shines but the single player I find rather boring, monotonous, and the controls stale.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is rather weak IMO. It is basically rush into a battle, die, respawn and repeat. The goals are very basic (capture the red spots on the map) and you really don't feel like part of the action but rather a long fighter among masses of troops just running around aimlessly.

Controls:
VERY poor. The speeder is impossible to control, its super fast but impossible to turn. The tie fighter and xwing are slow and again don't turn well or have a good feel to them. The tie fighter should be a serious turning machine but it feels sluggish and awkward. The other ships felt much the same to me, almost like you are driving but not in control.

They give you 4 options to spawn from each time. The regular soldier, a missile type of guy, pilot and sniper. The sniper gun is possibly the weakest I've ever seen. The weapons are O. K. but nothing to write home about. The crouching and laying down commands are very awkward and again don't feel right, in fact the whole controls just seem slow and not fluid to me.

AI: Horrible. I am playing on the second of 2 difficulty settings. This is where it seems like you are solo man running into battle. I destroyed everyone on the battlefield in kills each time but without any help from my buddies it was difficult to control or take any points. I can't do it all myself especially against 30 respawning enemies. At one point I was holding a check point myself and I must have killed 20-30 guys all by myself with no help at all from any of my team.

Graphics: Decent, not as good as the most recent games but good enough. Plays fine @ 1024x768 on my XP2600, 1GB ram, TI4200 with all medium settings and a couple high.

Good Points: Well so far I've only played 4 missions. The best part is that you can pretty much do anything, drive any ship, man any gun turret, be any guy, etc but in some respects this is a bad thing as well. I can imagine playing with 20 friends rather than computer opponents would be more fun.

[PacNW CE]

With the exception of KotOR and the JK series, Most reicent SW games have been clones (no pun intended) of other popular franchises.

SW Galaxies (Lets make EQ for SW!)

SW Galactic Battlegrounds (lets make AOE for SW!)

and now SW Battlefront (lets make BF 1942 for SW!)

You could even argue that KotOR is a clone of Icewind Dale, but atleast it was fun.

SW Commando hopefully will break this trend.

[Baby Arm]

So about the controls...are you using a joystick or the keyboard? I have some problems with the hands and I need to know if the joystick can be used to fly and drive like in BF1942.

Bf1942 is what this idea came from I'm sure. The singleplayer on that is a joke but online its the funnest thing I've played. I dont see how you can review a game like this without playing it online...it was made for online.

Have you played bf1942? if so are the control setups similar? Can you fly and drive with a stick? Anyone know?

[BadBadNeil]

I'm glad it was borrowed and not bought. I don't play online games and probably never will thats why i didn't review it for that. Quick uninstall and return for me.

I can't get my gamepad to work and I have a popular thrustmaster joystick. I was wondering why it didn't work or detect it, it might have helped on some parts.

[rusty4x4]

Sounds a lot like the Galactic Conquest mod of BF1942. Vehicle control takes some doing, and the weapons are nothing to write home about. Needs some more work, I think. Hard to measure up to DesertCombat.

[Baby Arm]

Oh well I went and got it...and the trilogy too. At least I know the trilogy is good.

HEY GEORGE LUCAS here's another 85 bucks to throw on your mountain of cash.

Maybe I'll throw up a review after I play awhile. Maybe I'll just throw up.

[ahurtt]

I got it yesterday. Yes you can use the joystick to fly starfighters just like you can use it to fly in the Battlefield games. In my opinion they should have just called this game "Battlefield: Star Wars." To me, it is pretty cool. . .I remember when I first got BF 1942 I thought to myself, "Man this would be even cooler if it were Star Wars." So this game is exactly what I was looking for. I am still getting used to the gameplay just like it took me a while to get used to the gameplay in the Battlefield games. I think once I get used to the controls and get them configured just how I like them, I will be just as addicted to this game as I am to BF: Vietnam / 1942. I think it is just going to take getting used to the different weapons / vehicles / maps / troop types, etc. . . One thing thing I think they could have done better is to allow you to pick up a fallen enemies / comrades weapon kit like you can in the Battlefield games. So far I haven't seen that you can do that. . .after you kill somebody, their body and kit just kind of fades away. But you can still commondeer enemy vehicles just like in Battlefield and you still have vast battlefields to fight in as well. I don't think the flying is done quite as well as in Battlefield either but again. . .might just take some getting used to. I have played multiplayer so far more than I have single player and the netcode doesn't seem that bad to me. . .no big issues once I find a server with a good ping. (I have cable modem) I'm sure I will notice more things that are buggy as I play more but that's why they make patches. I wonder if anybody knows. . .does this game have any levels that are just out and out starfighter space battles? All of the ones I've seen so far are planetary ground based. Also, it's cool to have the heroes like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker fight along beside you in single player but in Multiplayer, they are kinda annoying. . .It would also be nice if you could play as a Jedi (maybe the current leading player on each multiplayer team could choose to spawn as a jedi) but right now, no players can play as Jedi. *wink wink nudge nudge, Pandemic* I definitely do like the fact that it's easy to switch between 1st person and 3rd person view. But one thing that I feel is missing is the ability to hide behind a defensive structure and lean out to the left and right to shoot like you can in Call of Duty. You do have the ability to change stance between prone / crouch / standing though at least. And I find the graphics to be just fine. The game also supports my 7.1 sound system which is nice. So far it has run pretty smooth on my machine but did crash to desktop suddenly during a multiplayer game on 1 occasion so far. My specs:

P4 2.53 GHz, 533 FSB
1 Gig PC 2700 Ram
GeForce FX 5900XT AGP 8x video

It is very playable on this system. So far I give the game a B+

[air serpico]

i've only played it for about an hour, not sure its long enough to decide if i like it or not. 30 min single player, 30 mp.
the graphics are good imo, to me it feels like it should, and that is sw. the single player doesn't require a ton of thought, but its kinda cool playing the scenes in the movie.
mp could be fun if the lag improves and if they redo the whole vehicle thing. my biggest problem with the game is it takes forever to get in one. your supposed to just hit e but that doesn't always work. once your in, there just not the best to control. i'm having problem configuring everything and just can't get my flight stick to work.
not sure its worth the moeny yet, time will tell guess. something to do until the joint ops expansion pack comes out in nov.

[ahurtt]

well, I've had some more time to play this game now. . .More things I like and dislike. I find flying starfighters to be annoying. I think the flying is poorly done. It is also becoming more obvious that maybe the battlefields are not so vast as I originally thought they were. Probably due mainly in part that this game also has to run on it's less powerful and more restricted console game counterparts (Xbox and PS 2). I think the piloting of the ground based vehicles is fine. I love hopping in an AT-ST and blowing the living be-jeezus out of the ewoks. But the flying vehicles need work. The maps are too small for the very fast moving x-wings and tie-fighters. And I can't really seem to fly high enough to make a good straffing or bombing run at a ground target. In addition, you cannot do a complete barrel roll or go inverted in flight. The flying in this game seems now more like it was an afterthought kinda tossed in at the end. Needs more work. I find myself having more fun just running around as one of the infantry troops or whizzing around in a speeder.

Now. . . for the really annoying thing. . .the multiplayer game finding interface. What a piece of ****! If you hilight a game server while the list is not done refreshing yet, half the time you try to join that server, you "miss" because before you could click the join button, another server popped up on the list causing your hilight to jump. Then, when you cancel joining because you accidentally joined the wrong server. . .IT STARTS REFRESHING THE WHOLE LIST ALL OVER AGAIN! Same goes if you try to join a server and it fills up before you can connect. You get the message the server filled up, then it takes you back to the game finder screen and the list begins to totally refresh again. On top of that, I see no way to enter specific server IP addresses or add servers to a "favorites" list. This makes finding multiplayer games a DRAG to say the least. Pandemic, if you're out there, PLEASE PATCH THIS UP ASAP!!!

I am hoping that after the initial release for PC, XBOX, and PS2, maybe they will make some much needed overhauls to the PC version since it is not fair to limit the game for PC players because of the limitations of game consoles. PC's have much more computing power that, in my opinion, is not being taken advantage of by this game.

But, once I get in a game on a good server, and if I resist the temptation to hop in a starfighter and stick to the infantry classes and ground based vehicles, I have a lot of fun playing Battlefront.

[ahurtt]

Oh, one last little rant. . .For cryin out loud turn off the stupid Bots in multiplayer games, server Admins! Or at least limit them to 2 or 3 per team! And disable the heroes in multiplayer battles. I hate having my killing streak ruined by some invincible, god-like NPC! I swear one time I emptied a full magazine (10 rounds) of rockets on Darth Vader, blowing him 20 feet in the air several times, and he was hardly scratched! A bit rediculous.

[Dennis Bacon]

ahurt... everything you said is SO true, the AI is so stupid... in one server Mace Windu was actually in my teams spawn and every time we'd spawn he would kill us... it was SOOOO lame... he had like 90 kills and our team literally did nothing, the other thing about this game, it might jsut be me but it feels really weird ... it almost has kind of a blurryness to it and hurts my eyes to play, it is the only game that does this.. anyone else feel like that too?

[ahurtt]

the thing about the graphics in this game. . .It looks like most other games that are ports from console games. If you've ever played the PC versions of GTA III or Halo, you might notice the graphics have very similar qualities to Battlefront. I think they must use some kind of a software antialiasing effect so the graphics will look smoother and less blotchy / blocky on the comparatively lower resolution of a TV screen when played on a console system. I hate when they release games for consoles first because it seems the PC versions of these games always suffer.

[ahurtt]

Anybody else had a chance to try this game yet? Got any feelings or opinions?

[Beeblequix]

I like it.

I agree this is a SW version of Battleground 1942.

That's not a bad thing though.

Also, it looks a lot better with a dx9 card (like my 9800pro) over a dx 8 card (like my g4ti4600). It plays well enough; play online and you'll get the bigger feel for it.

I'm addicted. It's simple. I like being a kamper-von-sniper-froogin. Haven't figured out how to pilot the xwings etc yet.