Star Wars Battlefront II
by Lucas Arts Entertainment Co. LLC
|
Our Price: $31.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $23.46 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
|---|
Video Game Reviews of Star Wars Battlefront II
Customer Review: DEFINATELY not as good as the original
Summary: 3 Stars
Battlefront 2 is {from my perspective} unrealistic.
AI: umm... the AI is really bad. The computer players are really stupid. They pay no attention to their surroundings, at all. The AI units just stand there as if admiring the scenery which makes it too easy. The game has a hard mode and a easy mode. the easy mode is really easy. The hard mode is still, really easy. The enemy is just not much of a challenge, which is why I spend a lot of time on the more challenging multiplayer {over the internet}. Another thing, Rebel soldiers take out their blaster pistols and shoot dead stormtroopers. ??????. A clear example of the AI stupidity.
Maps: The maps are kind of fun. They include a lot of episode 3 environments. I like re-enacting the clone wars. The maps, though, are a bit small and bit boring. But a really cool aspect of the game are space battles. The space maps are better than the ground maps but still lack. Basically it's two capital ships facing each other with a few frigates off to the side of the battle. it would be cool if you could land on an asteroid base or something like that. The maps are okay.
The vehicles/starships: There is definately a larger amount of vehicles to choose from than in the original battlefront. And they are cool. Here, (I think ) is where the biggest flaw in the game is stationed.
Note: before I continue, I need to state something that will hopefully make you understand why I rated this game an overall 3 stars. I am a huge Star Wars fan and has to have everything realistic, or like the movies, if you know what I mean.
The vehicles/starships continued: The biggest flaw about the vehicles are the weapons that are mounted on the ships. They are not like the movies. A Republic Gunship does not have blue lasers. ( I'm probably sounding like a perfectionist right now ). Other things are also wrong. For example, the rebellion does not have republic gunships at the time of the galactic civil war and the CIS bomber is actually a copy of Grievous' ship in episode 3. It is not a bomber.
The heroes: the heroes are, perhaps one of the coolest things in the game. You can play as villains too. My favorite villain would have to be Boba Fett. FAMETHROWER!!! My favorite hero would be ( sadly ) princess leia. I don't know, her gun is just good. Also, like I mentioned in the vehicles section, the weapons of Jango Fett are all wrong.
Let's see, I covered AI, Maps, Heroes, and vehicles. Oh ya. The units are the same as in the original battlefront just with an additional unit.
Overall: not as good as the original battlefront but descent enough. The original battlefront has everything right. The game is just a fun game to play. I don't really like it, but I would just recommend it. (not worth 50 bucks!)
Customer Review: great potential, but disappointed so far
Summary: 2 Stars
i haven't played this game much yet (i guess that says it all), but here's my impression so far. this game is advertised for its great multiplayer, yet i had no such experience. for one thing, the maps are pretty bad. they're really small and the whole game simply feels like counterstrike with star wars graphics. sure, the graphics are really good, but what about the gameplay? well, at times it's fun, but here's my biggest complaint - WHO ARE THE ENEMIES? for god's sake, would it kill them to make it easier to see who's on your team and who's on the other team?? in a game like call of duty, each side has different uniforms so it's obvious. to make it even worse, servers use friendly fire. so i'm running around just trying to figure out who to shoot. some of the weapons are quite cool, but i had some problems. would it kill them to put in a description in the game of what weapons do what? i used the incinerator on people and nothing happens. and what all can those tongs be used for? what's going on?! granted i should probably read the instruction manual, but if i wanted to read, i'd read a book.
as far as the space fighting, the graphics are great, but the gameplay was TERRIBLE. i couldn't figure out how to find the enemies in the vastness of space, how to shoot them or anything. i think this kind of thing should be somewhat intuitive. i don't play flight sims or anything, but i can easily figure out how to fly a plane... if you make it intuitive.
on the plus side, the single player is good so far. i'm curious as to whether battlefront 1 is a better multiplayer game than this, but i'm not sure i want to spend the money to find out.
Customer Review: AWESOME GAME
Summary: 5 Stars
this was truly a great game! it was one of the best games I have ever played, and was THE BEST shooter I have ever played. It's gameplay was easy and it is one of those games you can just pick up and learn to play in a few minutes, though it takes a couple of rounds to become familiar with the game, and space battles can be just a bit tricky.
PROS)
This game is compatible on probably any computer with windows. I have a 3 year old dell dimension 4600 that is even a bit slow on empire earth, and this game ran fine. In fact, it ran more than fine, loading a battle took about 8 seconds, which is VERY fast for my computer. So, you don't have to have a gaming computer for this game to work well
I like shooters, but first person (you can set it to third or first) shooters usually have missions where you're on your own, or with a few dumb marines, defeating waves of enemies (most of the time they're aliens)... BUT this game's missions were basically conquest modes (where you must take over enemy spawn points) where you had to destroy specific things and capture certain things (you also have like 32 people on your team)
The jedi were fun, with tons of different abilities, the other heroes who weren't jedi were good too
The space battles were very fun, with different classes of ships and frigates and central systems to bomb
There were tons of maps, each unique. For example, kashyyyk (that's right three y's) is much bigger than tantive IV. Each map also had unique features, such as the death star's bridge consoles you had to repair, and kashyyyk's wooden barricade. Teaser: The general favorites are hoth, geonosis, and mos eisley.
There were tons of vechicles, probably over 20, a few of them unique to a certain map. For instance, the ATTE is only found on geonosis and the ATAT and snowspeeders are only found on hoth. (I might add that the ATAT is extremely fun, who wouldn't enjoy driving an 100 foot tall behemoth that shoots huge lasers and bombs that send rebels flying)
I really like the feature of being able to repair things with your fusion cutter. When you are an engineer, you can repair any of your vechicles, health and ammo droids, and other various repairable features on the map, such as turrets and consoles that retract bridges or pull up gates(for example)Hint: you can also use your fusion cutter to slice into vechicles
CONS) please note that these are very small "bugs" and barely effect the GREATNESS of this game
The AI set on easy are too easy (they'll stop shooting at you and look at their surroundings when you're 3 feet away armed with a rocket launcher), and when you are on hard the AI in the area seem to aim precisely for you. I think there should've been a medium setting where the AI are smart, but act like normal soldiers and hit the easiest targets. This may seem like a big con, but until you beat the campaign you probably need the easy, and when you're experienced and are looking for a challenge, the hard setting is great
The story mode isn't very much of a story (while it is very fun) you can do almost the same exact things in instant action. There's no taking 5 smart clones and taking over a command point, its just a conquest battle, but you have certain objectives, like "take out those turrets soldier!" The campaign is still fun thoug, and you should play it to get to know the game and most of the maps
The graphics are very good, but not what I'd call amazing, which is fine with me, but for the more "hard core" gamer, they might not be enough. BUT!!! their is a HUGE PRO in this, this game will work easily on computers that arent very advanced or new, and it loads fast!
OVERALL:
This is a great game, and I am only a bit bored with it, after having played it probably 5/7 days a week for thes past 5 months. Playing online almost never gets old, but I suggest you beat the campaign and play on most of the instant action levels before you make those seem bad by playing with real people.
YOU SHOULD GET THIS GAME IF:
-you are a first person shooter (or just shooter) game fan, you will almost definitely like this
-you are a star wars fan you'll probably like it, and you'll like doing missions and fighting battles from the movies
-you are a videogame fan, and have played a few shooters and liked them, you'll probably like this
-you are a shooter fan, but are looking for a game with a good story and unique missions, you probably shouldn't get this game because the campaign isn't great
-you are a shooter fan (halo fans welcome) and like star wars (this is me) TWO WORDS-GET IT
Customer Review: The Force is strong with this game!
Summary: 5 Stars
BATTLEFRONT was a terrific game. In fact, it's one of the best "shooter" games I've ever played. For that very reason, I was a little skeptical about BATTLEFRONT 2. Like good movies, sequels to worthwhile video games frequently tend to fall short of the original.
To my delight, my worries were tossed out within a few hours of gameplay. To my great surprise, B2 is actually better(!) than the original! I expressed a sense of great relief at this.
B2 is good in that it's not simply another rendition of the original with some new maps. Yes, it has plenty of new maps, but that's just for starters. It also has some new units and new vehicles that are pretty fun. Best of all, however, is the fact that in this game you can actually be a Jedi Knight.
In the first one Jedi's were a pain in the posterior unless they happened to be on your team. They were basically invincible with only a couple ways of being killed (i.e.: running them over or blowing them off a catwalk w/a grenade). In B2 they are fierce warriors, but beatable. When you are one, it's great to wield your light sabor, but just remember your enemies CAN kill you.
Another area in which they did a serious upgrade was in dog-fighting. It was obvious in the first BATTLEFRONT that flying X-Wing fighters et all was basically an afterthought. The main thrust was infantry operations on the ground. In B2 you can actually stalk & shoot down enemy spacecraft and there are several different fighter / bombers to choose from. You can also board enemy ships & blow stuff up with hand-held bombs. This alone is one of the most enticing factors of the game.
I like STAR WARS but am not a fanatic. That said, I LOVE both BATTLEFRONT games. Like its predecessor, B2 has a great shelf-life. It's not the kind of game you play all the way through & then trade in for a different game. You can play each scenario using different units, vehicles & the like. That makes its shelf life absolutely off-the-scale. Believe me, both games are a GREAT way of working out frustrations after a long day @ the office.
Customer Review: My biggest disappointment
Summary: 3 Stars
As the delighted owner of the original Battlefront, I waited for this release with great anticipation. Perhaps that contributed to the disappointment, but mostly it was the poor execution and buggy implementation.
The concepts are great - Expanded space combat, jedi combat action, new weapons and a strong storyline make this a lush environment to explore.
So why only 3 stars? Problems with the sound and video on the game has impacted a lot of users (including myself, running top of the line ATI and Creative Labs hardware on a 3Ghz Dell), and the message boards at Lucas Arts are packed with desperate people who just wanted to play the game they paid for. The last 'patch' (all 26Mb of it) has cured some of the issues, and the many hundreds of posts relating to issues have been 'moved' off the main forums. In fact LA has greatly down sized the forums following the massive influx of poor feedback in late 2005. There are still issues with the game if you have certain hardware, and I would advise you to dig through the Lucas Arts support pages before purchasing to see if you will be impacted.
Bottom line is that this could have been an amazing game, and for those lucky enough not to be impacted I am sure they feel it is. However, the game was rushed to release while the movies were hot, and insufficient testing was done to prevent problems for a lot of Lucas fans.
We deserved better, so did the franchise.