I played the original Star Wars Battlefront games to death on the PS2 – they were the most played games on that console in my house, and split-screen gaming was an absolute joy. The kinetic energy of the gameplay and the atmospheric sights, sounds and music only added to the experience. Skip forward a couple of console generations and the increased power, visuals and scope of new systems are now being tested by one of the most anticipated games across every major platform.
Tonight was my first taste. I’ve only got a few hours on the game, and I’ve only done some of the many options the game offers, so what this is, is a first impressions review.
And my first impression? Holy cow in a garbage scow – this is something else.
Giving you four maps – Tatooine, Hoth, Endor and Sullust – with a variety of play modes and layouts, Star Wars Battlefront immediately dumps you into the thick of the action and doesn’t really let up. The easy-to-use interface allows you to run through some training and then get into the action. The intuitive controls – well, intuitive for me, at any rate, as the Playstation controller is something natural to me – makes for a smooth gameplay experience.
So let me take you through what we did tonight. First of all we had a blast at some starship combat over Tatooine in the training missions. After a quick hop down Beggar’s Canyon we joined with the enemy. It took a little time to get used to the way the ship works and by far the best way to view the action was third person, outside the ship. The action was amazing, with the sounds of TIE fighters screaming past a joy to watch and the bright, spark-filled explosions were amazing.
We then had a go at Survival mode in split-screen co-op, wave after wave of stormtroopers and AT-ATs were thrown at us as we blasted our way to victory. The vistas were incredible and the terrain so beautiful and detailed that we were there, on Tatooine, blasting the Empire. The sight of a Star Destroyer above us battling away with other ships was incredible and really showed off the hugeness of an epic Star Wars battle; even though we were just small fighters in a small battle you got the sense of the bigger war raging around you.
Then it was time for some Squadron action, online multiplayer ship-to-ship action. Sadly, it was all in-atmosphere with no space combat, but it was so energetic and quick we didn’t really care that much. It was fast and frenetic, and fighting against other players online was exhilarating. We knew that we were falling in love with the great when we whooped with joy passing through exploded TIE fighters, and when we wanted to high-five when the Falcon passed in front of us, swung round and blasted an interceptor.
We saved the best for last – a straight forward ground war in Supremacy. This was amazing, and took me back to my PS2 Battlefront days. The action was incredible and we blasted across all four planets available. The gameplay is simply fantastic; when the action begins and the music starts blasting, and you see blaster bolts screaming across the screen, explosions popping off all over and the distant sounds of shots, bangs and shouts, you really feel it. You feel the heat, the urgency and the energy, and that’s how this game gets you. It pulls you in, shakes you around and then repeatedly punches you around the face while screaming ‘THIS! IS! STAR! WARS!’
In short, it’s amazing. After just a few short hours we had moments we’ll think about for a long time; the aforementioned Falcon diving across us is one. Holding a corridor on Endor against a relentless Rebel assault. Throwing a grenade blindly over a hill and watching a stormtrooper go spinning off into the air. Trading long-range shots with an enemy, trying to keep them pinned down while your teammates move forward. Strafing ground positions. Shouting at the screen ‘GRENADE!’ when you know that nobody can hear you.
The game is not without it’s faults, however. The four worlds are great but it would have been nice to have more maps. The voice acting is, to be blunt, terrible, and even when it hits the mark it feels a little flat; the continuous quotes from the movies are fun the first time and then get irritating later. In fact, the shouting and talking in the game can get really annoying, and you just want people to shut up and stop yelling out the obvious or the unimportant. The music, while being the amazing soundtrack you’ve come to know and love from Star Wars, can feel out of place sometimes and it doesn’t always suit the action on the screen. There were also a couple of clipping issues, as well as one moment when an explosion threw me upwards through the scenery. Moments like that pull you out of the game and ruin the atmosphere.
But for pure, unadulterated fun, Battlefront hits the mark. It’s pure Star Wars and shooter fans as well as Star Wars fans are going to get a kick out of it. DLC will no doubt flesh out the game but what you get will keep you gaming for hours, and the multiplayer will continually throw new and exciting challenges at you as you come to each battle again and again.
Star Wars Battlefront is a cracking game, and well worth the long months we have had to endure waiting for it.