Saving the Galaxy…or Conquering It: Star Wars Battlefront

By Jonathan Berohn

In the afterglow of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, all things Star Wars are still rage. In fact, Lucas Arts is getting ready to introduce Star Wars Battlefront II.  This makes now the perfect time to pick up a deeply discounted copy of Star Wars Battlefront.

Obviously, and game with a sequel was good enough to attract a following, but Star Wars Battlefront is more than just a cannibal of the franchise’s success. Star Wars Battlefront lets you reenact the major battles from throughout the movie sequence and fight for either side in the contest to rule the galaxy.

The Plot

For the 2 of you who don’t know, I will refer you to the Star Wars movies to get a basic understanding of what is going on in Star Wars Battlefront.  For the rest of you, you’ll be interested to know that you can fight as the Republic, Droids, Clone Troopers, Rebels, or the Empire and reenact battles from all of the major engagements of the movies (except Episode III).  There is a single player campaign game as well as good online options to keep you intrigued after you beat the game on your own.

Game Play

Star Wars Battlefront’s game play is really it’s main strength.  The game is based on the familiar first person shooter format, but it is much more open-ended than most shooters.  For one thing, you fight as part of an AI army.  To win, you have to destroy the other side’s forces and/or seize objectives.  The other fun and interesting touch is your ability to change characters on the fly.  Briefly, every time you die you can respawn as a different character.  This lets you, for example, play a wookie for a while, switch to a sniper, then pick up a big old rocket launcher as the situation or your whim dictates.

Replayability

Replayability is another one of Star Wars Battlefront’s strengths.  Given all the various sides and forces at your disposal, there are hundreds of combinations for you to choose from.  Even without turning to multiplayer, there is plenty of content in Star Wars Battlefront to keep you entertained for quite a while.