Hey guys, Tony from Gamefreakblog here, once again bringing you another episode in the "Gamefreak revisits" series. Today, i'm having a quick look at Star Wars Battlefront 2, the epic space battle game developed by the now sadly defunct Pandemic studios.The game was released in 2005, hot on the heels of the new Star Wars movies, and a little under a year since the first game in the series. It took what was established in the hugely selling first game and added a load more options, all in all your typical sequel. However, some of the changes it made were leaps and bounds over what was offered in the original battlefield game.
Firstly there was a new campaign mode, which saw you play through the various levels as a clone from the 501st legion, following this veteran test tube warrior through the battles of the new Star Wars films, all the way through to donning the classic Stormtrooper armour as the new empire rose to power. So we get to play levels from Geonosis, which hosts the game's training mission, through to levels such as the cloning facility on Kamino, all the way to battles on Yavin and Hoth from the original trilogy. In certain levels, killing enough of the enemy and taking swift control of the battlefield saw one of the more famous characters from the films unlocked, and you got to run around the battlefield as Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace, or indeed the villans such as Darth Vader etc, slaying anything that moves and sticking that laser sword where you'll never get a suntan!
There was also a mode called "galactic conquest", which was almost like an interplanetary game of risk. You had to fight over various star systems, which when contested you fought a usual battle over, victory seeing you open up various characters and bonus options to carry over into further fights. Both this and the campaign mode added some much needed beef to what was a fairly weak campaign in the first game.
Online modes were further added to, the better part of which were the newly added space battles. Now, you could start off on your armies ship, fly out into the shooty-laser-death place that is outer space, and after blowing several shades of space crap out of the enemy you could then land in their ship and fight in there. It was a fantastic feeling to be able to free-fly around like this, and it really added to the "feeling" of being in the Star Wars films.
Anyway, i'm not going to prattle on too much longer. It was a bloody ace game, and i'm sure you have all played it. If not, it's really worth tracking down a copy. You won't be able to play online, as the servers have now died (and please excuse my mistake in the video....I was told by a few people before playing the game that the servers have only just died....from looking around it was this time LAST YEAR that they were turned off.....my informants have now been disintegrated). It's still highly playable campaign mode is a joy, and you can play against each other via split screen. It's just a shame that there are no other SW Battlefront games in the pipeline, as just from sales alone you can see that they are popular. Out of all the remakes and usual bollocks Lucasfilm churns out, you would have thought they would have snapped up Pandemic and got them working on a new game. Fuck, George Lucas could probably fund it from what change he's dropped down the back of his sofa!
Anyhoo.....sit back, and watch me play through the training mission, which, lo and behold, is set on Geonosis.
Ah, brings back the memories. By all means, if you want to see any more of the game, just drop me a comment on here, on twitter or the youtube channel. If you missed my thoughts on the other Star Wars games i've looked at, look here for SW Republic Commando and fly on over here for my peek at Lego Star Wars 3.
And just to make you cry even more, look down below for a sneak peek at what Star Wars Battlefront 3 would have looked like before it was canned. I'll never forgive Lucasarts for canning this.....
So there you go. Star Wars Battlefront 2. One fantastic game....
Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.
Star Wars Battlefield 2 is availble on PS2, PC, Xbox and PSP.
Just to point out...
ReplyDeleteSW:BF3 was never canned officially. It died when Free Radical died as the technology behind this version of the game went with them. It passed onto Rebellion who decided to focus solely on AvP which led it into development hell.
Strong rumour has it that it is being developed still by the team at Crytek UK (who are the original developers Free Radical) and has been rebuilt under the cry engine using the land to sky tech that was shown in the leaked video.
Well let's hope so Scott. I know that Rebellion got the franchise handed over to them when Free Radical went the way of the Dodo.
ReplyDeleteIf what you're saying is true it's good news....I just want them to say "yes, it's still alive, it's still being worked on".
Silence is violence, as an old friend of mine used to say.
Thanks for your comment sir. Nice one.