Star Wars: Battlefront

Star Wars: Battlefront
Developer(s)	Pandemic studios
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Release date	September 20, 2004
Genre	Third/First-person Action Adventure
Modes	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, Mac OS X

This article is about original Star Wars: Battlefront game. You may be looking for the DICE game Star Wars Battlefront'''.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a first-person/third-person shooter (interchangeable) video game based around battles featured in the Star Wars films. It is the first game of the highly successful Star Wars: Battlefront Series. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts, and released on September 21, 2004 for Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Windows, the same day as the release of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set. Aspyr released a Mac port in July 2005. People can either play Battlefront online with up to 32 players on PC, Mac and Xbox, and 16 players on PS2, or offline with up to 2 players. The Xbox version is backwards compatible with the Xbox 360.

A sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, was released on November 1, 2005 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. In late 2004, LucasArts released the Star Wars Battlefront BFBuilder, an unsupported mod that allowed fans to create new battlefields for Battlefront I.

A second sequel, Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron was released October 2007.

A third sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront III, was said to be in development for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC by the developer Free Radical. However, the project was scrapped in 2008.

For a while, it looked as though Spark Unlimited were creating Battlefront 3, but unfortunately it turned out they were developing Lost Planet 3.

Currently there is no sign of an official Battlefront 3, however there is speculation that an upcoming game called Star Wars: First Assault may be a spiritual successor to the great Battlefront series.

It is also worth checking out the predecessor to the Battlefront games, ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' (2002) game.

Gameplay[]

Battlefront is centered around battles between four main factions from both the Prequel and the Classic trilogies: the Grand Army of the Republic (or simply Galactic Republic or Republic) and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (also known as the CIS or Separatists) of the prequel era, and the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire of the classic trilogy. Each faction is stuck in their respective era, meaning that cross-era battles cannot be fought (no Rebels vs. CIS). Within each faction, five different classes of characters are playable. Four of the classes are fairly similar for each faction: a basic infantry soldier (Super Battle Droids for the Separatists, Stormtroopers for the Empire, etc), a heavy weapons soldier, a pilot, and a sniper. Each faction also has a special fifth unit with unique abilities and weapons.

Jedi heroes are featured in the game: Luke Skywalker for the Rebellion, Darth Vader for the Empire, Mace Windu for the Republic, and Count Dooku for the CIS. Jedi characters appear but are not playable; they may only be allies in battle, and then only under certain circumstances (such as when the faction activates the hero bonus in the Galactic Conquest mode). They cannot be killed with direct fire, but can be knocked off of ledges using grenades or crushed by certain vehicles, causing a death. When the reinforcement meter reaches 10% of its original number, the Jedi hero dies and does not return.

There are also non-player characters (NPCs): Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea of Tatooine (they are hostile to both factions involved in the conflict), Jawas on the streets of Mos Eisley (they are passive and don't attack). Ewoks aid the Rebellion on the forest moon of Endor, Gungans aid the Republic on the plains of Naboo, Geonosians help the CIS in the Battle of Geonosis, and Wookiees aid the Rebellion and Republic on Kashyyyk.

Playable classes[]

Click the links below to view each category of units.

Planet battlefields[]

Bespin: Cloud City and Platforms.
Endor: Bunker.
Geonosis: Spire.
Hoth: Echo Base
Kamino: Tipoca City
Kashyyyk: Islands and Docks.
Naboo: Theed and Plains
Rhen Var: Citadel and Harbor
Tatooine: Mos Eisley and Dune Sea
Yavin 4: Arena and Temple
Tatooine: Jabba´s Palace (Update 1.02) [1]

Critical response[]

Although the developer and publisher received very positive reviews, there were some criticisms of the game.

Factions[]

Some players were disappointed that the factions of different eras could not play each other (e.g CIS vs. Rebels, etc.). Although this is understandable from a chronological point of view, many players thought that the enjoyment of having such battles would balance out the historical inaccuracy.

Maps[]

Many players complained that some of the maps were biased; designed for one side to win. Even on the easy setting, some players could not complete various missions. The infantry orientated maps (i.e. maps with no vehicles) were also criticized for being unimaginatively designed, and containing obvious choke points, which were confining and prevent many players from enjoying those particular maps. However, no maps were unbeatable, despite the thoughts of some gamers, and other gamers enjoyed the challenge that seemingly biased maps gave.

Vehicles[]

Many of the vehicles in Battlefront were deemed to be overpowered. This is because it would usually take infantry from many different classes to bring down one vehicle, something which the AI were criticized for not being able to do. This was shown particularly on the AT-AT vehicle, on which infantry weapons did negligible damage. As the AT-AT acts as a mobile command point, this caused maps with AT-ATs very hard to win as the Rebel forces.

Infantry[]

The infantry in the game were criticized for their blandness, i.e. every race had a blanket infantry selection (basic soldier, shock/heavy trooper, pilot, and sniper), though this was balanced out a little by the addition of special units (the Jet Trooper for the Republic, the Dark Trooper for the Imperials, the Wookiee Smuggler for the Rebels and the Droideka for the CIS). Also, many players complained that the Federation special unit (the Droideka) was overpowered compared to the other races special units. However, a player could strafe around a Droideka staying beyond it's range of blasters as the player can move around it faster than the Droideka can turn 360 degrees.

PS2 Version[]

The PlayStation Version was criticized as the weakest version of Battlefront. It had limited multiplayer support, the textures were blurrier and the models had no shading whatsoever. The multiplayer was the most criticized part of the PS2 experience. The PS2 version could only support 16 players, but that was via a PC using special software. If such software was not used, then the PS2 could only have 4 human players with 6 AI-controlled bots, which on larger maps, proved to be inadequate and unsatisfactory to many players.

Demo[]

Critics have used the Battlefront demo to support accusations the game was rushed. There was a playable demo in the original Star Wars Trilogy bonus DVD. If put into an Xbox, an early version of the Battle of Endor mission is playable. Differences in the graphics and sound are slight, but in gameplay are significant. Each side has only three classes to choose from (Imperials have the Stormtrooper, Scout Trooper, and Imperial Pilot, while the Rebels have the Rebel Trooper, Vanguard, and Wookiee Smuggler). Instead of turrets, there are blasters mounted on walls, and walls without blasters can be built. The shield bunker cannot be entered. There are no medical or ammo droids, only health and ammo stations that must be built with arc welders, carried by the Imperial pilot and Wookiee Smuggler, to use. Finally, a feature dropped from the final game is that the main infantry weapons, the blaster rifles and thermal detonators, have alternate functions. For example, the rebel soldier's rifle can be fired in semi-automatic mode or charged to release a more powerful shot. Indeed, features in the demo were cut for no apparent reason, apart from time constraint.

Cast[]

Voice cast[]

G.W. Childs as Imperial Infantry
Chris Cox as Alliance Infantry, CIS Infantry, CIS Officer, Gungan Infantry
Nick Jameson as Alliance Officer, Darth Sidious, Emperor Palpatine
Tom Kane as Admiral Ackbar, Yoda
Temuera Morrison as Republic Infantry, Republic Officer
David Robb as Imperial Officer

Archive footage appearances[]

All scenes are taken from Episodes I, II, IV, V, and VI.