Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2639 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2005-10-31
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Xbox

Amazon.co.uk Preview
With the latest movie almost making up for the quality of the first two films it looks like Star Wars has won back the hearts and minds of fans everywhere and Battlefront II aims to be the perfect celebration of that. Like the original it’s a sort of Star Wars version of PC hit Battlefield 1942, where two armies face off against each other, either off or online, jumping in and out of various vehicles as they find them.

Of course in Battlefield 1942 "various vehicles" meant jeeps and tanks, in Battlefront II it means X-wings, TIE Fighters, AT-ATs and, for the first time, Episode III vehicles like the BARC speeder, Jedi Starfighter II and V-wing.

The biggest change to the game, apart from the new vehicles, is space battles with several of the levels taking part aboard giant space cruisers which you can exit in starfighters, have a dogfight in deep space around and then pilot back to for a bit more on foot combat. Levels include the Blockade Runner from the beginning of A New Hope, the space battle above Coruscant and Utapau and Mustafa from Episode III.

Another long awaited addition is playable Jedi, although you can only be one for a short time so as to not unbalance the gameplay. Although the emphasis is on online play the single player mode has been beefed up with better artificial intelligence and a proper story linking all the missions. "Star Wars fans, like this, they will", as Yoda would say (if he was real and wrote game previews instead of being a Jedi Master). -- Harrison Dent

This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.

Manufacturer's Description
Star Wars Battlefront II improves upon the original game's single-player experience with open-ended, mission-based objectives inspired from all six Star Wars films. The compelling storyline spans more than 12 new locations, many from Episode III, including volcanic Mustafar and the space battle above Coruscant. All-new classic movie moments complete the Star Wars Battlefront II experience, as players battle within the interior of the Death Star and visit Princess Leia's blockade runner, the Tantive IV, as seen at the beginning of Episode IV A New Hope. In addition, at certain key moments within the battles, players can feel the Force as a Jedi.

For the first time ever, Star Wars Battlefront II players can engage in space combat and, during the same battle, board enemy ships to attack from within. Starting on foot inside a capital ship, players can enter the spacecraft of their choice and travel into space to dogfight with the rival faction. From there, they can dock within the enemy's capital ship, overtake the ship's command posts, man its turrets to disable its shields and destroy it from within! Or, they can simply stay inside their own capital ship and defend it from attacks and enemy fire. The choice is theirs.

The stellar online play that marked the original Star Wars Battlefront returns even bigger and better for Star Wars Battlefront II. Players can locate their buddies and track their stats as they battle alongside more players than ever (up to 24 on PS2, 32 on Xbox, 64 on Windows).

Customer Reviews

Very Good!
INTRODUCTION:
In 2004, Star Wars Battlefront was released. Although not wildly popular at its time of release, the game gradually won many gamers over with its awesome gameplay. The deathmatch-style gaming in a galaxy far, far away ended up becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time! Still, while it was one of the best Star Wars games ever, it did lack in a few areas, and it left fans yearning for a sequel. One finally arrived in the Fall of 2005! Is it an improvement? Read on for my review of Star Wars Battlefront II.

REVIEW:
I had high expectations for this game, being that the first Battlefront was one of my all-time favorite Star Wars gaming experiences. The sequel takes this already-excellent formula, and makes it even better in a number of ways! Let's see how it fares.

-THE GAMEPLAY THAT MADE THE ORIGINAL BATTLEFRONT SUCH A GREAT GAME MAKES A COMEBACK HERE. The original game was a Star Wars fan favorite, and I'm not at all surprised that the basic gameplay concepts, for the most part, remain unchanged in most modes of play.

-THE STORY MODE HAS GOTTEN A REVAMP. Rather than just generic battles aroun the galaxy, it has become mission and objective-oriented. The alteration makes for a refreshing change of pace from the standard battle games.

-TONS OF NEW LOCATIONS TO TAKE THE FIGHT TO. The locales you'll explore in this game have greatly been expanded. Now, you can fight in a great deal more places than the first game. Episode III worlds like Utapau and Mustafar are now playable, as well as other classic Star Wars scenes like Dagobah and the interior of the Death Star.

-SPACE COMBAT! This is the thing the game is getting a lot of hype for. You can now do your battles in space! The sheer amount of options in such a battle makes these some of the funnest things the game offers. You can fly a starfighter and attack enemy ships from the outside, or land in their docks and cause destruction from the inside out (and maybe even steal an enemy fighter!) This is definitely one of the game's best features.

-JEDI/SITH CHARACTERS NOW PLAYABLE. Such characters were just "extras" on the battle scenes of the first Battlefront, but now they are playable! In your battles, sometimes you'll get an option to play as one if you fulfill certain objectives. Now a whole cast of them is available for play, and it definitely makes your fights more interesting.

-LOTS OF OTHER NEW STUFF. For instance, in some battles, you can earn points by killing foes, and my killing them and getting these points you can choose from other character classes that weren't available at the beginning of the battle. There are also tons of new vehicles, including many that premiered in Episode III.

-GRAPHICS ARE BETTER THAN EVER! If you thought the first Battlefront had great graphics, you haven't seen anything yet. This is about as good as a game of this type could possible look.

Overall, the sequel to the best-selling Star Wars game of all time is even better than its awesome-in-its-own-right predecessor. If you liked the first Battlefront, you're bound to like the second one even better. I give it my highest possible recommendation if you're a fan of Star Wars. Pick this one up. It may be a little hard to learn if you're new to this sort of thing, but ultimately, you should agree that this game rocks.

Must Try harder - 3 1/2 Stars
One week in to playing, what was for me, the most eagerly anticipated sequel of 2005 and I must say that I'm a little dissapointed.

It's not that this is a bad game, it isn't, but you get the feeling that it should have been so much better. I suppose that when you think about it, it's always going to be difficult to improve on a genuine Classic (think HALO 2 and KOTOR 2), the fact that the original was so good is always going to make improvements to the sequel difficult.

In this case, they've tried, and have succeeded in some aspects; the introduction of useful Awards (in the original Awards meant nothing but bragging rights) giving better weapons etc, a Story Mode with varied objectives and a far more in-depth Galactic Conquest mode but they forgot about improving (or at least maintaining the Satus Quo of) the most important part of any game...basic GAMEPLAY.

The fantastically smooth scrolling and clear detailed individual characters have been replaced with a stuttering scroll and characters about as clear as Manic Miner was.

AI which was pretty good in the first one is now very dodgy, and when in trouble a quick run away will often do the trick as the eneny character resets himself in his original position.

Far too often publishers of a successful title will make a few superficial changes/improvements and forget about the important stuff such as gameplay, knowing full well that it'll still shift a million copies or so off the back of the original even with not so good word of mouth.

Not a bad game but should have been better!

Soooo much better than tha first
After playing Battlefront 1 for hours, but wishing for more.
You got it this game has me playing it on so many levels. You can fight as a Jedi, play over 16 new maps if you were familiar with the old maps some have had a facelift for the sequal. You fight in the skies boarding the enemy'sships and try to sabotage them from within. The games are faster and more frenzied with the new characters they are more diverse and if you become good at sniping. demolition or slicing into vehicles you get awards and these rankings can be used to make you a better player. Over all the game is better, faster and really enjoyable you don't need to have X-box live unlike the first one where the game wore thin after a while you can still enjoy single player mode for hours with loads of missions. Great game looking forward to the X-box 360 version.