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Published and developed by LucasArts & Savage Entertainment and with help from Pandemic, this is the first Battlefront game to appear on the PSP.  And as a multi-platform port of the highly acclaimed original, the PSP version has a lot to live up to. Released in 2005, the PSP version sold over 1 million copies and for good reason, the game is true to the original in many ways but yet falters in many others. 

 

Reliving the battles from the Star Wars saga and taking command of a single soldier from either the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, CIS or Republic is a Star Wars fans' dream come true. The Battlefront games are like being a kid again playing with a massive action figure collection in your backyard. In videogame form though it's like a few more steps closer to reality. In the game you can choose your class and fight either on foot or with vehicles in ground wars, or dog-fight with fightercraft in space.

 

 

Let's explore the basic gameplay. The goal of the main game mechanic is to defeat the other team by either destroying all of their tickets, whereby a ticket represents 1 soldier. Or, you can defeat other team by capturing all of their command posts(respawn points). Each time a soldier falls on the battlefield they respawn as another soldier(ticket).

 

When you enter the map you are given a choice between a few classes to play as such as a soldier wielding blaster rile, a sniper rifle or rocket launcher. After certain goals within the game are met, more specialized classes unlock and are choosable after respawning. Anyone familiar with Battlefront II on consoles will feel right at home here as the PSP version mimics the basic layout perfectly. This version looks and sounds and plays just like the console games.

 

Just like the console versions there are Accomplishments that are awarded during gameplay and are tracked throughout your career. If you meet certain requirements such as getting 6 head shots with one life with a certain weapon you will earn a medal. Gaining more medals will unlock multiple levels of that reward which stay with you in all game modes. Medals are viewable after every match

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like the console versions of the same name, players are given a few modes of play such as Instant Action where you pick a map on a playlist, pick an era then a game mode and fight it out against bots. Galactic Conquest is a turn-based strategy mode where you decide the outcome of your fleet by playing within the game maps like in Instant Action but this time you can occupy planets and gain credits to upgrade your troops in the hopes to take over or save the galaxy. Last, but not least we have the story mode and multi-player and this is where the game starts to get messy.

 

 

The "story" mode from the console version has been removed but in it's place are three "story" like challenge missions where you must either kill a certain mumber of enemies within a time limit, collect a certain amount of items or assassinate specific enemies. Each challenge has multiple levels which increase in difficulty as you progress. All three challenges are fun and while they don't tell a story, it is neat to take command of other characters doing their jobs like the assassination challenge for example. 

 

On the multi-player side of things, there sadly is no infrastructure online, only Ad-Hoc local wireless is playable and it's limited to only four players.  I guess in the attempt to squeeze as much of the original Battlefront II into a portable device some corners had to be cut and online was one such corner. Another corner that was cut was draw distance. There is a heavy use of fog on all the maps that made it in. The maps that are in the game are the same size as they were in the console games but it's fairly hard to see anything far away because of the fog. The map of Kashyyyk, for example, is in the game and everywhere you look there's grey fog so it makes sniping quite difficult.

 

 

Another thing, or things that were cut are some of the maps. That too is a drawback, many of the maps didn't make the cut and with them so did some of the vehicles. There are still a lot of fun maps and modes of play but I wish they could of squeezed a few more in like the Death Star. At least Tantive IV is in, that's a great map for corridor shooting. Load times are also pretty long. And it's very disappointing that none of the cannons on capital ships can be manned nor can you do anything on a capital ship other then boarding and running around in just the hanger bay. The rest of the ships are locked away.

 

 

Phew, those are a lot of negatives but there are pluses, don't worry. The first and third person perspective choices are both accessible so if you want to play the game as a first person shooter you can. The mode on Hoth where you can play as the Rebels against the Wampas is there in full hilarious force as well as other hunt modes such as the Jawa and Sand People. AT-AT's are fully drivable in any direction and the animation of the sometimes muddy graphics are silky smooth. Best of all, the AI has been made smarter then the console version. All in all, even with the negatives, this is Battlefront II on a handheld. In this case the positives outweigh the negatives because in it's most basic sense, the game is true to the original design more so then the two PSP sequels.