Difficult Simple

It has been the goal of video game designers for 20-plus years — going all the way back to the Atari 2600, in fact — to capture the frenetic energy of the Star Wars films’ biggest action set pieces. Only in recent years, however, has technology improved to the point where such a thing is remotely possible, and the pent-up demand for pure, unadulterated Star Wars battle resulted in the best-selling Star Wars game of all time: Star Wars Battlefront.

From a design standpoint, Star Wars Battlefront is not original. The basic game structure is lifted directly from Battlefield 1942, a WWII action game where hordes of players, online or off, swarm over strategic “control points” in order to either command the entire battlefield or simply wipe out the enemy to the last man. In Star Wars Battlefront, control points are replaced with “command posts,” and the enemies are not the Axis and Allies combatants of WWII, but the familiar foes of the six Star Wars films.

Players assume the role of a single soldier/droid/clone (depending on the era in question) and take to the field on a variety of familiar and not-so-familiar planets. Vehicles as massive and lumbering as The Empire Strikes Back’s AT-AT are mountable and usable, and the nimble but fragile speeder bikes of Return of the Jedi likewise make an appearance. Different soldiers/droids/clones have different abilities and weapons, and choosing what and when to use the various characters is part of the overall strategy of the game.

At the heart of Star Wars Battlefront, though, is run-and-gun action. It’s possible to take to the (limited) skies in an X-Wing, but battles are won or lost on the ground in blaster-blazing exchanges that are every bit as intense as anything in the movies themselves. The combination of sharp graphics and well-staged action sometimes blurs the line between game and film in a very satisfying way. The various troops die by the scores as the energy bolts fly and some of the available maps can be brutal meat grinders.

If Star Wars Battlefront is missing anything, it’s story meat. While there are different campaign modes — ones that simulate the “historic” battles of the movies, and some theoretical match-ups — the game is decidedly bare-bones in presentation. This would be corrected in Star Wars Battlefront II, but Star Wars Battlefront is merely content to give players the fights they’ve been looking for. Still, a bit more on the plot side would explain the significance of planets like Rhen Var, a fairly generic ice planet that’s easy to confuse with Hoth.

Shortcomings aside, Star Wars Battlefront is a great game that manages to retain its replay value even after its sequel’s release. Pitched battles between Rebels and Imperials never get old, no matter which side one chooses, and that’s the hallmark of a truly solid gaming experience.