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February 1st, 2005

The Game Room: New Perspective on Star Wars

Sr. Assoc. Ed. Andrew Brandt

Back in November, I warned you that I might spend the subsequent two
months playing Half-Life 2 exclusively:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968859/0/

That didn't quite turn out to be the case. While I did spend a lot of
time wending my way through the twisted HL2 storyline, I also spent a
considerable number of hours in the service of the Empire--George
Lucas's empire, that is.

So what was the game that could tear me away from HL2 for any length
of time? It might surprise you that Star Wars: Battlefront, the
new(ish) first-person shooter, took up as much of my free time as did
any other game. But then again, Battlefront (which costs $50 and is
available for the PC, Xbox, and Playstation 2) is no ordinary game:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968860/0/

Battlefront puts you in the front lines of nearly every major battle
of the Star Wars saga (save for the big, climactic arena battle at the
end of Episode 2). The game transforms you from a passive observer of
the big battle on the ice planet Hoth, for example, into one of the
Rebel foot soldiers, dug into the snow and defending the shield
generator against an onslaught of Imperial walkers:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968861/0/

Unlike the turn-based strategy game Knights of the Old Republic,
Battlefront doesn't demand that you choose only the light or the dark
side of the Force. You can play either side--and switch allegiances
instantly.

The conflicts are set during either the Galactic Civil War, otherwise
known as the Luke and Leia era, or the Clone Wars in which the modern
trilogy is set. Best of all, you can play just a few, quick rounds of
Battlefront and then get back to everyday life; HL2 demands a lot more
time.

By the way, I took a quick look at Knights of the Old Republic when it
first came out:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968862/0/

Work Alone or Together

Battlefront's mechanics are heavily derivative of another company's
first-person franchise. Dice, which wrote both Battlefield: 1942 and
Battlefield: Vietnam, seems to have set the rules for Battlefront,
even though Dice didn't have anything to do with the LucasArts
project.

You choose one of five character types, each with different skills and
vulnerabilities, just before you enter a battle area:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968863/0/

You enter the game world by choosing a "spawn point"--a location that
your team controls---on a small map. You appear in a random location
within a certain radius of the spawn point each time your character
returns to the battle after a death. As your team gains control of the
map territory, you gain additional spawn points, closer to the front
lines, by killing members of the opposing team who are near the spawn
point, then by standing close to the point while a counter ticks down:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968864/0/

Control gradually transitions from the enemy camp to your own.

Spawn points change hands faster--the countdown runs more
quickly--when more members of your team stick close to the location,
so it makes sense to attack in groups. But if you want to be a lone
gunman, so to speak, you can. It just doesn't often make sense to do
so.

Bad Guys Have More Fun

Of course, the time period in which you play determines whether your
Stormtroopers are good guys or bad guys. But I can't deny that I love
playing as a clumsy blaster-wielding Stormtrooper, no matter which
time period. There's something deliciously foolhardy about fighting
guerrillas in a jungle while wearing bright white armor with no
camouflage whatsoever.

Besides, the Stormtroopers get to use the coolest vehicles, all of
which can be commanded instantly: the monstrously large, hulking AT-AT
walkers (and their puny cousins, the AT-STs); squirrely TIE Fighters;
and tanks and armored personnel carriers from the Clone Wars era.
Despite the incredible slowness of the giant walkers, can anyone
seriously argue that the Rebels had, er, a snowball's chance in hell
of beating the heavily armored Empire divisions on Hoth?

Meanwhile, Rebel sympathizers get to fly X-Wing fighters, Snowspeeders
(the squat aircraft best used to spool cables around the legs of
AT-ATs), and those incredibly fast, unbelievably dangerous hovering
motorcycles that you should never, ever fly in a heavily wooded
forest. In the Clone Wars era, the Droid Army of the Galactic Trade
Federation gets a few additional vehicles, including some oddball
tanks that look like a Patriot missile system mounted between two
enormous bicycle wheels.

For every advantage a vehicle provides the owner, there's a countering
disadvantage that helps balance the game. Ewoks, those cute, fuzzy
teddy bears, unleash massive swinging logs that can take out an AT-ST
with one crushing blow:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968865/0/

Aircraft are potent weapons, but they are enormously difficult to fly
using a keyboard and mouse. And players with antitank weapons can take
out speeders and armored vehicles in a few shots.

A Few Nagging Problems

The game isn't perfect. In fact, a problem that exists in Dice's
Battlefield games made it into Battlefront: AI characters, the "bots"
that operate any character that you or another player aren't
controlling, are just really stupid sometimes. They don't do a great
job piloting tanks or AT-ATs. They drive the wrong way and get stuck
in corners, unable to turn or move. And they follow instructions only
up to a point, after which they go off and do their own (stupid) thing
again. In the single-player game, the AI is so stultifyingly bad at
driving that I often am forced to wrest control of a vehicle from the
computer-controlled character just to prevent a vehicle's imminent and
easily avoidable destruction.

While I've enjoyed taking the controls of most of the vehicles in the
game, the flying ships--TIEs, X-Wings, and Snowspeeders, among
others--are pretty much off-limits to me. I've never felt the need to
get a flight stick to accessorize my first-person shooter games, so
I'm stuck piloting craft with a mouse and keyboard. That's a bad idea:
These are the worst flight controls you can use. On the bright side,
I'm getting really good at ditching my aircraft into a platoon of
enemies, so at least I take some of them out when I go down.

I'm also waiting for some new maps to appear: The originals are
getting a bit old, and many of the custom maps that have been released
online are just modified versions of the original maps--although one,
called Jundland Wastes, is a real blast:


Battlefront isn't a perfect first-person shooter. But all in all,
despite its shortcomings, the game makes for an entertaining romp that
doesn't take too much of your precious playing time to complete.

For more game reviews, browse the PC World site:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/968867/0/

Have a question or comment? Write to Andrew Brandt:
gameroom at pcworld.com

Read Andrew Brandt's regularly published "Game Room" columns:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/359704/15377831/364542/0/


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     	"I really don't care how anybody views me, 'cause what I eat don't make you shit, so why is there a bad taste in your mouth?"  
		-- Warren Sapp