45%PlayStation 2

Licensed games have gone through a bit of an identity crisis over the course of video game history. First beloved, then reviled, now a mix of both, licensed games have always been a beacon, drawing in new potential players by relying on familiar worlds and characters, and the chance to "step inside the world of" their favorite franchises is often an appealing one. And by far, the king of the licensed games is Star Wars. The correlation makes sense; it's the 4th-highest media grossing franchise of all time, and the crossover between the sci-fi and gaming fandoms has always been quite strong. Star Wars itself is one of the top-selling video game franchises, and it's been popular ever since home consoles became mainstream. Generally, games in the series would follow the player as they took on the role of a Jedi, legendary pilot, or some other larger-than-life character. Not until 2004 were players finally able to experience the chaos of galactic-scale warfare from the perspective of a common foot soldier, thanks to the Pandemic Studios breakout hit, Star Wars: Battlefront.

Taking the roll of an unnamed rebel, droid, clone, or stormtrooper, Battlefront's biggest strengths were its iconic maps and massive battles. Most battles will show a reinforcement count starting out at 200 for each side, and while there aren't actually 400 units on the map at once, it sometimes feels like there are. Particularly well designed maps, like Bespin: Platforms or Geonosis, focus on creating a central area that teams are constantly battling over, and in those areas, it's as much chaos and craziness as you'd expect from such an epic series. And whether you're attacking one choke point or trying to flank the enemy's command post, there's a fair amount of strategy that allows players to approach each map with a different plan. Losing too many command posts also depletes your reinforcements, so even if you're racking up dozens and dozens of kills, you're forced to play objectively if you want to defeat the enemy, especially on harder difficulties. Classes are generally pretty similar throughout different factions, but there's a variety of land and air vehicles to use that allows you to vary your approach as well.

What has been described in the last paragraph is accurate for multiplayer battles, and even if that only means split screen co-op to you, it's a pretty good time with that in mind. As a single-player experience, however, it leaves a bit to be desired. The historical campaigns, while generally familiar to Star Wars fans, will be basically incomprehensible to anyone else. (Both are just short cutscenes from the films followed by a brief "explanation" of your mission.) They also don't vary much from standalone battles, as there are no additional objectives to complete other than the typical "reduce enemy reinforcement count to zero." Much more impactful was Battlefront's Galactic Conquest mode, which really gave life to the concept of a war that spanned solar systems. Still, for solo players, it didn't do much to assuage the poor AI, especially for teammates. Capturing enemy command posts is something you'll find yourself doing by yourself a lot, and as a result, sometimes the game feels more like you against an army than an evenly matched battle.

Some classes don't have the best balance, either; the CIS's Droideka, for example, is always vastly superior to anything it comes in contact with. Spawn points can also be finnicky, and without the multiplayer fun factor, it can be pretty easy for battles to start feeling repetitive. It should be said though that, beyond the game's sense of scale, it's impressive due to its atmosphere as a Star Wars game. For fans of the franchise, the feeling of stepping into the battles previously only shown on film is undoubtedly a huge bonus, and it captures a lot of the series's famous locales quite well. While Star Wars: Battlefront is a relatively simple game—there's not even a run option—it nails the aesthetics and the feel of Star Wars, even if its gameplay doesn't always hold up.

Just a year following Battlefront's release, Pandemic would go on to release Star Wars: Battlefront II. It changes a lot, and many of those changes are direct improvements to the first. But while the sequel is generally considered to be superior, Battlefront is still a fine enough introduction to the very base of the series. Its map design is good, its AI is not, and it has just enough unique aspects that make it worth coming back to every so often. It just doesn't have the stickiness to make those return trips very long.

70%PC

Honestly I dont have much to say about this game, because there's really not much of a game here. I only played the single player campaign, because id imagine a 20 year old game probably doesn't have an active multiplayer playerbase, and honestly I'm pretty happy with what I played. Sure, there is literally no story, and you just capture points for 3 hours, but what makes this game so fun is honestly just the locations.

Battlefront is a really accurate title, because it really does feel like your in the middle of a battlefield with a war going on around you. I think this game does a fantastic job of recreating battles and locations from the first two trilogys and I honestly loved exploring all these different maps. I think each mission lasts the perfect amount of time, and the game isn't really too long. Honestly this felt like a short trip thru the star wars universe and not much more.

The gameplay is also really fun, and id imagine that this game would be killer playing with and against other people, however id say the single player aspect holds up as well. I do like all the different classes, and while I didn't really explore many of them, the ones I did were all pretty good. I do think that the ttk is a little low in this game, which can be annoying when your trying to capture a point alone, but honestly I'm sure they didn't really have that in mind since this is a multiplayer focused game. I really like how to actually win the singleplayer missions, you have to actually do stuff instead of just letting the bots do stuff for you. If you don't actively play the objective and kill vehicles then you probably wont win.

Overall, I cant recommend this can based on the campaign alone, besides if your a fan of the first two trilogies. I am not the biggest star wars fan, however I do appreciate the locations in this game, especially for the original trilogy. If this game somehow does have an active playerbase some day, then I can really easily recommend this because its a fun and hectic star wars game. Based on the campaign alone, really it just comes down to if you wanna spend a short and fun 3 hours in the star wars world.

100%PC

Star Wars Battlefront is a game from 2004, but has been recently patched and works well on modern systems. It's extremely well put together and allows you to experience epic Star Wars battles from episodes I to VI as a Rebel, Imperial, Clone Trooper or Battle Droid.

There's a huge choice of weapons and vehicles/spacecraft that make this such an enjoyable experience. Even today, when there are more modern Star Wars games available, this still shines as one of the best.

70%PC

Had good graphics for its time

80%Xbox

This is a solid game that is elevated by the franchise it is built around. The Star Wars aesthetic is ultimately the main draw here, with the great attention to detail and strong use of the sounds and look of the franchise feeling like a natural extension of the franchise. As a class-based conquest shooter with some mild strategy elements, it derives quite a bit of engaging and fun gameplay options from its straightforward presentation and minimal content. There are admittedly not a lot of modes or maps, but most maps are well designed enough to have multiple set piece scenarios that make each match feel exciting and interesting. The multiplayer is especially fun, with the maps’ intricacies and class dynamics really shining when you have human opponents. One apparent weakness is how poor the AI is. This sometimes works in favor of the single player modes, allowing for a different but still fun style of play than the multiplayer, but mostly makes the game ridiculously easy. Perhaps this is a concession for younger players, but this does mean the single player is largely not representative of the multiplayer. There’s also not a lot to unlock or discover outside what’s immediately on display, but I think the game offers enough to justify itself. Overall, the game is good, but truthfully it is entirely surpassed by its immediate sequel. I’d say it’s still worth trying if you’ve never played a game from this series, though.

80%PlayStation 2

Battlefront isn't as good as its sequel, but its still damn good, and more simplistic. Battlefront only contains prequel content based off of Attack of the Clones as well as The Phantom Menace, but the game is such a novel concept that it still works even today. The campaign isn't anything to write home about, but it's still fun. That's the common theme with Battlefront, really. It's just fun, and that's all that matters. Galactic Conquest was a precursor of what it would become in Battlefront 2, but still showcased the potential it had as a mode while being great.

Great game overall.

Score: 86

60%Xbox

Really hasn't aged well but I still had a decent amount of fun with it. It's sequel is an improvement in almost every single way (except for the map variety) so this game has kinda been lost to time.

50%PC

decent fun but the aiming is really bad

80%PlayStation 2

While this game is quite aged, it blew me away back in the day when it first came out. Its sequel consolidated things like concussion grenades and thermal detonators into one throwable, and made every character class more balanced for gameplay. Unfortunately, the sequel also eliminated several great maps from the first one, and the vehicles did a stupid amount of damage in this game. Battlefront Two would've been perfect if I could send infantry flying with X-Wing blasts like I could in this entry.

80%PC

Помню мне понравилась идея шутера во вселенной звездных войн. Причем тут на некоторых картах была даже техника. Интересное разнообразие, разные классы и каноничное оружие сделали эту игру очень даже прикольной. В то время у меня еще не было интернета, но вот с друзьями по локальной сети мы играли против ботов, было весело.

90%PlayStation 2

Fantastic Star Wars shooter with good variety. Quite unbalanced at times.

70%PC

It is a nice game. But I had chosen to play Battlefield 2 in 2005.

70%PlayStation 2

Star Wars Battlefront is a nice and amusing multiplayer shooting game for nostalgic people and those who never liked the remake.
Despite its age, it aged gracefully - the units are recreated pretty accurately, and the maps are big and detailed. As for the game modes, there's only one - conquering the map territory.
You choose your class, run around and shoot stuff, while conquering important strategic points on the map. You can cooperate with your AI teammates and, frankly speaking, they're not that dumb as you might think.
The game feels rather lacking with single player content. You get 16 missions across 5 movies (Episode III is missing because it wasn't released yet), and, also, the galaxy conquest mode.
Said conquest mode has a whopping number of 8 different planet setups, but most of them differ only in the way the planets are assigned to each faction at the start.
The unlockables are pretty poor too - some concept artworks, some prop photos. And most annoying that can be in a licensed videogame - poor quality stills from the movie. Ugh.
After more than a decade after its release, it is by no means a "must-play" (especially considering that the superior sequel exists), but if you're a fan and decide to spend 7-10 hours to unlock all maps, you won't have a bad time.
Overall, it's a fun distraction for lonely people - for a few evenings in a familiar setting of Star Wars. And if you have a like-minded nostalgic friend, you could try the co-op mode as well.

60%Xbox

"Oh, you HAVE to play this game!" they told me. I put it off for so long and now that I finally did play it, it seems that all anyone was ever hyped for is the nostalgia. Because of the limitations of the Xbox and PS2, battlefront isn't nearly what it could be. The single player campaign is a few fights on several different maps that are so disconnected, you have no clue why you're fighting. Each map begins with an awfully VO'ed briefing and there is no solid connection between maps. At the halfway point through the campaign, there isn't enough to keep you going so they have to make you switch to the enemy's side. I can see that online with friends would be the way to go with this game type but if you're looking for a fun single player star wars game, look elsewhere. This is just a bad shooter with Star Wars face paint to make it pretty.

80%PC

Take the concept of Battlefield, change the second half of that word, and give it a Star Wars flavor, and what do you get? Only one of the biggest multiplayer phenomenons of the sixth generation, of course.

I remember this game and especially its sequel being massively popular when I was young (which is funny because most of my friends weren't even old enough to meet the ESRB rating when it came out). While I have never played Battlefield before, just from reading the description of it I can tell this game matches it beat for beat - you play on large-scale battlefields, and attempt to take control of every control point on the map, or defeat a set amount of opposing team members, whatever comes first. When a control point is captured, you can spawn off that point whenever you die. Controlling as much of the map as possible is key to survival here, and it offers a more strategic kind of gameplay beyond "shoot everything that moves".

Given this is a Star Wars game, the maps are based on iconic battles from the movies. Both the prequels and the OT are represented here, although the game came out a year prior to Revenge of the Sith so it's absent from the roster. Some of the areas represented include Naboo, Coruscant, Mos Eisley, Hoth, Bespin, and Endor. We are still a game off from space battles and the ability to play as the Jedi, but the game is primarily class-based; you have a set of classes that each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The most vanilla of them is the scout class who is usually armed with a blaster that does great at close range but isn't quite so good afar. Some of the others include a pilot class, a sniper class, and some far more specialized ones such as a stormtrooper who has a jetpack to rocket himself across the map. Being able to judge which class is best to use in each situation is critical here and further adds elements of strategy.

The maps themselves represent their locations great, but unfortunately balance is not their strong suit. Some maps simply are weighted too hard in favor of one side or the other, and most of them aren't even symmetrical. The opposing sides do not have identical classes either, so there can be balancing issues there too; one of the worst offenders is the Droidekas in the prequel stages, who some of the most annoying NPCs to fight against (and aren't even fun to play as either so that's a double whammy).

The other thing I feel should be mentioned is that this game was designed first and foremost as a multiplayer game, which is fine, but it's lacking in single player content. The two main campaigns go through each stage in order, with you assigned to potentially either side of the conflict, but there's little attempt to tie them together; it's more or less just a way to familiarize you with the maps and mechanics for when you eventually play them with friends. At the time of its release, the game did support online play, and LAN play with up to a whopping 16 players per battle, no small feat at the time. And, I can bet any amount of money that it still would be a great play with friends all these years later. I should mention that the PS2 version only supports two players in split screen mode as it has no multitap support, but the Xbox version can do 4, for what that's worth.

Star Wars Battlefront is a lot of fun, and feels like incredible fan service for anyone who ever wanted to partake in iconic battles from the films. The balancing issues can't be ignored, but it's a fun time all around, and thanks to support for LAN play you can still find ways to play it over the Internet with friends using Himachi servers or Xlink Kai. Give it a look and try it out!

70%PlayStation 2

I never experienced this game as a kid. So I never had any multiplayer parties with it, nor any nostalgic feelings attached to it. With that in mind, how did I feel about the game?

Star Wars Battlefront is sort of a cross between a class based shooter and a musou. You pick between 4-5 different classes depending on the map and then go up against the other team. Both sides will have around 200 members and the battle ends when all of the members of either team are dead, or all the control points on the map are captured for 20 seconds by one team. There are typically 6 points per map and they function nearly the same way as they do in Team Fortress 2.

Of course this is a Star Wars game! The story mode is based upon original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. Each campaign will take you to a lot of recognizable planets from the films and some never seen in the films or some all new battles. Some of my favorite locales were Endor, Bespin, and Rhen Var—a snow planet with ruins and fun corridors to go through. Not all the places are great, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The interesting part of the game is that you’ll be playing as the heroes and villains, something quite unique to the Star Wars experience. You’ll play as the Galactic Federation droids, Clone Troopers, Storm Troopers, and the Rebels. Each set has different niches to fill like a sniper, a tank, a healer, and a standard gunner. I mostly played as the standard gunner but the others were useful in certain situations and I found it easy to determine when I needed to switch roles. The game has really nice details too. Music is all from the films and the graphics are nice for the era and considering there are so many models on screen at once. One small detail I love is that blaster shots echo around you in small tunnels and caves, it feels very immersive.

Though not everything is perfect in the game. The battles often felt very unbalanced, either for me or the opponent. In particular, I found the battle on Geonosis to be way too difficult to beat with a lot of vantage points that the enemy ai abused. Contrastingly, Kamino was so easy that I beat it in only 5 minutes even though it was a pretty big map. Droidekas were also a serious pain to deal with. They are the only class in the game to have a shield and when going against one you’re going to have a very rough time and likely die no matter what, at least in my experience.

So this is certainly a good game, and I can totally understand why it was so popular when it came out. I’ve heard that the second game is even better which makes me really excited to try! I loved my time with this and enjoyed it way more than I ever expected to really even despite the objective faults. I think any Star Wars fan will love this!

90%PlayStation 2

Had a blast just marathoning this game. I would just play many different maps over and over again. There wasn't many different combat options though which was a little disappointing.

70%Xbox

I love this game and it’s a blast to play to this day. However, it does have many flaws. Despite this, it’s a good shooter and a great game to play with a friend within the Star Wars universe. It’s just much more rare for me to go back and play this when to me the sequel is so much better. Still, this is a good game and I have tons of memories attached to it. It’s somewhat barebones but fun enough to have a lot of replay value. 7/10 (Good).

70%PlayStation 2

Co-op

40%PC

Envelheceu mal, porém me lembrou bastante a epoca que jogava battlefield 1942.

70%PC

Just played on single player which is decent for something clearly made for multiplayer. Originally had this on PS2 when it came out and played it online and was fun, but with bots you're going to be the one doing all the shooting. You probably won't win unless you're a sniper taking out 50+ units on the opposing side.

Also, Hard is incredibly unfair, it seems like your side is just lining up to get killed. I could not complete Geonosis on it, so dropped to normal for rest of campaign. The conquest mode, on the other side, seemed quite a bit easier once you know which planet to complete first.

Again, fun, but the sequel eclipses it from what I've seen and we also have the modern entries that, well, I'd normally say people play on but I heard not so much on the pc version...

50%Xbox

Game was full of nostalgia, but is ultimately just a template for what the second game would be. The campaign is only a handful of maps, you end up switching sides halfway through, and have to watch terrible clips from the movie that are at a resolution of like 240p. Your allied AI is horrendous, enemy AI can be really bad, or all of a sudden get really good. A decently fun playthrough as a couch coop title, but honestly nothing more. The sequel is just above and beyond this game by so much with the jedi battles and space battles.

80%Xbox

Nice title for the time (2005), all star wars and battlefield fans must play this gem. Hard sometimes, the bots of your team aren't too smart and hardly go to the main objective. You will restart/retry the missions a lot in the last levels of each campaign because of that. But in general it's a good action war game of star wars, the soundtrack of the movies and scenes are there, good sound and well done gameplay. The graphics are nice for the time.

70%Xbox

Features such as non-playable third-party teams like Sand People and Ewoks, land maps with air vehicles and a short but fun campaign taking place during the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War provide an experience unique from that of its better-overall sequel. Even this game, old as it is, beats the modern Battlefront reboot by miles. Recommended for fans of first-person shooters, be they single- or multi-player matches.

70%Xbox

Missing the space battles of it's sequel takes away from the variety of gameplay and can make the game feel very repetitive, but it's still a great game that puts you in the wars part of Star Wars very effectively.

90%PC

Really good mechanically. The maps are really neat. It's just missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.

75%No Platform Specified

It's darn good, but not without faults of its own. On Xbox and PlayStation, Battlefront offers a distinct style of play that has not yet been exploited or overdeveloped as it has on the PC.

There's a very likable, very direct approach to its combat. It uses high quality visuals and sounds to implant a legitimately Star Wars experience into our heads, but it's careful to never beat us with the franchise. There are large, epic battles. There is a great emphasis on cooperation, and it's a very intuitive game.

On PlayStation 2 and Xbox, all this works extremely well, despite its inherent AI and longevity shortcomings. On PC, unfortunately, the problems are all amplified by an overwhelming amount of competition that simply makes Battlefront look a bit simplistic.