Star Wars: Battlefront II - First Look Preview

2004 saw the release of what has become the biggest selling Star Wars videogame yet - Pandemic Studio's Star Wars: Battlefront. Published by Activision, the game allowed players to experience some of the biggest battles from the six-part saga (with the promise of battles from the then unreleased Episode III probably adding as an incentive.) Gamers could play on the side of the CIS and Republic - from Episodes I to III - or as the Rebel Alliance and Imperial Forces - from the so-called Classic trilogy of Episodes IV to VI. Battlefront was more suited to online play with the single-player nothing more than a Bot filled version of the multiplayer game. Twelve months on and with the hysteria of Episode III now over, it's nearly time for the release of Battlefront II, and luckily TVG was recently able to get a first look at the title. So have Pandemic managed to iron out the criticisms directed at the first title, and have they integrated a stronger single-player mode?

Thankfully single-player mode has been given a bit of a overhaul, and though it's not as deep as it could be, there's at least thereâ??s a sense continuity to the mode that was woefully thin in the original title. Together with the re-appearance of the Galactic Conquest from the first title, Star Wars: Battlefront II will also feature a Story Mode called "Rise of the Empire" that follows the story arc of the Republic's new Clone Trooper regiment, the 501st Legion from their induction through the battles of the Clone Wars to their re-emergence as the Imperial Storm Trooper regiment known as Vader's Fist. A bit of trivia: the 501st Legion is named after a hardcore group of Star Wars fans - check out 501st.com if you don't believe usâ?¦

Back to Battlefront II and the single-player mode, which expands on the 'capture-the-enemy-outpost' repetition of the previous game, and though the bulk of the gameplay at this stage appears to follow suit Pandemic has integrated a series of challenges in an attempt to make the mode more objective based. Exactly how successful these attempts will be is hard to say at this stage, though any effort to develop the weakest element of the game's predecessor is welcome enough.

The original Battlefront's main attraction was its online play, which enabled groups of gamers to fight it out across those same single-player maps, and there's no doubt that despite the developments made with the single-player mode the heart of the game lays with its multiplayer elements. This time around up to 24 gamers will be able to play together via PlayStation2's Play Online, 32 on Xbox Live and a massive 64 on PC - with 4 player Wi-FI on PSP. During the presentation by two LucasArts representatives TVG posed the question as to whether the lobby system, which was far from perfect on Xbox Live, had been addressed in Battlefront II and though it was assured that the options for the online mode had been streamlined, an exact answer was less than forthcoming - make of that what you will.

Battlefront II will be continue where its predecessor left off with maps set across the six-episode saga of movies, including some in key spacecraft such as Princess Leia's Tantive IV Blockade Runner, the mighty Imperial Death Star, and the scene of the iconic battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the volcanic world of Mustafar. Secondary planets from the saga including Yodaâ??s hideaway home of Dagobah and the giant asteroid Polus Masa (where Padme gives birth to the twins and dies from a crap excuse â?“ sorry, we mean from a broken heart) are also available to battle through.

One of the key disappointments of the previous Battlefront title was the use of 'Hero Characters' such as the Jedi as non-playable characters, but thankfully the team at Pandemic have taken this criticism and made the Jedi playable, though they are never permanently playable in a level which may cause some consternation for some people. Instead, the 'Guardians of the Republic' make their god-like appearances on completion of various mission objectives. Once that's been done players are given the opportunity to accept the offer of bringing (thereby taking control of) the Jedi to the planet; but don't think that they'll be down permanently as the role given to the Jedi is to turn the tide of a battle - the Jedi only stay if they contribute to the combat.

To help indicate the length of time the Jedi are on a planets surface, a lightsaber is displayed on the HUD that 'counts down' to zero. During the course of multiplayer action the host of the game can decide on how the Jedi are used be that as a reward to the first gamer to attain a certain number of kills, or as a boost for those in last place after a certain number of minutes has passed â?“ they can even be disabled from the game. Besides the obvious lightsaber-based combat, the Jedi can tap into the Force and wield powers including 'Force Push' and 'Force Throw', and it's worth noting that when players take control of Darth Vader, 'Force Choke' is also available. At the moment we don't know whether the use of the Force powers are limited or metered in some way; TVG will keep you posted in the coming weeks.

During the course of the presentation, the two LucasArts representatives announced that the development team at Pandemic had worked hard in four areas of the game to build on the foundations laid down by the original Battlefront. Together with the introduction of the Jedi as playable characters, and an improved single-player mode, the production on Battlefront II has also focused on bringing expanded content from Star Wars Episode III and space battles to gamers. With a desire to make the various starships easy to fly, the team also wanted to make sure that such maps are large enough for wide-scale dogfights, strafing runs, and bombing attacks on the massive Cruise ships of the CIS and the Republican Capital ships. These maps, incidentally the only ones able to test out at the presentation, also had enjoyed a certain measure of objective-based gameplay too with players able to destroy the larger ships engines and other critical system both internally and externally. Landing a Jedi Starfighter into the hanger of a CIS Cruiser and running to the belly of the engineering room in order to destroy the coolant systems was just one of several disabling techniques open to players.

Pandemic has also spent time refining the gameplay in Battlefront II with subtle abilities including sprinting across short distances and changing character class by visiting a friendly command post just two of the improvement made. LucasArts also commented that NPC AI had been tweaked and improved though the effect of this canâ??t be tested thorough testing, and that Battlefront II will also feature more music and voices from the movies themselves (always a welcome detail in a Star Wars game.)