Forum: Star Wars Battlefront I & II (Archive)
Topic: star wars battlefront 2 detailed review
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ok first let me say i am a huge star wars geek but i am also a huge online geek, and i did like the first one but the online was horrilbe so therefore the game was viewed as a dissapointment since the single player campaign wasnt too long.
now however for the most part online has been fixed. this is a review for the online aspect: maps: cw= clone war, gcw= galactic conquest war Coruscant Dagobah Death Star Endor (CW only) Felucia Geonosis (CW only) Hoth (GCW only) Kamino Kashyyyk Mustafar Mygeeto Naboo Polis Massa Tantive IV Tatooine Utapau Yavin 4 the maps are varied and although some maps are back from the first one they tweaked them a little and added some things to not make them exactly the same as the first game. and some maps are just soo cool if youre a star wars fan, like jabbas place, jabba is actually there and the big tarnac also. Game types: conquest (cnh) Capture the Flag- 1 flag, 2flag. hero mode hunt- (tdm) assault- space battles characters: CW = droids vs clones GCW: empire vs rebels each faction now has 6 characters to chose from but only 4 are open at the start the standard ones from the first game are all there: regular trooper, sniper, heavy trooper and support trooper. now to open up the additional 2 characters you need to get points in game. example: for the rebels to open up the special scout trooper you need 4 pts in game and 12 pts to open up the special wookie trooper, the points are the same for each faction. points are easy to get just kill or get or defend a point and so on. these special characters are very cool and are different enough that they are well worth getting the points to get them. the new characters come with different weapons and abilities but there are not too powerful that they will overwhelm the game and since theres always a limit to the each type chosen in game its well balanced. Vehicles: all the vehicles are back from the first one plus new ones to correspond with the new maps. NEW ADDITIONS: now you have the option of playing in space battles, with nearly every conceivable space vehicle in the star wars universe. space battles come in 2 game modes assault and ctf. assault is basically get in a ship and go and destroy the other ships in space or try and land in the enemy's hangars and destroy the ship from inside. theres also 1- flag ctf wheres theres 1 flag in space and you try and get the flag and take it back to youre side and score. in this mode you can also land in the enemy's hangar and wreak havoc inside if you wish. but dont lose site of the objective. now handling is a little iffy at first but eventually you will get the hang of it. its not a perfect control system but its way improved from the first game and they added a nice barrel roll and a better targeting system. some ships carry multiple people in it, co-pilot, gunner, etc. some are solo but nothing is cooler than getting a full ship and trying to land on the enemy hangar. personal thought on space battles: a full server can get extremely hectic especially outside. i usually try and land on the enemy hangar and destroy stuff inside this becomes very difficult in a full server but still lots of fun. and offcourse the vehicles are awesome, each era offers different types and different weapons. now in the space battles if you dont want to actually fight in space you can stay inside the big ships and simply control the many defense turrets and shoot the ships from inside. this is actully quite fun since there are several types of turrets and it becomes very addicting. the space battles are welcome addition although not perfect still handled well and good fun. CTF MODE: this mode is new to the game and it comes in 2 flavors 1-flag and 2 flag, 2 flag is youre standard each side has a flag 1- flag is just 1 flag in the whole map get the flag and bring it back to youre base to score. now the type of ctf depends on the map, some maps will be 2 flag and some maps 1 flag. either one is fun and adds a nice variety to the game. HUNT MODE: this is youre basic tdm however with a twist. depending on the era and map, somegames there will only be one choice of characters for each side, example: endor hunt mode, empire only can chose the regular troopers and the rebels only chose the ewoks yes thats right the ewoks. yes its a bit of dissadvantage but its very quirky and fun. and usually in the standard dedicated servers the kill limit is only 50 so the game actually goes pretty fast. this extends to other maps as well in hoth for example you can only chose rebel regular trooper and the other side gets the yeti, its very funny and fun. now some maps do offer the standard characters, but for some levels the change of pace is a good twist and some cases very funny. HERO MODE: probly the best new mode if youre a star wars fan. in this mode depending on the era you can be nearly every hero you ever wanted to be. yoda, darth, han solo, obi wan, princes leia, grievous, the list goes on. and yes they all have the special powers and light sabers. this a basic tdm mode but everyone gets to chose any hero available. now not all heroes are that great, as cool as princes leia is she will get slaughter vs lets say the emperor so chose wisely. now one little annoyance is that this mode is only 1 map-mos eisly and its alway tdm. the map is big and the spawn points are even but i would of liked at least a few more maps for this mode, but all in all its still amazing fun and a star wars fan come true. heroes in other modes: now just an explanation heroes are available in the other modes but only after a certain conditions are met in game, now im not quite sure exactly when they become available but i guess it depends on server options (more on that later). and yes when you do take control of a hero in the other modes he will dominate and wreak carnage but fortunately you cant stay a hero forever is life bar is drained automatically through time but be careful if youre playing a game and you see a hero dont try and kill him unless hes low on health cuz most of the time he will shred you. CONQUEST MODE: its back from the first game its youre basic cnh control the points and kill the enemy to dwindle their counter. but now the timer goes a bit faster and if you go up to a control point you can actually swich characters at that point. still lots of fun and now most servers have no time limit so its just the timers for each team. CONTROLS: every button is completely cuztomizable and you can chose to play either first person or 3rd person, this goes for vehicles, on foot, turrets, space etc. you now have stamina bar and with this bar you can now sprint or barrel roll this drains the bar but the added sprint button is a welcome addition. theres is a new target system where you can target an enemy its not an auto aim but more of a help and it really is something that makes you think why didnt they put it in the first one. GRAPHICS and SOUND: the graphics are a bit more polished this time, not spectacular but very good. the sound is near perfect, great music and effects. IS GAMEPLAY FUN? even if your not star wars fan the actual game play is fun because it requires some teamwork, there is some run and gun aspects but its not as bad as other game and since theres always health pick ups or health droids, if you play well you will stay alive a bit longer. the different game modes also add that variety that game needed from the first one. now it set in a fantasy setting so if youre into a more realistic type of game this might not be the game for you. ONLINE OPTIONS: there is stats, leaderboards, buddy list. search options for servers. no clan support. HOSTING OPTIONS: there are several ways to go about hosting a server, you can either host from youre ps2 but this is limited to only 4 players. or you can host a dedicated server, you have to download the software: http://69.56.228.66/ now you can host it from youre pc but then youre limited by youre conection speed or get a rented server with a better connection and then be able to host the 24 player limit. now the options for hosting are all there, from ticket limits, bots, auto aim, maps rotation every possible option you would want to host is there. now gamespy does offer their own servers and the good thing about these servers is that they all have best settings available, no bots, auto aim off, team damage off, and auto assign. so these servers are very good and run smoothly and offer the best settings. but offcourse there are users servers if you want something different. A FEW NEGETIVES: the buddy list is not the best the only way to add someone is while youre playing with them and they must have registered with gamespy, they can still create a name but they must registered with gamespy if not you cant add them and thats the only way to add someone. so its a very flawed system. also open mic is back and its still not great although now you do have the option of chosing whether or not to hear the whole team or youre team only or the ever popular mute option, its still not a great system and it cuts out occasionaly and you cant see whose talking to you in game, you have to pause and see the players list to see whose talking. perhaps maybe a patch to tweak this who knows. FINAL THOUGHTS i understand many people where dissapointed with the first one i was one of them. to be honest this is the game that should have been released first. but it wasnt. but i must say they added so much and fixed soo many things that its turned out to be a very nice suprise. if youre a fan of star wars this is a must buy no doubt about it. if youre a fan of fantasy type online shooters this worth at least a rental. the action is frantic the vehicles the weapons the settings all lend them selves to great online fun. if youre mad at lucas for the first game then thats fine but you will be missing out on a very fun game. with battlefield2 modern combat and this game i believe these are the best online games for ps2 right now. |
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| _________________ battlefield 2 site: www.bf2home.com |
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Nice good stuff to hear. I have a few follow up questions and comments.
Personally on Battlefront I always had Heroes turned off. Not just because they were A.I. controlled, but I always considered Battlefront a shooting game, and having jedi's running around with melee attacks just seemed awkward. Can you disable Heroes in a hosted game in Battlefront 2, like you can in the original? How are the Heroes working out online? I felt giving the person with the most points control of a Hero to be unfair. It is a nice reward, however this is more inscentive for lamers to vehicle hog and camp spawn points. I almost feel there should be an honor system in place to track honorable kills in order to gain control of a Hero. Also I feel the heroes like Han Solo and Boba Fett are perfect as they are gun wielding characters. Jedi...not so thilled about. Yea I know its all part of the star wars theme and Jedi are supposed to be in the mix. However I felt games like the Jedi Outcast franchise on the PC really meshed the shooting / light saber combat the best. Does this game have Keyboard Chat online? Can you test this? Is there any indication of people from Europe and PAL region territories playing online? Can you hear any British or Aussies online? If you don't know, don't guess. Not knowing is perfectly fine. If you could keep an eye out for this please do. I will be checking Playstation.co.uk forums for any tips from players there to see if they can play with "yanks" as they like to call us hehe. As for the headset support, it seems like it is the same as it was on Battlefront 1. Honestly, the headset function works GREAT when you are playing against a single friend. However when playing with more people the headset just drops off in favor of keeping the game running smooth. To be honest, not a lot of games really do headset chat well. Only about 50% of the games with headset functions actually end up working well. MOH Rising Sun, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon Jungle Storm are some of the games that use Headset Technology very very well. My brother and I no longer chat over Battlefront anymore unless we are playing 1 on 1. Otherwise we now use Ventrillo. This will be the gold standard here at OC for communicating online for games such as Tribes or Star Wars Battlefront, or maybe even other mass scale games like Battlefield 2 and Delta Force as well. It just runs much smoother and the compression technology is much more advanced. We used to use Teamspeak, however the interface and guides at Teamspeak's website are just too convoluted. The average user can get Ventrillo up and running in 5 minutes. Teamspeak would take the average user 20 mins to setup and get configured. So after trying Ventrillo recently we are now on that. Just to re-clarrify, this game only supports 4 human opponents off a Playstation 2 host correct? And finally, is there any way to customize the HUD or Crosshairs? Either to change opacity or change the crosshair styles back to the ones on the original battlefront? P.S. I hope you actually hold onto this title for a while as I probobly wont be able to snag it until next spring / summer. Look forward to eventually playing with you. |
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| _________________ The most effective, in this war? The Bydo have it... and they control it. |
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heroes are totally cuztomizable, its insane how many options they have for them you can have them assign to the team thats losing you can even assing them to a particular player if you wish, time limits,the list goes on to the hero options its just crazy. when you host a dedicated it tells you if you want america, or europe, not kbrd at all. only 4 players on ps2 hosted.
its a shame you cant pick this up now its an awesome game, for me its hard switching from battlefront to battlefield since both games are soo much fun i dont know which one i like more. ps2 online rocks right now. |
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| _________________ battlefield 2 site: www.bf2home.com |
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That is fantastic that they have those customizations in place for the Heroes.
Also, that dedicated server region option does not reflect cross region compatability. In-fact it probobly means once again they are NOT compatable. Otherwise that option would never be there. Any word on HUD or Crosshair customizing? Yea I won't be getting the game for a while. I am playing too many other games and my money must go to other rarer much harder to find game titles such as Dreamcast, Saturn, and PS2 imports. |
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| _________________ The most effective, in this war? The Bydo have it... and they control it. |
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i dont believe the hud or crosshair is cuztomizable or maybe i just havent found it yet. it hasnt really been problem. i do want to say though i have tried the 1st person view and its much tighter and easier to handle than the first one was, i dont know what exactly it is but its just feels better.
i also want to ask i was thinking of renting a dedicated server but only if people will use it, how much interest or how many people would be willing to play in it. |
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| _________________ battlefield 2 site: www.bf2home.com |
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Dang, yea I was hoping to be able to revert the crosshairs. I really can't stand the new crosshair in battlefront 2 and it is a real problem for me. The crosshair issue alone drops the value of the title dramatically for me. This is one of the major reasons, if not the reason I am going to be holding off on the title until it drops to 20.00.
If you happen to find any HUD customize options let me know. Either cross hair adjust or opacity changes. EDIT: By the way, SWBF1 supported the keyboard for stuff like name entry and the like. However of course had no "keyboard chat", which is what we track. Just thought I would mention this in-case anyone wanted to take advantage of it. Thanks for the heads up on the keyboard chat, got SWBF2 pretty much all filled in now :] Last edited by lordnikon on Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:03 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| _________________ The most effective, in this war? The Bydo have it... and they control it. |
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