Why Are the Old Star Wars Battlefront Games So SPECIAL!?

so recently I was at this kind of mom and pop Retro Game Store with my girlfriend and this place had all kinds of older more classic games from the past decade or two along with a bunch of memorabilia and other stuff from those times and one of the things I saw immediately was this cardboard cutout promotional board for the original Star Wars Battlefront game as soon as I saw this a giant wave of nostalgia and memories came rushing over me and it was like unlocking memories that I hadn't thought about in a really really long time so then I wondered to myself you know the original Star Wars Battlefront games are incredibly old yes but I remember them extremely fondly is that simply because they were such an integral part of my childhood or are they actually just really good games so this inspired me to go back and play all of the original Star Wars Battlefront games one and two and to try to get to the bottom of it and really see precisely what it was that made these games so amazing and Unforgettable and to get a much more updated view on them I think it's fair to say that these games have significantly more going on than I originally could understand or comprehend when I was younger and the fact that these became instant Classics with the world indicated that there's something truly special about these games in particular and how they represent a much different time in the era and industry but are they actually just as awesome as I remember them being well that's a good question because here's the weird thing even though these games are extremely similar in terms of how they're laid out the content within them the base structure and everything like that uh they actually are very different in a lot of ways too and the amount of changes in Polish even though the second Battlefront only came out about a year or so after the first one is pretty insane and so I feel the best thing to do is analyze these games in the order that they released so starting with the original Star Wars Battlefront Classic this fall Lucas arts and pandemic Studios emerged from hyperspace to present Star Wars Battlefront one of the most epic and highly anticipated Star Wars War based games ever created the original Star Wars Battlefront game released on September 21st 2004 for the Xbox and came out alongside the Star Wars Trilogy movie bundle as some promotional material developed by pandemic Studios this was an attempt in close partnership with Star Wars and Lucas film in order to create a video game that for the first time really tries to capture the immersion of large scale Star Wars battles in the different eras that could be experienced and it's very apparent now that much of its design in terms of the HUD the player mechanics even just the fact that the first person and third person nature of the game itself was clearly inspired by Halo Combat Evolved which had released a few years prior and pretty much defined a brand new generation of FPS on console and so Star Wars Battlefront would attempt to emulate a lot of those really great ideas from Halo Combat Evolved and make it into a new context here in Star Wars Battlefront 1 and when I booted up the game for the first time I was greeted by that incredibly nostalgic menu and I was also struck by the Simplicity and charm of all of this because they were so intertwined with Lucas film at the time when they develop this game you will get actual movie clips from the films as cutcenes in between missions or when the new map is loading and it's very different to what we would expect now in a more modern Battlefront game there'd be all kinds of bureaucratic red tape to get like you know movie clip shown in a video game but they were just like yeah let's just use this for the cutcenes and I think that is inred incredibly Charming in its own right and again is more of one of those Time Capsule things Battlefront 1 had basically four different core modes the first two were campaigns you could play the Clone Wars campaign or the Galactic Civil War campaign and you could also choose which faction that you would play on inside of that as well so either the rebels you could play as the Clones or the Empire or the uh separatists and so this would determine exactly you know who you fight and who you fight against the campaign's purpose was to more or less run you through the the events of the movies in fact it would try to stick to the order as closely as possible and even give you clips from the films themselves in between each missions and while the next map is loading and so essentially taking you through the main story now the actual gamep playay the missions more or less were the exact same format you would play this Conquest mode so to speak where you would capture objectives you can either win by completely eliminating the enemy's reinforcements or by capturing all of the command posts for a certain amount of time and didn't really matter what you know side you were playing on or which campaign you were doing at some point you were going to play pretty much all of the planets and while there was a fair amount of them in Battlefront one this would be further expanded in Battlefront 2 but in the first game we had stuff like Endor Yavin 4 tne nabo bespin and Hoth and even a planet that was not featured in the films at all interestingly enough renv VAR the campaigns were fun enough they would take you again through the series of events but you would play the maps and the modes in a very deliberate order however if you just wanted to jump into a game straight away and play it at your own Leisure and your setting and the uh the factions that you want to you could play Instant action which was basically just like custom matchmaking as much as that was possible in this game you can select whatever Planet you want to play on and the specific uh era as well it's worth mentioning that Battlefront had a very robust multiplayer matchmaking uh capability and this was pretty new for the genre and specifically for these kinds of games at the time I believe you could play with up to 16 online players in any of these modes and up to 32 if you were playing land which was a lot more common back then now these modes were awesome enough and frankly I still think it would have been more than enough to make these games an instant classic but it had one more trick up its sleeve in terms of just like Baseline content and game modes that would set it apart this being Galactic conquest and its implementation admittedly in Battlefront 1 isn't nearly as good as it became in Battlefront 2 however the idea was still there the bones were there and I have to admit even playing it in 2023 I had an absolute ton of fun with Galactic Conquest in this game I don't even think this is crazy to say I feel Galactic Conquest became part of battlefronts identity and the fact that it isn't featured in the newer Star Wars Battlefront games I feel is an absolute sin but the reason this Modo so beloved is because it plays significantly more Dynamic than the you know other game modes instant action and the campaigns while those are a little bit more linear stories you play through a certain set of levels and you know you kind of go through a particular path Galactic Conquest in so far as it's implemented in Battlefront 1 is more like this tug-of warar game where you play as a faction and you need to fight for control and contest against the other faction that's pulling back the game only ends once one faction has taken over all of the planets and you want to swing the momentum in your favor to get more and more and with each subsequent planet that you do encounter and you know overcome and capture you get a bonus that you can apply into your next game such as like extra bonus reinforcements or even bringing a hero into the next match while we're on the topic of Heroes while Battlefront 1 did feature a pretty decent roster of them you know you've got like mace Wu you've got Darth Vader you've got uh I guess this is Luke Skywalker I don't I this ain't Luke bro what is this you had some pretty cool heroes in the game admittedly but there was just one problem you couldn't actually play as any of them at all you could have the hero drop or you know spawn them into your next match but they were just a a CPU that would run around and kill stuff and to make matters worse they were completely unkillable through traditional means you couldn't deal enough damage to take them out you couldn't even blow them up with a vehicle I mean like these things were busted and admittedly in the year of Our Lord 2023 its implementation was a little goofy there was only one method you could use to kill off heroes in your game and it was not intended you would have to somehow push them off the map or make them go out of bounds to where they could not return that was the only actual way to kill them and on some maps that wasn't even really a a viable option each planet had its own set of unique vehicles sometimes even being aircraft Vehicles as well most of them were grounded however but stuff like you know the the nabo Speeders were insanely busted uh a lot of the vehicle gameplay was actually very smooth for a game that came out this long ago and was a giant part of the core gameplay Loop match to match when it comes to core gameplay most of it was focused on you know the momentto moment soldier action you would play as a ground troop and you had a couple of different standard options that went for every faction in the game you know your basic assault rifles your your heavy Troopers your shotgun Troopers snipers Etc but depending on maybe the specific team you're on for example if you're playing as a a separatist you could play as a droa as a special troop and let me just say right now this thing was absolutely broken dras are by far the best troop in the game and it's not even close this is before the days of like balance patches 2 and you can be assured that if this was like a live service game or even something that was just released in more modern times the dras would have been rebalanced in an instant because they are just almost uncontested the best kind of troop in this game now there are some contenders right there's a few like jetpack Troopers that can fly or Heavies that can also deal with them but dras and their almost indestructible shield in this game certainly set them apart that was the big difference that would be catered to in their next title and when replaying Battlefront 1 I remembered why I fell in love with this series and why Battlefront became so special to me in my childhood and had such a large impact but admittedly I will say that I feel Battlefront 1 even in comparison to their next title is somewhat lacking in terms of features and and things to do and even Variety in gameplay like Battlefront 2 is such a giant step forward from this title even though it was released only about a year later that it seems like you know this would have been a game that's 10 years in development with the amount of innovation and changes that they brought along side it I do give Battlefront 1 a ton of credit for establishing the Battlefront formula and getting this large scale battles right in a way that hadn't been done previously on console and certainly not in the Star Wars universe and making a shooter that felt this FL fluid and fun and you know exciting on this kind of tech and engine was a feat that I feel deserves credit all day but despite all of its good things about it I still feel it leaves a lot to be desired and even though Battlefront 2 only came out just about a year later pandemic Studios really listened to a lot of the community feedback about Battlefront 1 and implemented a large amount of it that ended up shaping that experience to be what it is today I would describe them as like Battlefront 1 even even though it is a very quality game and it's amazing it feels like it's significantly more dated than even Battlefront 2 which is only like a year younger than it which it makes a world of difference but I think it is not to say anything bad about the quality of Battlefront 1 more so it highlights the actual Perfection and the Masterpiece that Battlefront 2 would really shape out to be the Innovation and the improvements and the you know listening to community feedback and really coming into the as a development Studio really shown in their next title really major enhancements of the game the first one is that you can fly in space you got space combat in Battlefront 2 it's all new to Star Wars Battlefront 2 these really massive uh immersive Space Battles the heavily anticipated followup to this instant classic would release on October 28th 2005 and damn I I got to say I think this has one of my favorite main menus of a video game possibly ever I I think Halo 3 Black Ops 1 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 are a few of the most memorable and iconic main menus of all time but the jump in quality and charm at the main menu is merely the tip of the iceberg Battlefront 2 would be a true sequel in the sense that it was a giant step forward in Innovation and new ideas and polishing their core gameplay Loop Battlefront 2 needs to be studied like this should be examined in a way where this is how you make a sequel of an already successful game because some of them just don't understand it you know what I mean right like there are certain games that have come out recently and been insanely popular only to have a pointless sequel that is largely the original game with just a few meaningless changes or additions for the sake of it and calling it a day you know not pointing any fingers but this has been an increasingly common pattern in the industry as of late but you know almost 20 years ago Star Wars Battlefront 2 took a look at virtually every single mode mechanic and system from Battlefront 1 and found a way to extrapolate upon them and improve Battlefront 2 is generally regarded I think as the more popular and better one all things considered but again that doesn't disparage the quality of the OG in other words Battlefront 1 was phenomenal but Battlefront 2 became Godly but why exactly and how did Battlefront 2 manage to be so much better and more so than that become a game that's remained culturally relevant almost 20 years later I feel there's a lot to unpack about this one that makes it's so special but let's talk about some of the improvements that it made over the original game because first and foremost that's the thing you're going to notice when playing them side by side I mentioned in the original game you know it had the campaigns the instant action and Galactic Conquest that was essentially the main modes of content that you could play and Battlefront 2 also has all of those things but takes them one step further for example the campaigns in Battlefront 1 they were basically the same uh gameplay scenarios as in in action there was very little core gameplay differences in the match to- match experience but the campaigns in Battlefront 2 had you actually doing unique objectives and little tasks that were not present in any other mode outside of that campaign giving it a bit of an identity and making it feel special the campaigns are actually a lot of fun and while they do still have that format of kind of following the films to some degree it doesn't just use movie clips for cutcenes like the first game did there's some actual unique in-game stuff going on which is really neat and you can tell that they were passionate about that experience and wanting to make it a lot better but the real meat of this game I believe is found in the instant action playlist and also my boy Galactic Conquest because Jesus Christ they cooked the most obvious Improvement to point out in Battlefront 2 over the original game is the fact that Heroes now became playable and this was huge because I'm not really sure why in the original Battlefront Heroes weren't playable I don't know if they just like didn't think about that or they thought it would be broken or they had a hard time program pramming it maybe it was a technical reason I really don't know but you know a year later in Battlefront 2 not only did they make Heroes playable but there's a lot in this game and they're not all copy paste of each other while there are General Frameworks you know like lightsaber Heroes for the most part kind of have the same abilities and whatnot there are actually some nuances and little tiny different mechanics that actually separate what maybe seems like a similar hero to something else like for example Obi-Wan Kenobi can swing in the air which some other SA Heroes can't stuff like that some can saber throw some cannot Vader can force choke you get the idea there are a few mechanics that really separate these out and the fact that there is a specific mode in this game that you can play on Moss Eisley in the instant action playlist that is the first ever version of what we know as Heroes versus Villains in the more modern Battlefront and it's kind of just like you can be whoever you want at any time and you just go at it there's no rules to how many can be on the field it gets super chaotic it's a lot of fun my friend and I used used to play this all the time when we were a lot younger and this is like our favorite mode to do and even being now at 25 years old I'm like damn this is like actually still fire admittedly again it's not super balanced Vader can pretty much infinitely Force choke people and lock their animation so that they can't really do anything he's completely busted stuff like that there's a few things that would absolutely not fly in current day is it fun still hell yeah it is it made me laugh because I remember it was like pulling teeth trying to figure out if Grievous was going to be in the new Star Wars Battlefront in 2017 at all or not in like DLC but in this old Battlefront they were just like yeah here he is he's he's right here have fun enjoy there was no you know barrier to entry there was no releasing uh Heroes after the fact they were just all in the game from the get-go and you could you know play with them to your heart's content it was incredible look I'm just going to say it the heroes in Battlefront 2 are cool as hell and there's no ifans or butts about that they are incredible and there's so much fun to play with now you can play them in this mode of course where you just spawn in with them or you can can play uh instant action in which they appear as well but the most fun to use them in my opinion is in Galactic Conquest this is the height of Battlefront 2 in my eyes I still feel that Galactic Conquest is the strongest mode in the original Battlefront but my God it's so good here and again it's an actual crime that the new modern-day Battlefront games don't have something like this and perhaps this is a bit ignorant of me to say but I feel like Galactic Conquest wouldn't be that hard to imp into a newer Battlefront game and it was such a missed opportunity with the one in 2015 and the newest one in 2017 to not have something like this because all of the base layer mechanics are already there it's just that Galactic Conquest is set up in a way where you know it's this very unique formula but it's using everything that's already in the base game and I felt like they could have done that with the newer battlefronts but I digress why is galactic Conquest in Battlefront 2 so damn good I think this is for a few reasons in the original Battlefront G itic Conquest is cool and it's fun but it's still somewhat linear and the game gets a little repetitive there's not as much variation in between games the bonuses aren't quite as cool and you don't have as much player choice Battlefront 2 comes around and it's not like this linear game anymore you have this top down view of what's almost like a 3D chess board of the Galaxy and then now you can place your own starships and go and take over like planetary systems and try to route your way through the Galaxy to eventually overtake it or defend it from the opposing faction and the thing is you every single time you battle or you win a planetary system you get this bonus money that you can spend and it's not just on the static bonuses that you would have in the original game you can buy different troops with this you can buy like you know back to tank powerups or you know something like that or even a hero for the next match you'll typically start at the beginning of the game with just like the regular assault troop and maybe one other one but not much else to work with and then eventually you buy more troops and you get the whole roster up and eventually you got like literally the whole gang pulling up and it's actually such incredible game progression just from a design perspective it's awesome but the troops themselves and their mechanics and the brand new guns they come with are also Unforgettable not only are there a ton of brand new troops for each faction in Battlefront 2 compared to the original game there's also this in-game mechanic that I really like that I don't think gets talked about enough and that's the fact that the game rewards you in the match for doing well if you go on a know a certain High kill streak uh with every single class you get this different like Mastery weapon so you know if you're Ching like the regular assault rifle eventually it will become this upgraded battle rifle that's like a three round burst and if you stay alive and keep getting more kills with this battle rifle you'll eventually wind up having this damage boost stat and you can just go around and one tap people it's honestly broken it's insane but it's one of these incredibly Charming mechanics that is so subtle but it's again an objetive improvement over something in the original game and it's like one of my favorite aspects of Star Wars Battlefront 2 and it doesn't just go for like the regular Blaster it's like every single Trooper in the game gets their own little Mastery weapon it's so much fun now I need to spend some time talking about perhaps the greatest Improvement ever to Galactic conquest and probably its defining feature I mentioned you know how it's more of a 3D chess board this time and you move your pieces around so to speak to take different planetary systems now obviously that means means since your opponent is doing the same thing eventually you and them may run into each other in space and if this happens you get this specific setup space battle where you can actually fly different vehicles and and Starships around and try to take out the giant Cruiser now this can also be played just totally in the vehicles themselves this gives you the opportunity to enjoy some starf fighter dog fighting gameplay that you really wouldn't have much opportunity to outside of these situations but the way that me and my friends like to play it the most and the way that I prefer to do these Space Battles is taking a ship of some kind usually the Republic Gunship was the safest but taking that over to you know whatever the other opposing Cruiser is and get inside there you can hop out and you can either just start shooting the pilots as they're trying to board or the more fun thing to do was like break into their Mainframe systems and try to take down all of like the little support systems that they have right they have like the power the life support the engines the shields Etc you can disable basically the main Cruiser and doing so would not only reward you probably with that kill streak Mastery weapon but would give you a significant boost in battle and would pretty much guarantee that your side would win it's so good and I think the only thing that could have made this better is what they tried to do in early Battlefront 3 gameplay which is the fact that people wanted like ground to Space Battles when you have a space battle you start out in space and it begins and ends there but but the idea in Battlefront 3 was going to you know you fly from a planet up into the sky and then engage in a space battle in a very seamless way that would have been the only way to raise the stakes a little bit on the otherwise absolutely Perfection of the Space Battles in Battlefront 2 because I also think that they serve a very particular purpose in uh Galactic Conquest because it breaks up some of the monotony of the game to game battles of you know just being ground troops and taking the planetary systems you never really knew when the space battles were going to occur uh because the opponent may make a move you didn't expect or something like that basically it would break up potentially repetitive gameplay and keep the the entire match feeling fresh and I really felt that to be true even playing it in 2023 because I would you know these games can potentially go on for hours and hours but it never felt boring or monotonous or repetitive at any point during my playthrough and I think a lot of that is thanks to these incredibly intricate and fun Space Battles Galactic Conquest is Far and Away the best best thing in this game period And I feel it's what's most closely associated with Star Wars Battlefront 2 in terms of its identity like when people think of the game I believe this is to some extent what they're picturing in their head or at least that's a big part of it now the status thing is because Battlefront 2 was so good you would assume that immediately the first step would be to make a Battlefront 3 but why isn't there one now I'm not going to go into the full detail of the story of you know what happened to Battlefront 3 there's a lot of videos on YouTube that cover the history of that if you want to look into those this video is more about the first one and two but I will say there is a little bit of gameplay that did surface of prototyped Battlefront 3 and it's exactly what we were describing earlier where they were trying to take even this formula and take it a step further with the ground to Space Battles and so on now don't get me wrong I think Battlefront 1 is a Timeless classic I think it is a gem of all video games and you know the industry would not be where it was and specifically Battlefront would not be what it was without this game but admittedly I played a lot more Battlefront 2 on my revisit and the reason for that is what I described a bit earlier where the original Battlefront just feels a lot more dated compared to the second one even though they're only about a year apart it's very apparent and I just think there's so much more to do there's a lot more depth to the systems in Battlefront 2 and I think it's overall a better game while OG Battlefront can be rightfully credited for birthing and spawning a lot of these amazing systems I just think Battlefront 2 is such an improvement and it's no wonder this game is an absolute classic according to most people and it will never be forgotten it's going to remain culturally relevant probably it would only ever be surpassed if a real Battlefront 3 came out and I don't know if that will ever be the case so I think this will remain on top for a lot of people in many regards and one of the most refreshing things about playing both of these games recently revisiting them is the fact that there was no like microtransactions shoved in my face there was no all of these like extra systems that I had to buy or battle passes or skins or what you know it was just like super straightforward it's just a fun video game period you just leave it at that and that was just so refreshing and I could definitely use more of that in my life and so I think Battlefront 2 really hit the nail on the head and they just set out to make an awesome video game it's kind of sad that they would just sort of use the Star Wars IP and the Battlefront name to make all of these weird spin-offs to try to capitalize on its success all of these strange handheld games you know some of these can be fun in their own right or whatever and they have Merit but they're a substitute for making a true followup to Battlefront 2 and doing a Star Wars Battlefront 3 it's never been done before either in this era and the modern era and so it's kind of pointless to speculate about but the neat thing is how well these games still hold up with time again Star Wars Battlefront 2 is way better age than the original however they're still Classics and I had an absolute blast revisiting both of these they were so much fun just to play and immerse myself in and I felt that Battlefront magic that I had felt as a kid I didn't think that would be possible but it came back to me and they are still worth playing in 2023

Channel: Ch0pper

Views: 205,034

Keywords: star wars battlefront, star wars battlefront classic, star wars battlefront 2004, star wars battlefront 2 2005, classic star wars battlefront retrospective, swbf classic gameplay, swbf 2 classic gameplay, star wars battlefront 2 review

Id: up-nGI2vYKI

Length: 26min 7sec (1567 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2023