In 2005 developer Pandemic Studios followed the success of 2004's Star Wars Battlefront with a sequel with Star Wars Battlefront II on the PC, XBox and PlayStation 2 and much like the first Battlefront game it was also a massive success and it was one of the best Battlefront games and best Star Wars game to have been released. When people often talk about Star Wars Battlefront games they often refer to the 2005 version which is still being played online by PC players to this day. There was however a version of Star Wars Battlefront II made for the PlayStation Portable by another studio named Savage Entertainment which tried to bring the frantic Star Wars Battlefront action to the handheld but it ended up being the weakest version of the game with multiple sacrifices it made to get the game working on the PSP platform. Let's step out onto the Battlefront and see what has happened with this handheld port.
So Star Wars Battlefront II plays and functions well enough, the gameplay involves controlling a trooper across the battlefield destroying enemies as one of the different trooper classes. These include a standard trooper, a sniper, a rocket launcher trooper or an engineer which are used in various situations like sniping down enemies from long distances, using explosives to damage enemy vehicles or repairing ally vehicles and health and ammo droids that replenish a trooper's health and ammo supply. All of the available factions also have special class that is available if the player earns enough points in a match to use them like a Dark Trooper on the Empire Side or the Bothian Spies on the Rebels Side. If you earn enough points and do well in a match you'll also be able to play as a Hero character who is either a Jedi or a Blaster character who operates with a Health bar that slowly depletes but refills with each kill. There are also vehicles in some maps that you can use as well which also offer up variety and are fun to use.
Like with the console versions the PSP version has a record system where the game tracks your kills, deaths, points and rank as well as medals that are earned by fulfilling certain requirements. These include killing a number of enemies with either a blaster rifle, pistol or shotgun, taking out enemies with head shots with a sniper rifle, splicing enemy vehicles and so on. Do any of these without dying then you'll earn a medal plus also one of the upgrades like increased damage to do to enemies and reducing the damage you take, vehicle regeneration plus also upgraded weapons like the Elite Rifle which fires a 3-shot burst or a powered up Blaster Pistol giving you more of a incentive to keep playing. Only annoying thing though that in order to see your current stats you have to play a match and then complete it because there is no option to view your current stats in the Options Menu in this version. The PSP version does not deviate from the formula of the original Star Wars Battlefront II game, it has all of the available Heroes and Villains from the movies up till Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith and the gameplay at it's core functions well much like its console counterparts. The gameplay is still pretty fun in the PlayStation Portable version, blasting through waves of enemies with your squadmates behind you is satisfying whatever you are fighting as a Stormtrooper, a Clone Droid, a Clone Trooper or a Rebel plus also this version of the game can be played in either First Person or Third Person as the player's preferences much like the console and PC versions.
The biggest differences is how it controls and what modes are on offer. As we all know playing either a First Person Shooter or a Third Person Shooter on a controller is difficult for some people but playing on the PSP you have to deal with the limited buttons on the PSP system and that can be cumbersome. On the default control scheme the Analog Stick controls your movement while the Triangle, Square, Circle and Cross buttons look, turn and aim. R shoots and L both sprints if you hold it down while tapping it makes you jump. You also have lock on system where pressing Down on the D-Pad looks your view to the nearest target that your crosshair is close to which helps somewhat with the aiming but it is very temperamental at times sometimes targeting an enemy that is further away instead of one that is close by to you or at times targeting an enemy that is retreating instead of one that is shooting at you. You can switch weapons with Right on the D-Pad, Zoom with Left and enter in and out of vehicles with Up. The game does offer multiple control options, one control scheme Basic has movement on the Analog Stick with toggling between strafing and freelooking on the L & R buttons and shooting and using grenades with the Cross and Circle buttons, there is also Advanced which has a similar control scheme as Basic but both of these control schemes are horrendous. The Retro control scheme happens to be most recommanded control scheme as you can actually throw a grenade with the L button, Shoot with R switch between weapons and grenades with the Left and Right buttons on the D-Pad and you can Roll as well by tapping the direction twice. It comes somewhat close to making the game control like the console versions but however it is not perfect. Zooming is done by pressing Down + Cross buttons together, jumping and sprinting is on the Up button which forces you to use your finger to hold it down to start sprinting which can be a little uncomfortable but most importantly movement is on the face buttons while looking around and aiming is on the Analog Stick. It's very similar to playing FPS games on a Nintendo 64 controller like Turok and it will take plenty of time to get used unless you played those kinds of games on the Nintendo 64. However oddly there is no button reload like you could in the console and PC versions so now in order to reload any of your weapons in the PSP version of the game is to empty out your current magazine so that you can put a new magazine in, this is problematic because you have to relay on auto reloading for when you need to reload a weapon before going into a firefight. If you are about to enter the next room that has enemies you would find yourself in a situation where you are low on ammo in your current magazine and would run out of ammo in that magazine in a middle of a firefight and have to reload and that enemy could shoot you down helplessly unless you quickly switch to another weapon you have and this is a very serious life or death problem. Everyone knows that any firearms expert would reload a weapon before going into combat but the game does not have a reload button, the developers could have easily assigned that to either the Up button or the Down Button on the D-Pad but obviously would have been too difficult for the developers to put in. In fact why could have been on the down button to begin with and remove the target tracking button? It will take a fair bit of time to get used to the controls in the PSP version especially when you are using any of the heroes, trying to use their secondary abilities like Lightsaber throws or Force Choke can be awkward because on the default setting it is set to Right on the D-Pad so you have to move your left hand from the Analog Stick to press the Right button on the D-Pad which is just too much. You can block using the Lightsaber but however you have to hold the R button which again is awkward. Least controlling the troopers and vehicles aren't too bad though and when you get used to the controls the gameplay becomes satisfying, either when you are destroying enemy vehicles, taking on enemies as a regular trooper or being finally able to take up the Lightsaber and slice your way through troopers.
The majority of game modes in Star Wars Battlefront II have made their way to the PSP version, Conquest Mode has two factions fighting out to control multiple command posts on the maps to deplete enemy reinforcements, the Starfighters mode is where players use various iconic ships from the Star Wars Universe like X-Wings and Tie-Fighters and engage in ship battles, there is also the Hunt Mode where you use anyone of two species in any of the chosen planets in combat, there is also two different Capture the Flag variants which are either 1-Flag or 2-Flag and most of these modes are pretty fun to play. I had most fun with Conquest Mode which is every bit as engaging as the console where you are trying to gain control of all of the command posts and Capture The Flag matches are just enjoyable with the ability to take the enemy flag and bring it back to your base to capture it even without your base flag. There is also the Hero Assault mode where you pick from the Heroes or Villains of the Star Wars Universe and fight it out till one side wins. All of these modes can be played in Multiplayer with the system's ad-hoc with up to 4 players or in the Instant Action mode with AI bots. Yeah apparently this version of the game lacks any kind of online multiplayer and while I am not the kind of person who favours online multiplayer as I much prefer playing with AI Bots most people that really enjoy playing games online are going to be massively disappointed that the online play is absent for this version of the game.
The game also has the Galactic Conquest Mode where you pick from any of the four factions, Republic, Separatists, Rebels and the Empire and both teams from Light and Dark sides take turns in strategy game fashion where you have to take over planets to win. You do this by selecting a planet on the map to take over and if you win the match you take the planet. You start out with just a single trooper class but you can spend credits earned from winning matches to purchase new classes to use as well as bonuses like Enhanced Blasters, Sabotage which sabotages enemy vehicles and also Hero Leader allow you to use the available Hero character. You can also engage in ship battles as well in this mode and these are cool albeit hard to control, mostly because the controls are kind of a mess. Having to try and take off and start flying on the D-Pad is cumbersome, the handling is awkward making the fights in space very difficult to handle and it is more easier to make use of the ships that have lock on missiles that lock onto enemy ships more easily and focus more on disabling the base ships' shields and weakpoints or just fly straight into the enemy base and just simply take out the enemy troopers around the station till the match ends. You can tell that the developers where really trying to make the controls more complex with the limited buttons on the PlayStation Portable and that thing has only one Analog Stick and few buttons to work with and didn't do the best of jobs with it. The controls are only fine with controlling the troopers and vehicles on-foot.
Alongside the limited controls the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II removes a few features or sized down to be able to get the game running on the PSP. The main feature that unfortunately got the chop was the Rise of the Empire Campaign that followed from events from The Clone Wars in Attack of the Clones till The Empire Strikes Back as soldiers of the 501st division on the console and PC versions. Instead it is replaced by Challenges where you pick from one of three modes Imperial Enforcer, Rouge Assassin and Rebel Raider with the option of using a hero character and the objectives either involve taking out a said number of targets on the map or picking up specific objects on the map to the drop point within the time limit. Honestly these missions are too easy to complete and just feel worthless, the enemies hardly pose a threat, the way you drop object to some drop points hardly makes any sense and you can complete all of the challenges in less then an hour.
The other things that the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II does in order to try to get the game working was by lowering the quality of the graphics. Now in all fairness Star Wars Battlefront II was a good looking game for consoles especially for the PlayStation 2 and on the PSP it's actually not bad considering the hardware it's running on. The size of the maps are pretty good and the detail on the models and the environments are not bad and how it's able to run with the limitations of the PSP handheld console technically it is quite impressive. The game runs at a decent frame rate much like how the game runs on the PS2 and the Xbox consoles but mostly gets choppy when the action get more frantic especially when more enemies come onto the screen but the frame rate is about as close it can be to the console versions. At least it still has that John Williams musical score which I would expect from a Star Wars game and it is still great to hear in this game.
The PSP version removes the Training Mission and instead replaced with Tutorials that explain how to play the game and how use all the classes and heroes, 11 maps like the Death Star, Coruscant and Space Hoth and one of the more important maps Geonosis are absent from the game while other maps that were left in have minor parts of the environment changed. You can only have up to 10 units per team instead of 16, there is no way to issue squad commands to your allies meaning you have to put with your teammates being useless sometimes not dealing with enemies that are going to steal command posts or get in way most of the time and they are also just as accurate as Stormtroopers in the films. Aayla Secura for whatever reason has a Purple Lightsaber to go with her Greeb Lightsaber instead of a Blue Lightsaber and all of the voice files have been removed with the exception of the damage and death voices so you have to put up with the constant “Watch Your Fire!”, “Grenade!” and command post status messages being displayed annoyingly on the screen. But they left those annoying Ewok whaling sound effects and it never stops when you are playing on the Endor map which is going to want to make anyone want to murder those little freaks just to shut them up. The default number of reinforcements that you can have for most maps is changed to 75 with the maximum amount you have is 375 mostly due to the reduction of max units that you can have in the game. Not every single change is bad though, I do like that they put trooper icons next to the reinforcement counter, I like that you don't have to capture all of the command posts to get a victory countdown started in Conquest Mode you can take the ones that the enemy has and then the counter will start and I also do like that Droidekas can now carry the flag in Capture The Flag in Ball Mode making them more useful in Capture The Flag matches. Also with this version and it is the same for the XBox version is that the AI can use the enemy heroes to fight against you and they can be challenge to take down.
Even with the changes and cut down content to due to technical limitations of the PSP console Star Wars Battlefront II is still a decently playable game that tries to follow the steps of the console versions but doesn't play as well as could have been. While the technology of getting the game on such a limited handheld is quite impressive on some level but however things like replacing the single player campaign with a Challenge Mode that is easy and boring to play through, removing maps and control issues makes this game a very inferior port. If you were one of those kids who bought the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II when it was new you would have been massively disappointed on how it turned out. It is the Jedi Padawan of Star Wars Battlefront II versions in which he wanted to train just has hard as the other Jedi but doesn't realize his own limits, that's entirely what the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II is in a nutshell.
I did get the PSP version cheap on the PlayStation Store for about £3.99 digitally and was compatible with the PlayStation Vita. Running the game on the PlayStation Vita does make the game run better then how it would play on the PSP and also it allows for Bilinear Filtering and also allowing the four main face button controls to be assigned to the PSVita's Right Analog Stick so that you can play the game much closer to the console versions with the Left Analog Stick for Movement & Strafing and the Right Analog Stick for Looking/Turning and Aiming. It's not perfect though because the aiming especially with Sniper Rifles is tricky because the analog sticks respond the way that the buttons where pressed on the PSP if that makes so that means it's going to be tricky trying to get a perfect sniper shot off. Also I did notice some graphical glitches on the environments as well and I'm not sure if that it is because I was playing the game on my PSVita and it causes issues when rendering or if it is maybe how it is like that when playing the game on the actual PSP console itself. I did also test it on the PlayStation TV and yes it is compatible with that as well and like with running the game on the PSVita it allows for the face buttons to be used on the Right Analog Stick on the Dual Shock 4 controller.
Lastly I have to question why would they put an inferior version of Star Wars Battlefront II on to PlayStation Store and not even bother to put the PlayStation 2 version on there as a downloadable PlayStation 2 Classic game. The PC version on Steam has the online play enabled again so that people can play the game online again and also the XBox version is now backwards compatible on the XBox One as well as the XBox 360 so it should have been the perfect opportunity to get the PS2 version on the PlayStation Store as well to join the list of excellent games that were released on the PlayStation 2 console but instead no one bothered to that on there.
Thankfully the price of the PSP version is very cheap both physically and digitally but unless you really want to take the frantic Battlefront action on the go you are much better off with the PC, PS2 and XBox versions instead. At least I can say that it is playable dispite the limitations of the PSP console and it is way better then the Star Wars Battlefront Reboot abominations from DICE and EA and soon I will eventually cover those games in the future.
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Game Score: 6.0/10
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Game Title: Star Wars Battlefront II (2005)
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Developer: Savage Entertainment
Genre: First Person Shooter/Third Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 12+
Release Date: 31st October 2005 (Europe)
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The Good Points:
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Technically looks and sounds great with the limitations of the PSP hardware
Has the heroes, starfighters and the Conquest, Hunt, Flag and Hero Assault Modes
Manages to play decently well
The Bad Points:
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Controls can be cumbersome when using Heroes and Starfighters as well as aiming
No Single Player Campaign and removes a fair amount of maps
Challenge Modes are boring, super easy and worthless
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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