Best game...scratch that, best expansion ever.
Now as much as I would like to give this game a perfect score, I cannot for one huge reason. I can't give this a perfect score because of the fact that it feels more like an expansion than a sequel. There are tons of new additions to this game, but there just aren't enough improvements. When playing this game, you may feel that you have already played this game already, and that there isn't much else to do. You have the same problems, vehicles, levels, and characters from the first Battlefront, but you do get a few new features.
You will find that the Jedi and special heroes are pretty fun to play as is. This is one of the new items in Battlefront II. You can now play as Han Solo, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and even Yoda during a battle. This may seem like a dream to most of you, but it's not exactly what it was cracked up to be. All of the heroes pretty much handle the same as the regular soldiers, except for the fact that you can run and jump higher than most, and you wield a light saber instead of a gun (unless you're Boba Fett or Han Solo). The Jedi and other heroes aren't all invincible, so you can expect a fair fight with you and the enemy army. You can block incoming blaster shots with the R2 buttons and use your special attack with the L1 button. These special attacks are very useful, especially for long distance attacking, since you can throw your light saber a very far distance, or force push some attacking soldiers who are close by. Darth Vader can even use his famous force choke on soldiers. To summon the Jedi, you need a certain number of points. You can receive these by attacking as many soldiers as you can, and you'll eventually be given the option to respawn as a Jedi hero.
Just like unlocking heroes during battle, you can unlock new soldier classes to play with during battle. Just like the previous Battlefront game with the droideka and dark troopers, these new soldiers are unlocked by getting a certain number of points on the battlefield. These new classes include the bothan spy and the clone commander. The bothan spy is used by the Rebels. This new character uses a powerful close range flamethrower and a cloak that leaves a shimmer similar to the Predator's. The clone commander is a very fun character play as because of its very fast chain gun. Just as the blasters on a vehicle, the chain gun can overheat, and you will be forced to stop using it until it cools down.
The game features a very fun and cool handful of space missions. Instead of just killing off infantry units as you would on planets such as Endor or Hoth, these space levels allow you to pilot an X-Wing or a Tie Fighter, and attack enemy ships. You can even land inside of your enemy's destroyer ship and destroy some internal systems such as the engines or shields. Doing this earns you a massive amount of points. Each side has to earn 180 points or greater in order to win a space match. Both sides start out by picking what type of pilot they want, just like any other battle, and then both are spawned at their bases. While in the base, you can choose to pilot an aircraft, or go inside of your base and take control of a turret. If you choose the turret, you can shoot down enemy ships from your destroyer. Your destroyer ship serves as an aircraft carrier that spawns team ships and holds important objects such as your turrets and shields. If you want to pilot an aircraft, you can choose from about five different ships to take control of. There are bombers, transport ships, regular fighter crafts, and faster versions of fighter crafts. You can attack enemy fighters and earn one point for each ship shot down or you can attack outside weak spots on the enemy's destroyer. The best part of the space levels is going inside of an enemy's destroyer and attack all of the internal weak spots. This is very useful for getting major points.
Star Wars: Battlefront II takes place between the clone wars era and the rebellion era. During your campaign mode, you will understand what exactly happened between Star Wars episode III and episode IV. You will know exactly how the Cloned soldiers became the bad guys, and how each soldier changed its looks. The story is narrated by a clone soldier and unlike the original Battlefront, the story doesn't span over the entire Star Wars story line.
Unlike the original Star Wars: Battlefront, this game gives you objectives during each level in campaign mode. This helps you better understand the story and give you more understanding of the Star Wars universe. It's also much more fun. You'll not only have to take control of command posts, but you'll also have a chance to protect certain areas of the map, or destroy a certain object in a level. This helps build intensity, especially with goals to hold down a certain area of a map.
Audio in this game has finally been improved to the way it should have been from square one. One of the problems with the original Star Wars: Battlefront was that none of the female rebels had voices. This has thankfully been changed. There are also much more voices for all characters. Each Jedi hero has his or her own voice when he or she enters and leaves the battlefield, though there are no voices during the fighting. You will hear others shouting at each other about Jedi heroes being on the field though. When Darth Vader is on the field, for example, others will shout at each other "It's lord Vader!" and probably run away in fear. Unfortunately, this kind of shock and surprise only is counts towards the Jedi heroes, and not towards others. You will never hear a soldier shout in fear of another soldier, just as in war, which can increase the tension during the gameplay.
Star Wars: Battlefront II is an excellent expansion to the first, and is a game that fans of the original will love. With new space levels, solid audio, addictive gameplay, and Jedi lightsaber action, where can you go wrong? This is the most solid Star Wars game I have ever played. I highly suggest that all shooter fans should pick this one up.