Not enough AI per team. Great levels taken out. Weird distance rendering. No online, no story mode. Most sounds cut out.
Let me go step by step.
The graphics! There's a very good side to the graphics. For one, all of the models in the game maintain their high polygon counts from the full versions when they're a certain distance away. Textures are more blurry than you could get them on the PC version, but they still look nice.
Lighting can at times look great. I was surprised by how, when I was rolling my starfighter around in space, it was fully affected by directional lighting. As in, if light is on the top of the ship, then the light will be on top and the bottom will be dark. Flip the ship over, the light will be on the bottom and the darkness will be on the top. Not like you'll ever notice while playing, but it's a very nice, modern lighting effect.
There's also some limited dynamic lighting. Control points generate light (blue, white and red) which all effect models that go near them. Directional, of course! Basically, lighting is impressive for a PSP game. No shadows or anything.
All of the special effects are maintained from the other versions. Vehicles will spew smoke, fire and sparks when they're heavily damaged. Explosions look quite good. When a droid is blown up, they'll explode and pieces will fly everywhere and roll around. I remember one time when I had died, and one of my teammates killed a droid. I was dead so the camera was lying on the ground, and a disembodied droid head rolled by right in front of the camera. Very awesome.
However, beyond neat little special effects, the game's visuals begin to fail at the more blatantly obvious features. There's heavy amounts of fog in every level. There's no more panoramic background sky at eye level, it's just fog instead. You have to look straight up to see the sky. One of the levels, Mygeeto, has a ton of spikey mountain stuff taken out which lied "outside" the arena, but was still obvious and visible. The moving clouds that covered the bottomless pit around Mygeeto were also taken out, along with the wind and the snow.
On one buggy level that I unlocked by modifying an ISO of the UMD, there was no fog, but the level was huge and open, showing me that fog is completely unnecessary in every level because the big, detailed level that I had unlocked (Utapau) had run full speed without fog.
At a certain short distance, when models lose their detail, character animations just STOP. The only animations that play are run, stand and... corpse. It's hard to tell what someone is doing, as they'll just be running funny and bullets will magically fly out of them.
Not only does it look horrible (and this loss of animations doesn't happen in any other version), but it's especially bad in heroes. When a hero dies from a distance, you won't even be able to tell, as they'll still look like they're standing up.
Not much else to say about graphics. The model animations being horribly crapped down after a short distance have to be the worst atrocity.
Sounds are just bad. I mean, the ones that are actually there sound quite nice, but they took out CRAPLOADS out sounds. Every voiceover sound is taken out entirely, so no more fun dialogue to cover up the utter stupidty of the AI. Even the voice of the guy that warns you about command posts or reinforcment counts is completely non-existant. Footsteps were even taken out. In Endor, they took out the horns that play in the background, but for some God-awful reason, THE EWOK CHATTER IS STILL THERE. They take out just about every sound effect but they leave in the annoying, loud, repetitive, random ewok screams.
You won't be missing out if you don't have the volume on. The only sounds that are left in the game are gunshots and explosions. The UMD could have fit the remaining sounds, but they were just too damn lazy to leave them in, apparently. Except the friggin' ewoks.
Controls are decent enough, but you can't customize them. Only two control configurations give you the ability to roll, and only one gives you the ability to crouch. The game doesn't even tell you how to crouch. I had to figure it out.
The Advanced controls- the only controls worth using because they're ironically so easy to use- let you use your primary and secondary weapons at the same time, let you roll and let you crouch. To crouch, you have to hold the zoom buttons (L and R) then move forward SLIGHTLY. It will automatically make the player zoom to the next level (unzoom in most cases) and will make him crouch.
For some reason, all five different sections that you can choose your controls for HAVE to be the of the same control configuration. Advanced is best for infantry, vehicles, turrets and in most cases Jedi, but Default is the best for starfighters. You have to go to the menu and change your controls to Default if you want to be able to fly a starfighter effectively.
There's no point in needing to aim precisely because the auto-target button will make the player lock onto any target on screen indefinitely, until they hold down the target button or turn away from their target far enough to unlock.
The controls don't allow for immersiveness and effectiveness at the same time. Immersiveness is being able to completely control your aiming and movement. Effectiveness is being able to roll, crouch and use primary/secondary weapons simultaneously. If you want effectiveness, you have to do auto-aiming to fight enemies, which doesn't feel quite as entertaining as immersiveness.
There is one control configuration that allows for both, but you have to look with the analog stick and move with the face buttons, jump by pressing up on the D-Pad... It got too difficult for me.
The content is just... It's horrible. I don't know where to start.
Let me start with the AI per team count. It's terrible. On single player, you only get ten AI per team. That's hardly enough for an actual battle. I mean, when playing on the PS2 and XBOX, I thought it was horrible that you only got sixteen AI per team. Ten is just awful. Levels like Mygeeto that had large amounts of tanks had to have some taken out to make up for the lower amount of AI. Mygeeto is the most screwed-up level, really. Still great, though.
The AI count only gets worse on multiplayer. You get six AI per team. SIX. FREAKING SIX. You can't have a BATTLE with six AI per team on those big levels! It boils down to just LOOKING for people instead of actually fighting them.
Half of the levels are taken out, including my favorites, Geonosis and Utapau. Most of the levels are still on the UMD, they just have problems that range from glitchy pathing to simply not working. Jabba's Palace and Utapau, for example, are almost perfectly working, but they have slight problems that made them get taken out entirely.
There's no more single player story. Honestly, I don't miss that story mode crap. I liked playing it on co-op with my little brother but otherwise it wasn't that fun to begin with.
For some reason, massive levels like Hoth were left in, while indoor levels like Death Star were taken out. How are you supposed to enjoy Hoth with ten AI per team? Or SIX AI per team? You can't enjoy it like that!
There's no online mode, just four-player Ad Hoc. Which wouldn't be that bad, except for the fact that you get six AI per team.
SIX! WHAT THE HELL!?
The big command ships in space no longer have interiors beyond the hangars. I actually saw this as an improvement, as all of the AI would usually just run around inside of the ship and stand around pointlessly instead of using fighters.
To replace the story mode, they made three crappy, half-assed "challenges". Challenges are boring. The player, completely alone, takes on craploads of enemies to perform simple objectives.
As an Imperial sniper, he must basically play Hunt with nobody on his team by killing all of the natives.
As an Episode 2 clone jet trooper with a beefed-up machine gun, he must eliminate three officers at a time while weaker troopers get in his way. He's alone, of course.
As a Rebel engineer or "smuggler", he must grab three space flag-looking items (one at a time) and bring them back to a pre-designated spot. Basically capture the flag, except there's multiple flags and the player must do it all alone.
These challenges work on multiplayer in both co-op and competition modes. The only difference between co-op and competition is that the scores for the players are seperate. Otherwise, they're still on a team.
Also, for some reason, the players get AI teammates on multiplayer challenges. Player is alone on single player, but gets both human teammates and AI teammates on multiplayer. What?
The only reason I ever played the challenges was out of curiosity. "What are these new additions?" I wondered quietly to myself. Beyond that, I NEVER play them.
Let me summarize. Visual special effects are really cool and models look great, but rendering at a distance is trivial. There's heavy fog and animations are just awful once enemies get just a few feet away.
Sound is pitiful. There's nothing to enjoy about the audio. All of the music is still there, but the Star Wars music has never been good for video games.
The controls are all right, but not terribly entertaining.
There aren't nearly enough AI per team to enjoy every level. Some levels just do horribly with low amount of AI.
There's no online mode. Four-player multiplayer Ad Hoc is fun because you're playing with your buddies, but only six AI per team makes most levels boil down to search-fests.
There's no single player storyline. I don't really care for it, but it was certainly interesting.
Half of the levels were taken out. Levels that can't work with low amount of AI per team were left in while levels that would've worked great were taken out.
Challenges were a waste of effort (what little it took) by the creators.
Galactic Conquest was left in, but Galactic Conquest is boring, especially because you can't do Galactic Conquest on multiplayer.
The game maintains a lot of the key elements of SWBF2 gameplay. You get all of the classes and heroes, you get all of the vehicles that are supposed to be on levels (though the amount of vehicles is cut down to adjust to the limited AI), you get space battles, and you even get the ever-fun Hero Assault.
One advantage of the PSP game is that, like the XBOX game and unlike the PS2 and PC games, enemies will use their hero. Teammates won't use the hero (only the player can use the hero on his team, as always), but at least you can run into "bosses" into the middle of your infantry-killing to spice things up.
Hopefully, limited time (rather than laziness) was the reason so many levels didn't make it into the game. All of the levels are still on the UMD, but the ones that were taken out have problems ranging from a problem so little that the level might as well have been left in to levels simply not working at all. I would've rather waited for them to finish all of the levels before they released the game.
There's no excuse for the low amount of AI. Unlike levels not being included which, as I mentioned above, was (hopefully) limited time, the AI per team was easily under their control at all times. They could've left it at sixteen. There was nothing stopping them. SWBF2 AI take NO MEMORY. The PSP could easily render one hundred at a time. Not only do the thought processes of the AI take pretty much no memory at all, but all one hundred (or more reasonably thirty-two) AI would never be in the same area at the same time, so the heavy amounts of fog and crappy-looking distant animations would cover up everything visually.
Six AI per team for multiplayer is just unforgiveable. Some levels can be enjoyed with ten AI per team, but take away just four AI per team and suddenly the levels are barren and empty.
Don't fret. This game is still worth buying, if you play it properly. Here are some tips for enjoying SWBF2 for the PSP.
- Ten AI per team. No-brainer.
- Only play Hoth on Capture the Flag (because everyone will be in basically the same area), or only fly an air speeder on Conquest (driving an AT-AT with nothing to shoot at is boring, and there aren't enough infantry to battle it out on foot or drive an AT-ST). For some reason, the Imperial engineer is missing from Hoth Capture the Flag.
- Only Naboo Hunt is worth playing. Every other Hunt is imbalanced or messed up. On Hoth Hunt, all of the Wampas will start wandering around out in the big, empty battlefield.
- Set low goals. Make Conquest have max reinforcements but a five-minute time limit. By the time you're bored with the level, it will change, but the battle will never boil down to a team with 50 reinforcements searching for the remainder of a team with 3 reinforcements. The time limit goes for every other game type. With Capture the Flag, make the Capture limit one, except in space, where you should set it to something higher like five.
- Play Mygeeto on Conquest. It kicks ass. Every class is useful, and you get tanks.
- Kashyyyk is awesome on Conquest because it's big, crazy battles. Play that, too.
- Only play Capture the Flag in space. Space Assault is terrible because all of the AI get on the assault ships and you'll have hardly any fighters around. However, with Capture the Flag, all (or MOST) of the AI will be flying around in fighters shooting at eachother. There are only two space levels, one for the Clone Wars and one for the Galactic Civil War. On the one for the Galactic Civil War, the Empire ships don't leave the hangar as often and aren't as active as the Rebel ships. The Clone Wars space level, however, is active and exciting.
- Hero Assault is really fun, and is the only type of gameplay completely unaltered by the port. The AI only choose one hero at a time (except when they accidentally pick two), so whether you're playing on the PC, XBOX, PS2 or PSP, it's always the same bowl of awesomeness.
- Multiplayer is a different story. The only way I've truly enjoyed multiplayer is by playing Hero Assault. Every other gametype is completely ruined by a low amount of AI. There's no Capture the Flag in space on multiplayer.
I'm not sure what else to say. I've already said so much crap. I bought the game for $50 (FIFTY DOLLARS!!!), but I don't feel cheated. The game, despite its many flaws, shameful outtakes and appaulingly low AI per team count, is fun in its own right. Most of the problems are just in comparison to the other versions. So much crap is missing, it's insulting. However, when looking at the game as its own game, it's impressive.
I've played the hell out of this game (because it's portable), more than any other PSP game I own. It has served me well, from Alaska to Arizona to Texas on plane trips and car rides. I can play an untimed game with 500% reinforcements on Mygeeto Conquest. It lasts forever, but it's sooo goood.
This game is pretty cheap now, so if you have any interests in games like the PC/console versions of Battlefront, or any of the Battlefield games, or just shooters in general, you might get a kick out of Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the PSP and it may be worth some cash.