So I finally caved and bought Battlefront II. I was waiting for a demo, but there was no word whether there'd ever be one... and I needed a newish game to test out my awesome new computer with its super-leet video card (GeForce 7800 GT!). So I just bought it. Along with Civilization IV... first time in recent memory I've bought two games in one trip... when you spend more than $100 on games at once, it really opens your eyes to how expensive this all is! But ah well, it's fun. Anyways, I've been playing through the single-player and I thought I'd record some of my observations.

First of all, I'd like to say that first-person-shooter games are not usually my 'cup of tea' at all. I've played many of the Star Wars ones, especially Republic Commando, but I am not good at them nor I do like the genre in general. So whenever I've played Battlefront II so far, inevitably my brother and/or sister will come in my room to watch (they both play and are very good at FPS games) and laugh at me as I stand still firing, freak out when things are firing at me, jump around like an idiot, and say wonderfully insightful things like "what are my friends all shooting at?" as I can't see where the enemies are. So yeah, this is me. I am not good and I highly doubt I'll ever be good. But it's still fun most of the time. In Star Wars games, at least!

So when I got the game and started up a campaign, the first thing I noticed was the lack of an "Easy" difficulty level. Eeep, this is not good. Republic Commando has Easy, and it really helped me not-suck on my first time through the game and not get frustrated. But Battlefront II only has "Normal" and "Elite". Well, I'm not even "normal" in skill, so we'll see how this goes. I just hope I don't completely top out before the end of the game. Already I have to play most missions at least twice. I also died many times on the first level... not a promising beginning.

Well, I'll mention some of the things I like, and then some things that annoy me. Overall I do like the game, but some parts of it bother me and other parts are a bit cheesy (ironically, most of the things that are new to Battlefront II are the parts I'm not too keen on!). (FYI, I did play Battlefront I at one LAN party, but it was only multiplayer and only for a couple hours. I don't own that game.)

Stuff I like:
- Being the 501st. Blue clones rock. I've always loved their paint jobs the best. Seeing a ton of my brothers around me shooting at stuff (while I hide in the corner, lol) is awesome.
- The vehicles! I was in one of those two-legged walkers from RotS Kashyyyk in the Utapau mission, and it was so fun. I also went in a STAP on the Kashyyyk mission... dude! Awesomeness! My brother also had a lot of fun on that mission when he stole a spider droid from the Seps and used it to guard the wookiees' base. Hehe.
- Clone sharpshooters. I like sniping. These missions are geared for it a bit more than Republic Commando was. In RepCom, you're almost always moving from one place to another. Battlefront has levels that are larger and more open, so you can actually find a place and snipe several dudes before you have to move on. I was sniping people in the Jedi Temple and it was fun.
- The goal-based victory conditions. I wish there was a way to see how many reinforcements you have remaining (so the game doesn't just end randomly when you're out of them... is there a way to see this?) but I like the idea of "you have to do this... do it before your reinforcements are gone and when you succeed, do that".
- I like the medals and awards system. I'm 'Veteran' in like four of them and am very pleased with myself.

Stuff I don't like so much:
- The plot, ugh. Ok, the 501st does not need to insert itself into every single battle at the end of the Clone Wars. Wow, "magic" hyperspace much? I know that makes the gameplay more interesting, but it really annoys me from a continuity standpoint. Also, and this is a big one... why is it implying that the clones knew Order 66 was coming??? This is awful. The clones didn't know that their purpose was to kill the Jedi. That's the whole point... Palpatine manipulated everything. To show the clones trying to hide info from the Jedi and looking at one another knowingly while the Jedi are oblivious... I'm sorry, but that completely ruins the tragedy of Order 66. The clones are not evil; they are not bad guys. The game paints them as such. Besides, Order 66 wouldn't have worked if there was malicious intent behind it. At least the game didn't go the "mindless fleshbot" route... but did it have to go to the other extreme? Why can't they just be simple soldiers? *sigh*
- The space battles. It was a good idea... but the implementation is like arcade-style Freelancer (I liked that game) yet with sloppy controls AND you can crash into things. It's not fun-arcadey, it's annoying-arcadey. You have to press a BUTTON to dodge, you can't even do it yourself! Ok, so the landing on ships is fun. But the rest... ugh. I played the first space mission, but I skipped the second one after I would launch and immediately get shot down by the di'kutla auto-turrets.... three times in a row. I'm just glad they let you skip those missions!
- The Jedi. Ok, so they don't annoy me really... it just isn't that good. The saber combat is cheesy - button-mash-o-rama. I haven't figured out Force powers at all, and really don't care to. I like the system where you can play as a Jedi only in certain instances, and I like the variety of characters available, but overall it'd be better if the controls were more inline with the Jedi Knight games. But I guess the learning curve would be too great with that, and there'd be balancing issues too. Still, the Jedi as-is... I don't even opt to play as them half the time. It's just not worth it.
- The fact that droids will do dives and shoulder-rolls. That's just wrong somehow. :P

Ok, so it looks like I have more annoyances than good things, but really... it's a great game and I'm having fun with it.

Maybe sometime I'll get the courage to play multiplayer. But if I do, I'm gonna make sure to use a screenname that doesn't give away gender, because people can be so immature. I want to play, but sometimes I can't deal with people.... so yeah, we'll see. My brother suggested I play multiplayer but ignore all chat, choose servers randomly making sure not to frequent one a lot, and pretend that all other players are AIs. Hehe.

Well, I'm on the Jedi Temple mission now. (I tried it once but lost, so I gotta do it again.) Anyone know how many missions there are total? Well, I guess I'll keep playing and I'll keep you all up-to-date.

PS: I've been playing Civilization IV as the 'Mandalorian' civ. I name all my cities random Mando'a words! In my last game I had Mandalore, Aruetyc, Gra'tua, Darasuum Kote, Teroch, Prudii, Kandosii, Kyr'am (gotta love a city named 'Death', lol), Tracinya, and A'den. It rocks! Even though I got owned the last time I played. I misjudged the difficulty levels a bit, haha.