Battlefront II

10 years of Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)

Written by

Published: November 1, 2015 10:00 AM

Yesterday (November 1, 2015) marked the 10-year anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Battlefront II, the first and third person shooter that put us in the boots of the droids, troopers, heroes, and villains of the franchise that many of us love to watch over and over again.

With a single-player Galactic Conquest mode, you could get lost in endless multiplayer servers to connect to. The release of Star Wars: Battlefront II allowed us a never-ending number of battles to fight. Let's take a look back at the game, shall we?

There was (and still is) always a great satisfaction that came with playing Star Wars: Battlefront II, whether you played as the Empire, Separatists, Rebels, or Republic. All of them had a great feel and brought the beloved franchise's battles to life before your very eyes on iconic planets such as Hoth, Kashyyyk, Naboo, Kamino, and more.

What made Star Wars: Battlefront II stand apart when it was released was the size of the battles, offering large-scale battles between opposing forces with both real players and AI opponents, creating the sense of a battle worthy of Star Wars.

Image of A Star Destroyer Over Tatooine in BF2

Battlefront II was a huge step up from its predecessor, adding an array of new features, maps, vehicles, and modes to the new release. With the introduction of space battles and massive 64-person battles, it brought a bigger sense of scale to the franchise, and the introduction of more classes and vehicles for each faction allowed you more options to choose from as well, really rounding out the experience.

The moment you get that notification that you can respawn as Darth Vader, Yoda, Darth Maul, Jango Fett, Obi Wan Kenobi, or another of the heroes and villains was always a moment of excitement. You'd respawn with a smile, as you know that's the moment you can potentially turn the tide of the battle. Whether playing the single-player or multiplayer, the feeling was always the same, pure excitement, because who doesn't want to play as an iconic character from their favorite movies?

It's possible that for a lot of people that, besides Call of Duty and Halo, Battlefront was one series that they'll remember playing hours of multiplayer online, because for the longest time (until 2014), there was a robust community of players online playing games.

The addition of modes like space battles and hero assault mode kept people coming back for more, and with leaderboards tracking your kills and stats, you always had a way to keep track of where you stood versus the rest of the world. Sadly, the GameSpy servers shut down in 2014, but you can use GameRanger now to play the PC Version of Battlefront II online if you wish by downloading it and joining one of the servers to play!

Image of the Win Screen in Star Wars Battlefront II Galactic Conquest

Personally, playing the Galactic Conquest single player game mode is always one of my favorite things to do, because depending on the difficulty, it's always a challenge working my way through the galaxy conquering (or liberating) each planet as I build up an armada of ships and expand the units I have at my disposal.

It's a mix of fleet building and the first/third person shooter elements that make it a unique single player experience, and the addition of the map for conquest mode made it feel so much more grand than in the original Battlefront

We've had 10 years with Battlefront II, and thanks to the wonders of the Internet, there's a good chance we'll get another 10 more if people continue to want to play it after the new Star Wars: Battlefront comes out.

While console players are now limited to LAN and local multiplayer and single player, there's (as of this writing) over 1,000 people a day playing the game via Steam, so there's still a lot of life in this great game. If you haven't played it recently, pick it up again and jump into a game!

Image of Luke Skywalker under a Walker With the Victory Screen on Hoth
No author image supplied
|