Star Wars: Battlefront (series)

Star Wars: Battlefront
Battlefront series logo
Genres	First-person shooter, third-person shooter
Developers	Pandemic Studios (2004–2005) Free Radical Design (2005–2008) Rebellion Developments (2007–2009) Slant Six Games (?–2010) LucasArts (2008–2013) Digital Illusions CE (2013–present)
Publishers	LucasArts (2004–2013) Electronic Arts (2013–present) Disney Interactive Studios (2013–present)
First release	Star Wars: Battlefront 2004
Latest release	Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron 2009
Official website	http://www.starwarsbattlefront.com

The Star Wars: Battlefront series is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars films by George Lucas, published by LucasArts. The series has installments available Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Xbox, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. Pandemic Studios developed the first two installments, while Renegade Squadron and the PSP version of Elite Squadron were developed by Rebellion Developments.

Gameplay

Games normally revolve around two teams ( The Republic and CIS or The Galactic Empire and The Rebel Alliance) fighting each other on various small-medium sized maps. Maps take place in the Star Wars galaxy, with battlezones varying in theme and size. Across the battlefield are multiple "command posts" (Objectives) that act as spawn points, and can be controlled by either the player or the computer. Units can spawn from any friendly command post, and vehicles regularly spawn at their respective command posts when destroyed. Units can capture neutral or hostile command posts by approaching them and standing within the immediate vicinity for about 30 seconds. The time to capture quickens with more friendly units within the capture zone. Some vehicles act as mobile command posts, and must be destroyed as they can not be captured. On some maps (such as Hoth or Endor), certain structures also act as command posts that can not be captured. Command post capturing works differently on certain campaign missions as well. Playable heroes and villians play a significant role in changing the course of battles.

The objective of most matches is to eliminate all of the opponents' reinforcement tickets or to capture the command points, to slowly chip away at their tickets. Reinforcement tickets are used whenever a unit is killed, or when one faction controls a majority of the command posts on the map (usually when the losing faction only has 2-3). Only one objective needs to be completed. When all command posts are captured, the team with no command posts has twenty seconds to recapture or neutralize an enemy command post. If the team cannot take over a post in this time, the match is over. Certain campaign levels and multiplayer have requirements that differ from the general game play, however the general structure remains the same.

History

Star Wars: Battlefront

Main article: Star Wars: Battlefront

Star Wars: Battlefront is the first installment in the Battlefront series. It was released on September 21, 2004, with a Mac port by Aspyr released in July 2005. The game is available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac OS, and mobile phones. Jedi are not playable in this game without the help of modified files unsupported by LucasArts. Other NPCs made playable by similar files include, but are not limited to, Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea of Tatooine, Ewoks of Endor and Gungans on the Naboo plains.

Star Wars: Battlefront II

Main article: Star Wars: Battlefront II

Star Wars: Battlefront II is the second installment in the Battlefront series, released in Europe on October 31, 2005 – for the PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, and Windows – and in North America one day later. There are some significant differences between Battlefront and Battlefront II: Battlefront II includes playable Jedi characters, space battles, and story campaigns, as well as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith-related content. The release date of Battlefront II coincided with the release of Revenge of the Sith on DVD. The game is now an Xbox Platinum Hits game, a Sony Greatest Hits game in North America, and an Xbox Classics and PlayStation Platinum game in Europe.

Battlefront II expands upon the original game's single-player experience with mission-based objectives drawn from all six Star Wars films. It is a story-based campaign which revolves around the 501st Legion (AKA "Vader's Fist") as the unit evolves from the Republic clone troopers to Imperial stormtroopers. Many maps from Star Wars Battlefront make a second appearance, and the game adds new locales such as Coruscant and Utapau. Also there are more game styles in this game like Conquest, Hunt (fight as natives to planets against other natives or certain troopers in an army such as Wampas vs. Rebels on Hoth or Tusken Raiders vs. Jawas on Tatooine to earn 50 points first), Capture the flag (both 1 and 2 flag), Assault (Tatooine only, battle Heroes vs Villains in a race to rack up points) and space battles.

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron

Main article: Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is the third installment of Star Wars Battlefront, released in North America on October 9, 2007 and in Europe three days later. The game was released only for the PlayStation Portable. Renegade Squadron is also available in a bundle pack with the new white PSP redesign featuring Darth Vader on the back.

Aside from new heroes and vehicles, such as the Millennium Falcon, a notable new feature is the ability to create a character, allowing the player to adjust the character’s weapon, appearance, and speed, amongst other things, to their liking. However, the character will be vulnerable due to the lacking of certain aspects that will be replaced by others. For example, your character may be fast but weak or have good weapons but no stamina and speed. The discarded idea to allow players to increase the points to make their characters better caused frustration to many players. Before the game’s release, LucasArts had stated that over one million different customizable options would be present. Another new feature allows players to enter asteroid bases on some space maps.

Commander Col Serra describes the forming of Renegade Squadron in the beginning cutscene of campaign. Then the player starts a series of missions ranging in objectives while including cut scenes between each mission. The final mission includes the Battle of Endor, in which the objectives are similar to the footage of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons

Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons was announced on January 8, 2009 by THQ Wireless exclusively for the mobile phones.^[1] It was released on April 2, 2009.^[2] The game features a persistent online community, and has three classes which the player starts as. The gameplay is a first person perspective shooter that can use the touch features of a phone, although the player has no control over movement.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

Main article: Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was released on November 3, 2009 for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS.^[3] This marks the third Battlefront game on the PlayStation Portable and the first on a Nintendo console. The game was originally discovered through its ESRB rating on the official ESRB website which has since been taken down. It follows in the same vein as its predecessors with space, land and new air battles. Players usually play in a third person perspective, but in the PSP version, they can also switch to a strategy based mode where they may build troops and upgrade armies.^[4]

Star Wars Battlefront (DICE)

At an E3 press conference on June 10, 2013, EA DICE (whose parent company, Electronic Arts, had recently acquired a multi-year license to produce Star Wars video games), unveiled a teaser trailer for a new Star Wars: Battlefront game, built on the Frostbite 3 engine. No further details were announced.^[5] The teaser showed a first-person view of the Battle of Hoth, including a crashing Snowspeeder and the foot of an AT-AT. DICE showed additional development footage at the 2014 E3 conference.

Canceled additions

Star Wars: Battlefront III

On September 29, 2006, Computer and Video Games made an unconfirmed claim that Free Radical Design was developing the third game in the Star Wars: Battlefront series, titled Star Wars: Battlefront III.^[6]^[7] In June 2008, Kotaku allegedly received information from a former LucasArts employee that Star Wars: Battlefront III was in the creation process.^[8] On October 2, Activision Blizzard filed a classification with the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification listing Star Wars: Battlefront III for the Nintendo DS with a PG rating (E10+ equivalent) for mild animated violence.^[9] However, that same month, Free Radical Design announced that they lost the rights to develop Star Wars: Battlefront III; the game at that point had been in development for two years.^[10] Several years later, Free Radical Design co-founder Steve Ellis said Battlefront III was "pretty much done" in 2008, but that it was effectively canned when LucasArts could not commit to "spend big" on marketing it.^[11] However, GameSpot quoted an unnamed LucasArts employee involved with the project who said Free Radical could not devote sufficient resources to the game and regularly missed deadlines.^[12] A former Free Radical Design employee said some of the technology Free Radical developed for the game, specifically the contiguous game environment from planet surface into space, "is dying with us".^[13]

During and after the game's development, screenshots and gameplay footage became accessible to the public. In December 2008, Star Wars character renders bearing a Battlefront III watermark surfaced from a laid-off Free Radical employee.^[14] The following month, gameplay footage was leaked from a November 2008 Free Radical in-house showing of Battlefront III footage.^[15] The footage was pulled from IGN after LucasArts demanded its removal.^[16] On April 1, 2012, a user on the game journalist website Betagames discovered Star Wars models and textures buried in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City‍ 's archives; PC Gamer‍ 's Tom Senior speculated that these could have been from Battlefront III.^[17] Also in April 2012, Past to Present revealed pre-alpha footage of Free Radical Design's Battlefront III.^[18] YouTube videos showing the game's rough state received media attention from outlets such as Joystiq,^[19] Kotaku,^[20] and Shacknews.^[21]

Digital Trends speculated that Star Wars: First Assault might help LucasArts recover some of their previous investment in Battlefront III and other projects in the franchise.^[22] However, shortly after LucasArts shut down, Kotaku reported that LucasArts had been developing Battlefront III internally under the code name "Version Two".^[23]

Star Wars: Battlefront Online

Star Wars: Battlefront Online was rumored to be the next installment in the series. On January 28, 2010, Kotaku reported that SOCOM developer Slant Six Games was working with LucasArts to develop an online-only Battlefront title due in 2011. The game was said to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was also stated that this game may have been the source of the Star Wars: Battlefront 3 concept art renders.^[24] However, it has been revealed that the game has been cancelled after the studio was unable to meet its 2010 release deadline.^[25]