I always liked the first Battlefront much more than its 2005 successor. There are many reasons for this, but between nostalgia and how much I loved the game as a kid, it ended up being one of my favourite classic video games.

There's so much good stuff to praise, I'll just cut to the chase. What a marvel of graphics, I mean for a game from 2004, it has aged quite well, and there is a very colourful and pleasant feel to it with many positive visual variables including the motion blur, and the exquisite UI and HUD. For all these reasons I dare say that in this aspect this game surpasses the 2005 game by far. I also like the fact that you can tell that this game was made with dedication, it gave them the time to finish everything they wanted, without being rushed by the pressure of the release date.

The fun is guaranteed, maps like Bespin: Platforms, Rhen Var: Harbour, Geonosis: Spire, and Tatooine: Dune Sea, are the highlight of the game, and are my favourite maps along with Kamino. There are a lot of troops to choose from, and there are some that change depending on the era and side you are on, for example, the Rebellion's heavy soldier doesn't have the same rocket launcher as the Clone Troopers, as the Rebellion's heavy soldier launches two rockets simultaneously, while the Clone Trooper only launches one. Things like this are many and are nice details that vary how the gameplay is seen from the player's perspective. Not to mention too how in this game you can lie down on the ground, while in Battlefront 2 you can’t, or the possibility to manoeuvre spaceships on the ground battlefield, a feature that also doesn't come in the second game.

The main campaign is a split between the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, and honestly, it’s okay, an acceptable work, and has a reasonable duration. Many might say both campaigns are fairly basic, generic or crude, and that is the same as playing the "Instant Action" mode, which allows you to play any map. In truth, there is a bit of variability in the campaign missions, enough to make it a distinctive adventure. There are some unconventional scenarios and situations, with changes mainly based on the troops you manage or face, or the objectives and priorities present in the mission, for example, the 2nd mission of the Clone Wars campaign, called “Rebellion on Theed” features the map Naboo: Theed, which is being defended by the city guards, against the CIS, but in Instant Action, those guards are replaced by simple clones, the same thing happen in Naboo: Plains, the map shown in the 1st mission of the same campaign, where we have B1 battle droids series, against the Gungans, just like the big final battle of Episode I. There’s even the same ray shield with the giant dinosaurs holding it. These are not very significant things, and the change is not noticeably large, but my entire point here is that there are not identical battles, it all depends on your point of view.

In addition to the campaign, there is also the already named “Instant Action” stuff, which gives you the chance to play any location used in the campaign, and many other maps specially selected for this game mode. As well the replayability is competent enough to still be relevant in the middle of 2022. One of the most important things is the opportunity to add mods to the game, while there aren't as many mods as in the 2005 game, there are enough to give anyone a happy landing. This Battlefront also comes with “Galactic Conquest” mode, and it isn't quite as plentiful as in Battlefront 2, but it's still a challenging mode, with many hours of enjoyment, having many campaigns to go through.

I would love to give this game a top rating and give a lecture on how a game from almost 19 years ago does a better job than Electronic Arts' Battlefront, but there are a few points against it that keep this great game from being supreme. Special units like the Droideka or the Jet Clone Trooper are very useful and stunning troops, but none of these units seems to be correctly balanced, there should have been some middle ground, with the preservation of a fair and unbalanced game, without dismissing how strong and broken these units are in good hands. Additionally, while I'm on the subject of special troops, let's talk about the heroes and villains, an aspect that is present in the game, but in a very poor way. To begin with, there are only 4 characters in total, which are divided according to the galactic era. Mace Windu and Luke Skywalker, respectively for the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, and the same with Count Dooku and Darth Vader. They are also exclusively AI-controlled, and to top it off they are immortal, you can't kill them, just run them over or crush them with a vehicle, so that hopefully they stay bugged. For obvious reasons, there is no versus mode like Battlefront 2, and overall this is one of the few things that 2005's Battlefront does beat its predecessor on. I would have liked to have had this game mode, but not in this way. Anyway, you can switch this function on and off in the game's settings, so there's not that much to be alarmed about, and at the same time, it's only available in Instant Action and as a bonus on certain planets in Galactic Conquest mode. Now let’s jump to Artificial Intelligence, which leaves a bit to be desired. Don’t get me wrong, the AI is far from perfect, but good enough to have a good time, there are times when it's very helpful, repairing your damaged vehicles, or dropping supplies on the ground, but it's deficient in certain things. A lot of the time they don't move, they stand around, they get stuck, and depending on what difficulty you play on, your allies are very nerfed, in hard for example, they are literally like 5-year-olds next to you meanwhile the enemies play like gods. This sometimes leads to the fact that you end up on your own against a far larger group of enemies than yourself. It's a huge challenge and entertaining at first, but when it happens to you a lot of the time it's not. Another thing that mucks me is the difference in reinforcements on certain maps. Endor is the lovely demonstration of it, is incredibly hard to win as a Rebel, and the contrast just ends up being abysmal, you have to go back up with vehicles or camp somewhere favourable to turn it around. For this and much more, I consider the difficulty kind of generic.

Entering the vast and expansive Star Wars universe is a tricky job, but “Star Wars: Battlefront” is an authentic experience that does justice to one of the most successful and famous movie franchises of all time. It resulted in a solid, well-structured game, which ended up being one of the most loved and appreciated titles in the Star Wars gaming community. It also dared to lay the foundations of modern Star Wars FPS, focused on depicting on a grand scale, the battles that took place in the five films released at the time when the game was being developed. A completely underrated gem that in my opinion is superior to Pandemic Studios' underwhelming and incomplete Battlefront 2.