
Having not played a Star Wars game since X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and Yoda Stories way back in the day, the Battlefront franchise has, until now, completely passed me by. As a result I had no idea what to expect when I loaded up the UMD. After beginning campaign mode I was pleasantly surprised and bltized through it almost in an entire sitting.
Which brings me to my first complaint: the game is hilariously easy. After I had worked out my personal favourite weapon set up (shotgun and grenade launcher) I never found myself changing it. Normal difficulty is ridiculously unbalanced in the player's favour.
After completing campaign mode and, sadly, lacking any form of internet access, I set my sights to the Galactic Conquest game mode. What followed was a love affair of astronomical proportions (get it? Astronomy? Stars? Star Wars? I'll get my coat ...). Galactic Conquest is a mixture between two of my favourite games - Master of Orion and the board game Risk.

The main problem is that the game mode feels tacked on to the bottom of the Single Player menu. The biggest tragedy being that there is no multiplayer version. Not even in Ad Hoc mode. Master of Orion 2's LAN multiplayer was excellent and that game came out in 1996. There's really no excuse.
This is just one facet of Galactic Conquest mode that feels incomplete. The map remains the same no matter how many games you play - the only thing that changes in this respect is ownership of the different planets. I would have liked to have seen several different maps rotated out, in order to keep the game fresh. Players have the option of choosing between the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire but, in practice, this makes little difference. The commanders that you can hire ultimately do the same things, regardless of which faction you choose. All that really changes is the Hero that you can play as during the game.

The game map is also unbalanced. Out of the 16 available planets, only a handful require you to take part in space combat, with the majority relying on ground combat. While not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your tastes, it can become a bit wearying playing ground combat after ground combat. Sometimes space battles are nice to break up the gameplay a bit.
As for the combat itself, I'll return to a previous point: the game is far too easy. Normal mode is, seemingly, impossible to lose at and while Elite difficulty increases the challenge slightly, it's still too easy to beat. I've played several games of Galactic Conquest and have yet to be beaten at a ground combat mission. This makes the game feel more like a time waster, than an actual game. But considering the "tacked on" feel of the entire game mode, this doesn't come as a huge surprise. This problem would likely be solved by the inclusion of a multiplayer mode. Playing against another human brain would drastically up the ante and make Galactic Conquest far more exciting.
Overall, the Galactic Conquest game mode is my favourite part of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. Despite everything I've said so far, it is really excellent fun. It's just a shame more effort wasn't put into it. As a bonus feature accompanying the main game, it's fine. But if it were given the limelight and development time it deserves, it could be a successful full game in its own right.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-04-2007 @ 9:06AM
BlindElf said...
Wow, I wish you guys could do a group impressions or review on every game I'm interested in, this is great.
I didn't know about Galactic Conquest mode until this week, seems like it might end up being my favorite part of the game as well...
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10-04-2007 @ 9:20AM
lynn said...
The more I hear the better I feel about getting the game. Thanks for the impressions!
Lynn
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10-04-2007 @ 9:40AM
joeftl said...
This series has been great. I am looking forward to getting this game. Again, the multiplayer aspect I hope is really good.
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10-04-2007 @ 9:44AM
LAZoftheTamarinds said...
I'm glad this game is going to be a great PSP game. So many good psp games so little money. :(
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10-04-2007 @ 10:05AM
Alien said...
... yesterdays impression was batter ( JK :P ) . GC seems to be a great part of the game :)
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10-04-2007 @ 10:07AM
CcoconutBoy said...
This game and the Vader PSP are going to cost me a lot of money. There's so many games for the PSP that are a must buy, and this game and the Vader PSP are the reason I'm getting a PSP in the first place...
These differing impressions have been fun to read, and seeing how different parts of the game are enjoyable has been interesting. Thanks!
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10-04-2007 @ 10:20AM
DMeisterJ said...
This game is going to be so awesome
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10-04-2007 @ 10:49AM
terrell said...
it looks fun i a big fan of battlefront II on the Xbox but when i picked it up for the PSP it just didn't feel right hopefully they fixed some of those problems
looks good!
oh no one mention how playing heroes are like.
aslo does anyone know if you are able to play some clone wars era in GC or instent action?
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10-04-2007 @ 11:07AM
Darkhelmutis said...
Hmmm....yes I will take a Vader PSP please!!
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10-04-2007 @ 11:09AM
dbh1973 said...
Thank you for the write up. The more I read about this, the more I'm glad I've got the PSP Star Wars Pack pre-ordered.
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10-04-2007 @ 11:26AM
XenoPhage said...
Wait, I seem to have missed something here.. How do we get in on the giveaway? Has PSP Fanboy released details on that yet? I'd love to get a PSP-2000...
As for the game, it looks interesting. I didn't really like the PSP Battlefront II game, but I'd be willing to give this a shot..
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10-04-2007 @ 11:43AM
devilock said...
How do I know if I won?
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10-04-2007 @ 11:49AM
Saigon said...
The difficulty of the game is disappointing. But it still sounds like a fun game. Besides, online battles should make up for the lack of challenge in single player. :)
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10-04-2007 @ 12:07PM
NeoRaiden said...
I might check it out, now that I have job! Yeah!
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10-04-2007 @ 12:20PM
DEVILDOG said...
Now this is how you review a game. Not just one person’s perspective, but also an impartial impression by many.
Excellent reviews so far of both the positives and negatives.
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10-04-2007 @ 12:37PM
GoBob said...
Man, I'm actually pretty excited about this game now. You guys should do reviews in this style more!
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10-04-2007 @ 12:43PM
Hashbrown_Hunter said...
Yeah I'm really liking this series. It's giving us a lot of different opinions of the game, and I'm glad most seem positive.
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10-04-2007 @ 1:03PM
gumby said...
If I remember correctly the battlefront games for the xbox had thia galactic conquest mode and it was great fun! I do wish that you could use this mode with the multiplayer, that would be great. I wonder if there is a map for multi and single player where you can fight it out as just the heroes like on battlefront II, that was my favorite part of that game. Thanks for the great reviews guys, this game is coming home with me!
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10-04-2007 @ 1:10PM
Zach S said...
The Galactic Conquest mode is definitely sounding more and more interesting to me... this game has like 3 different games in one! (multiplayer, single player, and GC) This may just make a purchase qualifiable.
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10-04-2007 @ 1:52PM
Ruze said...
didn't bf2 for psp have galactic conquest? If it did, it must have sucked because I don't remember it.
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