Star Wars: Battlefront II for PSP Reviews by Gamers

I must say, at first I was somewhat leary of this game ported to the PSP - large environments and first person shooting on this handheld? The draw of Star Wars was too much to resist however, so I plugged it in.

And I must say it was awesome - both the campaign mode and the challenge mode are worth spending many hours on, and the learning curve is perfect. In campaign mode, you are able to choose which side of the galactic war you are on, and which era you are fighting in - Empire vs. Rebellion or Republic vs. Confederacy. You then start with 1 capital ship and a single planet in a galaxy of around 10 planets, depending on the era, with the goal of (what else) galactic domination. You earn credits for victories over the enemy, both in ground assault and in space combat (which is spectacular), and bonus cash for the number of planets you control. You spend the credits on unlocking each of the ~8 class which are unique to each group or spend them on special bonuses such as making the 'hero' characters available for a single battle, or reinforcing your command posts with automated turrets, etc. This gives great depth and replayability in single player for a game one would expect only multiplayer goodness. The challenge mode is pleasent, giving you 3 different mini campaigns playing special games with (usually) hero characters, and you are scored on your performance (but unfortantately, you have no way to see the 'high scores' board!).

Now for the ugly - multiplayer implementation! Why must so many PSP developers completely fall on their face when they are faced with internet multiplayer gaming? Like several other PSP games with infastructure play available, the developers did not take the time to allow players to join games already in progress (more or less standard for FPS on PC and other consoles). So end result, you can never find open games online - making this game drop from "excellent" to "very good" for me. Play, enjoy, and return.