Pandemic Studios has virtually recreated every battle from every movie (plus some), and dropped you smack dab in the middle of the frenzied action! Star Wars: Battlefront unabashedly borrows elements both from Battlefield 1942 and Unreal Tournament 2K4 - with varied degrees of success. There is a single player component, but this game was really made for online, multiplayer mayhem.

Be a part of the Rebel Alliance, Galactic Empire, Republic Clone Army or Separatist Battle Droids. Each faction has 5 different solider types. For instance, the Galactic Empire has a Stormtrooper (infantry), Shock Trooper (heavy weapons), Imperial Pilot (repair/medic/ammo), Scout Trooper (recon/sniper), and Dark Trooper (specialist). The 3 other factions have similar soldier types. Unfortunately, only the Dark and Jet Trooper (Republic) have jet packs. Depending on the map, certain classes will be more useful than others because they're equipped and perform differently. No Jedi? Not in this game - at least none that are playable. Often NPCs like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader (and others) will pop up to help you turn the tide of battle. It's nothing more than a gimmick - albeit a neat one, but the effect wears off quickly.

Single player action contains Historical Campaign, Galactic Conquest and Instant Action. Historical Campaign lets you relive the battles from either the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War. Choose an era and fight your way chronologically through the battles. Galactic Conquest is a bit like chess: conquer the galaxy one planet at a time by winning individual battles on each planet. While both of these modes sound fun, they're not - even with all the available unlockables. Sadly, you don't really have to do much to "win," something we found out accidentally. Call us sick, but we became obsessed with hunting Ewoks (can you blame us?). Eventually our side won. If thinning out the herd is a strategy, well... get our point? Instant Action drops you into your map of choice to battle against fairly intelligent bots, but it's really nothing more than practice before going online - where this game truly shines.

All the big battles from the movies (Hoth, Endor, Bespin, Tatooine, Kamino, Geonosis etc.) have been recreated (for a total of 15 maps on 10 planets), and one we won't see until Revenge of the Sith - Kashyyyk, the Wookie homeworld. The "city" levels (Tatooine, Kamino, Bespin, etc.) seemed to be more enjoyable than the wide-open maps (Geonosis, Endor) because close quarter, urban combat is more fun - not to mention more fair. A consistent problem we found with the spacious, wide-open maps were the location of spawn points. You either had to contend with snipers or overly powerful vehicles - both of which would camp out and eliminate you the second you respawned.

The objective in Multiplayer is to gain control of key areas across the map called "Command Posts." A Command Post allows a team to deploy reinforcements, and is vital to winning a battle. When one team takes control of CP, the other team starts losing reinforcements. Once a team controls all CPs, the victory timer starts. If the other team is unable to recapture one before the timer reaches zero - you're victorious! Controlling a CP is as "simple" as being within its "capture radius." You'll know your close enough when the capture icon appears on the screen. The hard part is keeping the enemy out. As long as there's none within that radius with you, the icon will change color from red to white to green. The process takes several seconds during which time you're scrambling around trying to avoid getting whacked. And in a chaotic skirmish with up to 50 players (plus bots), those seconds can seem like hours!

Some CPs belong to only one team and cannot be captured, but they can be destroyed. If so, it can be repaired, but only by a "pilot" character ("repairman" of the game). Additionally, there are Mobile Command Posts (AT-AT). These should be destroyed ASAP (they can't be captured) since they're capable of deploying reinforcements anywhere on the map. The last thing you want is an AT-AT sitting outside your final CP!

Unfortunately, online play does not come without a serious problem - actually getting online. Simply stated, the server interface is horrific. It's unintuitive, doesn't let you find friends, or let you mark a favorite server. In fact, it actually hinders you from logging on because the list constantly bounces around as new servers come online. All in all, the whole interface experience is so bad that we deducted an entire "star" from the final score. However, once you're in-game the maps are exquisitely rendered and frame rates are smooth as silk (as long as the server you're on has good ping), even if some of the map designs get a bit boring. Hopefully, additional maps will be released.

SWB allows you to play in either first or third person perspectives, which comes in handy when you're guarding/capturing a CP or flying one of the many vehicles. Even though you have good control of your character (squat and prone), having the ability to peek around a corner would have been very helpful. When you die, health or ammo packs are left behind. Furthermore, health boosts and extra ammo can be retrieved from medical droids or supply droids scattered across the map. Every time you die, you get to choose which solider class you want to respawn as. Helpful when you're faced with a specific tactical problem that needs a different skill or weapon. Sound is phenomenal throughout the game and does an amazing job of complete immersion. The musical score is taken directly from the films, as are all the sound effects - from blaster fire to Wookie grunts.

Speaking of weapons... what would playing in Lucas' Intergalactic Toybox be without all the wonderful toys? Each soldier class uses a different set of weapons. Infantry is armed with a blaster rifle and pistol, thermal detonators and concussion grenades. Heavy weapon specialists use missile launchers and mine dispensers. Pilots pack a pistol, but also carry a fusion cutter (to repair things), as well as ammo and health packs. In addition to the 30+ hand held weapons, there are ground-based turret guns that can be manned. Plus, you can hop into any one of the over 30 vehicles. While the ground vehicles are simple and fun to use (especially the speeder bike and the AT-ATs), mastering the air vehicles (X-Wing, snow speeder, TIE, etc.) was very difficult.

However, that may have just been our inability to fly. During one match on Hoth, an opposing player - who had obviously mastered the snow speeder - killed us so many times we lost track! We tried respawning as another class in hopes of finding something to knock him out of the sky, but nothing worked - including the ground turrets. Alas, air vehicles are disproportionately powerful to any available ground weapon.

SWB is a thoroughly fun romp through the SW Universe - but only if you're a SW fan. Unfortunately, it can be a frustrating venture to get online, and in the end comes off as rather ordinary shooter - especially if you could care less about Lucas's galaxy far, far away. We still think it's worth the price of admission though. How can you dislike a game that lets you blast Ewoks and Gungans with such lusty abandon?