The Star Wars franchise has played host to several memorable games throughout the past few decades, many of which serve different niches. Titles like Knights of the Old Republic and the recent Jedi: Fallen Order both fill fans’ cravings for a Jedi role-playing experience, while Squadrons aims to simulate the series' intense space dogfights. Meanwhile, the Battlefront series has always been more focused on the “war” part of the Star Wars name. At the time, these titles were the closest one could get to actually playing out film-accurate firefights, and that’s one reason why 2005’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 is fondly remembered as a high point in Star Wars games.
The original Star Wars Battlefront 2 is now 16 years old, and has since seen worthy follow-ups in EA’s reboot of the series. However, that’s not to say the title doesn’t deserve attention nowadays — Disney certainly didn’t think so when it helped restore Battlefront 2’s multiplayer servers. While some aspects of the game are undoubtedly antiquated, this vintage Star Wars title still has some unique qualities that certainly make it a game worth revisiting in 2021.
Battlefront 2’s Campaign
The omission of a campaign was a big deal in EA’s 2015 reboot of Battlefront, in large part due to how fondly Battlefront 2’s campaign was remembered. Before The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch popularized stories about the clones themselves, Battlefront 2 featured a narrative centered around the clone army’s 501st legion. An unnamed clone veteran recounts his experiences fighting for both the Republic and Empire, and his account of events casts the clone soldiers in a different light compared to their personality-filled, fan-favorite counterparts seen in modern Star Wars media.
In Battlefront 2's campaign, the clones are cold, heartless, and unwaveringly loyal to their cause, but it wasn't always that way. The unnamed clone narrator’s first recollection of his time in active combat expresses fear and uncertainty about his situation, which are certainly justifiable feelings given his inexperience with war.
"My first day as a member of the 501st... it was hot, it was sandy, chaotic. Nothing at all like the simulations on Kamino. Of course that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? All that breeding, all those years of training... doesn't really prepare you for all the screaming or the blood, does it? Frankly, I'm still amazed we ever made it through the first hour, never mind the first day."
But as the events of the story unfold, the soldier becomes more and more comfortable in combat. Unfortunately, that comfort is accompanied by detachment and desensitization. This is demonstrated best when the story catches up to Order 66 — the purge of the Jedi. The narrator's words prior to assaulting his former allies are particularly haunting.
"What I remember about the rise of the Empire is... is how quiet it was. During the waning hours of the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion was discreetly transferred back to Coruscant. It was a silent trip. We all knew what was about to happen, what we were about to do. Did we have any doubts? Any private, traitorous thoughts? Perhaps, but no one said a word. Not on the flight to Coruscant, not when Order 66 came down, and not when we marched into the Jedi Temple. Not a word."
From this point forward, the soldier expresses a callous demeanor towards his unit's murderous and oppressive actions, regarding them as means to an end; he celebrates the apparent crushing defeat of the Rebels during the Battle of Hoth, believing order has been restored to the galaxy. While The Clone Wars sought to humanize the clones, the original Battlefront 2 uses them as a cautionary tale to warn of the dangers of unwavering loyalty — a mindset capable of twisting one's worldview in such a way that one cannot recognize the notion that they or their allies might be doing harm. It's a truly haunting, heartbreaking, and compelling tale.
Galactic Conquest in Battlefront 2
Among the Battlefront series' most prominent features is Galactic Conquest, which, funnily enough, is missing from either of EA's entries. It's effectively a turn-based strategy game where the objective is to take over the galaxy. Of course, it's not entirely turn-based; who controls planets is determined by ground battles and space warfare.
Galactic Conquest is debatably the defining feature of the early Battlefront games, and the way in which its conflicts are strung together allows players to craft their own narratives about how any one of the four factions (Republic, CIS, Empire, Rebels) conquered the galaxy. It's essentially the video game equivalent of using one's Star Wars toys to imagine epic battle scenes that may or may not be accurate to the films, but are still a blast, nevertheless.
The Limitless Potential of Battlefront 2’s Mods
Obviously, this benefit of playing Battlefront 2 nowadays is most applicable to the PC version. Fortunately, unlike the new Battlefront 2, the original game isn't a graphical powerhouse; it can run fairly well on lower-end PCs, meaning that more people than ever can enter the wonderful world of Battlefront 2 mods.
While EA's Battlefront 2 is in no short supply of mods, the modding scene is nowhere near advanced as the 2005 title. The Battlefront community has taken it upon itself to add new characters and maps from multiple eras of Star Wars, including elements from The Clone Wars or expanded universe properties like Republic Commando.
If one is looking for an entirely new experience, there's a host of impressive total conversion mods to check out. Star Wars Battlefront 3 Legacy is one such in-development mod that seeks to use recovered assets from the cancelled Battlefront 3 to effectively patch together an unofficial version of the unreleased title.
Other notable mods include Battlefront: Halation, which turns the game into a Battlefront-style Halo game, and Mass Effect: Unification, which does virtually the same thing but for the Mass Effect series. If one is yearning for a new content update after EA's Battlefront 2 had its final one last year, then it might be worthwhile to take a quick gander at the original game's massive ModDB and NexusMods pages.
Given the impending end of EA's Star Wars game exclusivity deal with Disney, it remains to be seen if another Battlefront game will hit store shelves anytime soon. In the meantime, fans ought to check out one of the titles that laid the groundwork for the modern Battlefront games. Even after 16 years, Battlefront 2 is just as good as it was at launch; maybe even better thanks to the consistent fan support it receives.
Pandemic's Star Wars Battlefront 2 is out now for PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, and playable via backwards compatibility on Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.