Perhaps the design of the game was rather unoriginal but when the delivery is as consistently fun as this game then it is hard to really take issue. Many games have copied the Battlefield formula but doing it within the Star Wars universe was a great idea. I approached it on the back of hearing good things from other people and, on the first night of owning it, I quickly picked up the control system thanks to the similarity with other games but there was a downside to this I played it from 6pm until 4am, slept for 2 hours then went to work as normal! Luckily this got the gluttony out of my system and I settled down to playing it for much more controlled and sensible periods of time. The game itself is perhaps a bit too short and simplistic to present a lasting challenge. I have not played the multiplayer (56k for me) part of the game but the single player game was a bit too easy to complete. There are a couple of different ways to play, whether it is the straight story, the galactic conquest or just instant action option but all are fun for the simple reason that they are very well delivered within the world of Star Wars. The levels are recognisable from the films and are a good mix of open spaces (which I dislike), building complexes (which I love) and structures that are a mix of the two. Even years later I still regularly pick up the game, beat a few levels and then go about my day.
It is not perfect though but the problems are not really more than niggles. The Jedi's etc are pointless drones who can't be killed, some characters are hard to kill when you are against them but very weak when you play as them and so on. I don't like the way that on some levels the success of your side is down to how many you can kill rather than part of the teams being even. Other reviewers have mentioned how they play tactically but personally I found it difficult to even control a handful of men around me they tend to just bump me and then get accidentally shot! This isn't helped by the fact that you could have 30 men around you but the enemies will still always aim for you in preference to the AI characters. These issues were addressed in the second Battlefront game but they were never really much of a pain for me with this one.
Overall then it is not a perfect game and it is a bit derivative but it is effective for what it does and benefits greatly from being in the Star Wars world. Enjoyable and engaging and, as if anything else was needed, you also get to shoot Gungans, Ewoks and Wookies!
