Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Review (PSP)

Multiplayer fun with a single player campaign thrown in!

Now anyone who knows me will know that I am a massive Star Wars fan. I am a bit of nerd when it comes down to it. Star Wars just floats my boat. I have played almost every incarnation there has been of Star Wars games, from the original Arcade to Lego Star Wars and of course the superb Battlefront series. I did however miss the PSP version, so was very excited to hear about Battlefront Renegade Squadron.

For those who are not up on the Battlefront series, let me just recap for you. Battlefront takes you into the Star Wars universe as a foot soldier. No messing with Lightsabers, this is a full warts and all, guns and grenades affair. The battle fields are large and free roaming, the only goal to conquer the opposing team! Think Battlefield 1942 with Star Wars characters and of course vehicles. Up until not the series has not been story driven, it was aimed more at massive online battles.

The release of Renegade Squadron for the PSP changes this. Now we have a specially written story. You are a chosen member of a unit put together by none other than Han Solo. As you can imagine they are sent on the missions that the normal soldiers are just not equipped for.

tramping through the snow in an AT-AT walker!

The narrative is given via a decent voice over and a very nice set of hand drawn moving stills. This gives the game a very stylish feel, rather than just relying on FMV or game style footage. The story kind of fits in with the films and the books, bridging a few gaps you may not even know had existed!

As well as the campaign mode there is also Galactic Conquest. In this you must conquer planets to earn resources and credits. With these you can buy upgrades and Hero’s, like Darth Vader. Choose a planet to attack, then go about wiping out the inhabiting army. The strategy can be fun, but the skirmishes, like most of the other elements of the FPS sections, are just too easy to win.

Another new feature is the ability to customise your character. You can buy weapons and upgrades, new uniforms and colours. Lucas Arts claim there are over a million different combinations to be had!

Starwars Battlefront: Renegade SquadronControl are intuitive, but have one flaw. Auto Aim. Auto aim and lock on is a large feature in this style of First Person Shooter on the PSP. Here it works just a little to well, making thing a bit easy at times. The same can be said for the flying based missions. Not only can you auto aim, you can hand the controls over to the PSP and just press the fire button!

Graphically this is a neat game. Characters are well drawn and the environments are detailed. Animation is smooth and there is no slow down even during the biggest fights!

What made Renegade Squadron stand out for me was the multiplayer. We are treated to a full Infrastructure mode 16 player frag fest. Go online with your Gamespy ID and you can find dozens of servers to play in. The maps cover everything from Episode 1 to Episode 6 and beyond, so there is no shortage of variety. Deathmatch, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag and Conquest are all present and correct. Again, lock on aiming makes for some simple fights, but can not take away from the feeling of tramping through the snow in an AT-AT walker!
Battlefront Renegade Squadron is a flawed game. In trying to make the game more playable, the designers have made the single player game too easy. However, they have at least tried to improve the coherence of the campaign with an enjoyable story line. Multiplayer is just fantastic, who needs a PC when you can get this kind of multiplayer action on your PSP. For this alone I would buy the game!

The Good: Multiplayer is fantastic. Story is a nice try.
The Bad: Far too easy!


Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Starwars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron 


Silver Y AwardSilver Y Award
4 4 / 5

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