Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP) (PSP)

For the latest installment of this usually massive online gunfight, the Rebels are finally letting you fly solo.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Be it the DOOM-like Dark Forces or the EverQuest-ian Galaxies, a lot of Star Wars videogames have just been Force-fed versions of other games. The latest example is the Battlefront series, which adapted its motif (massively multiplayer online battles) and its moniker from EA's Battlefield. So it's rather ironic that in this, the latest Battlefront, the biggest change is the addition of a fleshed out single-player mode ... a move being mirrored by the latest Battlefield, the upcoming Bad Company.

In Renegade Squadron (a PSP exclusive developed by Rebellion and published by LucasArts), you play a rebel recruited for an elite squad that's sent by Han Solo -- who doesn't sound like himself, he must be under a lot of stress -- to take on the Empire in space and land battles both shown and alluded to in the original trilogy, though often from a different perspective, narratively-speaking, than we've seen before.

Starting with the evacuation of Yavin 4 after the destruction of the first Death Star, you take on 11 secret missions that include stealing one of the Imperial Starfleet's new (and rather ridiculous looking) TIE Defenders, rescuing a captured Admiral Akbar, and swiping tactical information about the Imperial forces on and near the forest moon of Endor. But while each mission has an ultimate objective, there are also pivotal events in the middle of them -- such as the appearance of an Imperial Walker in need of destroying -- that might prompt you to stop killing random Stormtroopers and go run an errand, instead.

Beyond this, however, Renegade plays like every other Battlefront. Mostly. Essentially a third-person shooter, most of the land battles play out like Team Capture the Flag or Team Objective. Infantry, as you'd expect, can commandeer a number of attack vehicles and riding creatures, capture spawn points and then use them to change weapons, and hit up FX-7 Medical Droids and GNK Power Droids to get healthy and pick up ammo, respectfully. But there are also space missions that recall such Star Wars dogfighters as Rogue Squadron and Jedi Starfighter, if those games occasionally were to have you land and do stuff.

The difference this time is that you've got a lot more freedom with your character, not just in how he looks -- you can pick different heads and clothing color palettes -- but in their weapons, tools and abilities, as well. Using up to a hundred credits, you can outfit e character however you want, even trading items back at cost so you buy new ones instead. Which means you can be a very healthy Wookie with a Blaster Rifle or a fast-running Rodian with a jet pack and an Arc Caster. You can also swap equipment in the middle of a battle, so long as you keep to your 100-credit budget.

Things work the same way in the game's other modes as well, though they don't have the story to set things up or create mid-battle events. And, obviously, you can also chose to join the Empire in its fight against those damn anti-government terrorists. Whether it's the single-player Conquest mode, which pits you against bots, or such multiplayer ones as Conquest, Capture the Flag (with one or two flags), and Hero Capture the Flag -- in which you get to be such iconic Star Wars characters as Lord Vader and Ben Kenobi circa Episode IV, with all their special abilities -- all the previous tenets apply. In addition, you can dogfight in the Space Assault mode or get tactical in the Galactic Conquest mode, where you -- or you and a friend -- fight for planets in an attempt to take over the galaxy.