Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is quite possibly the first game to best capture the essence of fight in the Star Wars Universe. In our hands on at the San Diego Comic Con, the Rebel Alliance was steadfastly closing in on us, and we felt the tension of battle. Just after we cleared our view ahead of us, we saw an enormous AT-AT move from the debris and smoke.
Naturally, we were scared. We thought we were in the clear, but we held our weapon and aim locked on the massive enemy and started shooting with the X button. While we blasted the formidable vehicle, it was interesting to note that there was no squadron providing cover fire for the vehicle. Suddenly, the empire squadron, with their better looking armor than our Boba Fett looking impressions, came up behind us and started killing us. The game carries through gameplay beautifully with impressive squad A.I. and enemy tactics.
LucasArts is looking to make Renegade Squadron an impressive title, all which is apparent from the menu. When you start it, you have the obvious choice of going single player or multiplayer, but there’s also there’s also flexibility present through customization, where you can choose your fit as the Rebel Alliance, the Republic, CIS, and the Rebel Alliance. You can customize everything. The pants, the face, the head, the hair, the ears, the hands with a tattoo, etc.
The massive single player action is organized and consequently divided as such. "Instant Action" has you choose a planet (from a total of eight planets), a mode (only conquest was present) and an era (Galactic Civil War was our only option) and head off to battle to kick some ass.
We decided to try out Galactic Conquest, the third and final single-player madness. Here, you select the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire and set out to take over the expansive universe. From a map of more than 15—such as Alderaan and Kashyyyk– you need to use credits to obtain troops to bring back different levels of recon, a type of domination measurement. As you start collecting more points, and more levels of recon information, you slowly find yourself worse than Vader.
This October 9th, put on your armor, prep up your body; you will be ready for battle.