Rengade Squadron

I'm mostly going to write about a PSP game I played the last couple of days, so sorry if you were expecting something about my life. Oh, wait a minute, it's the same thing.

Since the start of last week I've been on summer "holidays" until school begins again in early September. I say "holidays" because there's actually quite a lot of preparation to be done before returning, but it's not yet the night before there's no point in doing anything. I went to work all last week, and even on Monday of this week, but since Tuesday I just couldn't be bothered and instead have been playing PSP (of course) and surfing the Internet about conspiracy theories, movie previews, YouTube, catching up on everyone's blogs and other stuff which is sure to benefit my character development, if not the world at large, at some indefinite future time.

PSPing saw the completion of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Star Wars Battlefront II: Renegade Squadron story modes. GTA: VCS is the usual excellent effort from Rockstar. Even though I've finished the story and played quite a few of the side missions, I've actually only completed 50% of the entire content - the game is that big. And that took 3 weeks of fairly constant playing. GTA games are certainly value for money.

By contrast SWBII: RS story mode was knocked over in an afternoon. I was shocked it was finished so quickly. So the next day I went onto the Galaxy Conquest mode which adds a board game conquest level to the mindless mayhem of it all. It too was beaten in a couple of hours, with the only challenge being not to fall asleep in the summer heat. Here are my thoughts about the game.

SWBII: RS is so much a copy of the previous PSP Star Wars title, Star Wars Battlefront II, that I was left with a taste of having paid for something I already owned. The graphics are slightly prettied up, Infrastucture multiplayer (rather than just ad hoc) is added, there's the half-assed story mode (in which the malarkey that Han doesn't shoot first is reiterated) and equipment is more customizable. Also many of the maps are (from memory) clones from the previous game.

The equipment customization leads to the game feeling as if one is playing a hacked version of the game. It gives the game a feeling of blandness. Everyone has 100 points to equip with and every piece of equipment has a point value. You get the drill. Trouble is that with all equipment available at the beginning , there's no real pressure to use different equipment.

Sure, the 100 points means one can't have a Rocket Launcher and an Explosive Blaster Pistol and a Drone and more Health and a Rage Power Up, but so what. I found a couple of 100 point combos that worked well for me, and just kept playing with those again and again. The game doesn't care if you win with style, just if you win. Even in the story mode there's little reason to try other equipment. A couple of times you're forced to use a Det Pack to blow something up, or pick up a Fusion Cutter to repair a vehicle or turret, but basically I could do almost all missions by sticking to my couple of tried and true combos.

And while it's not meant to be an RPG, there's zero character progression. In the predecessor Battlefront II there was no customization; you played a wookie, stormtrooper, etc and your equipment was fixed. But the upside was that as you achieved medals associated with that character, the character's equipment (or ability) was upgraded. Medals were something like achieving a certain number of headshots as a Sniper or repairing a certain number of vehicles or turrets as an Engineer. That gave you something to aim for, and changed the way you played the character, as once the medal was achieved you could do something better.

I was interested enough as to why the change in play style was made to go searching the Internet. I watched a video where the talking head said that one thing that the fans had repeatedly asked for in feedback to Battlefront II was more customization. Dude, there's your first mistake. Never hand on a plate to fans what they want. Fans would have had Angel sweep Buffy up into his arms and ride of together into the sunrise in episode two if you'd let them. And where would that have left the series? Right where Renegade Squadron is - Blandsville. Make fans, or in this case players, work for what they want. If the story mode had been lengthened, and had also pushed some of the more obscure equipment into the limelight, then it could have been a much more challenging game. You could also start out with not all equipment available and/or less points and have to "unlock" the equipment and work up to 100 points by achieving medals. Any medals not achieved in story mode could then be achieved by free play. Thus after all the medals have been achieved, the player has the desired for customization of the character.

SWBII: RS is what it is - a pick-up-and-play Star Wars-themed action game that is designed to be played primarily in multiplayer (if you can get it to work, for when using ad hoc last weekend Ted and I couldn't get our PSPs to talk). Single player mode was an after thought, so don't expect it to have the challenge or depth that the Syphon Filter or Metal Gear Solid series of games has in single player. Not even close. Still, if you've half an hour and want to fly an X-wing or kill rebel scum as Darth Vader, there's fun to be had.

One final gripe, why are there no Ewoks on Endor anymore? I used to love killing those little guys at the Emperor's behest.