Last year, Lucasarts released the shooter, "Star Wars Battlefront", which many hailed as the best Star Wars game based off of the movies. The only thing that was missing was the lack of Episode 3 levels, such as Mustafar, Felucia, Utupa, Mygeeto, etc. Battlefront 2 changes that. It still feels like mostly the same game, but it closes the gap, creating something of a closure. After an under-rated but still mediocre Episode 3 game, fans will be more than happy to rip open a new one with one of four armies from the Star Wars saga.

The only battles you can have are Republic vs. CIS, or Empire vs. Rebels, which still feels horribly limited. One only wishes you could bend the laws of time, if only just for this game. Unfortunately, the limitations are closely etched into confines of the game, except for two levels where the Empire faces off against the CIS and the Republic in the game mode, "Rise of the Empire", but I'll get to that later. The game runs basically the same, with the addition of a few new troops for each army.

Possibly the most notable changes are the addition of heroes and space battles. Granted, Jedi are not controlled as well as they would be in the Jedi Knight Series, Space Battles are not done as well as they are in Rogue Squadron, and controlling Jango Fett with his jetpack isn't as nearly as fun as it is in Bounty Hunter, All of this is OK, however. Because at it's core, Battlefront 2 is a solid shooter. It's command post capturing based maps are still a blast to play over and over again, and new game modes such as capture the flag add a new dimension and require sometimes completely different types of tactics. Sure, in space battles, your ships level themselves out (what were they thinking when they programmed space physics?) but it's core as a shooter outweighs everything else. The additions that were the selling points of the game eventually just become bonuses, and bonuses that don't always pay off, so after a while, you just play the game as it was origonally intended to be played.

There are thee single player game modes; Rise of the Empire, which lets you play as the Empire's prized 501st military unit from Episodes 3 to 5, Galactic COnquest, which puts you in the command seat of an army of your choice to take over the galaxy, and Instant Action which just lets you fight a battle. The replay value between these modes, split screen, and online is limitless.

Overall, Battlefront 2 could have been a lot more innovative had it not had to coincide with the Episode 3 DVD release. If you enjoyed the first, give this one a shot. If you didn't like the first, there's nothing so amazing and new that will sway you. Star Wars fan or not, give this one a shot.