It's sad how after 2 more Battlefront games were released, this one still tops them in every category other than graphics and sound, which is not surprising. Nevertheless, I wouldn't touch the latest 2 Battlefront games over this game because while it may have aged a bit, it still remains the best game you'll get from a Star Wars experience, let alone a multiplayer and battle royale one. It is that good.
Sure, it's flawed and the shooting mechanics are pretty basic, but still, who cares? It's engaging and fun to participate in. Not to mention you can pilot vehicles and even play as Jedi/Sith and other iconic characters to mix it up. The music is also great, using the soundtrack from the actual Star Wars movies, which is a great idea. It makes you feel like you're apart of the Star Wars universe instead of merely watching it from an audience standpoint.
That's not even including one of the games' biggest strengths: the unlockables. To me, THIS is a big reason why I love this game. You can get an Elite Rifle, which is pretty much game breaking at times. You can get a Precision Pistol as your secondary weapon, which to me makes the sniper rifle and class obsolete for the most part because this bad boy can shoot from close and long range. It even has a zoom in scope as well to hit enemies from a distance. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining. There's the Flechette Shotgun, which is just about as good as the Elite Rifle though only at close range, the beam sniper rifle, which is better than the standard sniper rifle, though it doesn't shoot as far for some odd reason. Last, but not least, the Remote Control Rockets. While I don't care for them after trying them out, I do appreciate the game giving me the option since I'm sure others playing this game have put them to good use.
And that's not even including stat booster perks like energy regeneration for both your player and vehicles, 50% less damage taken from enemy attacks and 50% more damage dished out from your weapon. Seriously, what's not to love about all these unlockables? They seriously are the reason this game has so much replayabilty. They make anyone using them feel like a freakin badass due to how powerful they truly are.
Granted, it's a pain to unlock the award weapons and stat boosters since you have to do certain objectives 64 times to have them permanently unlocked. Why that many? I don't know. I think that was a bit overkill since doing them 25-50 times would have more than sufficed. But eh, whatever. It's not that hard to unlock if you know what you're doing, so I can't complain too much. It's just very time consuming to do. That and it only counts on the profile you did those achievements, so if you make a new profile, you have to do the WHOLE PROCESS all over again just so it can have the unlockables too. Ugh... oh well, I guess they had to do something to balance out these game breaking unlockables.
When it comes to which version is the best, the PS2 version I would say is the cream of the crop overall. While the XBOX and PC versions are very good too, they do have some glaring flaws. For starters, the XBOX version is the only one where the computer opponent can use the hero/villain character to fight against you, which I wouldn't minded so much had it been a feature you could turn on and off., which you sadly cannot. That and it seems they can spawn them alot more than you can with yours, which to me is just completely unfair. If you're playing against the CIS with a Darth Maul appearance, you better say your prayers because baring he screws up when attacking, he will completely own you more times than you will own him. Ok, true, you can choose to play as the CIS if you want and play as Maul to your heart's content, but not everyone wants to do that, so why should they be subjected to him against their wishes? Let it be for players who want it, not forced down their throat. -.-
Oh yea, not to mention you cannot get the DLC anymore for it on the XBOX either, which is a real shame since they had some pretty intriguing additional content. Why they don't just add it for those who play on XBOX 360 on backwards compatibility mode is beyond me.
As for the PC version? Well, in some instances it's better because there are mods you can use, including a 1.3 update, which enhances the game and makes it more enjoyable. On the other hand though, there is no split screen multiplayer option, so if you wanted to play with a buddy offline, too bad. Yea, you can use the multiplayer mode, which thankfully is the only version that works online now, but here's the problem: The servers are extremely buggy. Sometimes it'll work fine. Other times, those who joined a server will find out they cannot function because the lag is so bad. Sometimes when playing, I literally cannot destroy an enemy in a vehicle even though it was a direct hit.
Not to mention there's no way to use your earned awards in online multiplayer mode from the start either. Yea, I know. On one hand, it would make the matches unbalanced for those who have them and those who don't. On the other hand though, I don't see why it cannot be an optional setting. Let the host decide if they want these to be used from the start or not so those who don't have them would be aware of it and not play on that server. Either that or have it so only those with those awards can join the server to keep it a level playing field. There, problem solved.
Anyway, overall, I give this game an 8 out of 10. It's not perfect by any means and could use some fine tuning I admit, but nonetheless, it's still a very fun game to play for those into Star Wars or shooter/battle royale games in general. Not to mention people can even get this for 10 bucks on XBOX Live Arcade. What a steal.
Do yourself a favor and don't even bother playing the newer versions because until they can prove it can be just as good as this one, why waste time and money on a game even more flawed and offering less content than this one? It makes no sense if you ask me.