Recent reviews by armendez

The real Battlefront II.

When I was in middle school, I used to sneak downstairs after my parents went to sleep and play this on the family PC until the wee hours of the morning. It was my first real multiplayer game. I had a little over 500 hours logged on Xfire (remember Xfire?). I was a part of the SWAT clan and partook in clan wars. I quickly learned how powerful the engineer class really was and taught myself to throw detpacks. I was one of the first people to discover the infamous Death Star wall glitch (and subsequently abuse the heck out of it). I eventually started my own clan and even built a website for it (shoutout to Darth Yoda for the help, wherever you might be). I made friends all over the world, from NYC to New Zealand to the UK. I hope the people I met all those years ago are doing alright and are leading happy lives.

Eventually, my parents discovered I was playing this game until 3AM every morning instead of sleeping. They got angry, and my Battlefront II days came to a close. Last night was the first time I'd touched this game since 2007, and I was instantly overwhelmed by nostalgia. From the menus, to the music, to the gameplay, to clicking on the multiplayer tab and seeing that servers still existed and people were still playing after all this time. I feared that my skills had eroded after years without playing, and was nervous to hop into a game. After merely a few minutes into a match on Endor, however, everything came back to me like riding a bike. Getting into a dodge roll + detpack war with another engineer gave me such whiplash that I didn't care whether I won or lost (I still won though).

While I wish my time with the game hadn't ended so unceremoniously when I was a child, I'm happy that an active, online community for the game still exists 18 years later, and that I'm able to relive my childhood experiences at 29 years old. Star Wars Battlefront II was the game that introduced me to online gaming, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart because of that. The fact that it just might be one of the greatest games ever made is only icing on the cake.

It's got some issues (matchmaking being a pain with everyone being sent back to the main menu after one player doesn't get the character they want, and the "supplied credentials are invalid" bug being the most prevalent), but the pros outweigh the cons. Both roles are fun to play and have different strengths and weaknesses. The matches shift in favor from one side to another depending on who you play and how you choose to play them, and with there being multiple family members, victims, maps, and ways to escape, no match plays the same way twice. My favorite part about the game is that it isn't balanced in favored of a competitive scene (at least for now), and it just embraces the fact that it's a silly party game. Sometimes you get rolled, sometimes you do the rolling, and sometimes it's so close that you have no idea whether you're going to win or not. The decision to include voice coms is also excellent, giving both sides a chance to use teamwork and come up with strategies on the go based on how the match plays out.

It may not have thousands of hours worth of content, but TCM is a very fun game that will keep you plenty entertained regardless. If the devs can fix the day one bugs and the matchmaking system, they have a real winner here.

Took some LSD and vibed out for a few hours in this exceptionally fun, creative, and original world. I've never played anything quite like this before; innovation in single player experiences is alive and well in this welcome breath of fresh air, and I am looking forward to more from developer Sad Owl Studios.

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this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks

update 11/28/23: it still sucks

update 10/04/2024: i have played this game for less than ten hours since february, i finally feel free

imagine being bald