There was a point in time, one which lasted several years, in which every Star Wars game that one played featured a run down the Death Star trench. It is an iconic moment in film history and carries over exceedingly well into videogames – it's the classic hero moment. It may feel a little played out by the umpteenth game one has to negotiate the turrets and juke away from TIE's in that tiny little trench, but after an hour or so with Star Wars: Battlefront – Elite Squadron, it is a moment many might often wish to repeat. The second Battlefront title to appear on the PSP, Elite Squadron is more frustrating than trying to bulls-eye wamp rats in your T-16 back home.
The game spans multiple Star Wars films, and as with other Battlefront titles, while one may be a part of important battles and play crucial (yet unseen in the film) roles in the battles, they do not take center stage. Here, in Campaign mode (the main single player mode), the player is X2, a clone made from a Jedi, and younger brother-cum-twin (as they're clones of the same person) as X1. The two, as is apparent from the word "go," won't always be getting along in this game.
In terms of gameplay itself, while the reasons for the objectives and the planets that they're carried out on may vary in the game's Campaign mode (the main single player mode), the objectives remain awfully stagnant. In a typical level an enemy exists on the ground, in the air and/or space, and aboard a ship (Star Destroyers are a common theme there). Users have to eliminate the right people or disable the large vessel or blast enough small ones out of the sky to move to the next area. The levels may change, the enemies may vary slightly, but the typical objectives are the same. Perhaps the developers are making a statement regarding the nature of war, but it doesn't make for a particularly enjoyable game.
Frankly, it could be that the tasks would be more enjoyable and exciting if the controls weren't endlessly frustrating, and the various ways X2 can be equipped were interesting. Taking the latter first, though the weapons do change somewhat, they don't change in interesting ways – the various equipment combos only seem to exist so that the player can be required to travel great distances hampered by a lack of a second gun in order to blow up something big or fix a piece of equipment. There is no real-feeling advantage in playing with different loadouts, only greater and lesser disadvantages.
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