Star Wars Battlefront II

Star Wars Battlefront II expanded the series' scope with a single-player campaign following imperial special-forces commander Iden Versio, and across all three film trilogies it offered battles ranging from the Clone Wars through the classic era to the age of the new trilogy. The multiplayer component remained the main draw, with expansive maps, heroes, and starship space battles running in parallel with the ground combat.

On Xbox One the game excelled in visual quality and variety of settings, whether the forested moon of Kashyyyk, the elegant planet Naboo, or space battles above the mining planet Kessel, all accompanied by cinematic music and convincing weapon and ship sound effects drawn from all three Star Wars eras. In terms of gameplay, the game offered a more elaborate class system and hero units with their own abilities that changed the dynamics of every engagement and forced teams to react to their deployment.

The launch was accompanied by extensive controversy over microtransactions and a pay-to-win progression system affecting in-game stats, which sparked a strong reaction from the player community and regulators in several countries and forced Electronic Arts to hastily overhaul the system before release. Despite its turbulent start, the game gradually transformed, through subsequent free updates and a reworked rewards system, into a respected, content-rich title, and it is now often cited as an example of a game that managed to significantly repair its reputation through long-term support. The campaign and the elaborate space multiplayer are today rated among the best parts of the entire Battlefront series. The gradual addition of content from the new trilogy and the prequel films also expanded the roster of playable characters and locations to a scope no previous entry in the series had offered, turning the game into one of the most comprehensive celebrations of the entire film saga ever produced in video game form.

Why play it: Thanks to its elaborate space multiplayer and campaign, today rated among the best in the series, it's worth a second chance despite its turbulent, microtransaction-plagued start.