I’ve played the big boy version of this before, but wanted to try out its little brother for a few reasons. One, the sequel burned me and made me yearn for the greater variety of the original game; two, I do find it interesting to see alternate takes on things I enjoyed; three, Wookieepedia had some details indicating that there was extra content in this version; four, it’s by Krome Studios, the famous Australian developer.
To address each of these points… it was good to return to this setting; seeing Rahm Kota in Elite Forces and reading some designer notes and the tie-in comic reminded me of the care and design work that went into this project. It’s a real successful attempt to tell a new Star Wars story that feels authentic but with a slight reimagining of what bombastic Force powers would make an exciting video game.
In terms of this being an alternate take, it does present value as a separate game to the HD version. Instead of a cut-down port, this game (released on PSP, PS2, and Wii) reworks a lot of stuff and is practically a new experience because of it. The way some of your abilities work, the unlock system, collectibles, are familiar but fresh. (Confusingly, the buttons for lightning and push are swapped compared to its counterpart.) Levels too have new layouts, and enemies sometimes require different strategies. By the end of the game my favoured technique was the Force Choke followed by pummel, which auto-flings physics objects at the gripped target., including other nearby enemies.
This slightly dinkier version doesn’t use the same advanced physics engine as the main game, so physics interactions aren’t as smooth. But there’s still a decent amount of stuff to fling around, and if anything it’s less trivial to simply throw objects around to obliterate dudes, forcing you to think a bit more about handling groups of enemies.
In terms of new content I was pleased by the differences. True, some things were cut, such as the medical frigate level and the Sarlacc in the return to Felucia, as well as some other setpieces I remembered. But Krome’s additions were very welcome: several interludes in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant involving fights with simulations of wacky ancient Sith, a new level on Bespin rescuing Garm bel Iblis (who was previously only a cutscene character), and new characters including some diverse gangs of pirates and scoundrels, even an evil Gungan! Also apparently unique to the PSP version is a scenario mode that sees you replaying classic events such as the battle at Jabba’s sail barge (with a more intense Boba Fett fight), or Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar, as well as an Order 66 wave-survival mode and a Jedi duel mode. Good value!
To my last point, I’ve never actually played anything by Krome before, but it’s good to support local development, right? Except I bought this second hand from the US, so it’s not really supporting them much… er, moving on.
I really enjoyed this; a revisit but with a whole new game experience. The definitive story would be some synthesis of bits from both versions, which I gather is what the novel is maybe? In any case, the PSP version specifically represents a great 3D action game on handheld and if not an equivalent experience to the HD one than a comparable one at least. Plus the character models are lower-detail so you actually get less of an uncanny valley effect during cutscenes!
