Battlefield 2142 - First Strike review

Story:
The story is simply put - It's the Galactic Civil War. In which there are 2 main factions, the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. While some of the maps are familiar via the original trilogy, some if not most of are from the expanded universe (comics, games, ect.). It pretty much picks up from there.

Design:
The graphics in this mod are by far nothing short of amazing. The textures, enviroments, player models, and vehicles are extremely well modeled and textured. Even better are the maps. The maps are incredibly huge and make you feel like you're actually fighting in the vast open area and not in a small crampt space. Everything from Tatooine to Rhen Var have been well made. The weapon models and textures are also incredibly accurate.

However, with all this in mind, this leads to one of the mods short comings. The mod, although beautiful, is and can be laggy. Without a propper graphics card, texture glitches, fps spikes or lag, and even crashing can be a problem(even with the graphics set to low). In fact, some maps will crash after loading is complete due to this issue. The map's sizes are also a major fall back. While made to look realistic, they tend to do too well it seems. As they can be so large, your game might crash depending on its size (especially on the battle of yavin). Beauty, has never been more bitter at times it seems.

Sound:
The mod's music and sound effects are relatively nothing special. While vehicle sounds are up to date, the shooting sounds and the music are not exactly what one would imagine from Star Wars. While the music resembles star wars, its no John Williams. In fact it sounds a lot like a remixed version of an Nintendo 64 (or older)'s soundtrack made to sound more epic. While it does succeed in doing this... it can make a hard-core Star Wars fan a tad (if not majorly) bitter. However some maps will ring the solid tune of Rogue Squadron. The sound effects are also not what they could have been. Blaster fire seems to sound VASTLY different to its movie, and game counter-parts. Over-all, the sound might not be what one would expect.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is what's really the gold here, flyable frigates, fighters, bombers, tanks, walkers, you name it, they've got it! The aim is good, the action can be intense, it's everything one likes about the action of Star Wars put right in! Except the lightsabers of course. Initially, there are 5 main classes:
Assault
Heavy Weapons
Medic
Support
Officer
These classes each come with up to 3 weapons to choose from, and since they're kindly unlocked already. There's no need to hassle over ranking and points! This saves the player alot of frustration. The weapons each have their own fire power, rate, accuracy, and speed. This makes for good experimenting since there's alot to choose from! Each class's abilities are also unique, ranging from healing, to out-right owning! The gameplay on maps are pretty much the same as basic 2142, so nothing special there. Space maps are similar to those found in Battlefront 2 and Renegade Squadron, ranging from either kick the enemy's butt, or objectives. Over-all the gameplay is FANTASTIC!

Over-all:
I humbly give this mod an 8.5/10. The graphics are great(given you have a good card), and sounds aren't exactly starwars, but they'll do, and the gameplay is hall-of-fame worthy! No balance issues anywhere(unless your team absolutley possitively SUCKS)! While online play may be a bit scarce, just wait till saturday night, THEN THE PARTY STARTS! There also Sunday Community games as well.

Score: 8.5/10

Note: Note: Based only by gameplay(lots of it I might add). Opnions may or may not be endorsed. Any major issues with this review will be fixed once notified(recommended that this is done via pm).