I know this video is far from perfect (especially with mic issues), but I wanted to say thank you to all of you guys who watched this video! It has probably been the biggest project I've worked on for this channel so far, and the response has been encouraging and humbling. Thank you guys for watching this and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did making it
@Honkey Kong I've had a couple people recommend I do that game. And I might, but Force Unleashed would probably be the next game I did a video like this on
In all seriousness, this is likely due to in-game limitations. Realistically, the 7th Sky Corps was like 36,864 troops, or sixteen regiments. In addition to multiple infantry battalions, which included the infamous 212th. However, IMO three divisions is still a little light for capturing several star systems, hell I doubt they could even fully secure one with those numbers.
Writing this at the Polis Massa segment, I will always remember this map. Not from the campaign, but a Galactic Conquest my brother and I played together. We always hated Polis with how cramped it was, but one battle qas one we have always considered legendary, even almost 20 years later. We were getting crushed, and eventually it was just the two of us against over 60 AI. So we regrouped at one cap point and just held out, and after ten minutes of fighting we won by killing the remaining enemies. We've always considered that one of our crowning moments
Nice! I'd say that's a pretty epic victory. Again, as great as the story is, it's the little parts of gameplay like that which really make this game great
I remember my greatest moment. It was a Galactic Conquest and I was playing the Empire and the Rebels had just launched an attack on Endor. 2/3rd's of the way through the battle I realized I was the only Imperial left and still had roughly 30 rebel soldiers on the map. Somehow someway I ended up killing them all and winning the day. I celebrated quite thoroughly after that, and I imagined Lord Vader coming down in his shuttle with reinforcements just to find my trooper sitting on a downed tree in front of the shield bunker surrounded by dead rebels and him being mildly impressed I had survived.
The real reason for not including Ep6 in the scripted campaign is to guide you right into the Galactic Conquest mode, where you can decide the ending yourself and which puts all the skills learned throughout the campaign to use.
I always thought they had been playing off that the trooper was killed along with the rest of the 501st at the battle of Endor. And thus, was never able to put in what his experience on Endor.
“What I remember about the rise of the Empire…was how quiet it was. During the waning hours of the Clone Wars, the 501st was discreetly transferred back to Coruscant. It was a silent trip. We knew what was about to happen and what we were about to do. Did we have any doubt? Any private and traitorous thoughts? Perhaps, but no one said a word. Not on the flight to Coruscant, not when Order 66 went down and not when we marched into the Jedi Temple. Not a word.”
“Tonight the fall of the Jedi is at hand. we have been contacted by the highest authority to wipe out the insurgent Jedi Yoda that threatens our great empire. Lord Vader is our field commander. So keep the Jedi low, and move out!”
Last time I played this game I had a very basic understanding of English. Sure would be an experience playing it again today. I miss coming up myself with what was going on based on the scenes music and the tone.
It's scarier in Legends than Canon imo, because in the latter the Clones were brain-swapped against their will. There is a tragedy to that itself but Legends felt far darker, having men who cared, respected and followed the Jedi go through with a contingency order none of them wanted yet were fully expected to commit to if called.
I definitely think they "couldn't look her in the eyes" because they knew order 66 was coming. A lot of these journals seem to imply the clones knew it was going to happen ahead of time which makes them very different from the clones we see in the clone wars with the inhibitor chips. It's Interesting to think that these clones had full awareness and actively obeyed order 66. It makes them seem a lot colder and more like weapons used by palpatine and not actual people.
A book for Episode III was released alongside the movie (roughly), where the clones obeyed order 66 without question because they obeyed any order without question due to mental conditioning. The Jedi didn't feel it coming because the order was carried out without malice or hatred on the clones part. I liked that explanation more, but oh well clone wars.
@@lq4322 yeah, clone wars was kinda forced into doing the inhibitor chips since it humanized the clones so much and they built relationships with other characters. It wouldn't make sense for Rex to betray Ahsoka just because he was following orders. Both have their merits so it's really up to personal preference. I liked seeing the clones' individuality in the clone wars and so the inhibitor chips fit more to me.
@@S1rEmber I much prefer the older explanation. It made it clear that whatever training, whatever conditioning the Clones had, it was them that chose to pull the trigger. I love the way Battlefront II describes the silent misgivings the clones all had. I love the way the Republic Commando novels showed how certain independent minded clones, who were already forming families and becoming Mandalorian, said screw it to Order 66 because they saw no reason to show loyalty to this new Empire. The old canon worked, because every clone had to make that decision whether to follow orders or not, just like in real life. Someone who you might consider "good" or "a friend" will still turn on you when it's considered convenient or an authority figure tells them to. That reflects real life, and it's also the intention Episode III is written with, emphasizing Cody's friendship with Obi Wan before he shoots him down. The modern, Disney/Feloni interpretation is that a dastardly evil villain, mind controlled all the good people into doing evil. Literally. There's no thematic depth, no parallel to real life, and nothing to take out of it. It's hard to say anything is "too hokey" for Star Wars, but a plot point like that borders on it, and definitely runs against Lucas' theming of so many being complicit in the rise of the Empire.
@@S1rEmber That's basically what happened in old canon though. Clones that had close relationships with jedi basically disobeyed the order and refused to kill jedi or let them escape. A Clone pilot having spent weeks recovering from injuries with a scavenger who was hiding jedi younglings. When clone troops arrived to pick up the pilot, he kept the younglings secret and never turned them over, because he formed a close relationship with them Omega Squad refused to follow order 66 and even abandoned the empire because one of their members had fallen in love with a jedi I'd fully believe that Rex refused to follow order 66 and attack Ahsoka, even without the inhibitor chips. In fact, he actually technically did betray and try to kill her.
1:17:21 I think the use Boba for this mission for one major reason. He’s just as much invested as any other clone. He is one. And not only one, it’s his fathers genetics too. Like they say at the start, he has a intensive knowledge of the place and they are using him as a strike leader/guide for it to help them complete this objective completely. So it makes sense playing Boba Fett at the start, as not only are you a Clone too, your the primary clone guiding the attack on into the facility to destroy it. You are the guide to the others.
Also a mernecary. That's why he doesn't mind technically turning on his own. Also seems implied that although the first time we see him is when Vader hired him. Later it seems that they wrote it as in Boba being the Empire's go to unofficial agent.
The first night I got the game my cousin and I were co-op playing the campaign. For whatever reason, when it came to the part of the mission to kill the Queen, we failed right as we were attacking her. I was piloting the hover tank while he was gunning the top gun. When the mission failed script popped up he managed to killer her, which overwrote the failure and we won. We had a loud high-five after a couple “Woo-hoo”s.
I always read the “couldn’t look her in the eyes” comment as a mix of shame and sadness. Not only did she save the 501st from being wiped out and helped keep them going during the fighting, she had personally come to see them and thank them. It wasn’t just the fact that she helped them, but that she was still able to then turn around and acknowledge the brave fighting they had done. Here was their savior, the one they knew would be betrayed eventually, coming and thanking them and congratulating them on their brave fighting.
When I first played the game, I was about 9 or 10 and paid almost 0 attention to the story. I listened but didn't care. That line always stuck with me and I don't think I understood why for a few more years.
the one wrinkle i find here is does it imply that they knew even then about killing the jedi? because they shouldn't order 66 officially occurs because the jedi betrayed them and the republic no?
There is EU/Legends lore about the list of orders mentally conditioned into the Clones during training... but I picked up somewhere, either 'Republic Commando' special features or UA-cam videos (EU lore at least) Jango is supposed to know the intent of wiping out the Jedi with Order 66 (being hired by Dooku/Palpatine) and he passes on a particular song in the Mandalorian Language - the main theme of Republic Commando - idk what other Mandalorian culture/history Jango passed on to reinforce mental conditioning with the Mandalorian rivalry with Jedi I have played 'Republic Commando' & 'Battlefront II' - I intend to read Republic Commando novels. For myself, someday.
Something that Battlefront 2 OG does exceptionally well imo is representing the hatred between the Imperials and the Rebels, partly from what can be observed from context but mostly due to how well it submerges you in the rivalry from the antagonists side of all things, we all want to root for the rebellion by default but when we're placed solely in the Empires POV and we're subjected to all the hardship that the steady snowball of the rebellion builds to, it's hard not to become engrossed, not that it's some super deep dive into the human psyche, but it's amazing how the game can so quickly push you into enacting a power/revenge fantasy directed against the heroes of the story. One simple, small but crucial detail that sells it all that I don't see anyone talk about or even seem to notice, is that the AI of the civil war era exclusively for both Imperials and Rebels will occasionally swap to their blasters after a kill, run over to the corpse and start viscously "mag dumping" it as it were, shouting things like "Don't get up! Stay dead! Rebel scum! Filthy traitor..." as they do so, this never occurs in the Clone Wars era and it's an awfully gruesome detail to include that's indicative of the overall tone of the era, the Clone Wars may have been a far more brutal wide spanning war but end of the day it was all just a matter of efficiency and logistics, one manufactured disposable army against another, the Empire and the galactic civil war on the other hand stood to bring out the worst human qualities among everyone that was a player in it. I'm glad Star Wars has games like Battlefront 2 and Republic Commando, while the movies and shows prefer to focus on the ever feuding big pictures of the Jedi and Sith whose visions and presence are so far above and beyond the realm of relatability and understanding, the games, books and novels all offer a window into the smaller pictures that make up their "big picture" their "utopia"... And each small picture is likely someones story getting cut short, fighting and dying in a bloody filth filled trench.
For me, this game has the best representation of Order 66. No inhibitor chip that turns clones into mindless killing machines, just loyal soldiers who know which is their ultimate goal. Others may disagree, but I feel this approach is more interesting.
The inhibitor chips were an awful idea. Filoni was so eager to humanize the clones that he forgot what they really were. They were bred for loyalty to Palpatine under the guise of loyalty to the Republic. Some developed more of a personality, some became friends with their Jedi commanders and some even resisted Order 66. But the masses weren't forced to commit the atrocities because a switch was flipped that made them into zombies. They knew their purpose and carried it out, without the burden of sentimentality or guilt.
I like to think the clone narrator served on Umbarra and endured the Pong Krell massacre and became incredibly spiteful and weary of any and all Jedi throughout the war. When the inhibitor chip activated, it already triggered the feelings he was feeling and through hindsight after Hoth he feels vindicated in his beliefs, from his certain point of view. Very nuanced head canon but I think its a nice blend of EU and Disney Canon.
It is SO much more interesting. It makes the clones far more morally complex and interesting, and it makes Palpatine seem even more intelligent for knowing that the clones would ultimately obey him. The inhibitor chips remove so much about the clones that I find interesting. I guess it makes them more tragic, but I think their absence makes the clones far more insidious.
Fun fact about the training mission: If you decline being Windu in the tutorial….you soft lock yourself and cannot progress in the mission because the hero objective is required to progress. You can still leave the game via pause menu, but the mission will not progress and never end.
Regarding Vader's command about stealing a strike bomber: I always assumed that Vader, with his background as "Anakin the pilot", was interested in this type of ship for some sort of personal collection, because it was a type of ship that General Grievous used at some point. Grievous was killed by Anakin's old master, Obi-Wan, so maybe it was another way for Vader to claim victory over his old friend and teacher, whom he now hates with a passion.
Here’s another interesting possibility that I recently came up with: the strike bomber we steal is in fact Grievous’ old ship, and Vader wanted it so he could have access to the comms logs because he was searching for kenobi and retracing his steps prior to their battle at Mustafar
I've heard it was because the 327th throughout the war suffered high casualties and were sent to inhospitable worlds such as felucia and eventually felt like she wasn't looking out for them
Euthanizing someone "humanely" has the connotation of lethal injection or something equivalent, but really the "humane" part mostly comes out of respect and care for friends and family who would be burying them after, if you want to get down to the gritty fact of it all though a "humane and painless/quick" death really just comes down to rendering the body as destroyed and inoperable as quickly as possible, it's grisly to think about, but getting insta-gibbed (by, say, a battalion of clones all mag dumping their high powered blaster rifles into you) while caught unaware can be just as humane an end as anything else... It's whoever's around to bare-witness to the aftermath that it's truly inhumane to-
@@joshman35 but she and Bly were super tight. She actually respected him as a person and not just a soldier. In the old comics it shows their relationship very well imo. I think it would just have to be the clones being brainless killing machines that were not supposed to have empathy or morals for others outside the republic.
49:00 the clones are defending and capturing Jedi knowledge, first yes it's a direct order, but second you have to understand that the order predates the galactic republic itself (more than 25.000 years), the Jedi archives contain literal thousands of generations of knowledge and wisdom, knowledge shared only in the order, knowledge that palpatine wants to have, with that precedent and well placed propaganda, the Jedi order actually seemed suspicious and treacherous at the eyes of the public...
Plus the Jedi want to destroy the archives for their knowledge won't fall in the wrong hands. It's crazy how order 66 it's such a complete victory for the sith.
The Jedi order has been around about as long as the republic. They've got a lot of knowledge accumulated that the Republic may have lost for one reason or another. Palpatine likely wants access to them for any ancient sith knowledge or general information on the force. Or the hyperspace charts
1:06:06 I think the point of the “pointless” stealing of the CIS “bomber” objective is that the ship you are told to recover is the same model as General Grievous’ personal starship. Perhaps Vader wanted you to salvage one for him so that he could add it to his own personal collection. He is a pilot by nature, and this is probably showing his still innate love of flying. The order also still plays into the pointlessness of most of the orders the clones receive throughout the campaign. Risk your life to add a new toy to someone’s collection.
Technically, you're both right. Original EU, including the point when this game was made, there were no inhibitor chips. However, TCW retconned this. Because for some reason Disney decided to make TCW canon to both Disney-canon AND Legends. Ignoring TCW and solely focusing on the Clone Wars Multimedia Project, however, this is correct.
@@alligatorboy2000 Yeah, it is a bit of a gray zone. However given he was talking about BF2 which came out long before TCW Season 6 did, he is clearly implying the old canon before TCW was even a thing.
I think the bit with Aayla is a mix of both. The men likely knew what was coming and because they had such a high opinion of her, they were ashamed to be appraised by her. She trusted them completely, had absolute faith in them, and that good will was met with blaster fire to the back. So the 501st dissociated from her. It probably made her death slightly easier to swallow. The sacking of the Jedi Temple also provided a good distraction. So long as they were fighting, they didn't have to think about it too much.
A lot of people don't really notice this but it has stuck with me for years since someone pointed it out: in episode 3 when the clones draw their guns on Aayla she first looks behind her as she has total trust in the clones and then looks around in confusion being no threat behind her before she is gunned down. Hearing her characterized in those audio logs while knowing that scene so vividly and how well the actress portrays that moment of trust being shattered is very moving.
It's also commonly excepted at least within the legends community that the reason Bly and the 327th kept firing was to ensure that it was quick, with the amount of blaster fire she was most certainly dead and not slowly bleeding out. Ultimately it was a merciful and quick albeit violent death.
The clone rebellion on Kamino not being recanonized is an unforgivable tragedy. The Bad Batch was clearly building up to it, but then Filoni pulled a switcheroo.
I just now recently played the Knightfall level and I play it in first person. That first moment when the Jedi descend from the ceiling and they are running towards you and you shoot them and they deflect your lasers feel straight out of a horror movie. I appreciate this video so much because it really does show how the developers got into the heads of the clones, seeing the Jedi as the enemy. They really make the Jedi feel like the enemy! Amazing!
1:06:05 I like to think that Vader's order is because that class of ship was used by Obi-Wan to escape Utapau. What if he's after it for it's flight recorder in order to find out where Kenobi has been?
For the eye contact thing, as a vet I could shed some light. While not being fortunate enough to not go into combat it still feels weird and undeserved when the combat veteran complements the new guys work, cause that entire time I was focusing on not messing things up beyond recovery more than getting it done right so having the guy who gives the impression everything went to plan makes you feel inferior because you feel like you were a coward barely keeping it together. But here's the crazy part, that hero who complements you was feeling the exact same way but kept the appearance because if they crack everyone else breaks.
1:46:00 To be honest, I think "Pilots, if they are allowed to make the jump to hyperspace, they'll rip right through us. Clear their fighters out and be quick about it. We haven't any time to spare." can be interpreted in a number of ways. Certainly you can interpret it as a version of the Holdo Maneuver, but given earlier the commander says "The rebels are attempting to send their forces off to wreak havoc in other parts of our galaxy. Destroy them." you can also interpret as simply the Rebel fleet being able to get past the current Imperial fleet to start attacking targets elsewhere. It’s really the “rip right through us” that’s the only thing interpreting it as the Holdo Maneuver, and again, “rip right through” can also mean getting past them. So the vague statement combined with the context of the prior statements being about how the Rebel fleet escaping can cause problems elsewhere and the fact that you don’t actually see it performed is probably why people didn’t care about it in Battlefront 2 but did in The Last Jedi. Hell, the fact that you initially didn’t think of it even when trying to remember this mission is testament that it certainly wasn’t as explicit as in The Last Jedi.
The concept of using lightspeed to ram a ship straight through an entire fleet is such an horrendous idea that makes you question pretty much every battle in the entire saga. Why bother sending hundreds of capital ships and fighters to combat the Separatist fleet when you can just lightspeed ram a single ship straight through them all? Why bother needing the Death Star plans and sending fighters to exploit its weakness when you can just sacrifice a single astromech and a X-wing to ram straight through its core?
@@muigokublack6487 They didn’t say that, they said the hyperspace ram was a one-in-a-million chance to patch up with how the concept of hyperspace ramming completely ruins every single battle that happens before it
@@shadow-squid4872 That is LITERALLY what I just said. "Let's get some ship in the air, pull some Holdo Maneuvers." "That was a 1 in a 1,000,000 shot." It also made the previous film look even worse because if it was a 1 in a 1,000,000 chance then it means she WAS trying to run away!
@@muigokublack6487 Oops my bad, you called the film “Rise of Palpatine” and when I first read it I thought you meant something like Palpatine coming back was a one in a million chance
i love how much the maps in this game are shaped to accurately reflect all the movie setpieces as well as they reasonably could. It helps immerse you into feeling like you're fighting through a lot of the major battles shown in the movies and fleshing out the lesser shown ones such as the ones of the Order 66 montage.
I think the reason Utapau feels so bland is because it’s the mission they use in the demo for ground combat for Bf2. The Coruscant space battle was the demo space battle mission and you can see remnants for the early build of bf2 in the journal log, the shield airlocks on the ships were color coded in the journal video and the demo had the same color coded shields. Edit: a day later and I am watching your iceberg video and I’m realizing that you already knew about this lol 😂
While the plot with the inhibitor chips is good, I also love the take that the clones were in on order 66 too. An entire ARMY ready to betray them sat under the jedi's noses, and makes you wonder if their loyalty or friendship was genuine
i like to think even the clones themselves aren't sure of their motivations or loyalties, they're thrust into a war not knowing much about it or anything else but fighting and told "shoot them" so they do. As they develop relationships with eachother and their commanders the situation changes they're told there are traitors afoot yes their potentially (though not universally) beloved jedi generals the clones must be shocked! it can't be, you to me? all i've done is fight for you, how? oh no time to think war demands action, and this was always a possibility, default to before you started to have these complicated feelings, do what you know. follow orders, it's what good soldiers do.
My guess for the "steal an enemy fighter" mission in the Space Mustafar level was that Vader, deep down, was still a pilot at heart, and was interested in getting his hands on one of those starfighters. After all Grievous used one to great effect during the Clone Wars, even evading him on a few occasions. Perhaps it was one of his few personal things he wanted to do. Especially if all the CIS equipment was gonna be lost to time.
i always saw it as wanting to study the bomber, see how it works and potentially incorporate aspects of it into the next generation of starfighters or something along those lines, perhaps leading to the "tie advanced" series
1:19:16 That is what was needed in Bad Batch. An excuse to replace the clones with conscriptions. Because as it is the clone enforced Order 66 and were a trained and competent military force. Then all of a sudden they need to be replaced instantly. It took 10 years to raise the Clone Army. It should of been a slow process of including consrpits and changing the miliatry. We should of gotten a Clone rebellion in Bad Batch, but who knows we still have time in season 3.
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
This was the first shooter I played with neighborhood friends on split screen as a kid. This and galactic conquest had me completely hooked along with custom game 2 on 2 space battles between star destroyers, was a different time.
I always considered Imperial Diplomacy-Changing of The Guard the “Tying Up Loose Ends.” Arc. Funny enough it kinda mirrors the prequel trilogy in terms of location and factions, just ends differently in two of the situations and by another assailant in the last Naboo- The Guard and The Jedi fighting an invading force and ultimately losing Kamino- Another Clone Army is created to fight a war that never gets to begin Mustafar- The Separatists regroup, what’s left at least, but are finally smothered for good by the 501st rather than Lord Vader It’s honestly an incredibly interesting set of missions And honestly I just figured he was referring to another smuggler rather than Han, but I could also see the developers just not realizing until the game was already out
I always thought of it like real ships in the pirate days, they were all wooden, but if you ram a ship in the side with your front, you might take damage, but you’ll still be sailing while the other guy is critically damaged if not sinking
My take on the Han solo part is when does han dump the cargo when leaving kessel. That event could have happened and jabba sent boba fett to find Han and bring him in for a little chat which we see in the added scene in a new hope. Where jabba warns Han what will happen if he is not paid back.
Great video! My favorites have got to be Operation Knightfall, but also the Mustafar showdown in space and on the planet surface. The staunchest Separatists making their stand against the full might of the Galactic Empire, giving the clones and new human stormtroopers a run for their money. For the clones themselves, it's a personal struggle between the nostalgia and nightmare...
I always thought the journal was a unit journal written by the the entire unit and revised with hindsight after the war(s). Most real world military units have one to record the history of the unit.
43:14 love how the instant you say "forgettable levels in the campaign" the most iconic line gets said in the background mid sentence, love this review man this game was many people's childhoods and at least for me my first multiplayer experience.
Wish I’d had this sort of insight years ago. During one of my later years of high-school, whilst we were studying World War I, we were tasked on doing a project reflecting of British soldiers life during the war. Many opted to create simple journals, others recreated care packages. I on the other hand created a video inspired by the 501st Journal, using footage that I deemed relevant off UA-cam, narrated by myself on a Corsair gaming headset, along with the dialogue removed from the journal entries using rudimentary online tools (I think this was around 2016) to serve as my background music. I’m sure if I were to watch it now, it would be an utter disgrace to both actual soldiers, and the source material I took inspiration from. But at least my teacher was impressed. I hand delivered it on a DVD I burned. I never did get it back.
As a kid I hated going back to Kamino and fighting the anti clones. The clones were always so amazing to me and having to snuff them out with the 501st was sacrilege. I always like to imagine that a number of Kaminoans and Anti clones escaped and started building another clone army along side the escaped jedi. So many potential unique stories to be told from the perspective of genetically identical brothers. I hope we get to see another view like this in the future.
the real reason for not including Episode 6 is because they changed history in the last mission. In Episode 5 all 2 freighters managed to escape. In the game the second freighter was destroyed which led to the defeat of the rebellion. It is just an alternate ending.
So with Boba Fett it's likely a reference to the Legends book that is based on the clone rebellion. He helps put down the rebellion, sees the DNA data, and destroys it to let his father's legacy rest. Plus if I recall it's how he learned that he himself is a clone.
Amazing video dude! I really loved hearing your perspective on this game, as a kid I always liked the dark undertones the story had. Even to this day i still go back and play the OG BF2 over the EA version. I subscribed man, I hope you can do more of these in the future! 😁
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, it's nice knowing someone liked my rambling. And yeah, I'm hoping to do some more similar type stuff in them, but who knows when that will be
A brilliant analysis for a brilliant game. Almost every analysis video of this game seems to hit it out of the park, but I think this one goes above and beyond in exploring the psychological implications of what the campaign entails. Absolutely outstanding.
Man, Aayla Secura is so cool. I loved using her in this game, the dual lightsabers felt ridiculously strong and made it easy to mow down groups. The writing around her and the 501st was so good, despite how sad it is - the 501st knowing how their relationship will end, and not wanting to look her in the eyes out of shame (or in an effort to prevent that shame, in some small way).
Commander Bly was a good commander. A commander who daw the big picture. A commander who deeply loved and respected his general who he had fought for years with. It wasn't hatred that had those bolts going into her after she hit the ground. It was mercy. He knew that this was wide spread and if they botched it she would have died an even worse way. He knew this was the end and he made sure his best friend in the whole republic was put down without suffering. Because its all he could do to save her from that hell that the order was going through
When it comes to Aayla Secura's death, I remember thinking that they were using excessive force, then I played the mission and watched it again, this time after finishing s6 of Clone Wars, and it all made sense. They know she has to die, they don't want to but they don't have a choice. Once the order was given, they must not fail to produce a corpse. The clone narrator says he hoped when her turn came that it was quick. I think they all did, and they made sure it was the only way they could. Applying so much blaster fire that she'd be lucky to have identifiable DNA after they were done. No surviving by being wounded, no slow lingering death, open fire, and don't stop until she's gone. The closest thing to their free will they could exercise was making sure the commander they respected was killed quickly.
I think it would’ve been cool if they did give us an Endor mission and put a spin on it to where the Empire ended up winning. Vader dies and is replaced with Luke as Palpatine’s apprentice. All the rebel leaders are destroyed. The final boss could even be defeating Han, Leia, and Chewie at the bunker
The mention of that glitch made it also iconic where it did confuse us some or irritate but unlike today full on mechanics are broken where this one little timer glitch makes enough of us chuckle because of nostalgia
Remember with the Kamino level that Boba Fett is also their blood brother, he's one of them every bit as much as their comrades and enemies are. Even if he wears a different uniform, they still scream with his voice
I wish og bf2 did a hunt mode for order 66 and mustafar where you played as lord Vader with a few (4-6) 501st troopers and had to kill the Jedi and battle droids/separatist leaders
Love it! Worth every minute. You managed to make all two hours of this video engaging and informative. None of it felt wasted, a rarity for a video of this length.
This video was excellent. As a long time BF2 fan, you really nailed everything and cleared up new themes that I didn't think of before. Top tier stuff.
Most underrated Video I've ever seen. In my opinion the objectives of the Imperial-half do fit pretty well, there are no heroic acts to do. Only capture and kill
I don't think Ki adi Mundi inclusion in Mygeeto was a narrative mistake, it's explained later in the cut scene that the jedi could be fooled, implying that Mundi knew that they needed those crystals but didn't knew what they needed them for. The clone or clones narrating the 501st journal already knew everything because they are narrating it after everything has already happened, by that point they where already an empire and order 66 has already happened.
The "glitch" with the gunship is typically when you get out there is one soldier left and they become the pilot. Once this happens, after a minute they typically take off and immediately crash. I can't speak for that mission, but that happened all the time when I played galactic conquest or instant action
This was amazing to watch and I, as I assume many others, greatly appreciate your take on this! Although the campaign is just multiplayer maps with altered rules here and there, the developers, writers, everyone managed to make a fantastic addition to the start wars lore of the time that really shows you a side of star wars you never see and really haven't seen since. I love everything you had to say, especially the Chinese proverb for the Imperial side of the campaign. You really hit me at the end too. Obviously yes I do know that they couldn't really include endor because it is the last major battle in star wars and the empire loses, but thinking about it for a moment as you did, implying that there is no journal because the narrator has more than likely perished in that fight really made me have a moment to think. But that's the beauty of this game. As simple as it is, we are here all these years later still discussing our favourite moments and our "OG" Holdo manoeuvres :p And a big thank you again for taking your time to make this masterpiece :3
I was a beast at that game. Buddy of mine was bitching and moaning how I would Vader choke him and slash him down. He couldn't fight back. So I traded him controllers mid battle and took over the heroes and decimated him with Han Solo. Despite my initial massive lead before I traded controllers I just ripped him apart. He was both massively pissed off but also very impressed. We played a lot after that.
I had such a great time watching this! I can easily tell the deep passion you have for Star Wars and for storytelling. The runtime may be two hours but it felt way shorter. I was hooked from the beginning. Your analysis was thorough, fair, and informed---critical of the shortcomings of the game, but without sacrificing the appreciation for that blissful nostalgia all of us who discovered this game when we were young feel. I must admit that I got to the Battlefront duology--and to the Star Wars franchise as a whole--rather late some time in 2011. I think I was 13 when I first played BFII. Still, from that moment, over a decade has elapsed, and I sitll remember and get chills from the journal entry after the Mygeeto mission. It stuck with me because of how powerful the narrator´s lines are. I think I will never forget how he says that the mission proved the Jedi could be fooled, and if they could be fooled, they could be killed. I swear that moment alone took my breath. The fact that we as the audience know everything that was about to come from the moment Order 66 went down made that one of the most poignant, thought-provoking, and outright chilling experiences I could've gotten from a video game.
A fan is a fan, no matter when they discover something. I'm glad you enjoyed the video so much; it's awesome to see something as simple as a video game make such an impact on people
I remember me and my cousin used to play bf2 religiously when we were younger, we made our own game out of it using our star wars risk board as the galactic conquest mode. We'd be the clones and work together against the highest difficulty CIS, each troop piece on the board counted as 100 popcap, while the tank piece counted as 250. we'd use instant action mode to tweak the settings the way we needed each fight, the final battle being us defending rhen var citadel with 50popcap against 1000 droids, we won just barely. was so dorky looking back at it now, but was a very fun back-to-back birthday campaign we made for oursevlves haha 😊
This video encouraged me to play this game again. Had a blast playing through it in one day. The only tricky parts for me are those damn book cases, and all Hoth objectives (not counting shield generator).
Clones being replaced right after RotS isn’t actually from The Bad Batch show, I believe it actually came from the Vader comics, as there was one made in like 2015 where only a few days after RotS there are clones discussing how the last batch of clones are being made, before Vader shows up and decides to kill all of them and destroy the entire space station they’re on for literally no reason, or just because he felt like it or something (I personally hate that comic because how the writer decided to completely wipe away future stories about clones in the Empire so pathetically). The Bad Batch was sadly forced to kinda go along with it for the sake of not retconning Disney canon, but thankfully the show does it’s best to push and stretch things to about a year after RotS before clones actually start getting replaced on a large scale.
I remember as a kid, I would sometimes boot up the tutorial and just play it for like half an hour or more without finishing the mission since it had infinite units on both sides. Just constant war between us and the droids. I was an easily amused kid.
For the CIS strike bomber, I always believed it was because it was the better than the one of the Republic. The CIS strike bombers fires it's bombs a lot faster than the V-wing, and wouldn't you know it the TIE Bomber fires its bomb a lot faster than the Y-wing of the rebellion. Complete guess but it's what makes the most sense to me as to why you would get orders to capture one. Like an in-game narrative explanation for an in-game mechanic.
That LAAT glitch at 33:30 is definitely a common glitch, or at least on PC for me. I was too young to remember any bugs when playing this on the PS2 but its probably just a port bug. Annoying but not game breaking.
If I remember correctly, you needed to have other clones join you in the ship until the ship was full and then land in the enemy hanger? I don’t remember if that’s right or not but that always seemed to make the glitch work for me
To the question posed at 59:30 assuming it was a serious one, its a quick answer and this will hopefully also answer alot of questions about the state of the Republic. Those aren't police, those are the military of Naboo. before the clones, the Republic rarely held a formal army for prolonged periods so almost all things resembling a military or police would be raised planet to planet. Naboo, like a overwhelming large amount of planets in Star Wars is a Monarchy, an Autocracy in the trappings of Democracy. They have that firepower because the planet can afford it, and they gave it to their men because, at-least before the empire, they had unlimited authority to do so. This is the primary reason I think Palpatine took the rebellion so seriously, once it started to become clear who their leaders were. We might think of them as senators on the galactic stage, but back on their home worlds, many senators were, or were directly related too/serving some kind of Autocratic government who had the capability of pitching entire worlds or in some cases, entire systems into the fight.
I'm not sure if it's because it's chilly weather right now, but hearing that redacted Kamino log sent chills down my spine. I played this game until my PS2 and game disk nearly broke, had to risk taking it apart to get it working again, which thankfully worked out. I played this game to the point I was elite in every achievement and had all the unlocks, been through the campaign dozens of times by myself. Thank you for the knowledge, that definitely upped the nostalgia factor for me.
Regarding the bomber theft over Mustafar, I agree it seems to come from nowhere. my headcanon is that this mission takes place during Vader's obsession with Obi-Wan, an obsession that may lead him to investigate every little detail of Kenobi's escape from Utapau, perhaps even to the features of the ship he used?
On the topic of the 501st making mistakes during the second half of the campaign, I think this is more of a commentary on the Empire as a whole and its over-reach rather than the 501st exclusively. The 501st's real life equivalent is something similar to the Navy Seals. They're called in for serious missions because they're the most elite unit the Empire has to offer, for when normal units cannot complete the mission. The 501st are more the glue holding the Empire together from any further damage, rather than the 501st being another part of the Empire's inefficiency. Of course, using the 501st as a crutch perpetually to get themselves out of trouble is one of the reasons the Empire themselves eventually fell when even they cannot get the job done. As for the Death Star mission, the 501st did get complacent in allowing it to happen. But had that been any other detachment, I could have easily seen more Rebels escaping. Bear in mind the sheer size of the Death Star, and the fact that the 501st is not a massive detachment, especially with numbers lost over the years, and I could easily see the Rebels gaining control of weaker parts of the station.
I agree, I should have made it more clear that I was talking about the Empire as a whole. But the 501st show that even their very best aren't performing well
On the bit about Aayla Secura, about not looking her in the eye, I think this line extraordinarily speaks to the deceit of the clones due to their moral corruption as you've pointed out. But there's a sense of immaturity to it, to me at least. They can't look her in the eye almost in the same way that a 9 year old can't look their parent in the eye when they do something for them. Something they feel they could have done on their own. I sense so much resentment from the clones after this level, it's almost as if they realize who exactly they've been speaking of favorably but could also possibly be questioning their own moral corruption itself. They broach asking themselves why killing the Jedi might be wrong through Aayla, but they remember only their loyalty to Palpatine and the coming empire. I think the clones' foresight is actually much further than Order 66, even during the war, it becomes more obvious as the campaign goes on, but even in the moments of the clone war, i believe they know the full extent of what's coming: Order 66, a new empire, the death star, all of it. The horrors of Felucia were made easier by someone they'd been undermining, someone they were going to eliminate completely, and I just think that the clones ultimately despise the Jedi so much that they wish or maybe even believe they could have persisted through Felucia without Aayla's help and vitality. They're not only disgusted with her, they're disgusted by the notion of putting trust in someone other than Palpatine. They're resentful as any soldier would be, but they're resentful of the wrong people, the wrong ideals. In a way, it's quite tragic, because again, they see and experience this kindness given to them with no expectation, something that would likely not be given to them by anyone else, not Palpatine, not the Kaminoans, and they can't stomach the fact that they might be wrong. They dissociate to self-justify their own impending wrongdoings. I think this is briefly touched upon again before Knightfall, where they talk about whispers or inner thoughts of self-questioning the act of killing the Jedi, but ultimately remain silent and let loyalty to Imperialism take over completely. Idk if I'm quite right about that, but after a lot of reflection on that level and it actually being one of my favorites in the campaign, I thought I'd chip in my own two cents!
This retrospective has given me a new appreciation for the Original Clones. The Temura Morrison Clones are... Different. First of all, I want to point out the fact that they are still human. I see a lot of people saying these Clones are only living weapons and nothing else. And while that's mostly true, that's only a half-truth. Over the course of the campaign, we see the Clones exhibit all kinds of emotions. Trauma, after surviving the crucible of Geonosis, deception of the Jedi and even disgust of them, fear for the monsters and horrors of Felucia and respect for Aayla Secura, ironically enough, racism towards the Wookies and then eventually respect for them as well. And while it was nowhere near to the extent of the modern Clones, I always felt like there was regret for Order 66. In the final Utapau entry, the Clone says that it was normally a time for celebration, and that their next orders put pain to those thoughts. Then in the famous Coruscant entry, the Clone says that they remained silent when they stormed the Jedi temple, and that even if they had private, traitorous thoughts, that they didn't say a word. Now I know these Clones didn't like the Jedi, and in fact _wanted_ to kill most of them, but I always felt like the line about traitorous thoughts was implying that the speaker did, indeed, have them, only they refused to act on them, and carried out orders. And, do I need to explain the celebration line? If they hated the Jedi, Order 66 would have been a perfect time of celebration. Unless there's more to the story than they let on... And there's more emotions in the Rise of Empire, too. Mostly anger though, with Gizor Delso and the reformed droid army, the reformed clone army, then the Rebellion as well as Princess Leia. But weirdly enough, there's also some existential dread... (or at least, that's how I saw it) when the Clones talk about Kamino in the deleted journal entry. They asked what they done to upset their creators, asking if they had failed them in some way. Then the voice trails off, and decides it doesn't matter, and continues talking about the mission. The intro only lasted seconds, but just listen to the conflict and emotions in the Clone's voice... It's one of the most emotional clips of the entire 501st Journal. And then, of course, there's the bone-chilling line of killing an enemy who, in their eyes is like their own cousins, who scream with their very same voice when they die. Originally, I had the same opinion, that these Clones are just emotionless servants of Palpatine, but that's really not true. While they don't have the depth of the Clone Wars interpretation, there's still a lot of depth to be had in the Clones. On a side note though, I don't think the campaign could have taken place with the modern interpretation of Clones. The idea that it's actually multiple Clones is such a great idea, and probably couldn't exist in the current canon simply because of how nuanced the new Clones are. I mean, look at the Bad Batch. Dee Bradley Baker has such a range of voices and emotions that each separate Clone would have been distinct from each other, and there wouldn't be the interesting ambiguity of the canon voice that leaves you wondering if it really is one Clone, and how many times the voice changes over the course of the war. By the way, I like this Retrospective a lot. As for the ending, I always thought that the accelerated aging finally caught up to the clones in a dangerous way and the speaker either died of old age, or was forced to retire due to being physically incapable of fighting. I do agree that they wouldn't go down without a fight and just calmly leave the Empire, but being old comes with a whole list of potential reasons the Clones signed off early. The first, like I said, is old age. Then you have muscle failure, which would prevent them from even being able to hold their blaster, let alone shoot rebels with it. At that point, they'd probably rather die than be deadweight for the Empire's military accomplishing nothing and injuring themselves even more in the process. And then there's dementia, which would prevent them from being able to add new journals in the first place. Plus, you have to remember that there was only two-thirds of half of the 501st at this point. Plus, I love the idea of it being old age for a few reasons. First of all, it's an honorable death. The Clones died peacefully, having disassembled the Republic themselves and building an Empire to take its place, and they could finally rest after all their hard work. Second, it's more of that dramatic irony that works so well in the Clone Wars. If the last of the Clones did die before the Battle of Endor, it also fits that Chinese proverb mentioned in the video. The last of the Clones die- bad luck. They don't survive to see the fall of the Empire they built- good luck. And what really makes it even worse is that maybe the tragedy of the Second Death Star could've been prevented were the fighting men of the 501st there. It's such a fitting end for what is essentially villain protagonists. It's bittersweet, because they got punished for their numerous crimes, both in being unable to partake in the Battle of Endor, and also in potentially having been able to save the Empire, but being unable to due to succumbing to old age. Yet, their death isn't entirely without dignity. They lived glorious lives, and they could at last lay down their weapons, believing that they already won... While not being around long enough to know the truth. That's my interpretation, anyway. They likely were still kicking if they were only 70 at this point, but this is just my headcanon and my thoughts.
The narration really makes the campaign. Incredibly written and incredibly acted. I've heard that Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmond were holding up the Prequel trilogy with their performances, but after playing Battlefront 2, Republic Commando, and Bounty Hunter I think Temuera Morrison stands alongside them in that respect. Jango Fett was awesome, and the games Morrison lent his voice to that came out during the Prequel era really grounded it and made it feel real. His gravelly gravitas lets you experience the universe from the ground instead of the more fantastical viewpoint of the Jedi/Sith conflict. Whether you're playing Jango Fett, RC 1138/Boss, or a nameless trooper, you're just one poor shmuck (In more ways on than one) who got caught up in this ageless war between two factions. And it humanizes both of them, too, by letting you see the Empire from the inside after fighting for the Republic during the Clone Wars. Such good stuff.
27:09 It is canonically cited that, for what many looked like an excessive portrayal of brutality, was a choice made by commander Bly to make sure she did not suffer when a day he hoped would never come eventually did
58:30 I think this is an example of "You cant kill an idea." Showing that the republic and the Jedi can return in the way Obiwan said to Vader in A new Hope. "Strike me down and I will return more powerful then before." The Jedi as an order are brought together out of a common understanding of how to wield the force. Even the most ruthless of repression wont get them all or stop them from rebuilding.
Jesus I was just thinking about this video and star wars this morning. It's interesting that as a whole we really love the clones, they're very sympathetic, even when they are put in bad guy roles. Even all throughout the clone wars series they are really relatable characters. I wonder if that ties into having played these games as these clones and come to put ourselves in their role so often we almost see ourselves as these clones. It struck me a lot when you talked about how this game really makes us play as the platonic clone as opposed to to being one individual dude throughout the whole story. This was a really well done video.
Just want to say thanks for this. You provided the most in-depth retrospective I've ever heard on one of my favorite all time games better than anyone else. Kudos!
excellent video of my favorite battlefront game, probably my favorite star wars game, one of my favorite games of all time and the game i've probably played more than anything else. Loved this mode, tied with galactic conquest for my favorite mode. You really did it justice and put out probably the best video on the subject easily. Many success in your future and past videos.
The reason there was no endorsement mission was because the logs were more of a retrospective on what the troops went through. But they lost, they died. There was no one to make that final log, no one left of the 501st. Pretty depressing to think about but a nice touch
I'm barely into the mygeeto mission and I like what the writers did with palatine and the clones as a whole, having them act as his own SS in a way, even before the imperial take over
I also think there's an interesting poetic irony on why there's no Endor mission. Back during the Kashyyk mission, the soldier recounts how the only way he thought he was getting off it was in a body bag. Then, with the aid of the ingenuity of the Wookies and Master Yoda, breeding a newfound resoect for the former, they turn the tide, their hope alongside their iron will prevailed. Cut to Endor, the complacency set in and at their most incompetent, they refuse to see the primitive nature of the Ewoks as a threat or worth subjugating. In the end, they lose, their will diminished by the years of complacency, leading to them getting off a second forest planet, now fittingly as their drive to fight had flickered, in a body bag. Probably not planned, but the parallels are stunningly poignant.
I keep wondering how a 20 yr old game keeps holding up, and as far as I'm concerned has never been surpassed. The amount of content with a story, intergalactic conquest, instant action split screen sandbox with hunt, conquest, two mode capture the flag, hero mode has kept me and my friends entertained to this day.
Something horrifying I noticed, is that during Knightfall, there are seemingly random spawn points for the Jedi once you enter their vicinity, almost like they were ambushing you…or hiding from you
A counterpoint to playing as Boba on Kamino. He's a clone too. He just wasn't a GAR/Imp clone. On a completely different not but a few months ago I realized that the clone army are also Mandalorian more or less. Really made me think. And also it being kinda fitting they enacted the end of the Jedi. Also makes you wonder that if Boba is working with the empire to this degree they didn't need Jango's DNA as Boba is a one to one clone of him. Unless there's a lore reason they couldn't use his DNA instead.
I know this video is far from perfect (especially with mic issues), but I wanted to say thank you to all of you guys who watched this video! It has probably been the biggest project I've worked on for this channel so far, and the response has been encouraging and humbling. Thank you guys for watching this and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did making it
How to gain 50k followers in 6 months... see you there 😘🍻
Do more of this my boy
I feel like your style would also suit Republic Commando, just a thought tho
@Honkey Kong I've had a couple people recommend I do that game. And I might, but Force Unleashed would probably be the next game I did a video like this on
@@ciudad1696
Fair answer
“Gathered an army large enough to capture 2 star systems”
*starts with 15 men*
That’s about all I ever remember from the utapau mission
3 star systems, now they can be divided equally.
The most skilled five men in each of the star systems
Same, lol.
In all seriousness, this is likely due to in-game limitations. Realistically, the 7th Sky Corps was like 36,864 troops, or sixteen regiments. In addition to multiple infantry battalions, which included the infamous 212th. However, IMO three divisions is still a little light for capturing several star systems, hell I doubt they could even fully secure one with those numbers.
@@Helos743 I mean sure game limitations for the whole mission, I just mean for the first objective you get like less than 20 dudes in reinforcements
Writing this at the Polis Massa segment, I will always remember this map. Not from the campaign, but a Galactic Conquest my brother and I played together. We always hated Polis with how cramped it was, but one battle qas one we have always considered legendary, even almost 20 years later.
We were getting crushed, and eventually it was just the two of us against over 60 AI. So we regrouped at one cap point and just held out, and after ten minutes of fighting we won by killing the remaining enemies. We've always considered that one of our crowning moments
Nice! I'd say that's a pretty epic victory. Again, as great as the story is, it's the little parts of gameplay like that which really make this game great
That’s awesome. 👍
Well crap, as a BF2 vet I do too. Legendary!
damn, my favorite map
I remember my greatest moment. It was a Galactic Conquest and I was playing the Empire and the Rebels had just launched an attack on Endor. 2/3rd's of the way through the battle I realized I was the only Imperial left and still had roughly 30 rebel soldiers on the map. Somehow someway I ended up killing them all and winning the day. I celebrated quite thoroughly after that, and I imagined Lord Vader coming down in his shuttle with reinforcements just to find my trooper sitting on a downed tree in front of the shield bunker surrounded by dead rebels and him being mildly impressed I had survived.
The real reason for not including Ep6 in the scripted campaign is to guide you right into the Galactic Conquest mode, where you can decide the ending yourself and which puts all the skills learned throughout the campaign to use.
I always thought they had been playing off that the trooper was killed along with the rest of the 501st at the battle of Endor. And thus, was never able to put in what his experience on Endor.
@@4bedStudiosIsn’t he called a retired clone in the credits or something? I just imagined he had retired before Endor.
Never thought about it from that perspective.
He retired after hoth
@@GummyKermit If that was the case, then he'd give it some sort of mention. I still haven't seen any explanation that would be more logical than mine.
“What I remember about the rise of the Empire…was how quiet it was. During the waning hours of the Clone Wars, the 501st was discreetly transferred back to Coruscant. It was a silent trip. We knew what was about to happen and what we were about to do. Did we have any doubt? Any private and traitorous thoughts? Perhaps, but no one said a word. Not on the flight to Coruscant, not when Order 66 went down and not when we marched into the Jedi Temple. Not a word.”
“Tonight the fall of the Jedi is at hand. we have been contacted by the highest authority to wipe out the insurgent Jedi Yoda that threatens our great empire. Lord Vader is our field commander. So keep the Jedi low, and move out!”
Last time I played this game I had a very basic understanding of English.
Sure would be an experience playing it again today.
I miss coming up myself with what was going on based on the scenes music and the tone.
@@CT-5153 "keep the low, and move out!" I think is what he says
keep the *chatter low
It's scarier in Legends than Canon imo, because in the latter the Clones were brain-swapped against their will. There is a tragedy to that itself but Legends felt far darker, having men who cared, respected and followed the Jedi go through with a contingency order none of them wanted yet were fully expected to commit to if called.
I definitely think they "couldn't look her in the eyes" because they knew order 66 was coming. A lot of these journals seem to imply the clones knew it was going to happen ahead of time which makes them very different from the clones we see in the clone wars with the inhibitor chips. It's Interesting to think that these clones had full awareness and actively obeyed order 66. It makes them seem a lot colder and more like weapons used by palpatine and not actual people.
A book for Episode III was released alongside the movie (roughly), where the clones obeyed order 66 without question because they obeyed any order without question due to mental conditioning. The Jedi didn't feel it coming because the order was carried out without malice or hatred on the clones part. I liked that explanation more, but oh well clone wars.
@@lq4322 yeah, clone wars was kinda forced into doing the inhibitor chips since it humanized the clones so much and they built relationships with other characters. It wouldn't make sense for Rex to betray Ahsoka just because he was following orders. Both have their merits so it's really up to personal preference. I liked seeing the clones' individuality in the clone wars and so the inhibitor chips fit more to me.
@@lq4322 could have easily been a chip in their brain that conditioned them to follow orders, or did you not consider that?
@@S1rEmber I much prefer the older explanation. It made it clear that whatever training, whatever conditioning the Clones had, it was them that chose to pull the trigger. I love the way Battlefront II describes the silent misgivings the clones all had. I love the way the Republic Commando novels showed how certain independent minded clones, who were already forming families and becoming Mandalorian, said screw it to Order 66 because they saw no reason to show loyalty to this new Empire. The old canon worked, because every clone had to make that decision whether to follow orders or not, just like in real life. Someone who you might consider "good" or "a friend" will still turn on you when it's considered convenient or an authority figure tells them to. That reflects real life, and it's also the intention Episode III is written with, emphasizing Cody's friendship with Obi Wan before he shoots him down.
The modern, Disney/Feloni interpretation is that a dastardly evil villain, mind controlled all the good people into doing evil. Literally. There's no thematic depth, no parallel to real life, and nothing to take out of it. It's hard to say anything is "too hokey" for Star Wars, but a plot point like that borders on it, and definitely runs against Lucas' theming of so many being complicit in the rise of the Empire.
@@S1rEmber That's basically what happened in old canon though. Clones that had close relationships with jedi basically disobeyed the order and refused to kill jedi or let them escape.
A Clone pilot having spent weeks recovering from injuries with a scavenger who was hiding jedi younglings. When clone troops arrived to pick up the pilot, he kept the younglings secret and never turned them over, because he formed a close relationship with them
Omega Squad refused to follow order 66 and even abandoned the empire because one of their members had fallen in love with a jedi
I'd fully believe that Rex refused to follow order 66 and attack Ahsoka, even without the inhibitor chips. In fact, he actually technically did betray and try to kill her.
1:17:21 I think the use Boba for this mission for one major reason. He’s just as much invested as any other clone. He is one. And not only one, it’s his fathers genetics too.
Like they say at the start, he has a intensive knowledge of the place and they are using him as a strike leader/guide for it to help them complete this objective completely.
So it makes sense playing Boba Fett at the start, as not only are you a Clone too, your the primary clone guiding the attack on into the facility to destroy it. You are the guide to the others.
He is a mercenary after all
Also a mernecary.
That's why he doesn't mind technically turning on his own.
Also seems implied that although the first time we see him is when Vader hired him. Later it seems that they wrote it as in Boba being the Empire's go to unofficial agent.
the virgin queen of naboo vs the chad hover tank is basically what happened on my playthrough of swbf2 safe to say the queen is in a better place now
The first night I got the game my cousin and I were co-op playing the campaign. For whatever reason, when it came to the part of the mission to kill the Queen, we failed right as we were attacking her. I was piloting the hover tank while he was gunning the top gun. When the mission failed script popped up he managed to killer her, which overwrote the failure and we won. We had a loud high-five after a couple “Woo-hoo”s.
Hard to feel bad after having to face the jedis.
I always go on foot though. Gives it more weight.
I always read the “couldn’t look her in the eyes” comment as a mix of shame and sadness.
Not only did she save the 501st from being wiped out and helped keep them going during the fighting, she had personally come to see them and thank them. It wasn’t just the fact that she helped them, but that she was still able to then turn around and acknowledge the brave fighting they had done.
Here was their savior, the one they knew would be betrayed eventually, coming and thanking them and congratulating them on their brave fighting.
When I first played the game, I was about 9 or 10 and paid almost 0 attention to the story. I listened but didn't care. That line always stuck with me and I don't think I understood why for a few more years.
the one wrinkle i find here is does it imply that they knew even then about killing the jedi? because they shouldn't order 66 officially occurs because the jedi betrayed them and the republic no?
There is EU/Legends lore about the list of orders mentally conditioned into the Clones during training... but I picked up somewhere, either 'Republic Commando' special features or UA-cam videos (EU lore at least) Jango is supposed to know the intent of wiping out the Jedi with Order 66 (being hired by Dooku/Palpatine) and he passes on a particular song in the Mandalorian Language -
the main theme of Republic Commando - idk what other Mandalorian culture/history Jango passed on to reinforce mental conditioning with the Mandalorian rivalry with Jedi
I have played 'Republic Commando' & 'Battlefront II' - I intend to read Republic Commando novels. For myself, someday.
Something that Battlefront 2 OG does exceptionally well imo is representing the hatred between the Imperials and the Rebels, partly from what can be observed from context but mostly due to how well it submerges you in the rivalry from the antagonists side of all things, we all want to root for the rebellion by default but when we're placed solely in the Empires POV and we're subjected to all the hardship that the steady snowball of the rebellion builds to, it's hard not to become engrossed, not that it's some super deep dive into the human psyche, but it's amazing how the game can so quickly push you into enacting a power/revenge fantasy directed against the heroes of the story.
One simple, small but crucial detail that sells it all that I don't see anyone talk about or even seem to notice, is that the AI of the civil war era exclusively for both Imperials and Rebels will occasionally swap to their blasters after a kill, run over to the corpse and start viscously "mag dumping" it as it were, shouting things like "Don't get up! Stay dead! Rebel scum! Filthy traitor..." as they do so, this never occurs in the Clone Wars era and it's an awfully gruesome detail to include that's indicative of the overall tone of the era, the Clone Wars may have been a far more brutal wide spanning war but end of the day it was all just a matter of efficiency and logistics, one manufactured disposable army against another, the Empire and the galactic civil war on the other hand stood to bring out the worst human qualities among everyone that was a player in it.
I'm glad Star Wars has games like Battlefront 2 and Republic Commando, while the movies and shows prefer to focus on the ever feuding big pictures of the Jedi and Sith whose visions and presence are so far above and beyond the realm of relatability and understanding, the games, books and novels all offer a window into the smaller pictures that make up their "big picture" their "utopia"... And each small picture is likely someones story getting cut short, fighting and dying in a bloody filth filled trench.
Minor correction! Only rebel troops will shoot dead enemies. Stormtroopers never do this.
@@PlayMadness Really? I could've sworn i've seen stormtroopers do it too.
For me, this game has the best representation of Order 66. No inhibitor chip that turns clones into mindless killing machines, just loyal soldiers who know which is their ultimate goal. Others may disagree, but I feel this approach is more interesting.
The inhibitor chips were an awful idea. Filoni was so eager to humanize the clones that he forgot what they really were. They were bred for loyalty to Palpatine under the guise of loyalty to the Republic. Some developed more of a personality, some became friends with their Jedi commanders and some even resisted Order 66. But the masses weren't forced to commit the atrocities because a switch was flipped that made them into zombies. They knew their purpose and carried it out, without the burden of sentimentality or guilt.
Cannot deny the highest commander
I like to think the clone narrator served on Umbarra and endured the Pong Krell massacre and became incredibly spiteful and weary of any and all Jedi throughout the war. When the inhibitor chip activated, it already triggered the feelings he was feeling and through hindsight after Hoth he feels vindicated in his beliefs, from his certain point of view. Very nuanced head canon but I think its a nice blend of EU and Disney Canon.
Their life _is_ service. Inhibitor chips are stoooopid
The more they make SW; the more they ruin it, without even realising how or why
It is SO much more interesting. It makes the clones far more morally complex and interesting, and it makes Palpatine seem even more intelligent for knowing that the clones would ultimately obey him. The inhibitor chips remove so much about the clones that I find interesting. I guess it makes them more tragic, but I think their absence makes the clones far more insidious.
Fun fact about the training mission: If you decline being Windu in the tutorial….you soft lock yourself and cannot progress in the mission because the hero objective is required to progress. You can still leave the game via pause menu, but the mission will not progress and never end.
Nope! If you go to a command point and manually switch class, Windu will be available!
@@TheChessicfaythNope! I have myself had this soft lock!
Regarding Vader's command about stealing a strike bomber:
I always assumed that Vader, with his background as "Anakin the pilot", was interested in this type of ship for some sort of personal collection, because it was a type of ship that General Grievous used at some point. Grievous was killed by Anakin's old master, Obi-Wan, so maybe it was another way for Vader to claim victory over his old friend and teacher, whom he now hates with a passion.
Here’s another interesting possibility that I recently came up with: the strike bomber we steal is in fact Grievous’ old ship, and Vader wanted it so he could have access to the comms logs because he was searching for kenobi and retracing his steps prior to their battle at Mustafar
I think in RotS the reason the clones shot Aalay so many times, was to make sure she died quickly and didn't suffer.
I've heard it was because the 327th throughout the war suffered high casualties and were sent to inhospitable worlds such as felucia and eventually felt like she wasn't looking out for them
It’s cuz she was the only jedi who was dtf but wouldn’t put out for them
Euthanizing someone "humanely" has the connotation of lethal injection or something equivalent, but really the "humane" part mostly comes out of respect and care for friends and family who would be burying them after, if you want to get down to the gritty fact of it all though a "humane and painless/quick" death really just comes down to rendering the body as destroyed and inoperable as quickly as possible, it's grisly to think about, but getting insta-gibbed (by, say, a battalion of clones all mag dumping their high powered blaster rifles into you) while caught unaware can be just as humane an end as anything else... It's whoever's around to bare-witness to the aftermath that it's truly inhumane to-
@@joshman35 but she and Bly were super tight. She actually respected him as a person and not just a soldier. In the old comics it shows their relationship very well imo. I think it would just have to be the clones being brainless killing machines that were not supposed to have empathy or morals for others outside the republic.
@@LivelyGhost42
Honestly completely understandable for the clones to react the way they did in this case. I wouldve done the same
49:00 the clones are defending and capturing Jedi knowledge, first yes it's a direct order, but second you have to understand that the order predates the galactic republic itself (more than 25.000 years), the Jedi archives contain literal thousands of generations of knowledge and wisdom, knowledge shared only in the order, knowledge that palpatine wants to have, with that precedent and well placed propaganda, the Jedi order actually seemed suspicious and treacherous at the eyes of the public...
Okay yeah, that's a good way to look at it
Plus the Jedi want to destroy the archives for their knowledge won't fall in the wrong hands. It's crazy how order 66 it's such a complete victory for the sith.
The Jedi order has been around about as long as the republic. They've got a lot of knowledge accumulated that the Republic may have lost for one reason or another. Palpatine likely wants access to them for any ancient sith knowledge or general information on the force. Or the hyperspace charts
@@theliato3809 Yeah I just said that
"Its just not very satisfying from a gameplay perspective to end on a loss"
Halo Reach: "hold my plasma grenade"
True, but Halo Reach did it in the most badass way possible
@@ciudad1696 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) "Catch this knife."
I love the clonewars. But I prefer this interpretation more
“When the enemy screams in your voice” that gave me goosebumps
I kinda headcannon them together tbh, love both tho
@@kadegetslaid634 I do the same. But I’d I had to get rid of one and keep the other I’m definitely keeping Rise of the Empire
@RampidWarthogStudios I totally respect that, it's a great interpretation
1:06:06 I think the point of the “pointless” stealing of the CIS “bomber” objective is that the ship you are told to recover is the same model as General Grievous’ personal starship. Perhaps Vader wanted you to salvage one for him so that he could add it to his own personal collection. He is a pilot by nature, and this is probably showing his still innate love of flying. The order also still plays into the pointlessness of most of the orders the clones receive throughout the campaign. Risk your life to add a new toy to someone’s collection.
Small correction, Inhibitor Chips were not present in Legends. Instead they received genetic modifications to make them more docile and compliant.
Technically, you're both right. Original EU, including the point when this game was made, there were no inhibitor chips. However, TCW retconned this. Because for some reason Disney decided to make TCW canon to both Disney-canon AND Legends. Ignoring TCW and solely focusing on the Clone Wars Multimedia Project, however, this is correct.
@@alligatorboy2000 Yeah, it is a bit of a gray zone. However given he was talking about BF2 which came out long before TCW Season 6 did, he is clearly implying the old canon before TCW was even a thing.
I think the bit with Aayla is a mix of both. The men likely knew what was coming and because they had such a high opinion of her, they were ashamed to be appraised by her. She trusted them completely, had absolute faith in them, and that good will was met with blaster fire to the back.
So the 501st dissociated from her. It probably made her death slightly easier to swallow. The sacking of the Jedi Temple also provided a good distraction. So long as they were fighting, they didn't have to think about it too much.
Though at least they hoped her death would be quick as she had earned that much.
A lot of people don't really notice this but it has stuck with me for years since someone pointed it out: in episode 3 when the clones draw their guns on Aayla she first looks behind her as she has total trust in the clones and then looks around in confusion being no threat behind her before she is gunned down. Hearing her characterized in those audio logs while knowing that scene so vividly and how well the actress portrays that moment of trust being shattered is very moving.
It's also commonly excepted at least within the legends community that the reason Bly and the 327th kept firing was to ensure that it was quick, with the amount of blaster fire she was most certainly dead and not slowly bleeding out. Ultimately it was a merciful and quick albeit violent death.
The clone rebellion on Kamino not being recanonized is an unforgivable tragedy.
The Bad Batch was clearly building up to it, but then Filoni pulled a switcheroo.
Filoni hoed it. it was much better on BF2
I just now recently played the Knightfall level and I play it in first person. That first moment when the Jedi descend from the ceiling and they are running towards you and you shoot them and they deflect your lasers feel straight out of a horror movie. I appreciate this video so much because it really does show how the developers got into the heads of the clones, seeing the Jedi as the enemy. They really make the Jedi feel like the enemy! Amazing!
1:06:05
I like to think that Vader's order is because that class of ship was used by Obi-Wan to escape Utapau. What if he's after it for it's flight recorder in order to find out where Kenobi has been?
Its funny, thats the only reason I came up with and I almost included that theory in this video
it could also be for some sort of false flag attack to justify almost blowing up the planet
For the eye contact thing, as a vet I could shed some light. While not being fortunate enough to not go into combat it still feels weird and undeserved when the combat veteran complements the new guys work, cause that entire time I was focusing on not messing things up beyond recovery more than getting it done right so having the guy who gives the impression everything went to plan makes you feel inferior because you feel like you were a coward barely keeping it together.
But here's the crazy part, that hero who complements you was feeling the exact same way but kept the appearance because if they crack everyone else breaks.
1:46:00
To be honest, I think "Pilots, if they are allowed to make the jump to hyperspace, they'll rip right through us. Clear their fighters out and be quick about it. We haven't any time to spare." can be interpreted in a number of ways. Certainly you can interpret it as a version of the Holdo Maneuver, but given earlier the commander says "The rebels are attempting to send their forces off to wreak havoc in other parts of our galaxy. Destroy them." you can also interpret as simply the Rebel fleet being able to get past the current Imperial fleet to start attacking targets elsewhere. It’s really the “rip right through us” that’s the only thing interpreting it as the Holdo Maneuver, and again, “rip right through” can also mean getting past them.
So the vague statement combined with the context of the prior statements being about how the Rebel fleet escaping can cause problems elsewhere and the fact that you don’t actually see it performed is probably why people didn’t care about it in Battlefront 2 but did in The Last Jedi. Hell, the fact that you initially didn’t think of it even when trying to remember this mission is testament that it certainly wasn’t as explicit as in The Last Jedi.
The concept of using lightspeed to ram a ship straight through an entire fleet is such an horrendous idea that makes you question pretty much every battle in the entire saga.
Why bother sending hundreds of capital ships and fighters to combat the Separatist fleet when you can just lightspeed ram a single ship straight through them all? Why bother needing the Death Star plans and sending fighters to exploit its weakness when you can just sacrifice a single astromech and a X-wing to ram straight through its core?
@@shadow-squid4872 They tired to paper it over by saying in Rise Of Palpatine that it was 1 in 1,000,000 chance but the damage was already done.
@@muigokublack6487 They didn’t say that, they said the hyperspace ram was a one-in-a-million chance to patch up with how the concept of hyperspace ramming completely ruins every single battle that happens before it
@@shadow-squid4872 That is LITERALLY what I just said.
"Let's get some ship in the air, pull some Holdo Maneuvers."
"That was a 1 in a 1,000,000 shot."
It also made the previous film look even worse because if it was a 1 in a 1,000,000 chance then it means she WAS trying to run away!
@@muigokublack6487 Oops my bad, you called the film “Rise of Palpatine” and when I first read it I thought you meant something like Palpatine coming back was a one in a million chance
This video is a masterpiece inb4 it blows up
Let's see if it'll blow up more now that Classic battlefront collection has been announced
i love how much the maps in this game are shaped to accurately reflect all the movie setpieces as well as they reasonably could. It helps immerse you into feeling like you're fighting through a lot of the major battles shown in the movies and fleshing out the lesser shown ones such as the ones of the Order 66 montage.
I think the reason Utapau feels so bland is because it’s the mission they use in the demo for ground combat for Bf2. The Coruscant space battle was the demo space battle mission and you can see remnants for the early build of bf2 in the journal log, the shield airlocks on the ships were color coded in the journal video and the demo had the same color coded shields.
Edit: a day later and I am watching your iceberg video and I’m realizing that you already knew about this lol 😂
While the plot with the inhibitor chips is good, I also love the take that the clones were in on order 66 too. An entire ARMY ready to betray them sat under the jedi's noses, and makes you wonder if their loyalty or friendship was genuine
i like to think even the clones themselves aren't sure of their motivations or loyalties, they're thrust into a war not knowing much about it or anything else but fighting and told "shoot them" so they do. As they develop relationships with eachother and their commanders the situation changes they're told there are traitors afoot yes their potentially (though not universally) beloved jedi generals the clones must be shocked! it can't be, you to me? all i've done is fight for you, how? oh no time to think war demands action, and this was always a possibility, default to before you started to have these complicated feelings, do what you know. follow orders, it's what good soldiers do.
My guess for the "steal an enemy fighter" mission in the Space Mustafar level was that Vader, deep down, was still a pilot at heart, and was interested in getting his hands on one of those starfighters. After all Grievous used one to great effect during the Clone Wars, even evading him on a few occasions. Perhaps it was one of his few personal things he wanted to do. Especially if all the CIS equipment was gonna be lost to time.
i always saw it as wanting to study the bomber, see how it works and potentially incorporate aspects of it into the next generation of starfighters or something along those lines, perhaps leading to the "tie advanced" series
1:19:16 That is what was needed in Bad Batch. An excuse to replace the clones with conscriptions. Because as it is the clone enforced Order 66 and were a trained and competent military force. Then all of a sudden they need to be replaced instantly. It took 10 years to raise the Clone Army. It should of been a slow process of including consrpits and changing the miliatry. We should of gotten a Clone rebellion in Bad Batch, but who knows we still have time in season 3.
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
I love how the stormtrooper says that it was hard killing their brothers that betrayed the empire , you can feel the pain and the sadness in his voice .
This was the first shooter I played with neighborhood friends on split screen as a kid. This and galactic conquest had me completely hooked along with custom game 2 on 2 space battles between star destroyers, was a different time.
I always considered Imperial Diplomacy-Changing of The Guard the “Tying Up Loose Ends.” Arc.
Funny enough it kinda mirrors the prequel trilogy in terms of location and factions, just ends differently in two of the situations and by another assailant in the last
Naboo- The Guard and The Jedi fighting an invading force and ultimately losing
Kamino- Another Clone Army is created to fight a war that never gets to begin
Mustafar- The Separatists regroup, what’s left at least, but are finally smothered for good by the 501st rather than Lord Vader
It’s honestly an incredibly interesting set of missions
And honestly I just figured he was referring to another smuggler rather than Han, but I could also see the developers just not realizing until the game was already out
I always thought of it like real ships in the pirate days, they were all wooden, but if you ram a ship in the side with your front, you might take damage, but you’ll still be sailing while the other guy is critically damaged if not sinking
@@brianfluu133I think you replied to the wrong comment
My take on the Han solo part is when does han dump the cargo when leaving kessel. That event could have happened and jabba sent boba fett to find Han and bring him in for a little chat which we see in the added scene in a new hope. Where jabba warns Han what will happen if he is not paid back.
Great video! My favorites have got to be Operation Knightfall, but also the Mustafar showdown in space and on the planet surface. The staunchest Separatists making their stand against the full might of the Galactic Empire, giving the clones and new human stormtroopers a run for their money. For the clones themselves, it's a personal struggle between the nostalgia and nightmare...
I always thought the journal was a unit journal written by the the entire unit and revised with hindsight after the war(s). Most real world military units have one to record the history of the unit.
43:14 love how the instant you say "forgettable levels in the campaign" the most iconic line gets said in the background mid sentence, love this review man this game was many people's childhoods and at least for me my first multiplayer experience.
THEY’VE BREACHED THE SEA WALL! BRACE YOURSELVES!
Wish I’d had this sort of insight years ago. During one of my later years of high-school, whilst we were studying World War I, we were tasked on doing a project reflecting of British soldiers life during the war. Many opted to create simple journals, others recreated care packages. I on the other hand created a video inspired by the 501st Journal, using footage that I deemed relevant off UA-cam, narrated by myself on a Corsair gaming headset, along with the dialogue removed from the journal entries using rudimentary online tools (I think this was around 2016) to serve as my background music. I’m sure if I were to watch it now, it would be an utter disgrace to both actual soldiers, and the source material I took inspiration from. But at least my teacher was impressed. I hand delivered it on a DVD I burned. I never did get it back.
As a kid I hated going back to Kamino and fighting the anti clones. The clones were always so amazing to me and having to snuff them out with the 501st was sacrilege. I always like to imagine that a number of Kaminoans and Anti clones escaped and started building another clone army along side the escaped jedi.
So many potential unique stories to be told from the perspective of genetically identical brothers. I hope we get to see another view like this in the future.
the real reason for not including Episode 6 is because they changed history in the last mission. In Episode 5 all 2 freighters managed to escape. In the game the second freighter was destroyed which led to the defeat of the rebellion. It is just an alternate ending.
So with Boba Fett it's likely a reference to the Legends book that is based on the clone rebellion. He helps put down the rebellion, sees the DNA data, and destroys it to let his father's legacy rest. Plus if I recall it's how he learned that he himself is a clone.
Amazing video dude! I really loved hearing your perspective on this game, as a kid I always liked the dark undertones the story had. Even to this day i still go back and play the OG BF2 over the EA version. I subscribed man, I hope you can do more of these in the future! 😁
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, it's nice knowing someone liked my rambling. And yeah, I'm hoping to do some more similar type stuff in them, but who knows when that will be
I can't wait till March 14th to play this again, it's the one game from my child hood I was absolutely addicted to, 14th can't come quick enough lol
A brilliant analysis for a brilliant game. Almost every analysis video of this game seems to hit it out of the park, but I think this one goes above and beyond in exploring the psychological implications of what the campaign entails. Absolutely outstanding.
Man, Aayla Secura is so cool. I loved using her in this game, the dual lightsabers felt ridiculously strong and made it easy to mow down groups. The writing around her and the 501st was so good, despite how sad it is - the 501st knowing how their relationship will end, and not wanting to look her in the eyes out of shame (or in an effort to prevent that shame, in some small way).
It’s 347 AM at the time of finishing this thank you for the video
Commander Bly was a good commander. A commander who daw the big picture. A commander who deeply loved and respected his general who he had fought for years with. It wasn't hatred that had those bolts going into her after she hit the ground. It was mercy. He knew that this was wide spread and if they botched it she would have died an even worse way. He knew this was the end and he made sure his best friend in the whole republic was put down without suffering. Because its all he could do to save her from that hell that the order was going through
When it comes to Aayla Secura's death, I remember thinking that they were using excessive force, then I played the mission and watched it again, this time after finishing s6 of Clone Wars, and it all made sense.
They know she has to die, they don't want to but they don't have a choice. Once the order was given, they must not fail to produce a corpse. The clone narrator says he hoped when her turn came that it was quick. I think they all did, and they made sure it was the only way they could. Applying so much blaster fire that she'd be lucky to have identifiable DNA after they were done. No surviving by being wounded, no slow lingering death, open fire, and don't stop until she's gone. The closest thing to their free will they could exercise was making sure the commander they respected was killed quickly.
The clones in Legends had free will.
@kingorange7739 but in Cannon, they didn't.
@@alexandercross9081 true
I think it would’ve been cool if they did give us an Endor mission and put a spin on it to where the Empire ended up winning. Vader dies and is replaced with Luke as Palpatine’s apprentice. All the rebel leaders are destroyed. The final boss could even be defeating Han, Leia, and Chewie at the bunker
JFC dude thank you for externalizing all those thoughts I've had about the clones while playing this game 😢
The narration of the campaign is just SO GOOD!
I’ll forever cherish this game
The mention of that glitch made it also iconic where it did confuse us some or irritate but unlike today full on mechanics are broken where this one little timer glitch makes enough of us chuckle because of nostalgia
Remember with the Kamino level that Boba Fett is also their blood brother, he's one of them every bit as much as their comrades and enemies are. Even if he wears a different uniform, they still scream with his voice
I wish og bf2 did a hunt mode for order 66 and mustafar where you played as lord Vader with a few (4-6) 501st troopers and had to kill the Jedi and battle droids/separatist leaders
Your narration is just as good as the games. I really enjoyed this 👍
Sat listening while playing the classic collection
Love it! Worth every minute. You managed to make all two hours of this video engaging and informative. None of it felt wasted, a rarity for a video of this length.
This video was excellent. As a long time BF2 fan, you really nailed everything and cleared up new themes that I didn't think of before. Top tier stuff.
The writing of this game is so good I still find myself looking up videos of the journal entries 15 years later
I always loved this game. I always loved the story too, what little we got. It is so good to see someone analyzing it. Thank you for this!
to be fair, boba fett is a clone as well, just without the accelerated aging genes
Most underrated Video I've ever seen.
In my opinion the objectives of the Imperial-half do fit pretty well, there are no heroic acts to do. Only capture and kill
I hope to see many more Retrospective videos from you dude. These are absolutely the best.
I don't think Ki adi Mundi inclusion in Mygeeto was a narrative mistake, it's explained later in the cut scene that the jedi could be fooled, implying that Mundi knew that they needed those crystals but didn't knew what they needed them for. The clone or clones narrating the 501st journal already knew everything because they are narrating it after everything has already happened, by that point they where already an empire and order 66 has already happened.
The "glitch" with the gunship is typically when you get out there is one soldier left and they become the pilot. Once this happens, after a minute they typically take off and immediately crash. I can't speak for that mission, but that happened all the time when I played galactic conquest or instant action
I like to think that the Morrison narration is him being interrogated or his journal is found by a Rebel Soldier during or after the Battle of Endor.
This was amazing to watch and I, as I assume many others, greatly appreciate your take on this!
Although the campaign is just multiplayer maps with altered rules here and there, the developers, writers, everyone managed to make a fantastic addition to the start wars lore of the time that really shows you a side of star wars you never see and really haven't seen since.
I love everything you had to say, especially the Chinese proverb for the Imperial side of the campaign. You really hit me at the end too. Obviously yes I do know that they couldn't really include endor because it is the last major battle in star wars and the empire loses, but thinking about it for a moment as you did, implying that there is no journal because the narrator has more than likely perished in that fight really made me have a moment to think.
But that's the beauty of this game. As simple as it is, we are here all these years later still discussing our favourite moments and our "OG" Holdo manoeuvres :p
And a big thank you again for taking your time to make this masterpiece :3
I was a beast at that game. Buddy of mine was bitching and moaning how I would Vader choke him and slash him down. He couldn't fight back. So I traded him controllers mid battle and took over the heroes and decimated him with Han Solo. Despite my initial massive lead before I traded controllers I just ripped him apart. He was both massively pissed off but also very impressed. We played a lot after that.
I had such a great time watching this! I can easily tell the deep passion you have for Star Wars and for storytelling. The runtime may be two hours but it felt way shorter. I was hooked from the beginning. Your analysis was thorough, fair, and informed---critical of the shortcomings of the game, but without sacrificing the appreciation for that blissful nostalgia all of us who discovered this game when we were young feel.
I must admit that I got to the Battlefront duology--and to the Star Wars franchise as a whole--rather late some time in 2011. I think I was 13 when I first played BFII. Still, from that moment, over a decade has elapsed, and I sitll remember and get chills from the journal entry after the Mygeeto mission. It stuck with me because of how powerful the narrator´s lines are. I think I will never forget how he says that the mission proved the Jedi could be fooled, and if they could be fooled, they could be killed. I swear that moment alone took my breath. The fact that we as the audience know everything that was about to come from the moment Order 66 went down made that one of the most poignant, thought-provoking, and outright chilling experiences I could've gotten from a video game.
A fan is a fan, no matter when they discover something. I'm glad you enjoyed the video so much; it's awesome to see something as simple as a video game make such an impact on people
I remember me and my cousin used to play bf2 religiously when we were younger, we made our own game out of it using our star wars risk board as the galactic conquest mode.
We'd be the clones and work together against the highest difficulty CIS, each troop piece on the board counted as 100 popcap, while the tank piece counted as 250.
we'd use instant action mode to tweak the settings the way we needed each fight, the final battle being us defending rhen var citadel with 50popcap against 1000 droids, we won just barely.
was so dorky looking back at it now, but was a very fun back-to-back birthday campaign we made for oursevlves haha 😊
This video encouraged me to play this game again. Had a blast playing through it in one day. The only tricky parts for me are those damn book cases, and all Hoth objectives (not counting shield generator).
Clones being replaced right after RotS isn’t actually from The Bad Batch show, I believe it actually came from the Vader comics, as there was one made in like 2015 where only a few days after RotS there are clones discussing how the last batch of clones are being made, before Vader shows up and decides to kill all of them and destroy the entire space station they’re on for literally no reason, or just because he felt like it or something (I personally hate that comic because how the writer decided to completely wipe away future stories about clones in the Empire so pathetically).
The Bad Batch was sadly forced to kinda go along with it for the sake of not retconning Disney canon, but thankfully the show does it’s best to push and stretch things to about a year after RotS before clones actually start getting replaced on a large scale.
I remember as a kid, I would sometimes boot up the tutorial and just play it for like half an hour or more without finishing the mission since it had infinite units on both sides. Just constant war between us and the droids.
I was an easily amused kid.
That actually sounds like a fun idea! To just play an infinite match
For the CIS strike bomber, I always believed it was because it was the better than the one of the Republic. The CIS strike bombers fires it's bombs a lot faster than the V-wing, and wouldn't you know it the TIE Bomber fires its bomb a lot faster than the Y-wing of the rebellion. Complete guess but it's what makes the most sense to me as to why you would get orders to capture one. Like an in-game narrative explanation for an in-game mechanic.
Bruhhhhhhh that makes perfect sense Holy shit.
That LAAT glitch at 33:30 is definitely a common glitch, or at least on PC for me. I was too young to remember any bugs when playing this on the PS2 but its probably just a port bug. Annoying but not game breaking.
If I remember correctly, you needed to have other clones join you in the ship until the ship was full and then land in the enemy hanger? I don’t remember if that’s right or not but that always seemed to make the glitch work for me
It's an AI oversight. When you land, your co-pilot doesn't disembark unless he's the only crewman on board. Landing twice fixes this.
To the question posed at 59:30 assuming it was a serious one, its a quick answer and this will hopefully also answer alot of questions about the state of the Republic.
Those aren't police, those are the military of Naboo. before the clones, the Republic rarely held a formal army for prolonged periods so almost all things resembling a military or police would be raised planet to planet. Naboo, like a overwhelming large amount of planets in Star Wars is a Monarchy, an Autocracy in the trappings of Democracy. They have that firepower because the planet can afford it, and they gave it to their men because, at-least before the empire, they had unlimited authority to do so.
This is the primary reason I think Palpatine took the rebellion so seriously, once it started to become clear who their leaders were. We might think of them as senators on the galactic stage, but back on their home worlds, many senators were, or were directly related too/serving some kind of Autocratic government who had the capability of pitching entire worlds or in some cases, entire systems into the fight.
I'm not sure if it's because it's chilly weather right now, but hearing that redacted Kamino log sent chills down my spine. I played this game until my PS2 and game disk nearly broke, had to risk taking it apart to get it working again, which thankfully worked out. I played this game to the point I was elite in every achievement and had all the unlocks, been through the campaign dozens of times by myself. Thank you for the knowledge, that definitely upped the nostalgia factor for me.
Regarding the bomber theft over Mustafar, I agree it seems to come from nowhere. my headcanon is that this mission takes place during Vader's obsession with Obi-Wan, an obsession that may lead him to investigate every little detail of Kenobi's escape from Utapau, perhaps even to the features of the ship he used?
I love how deep you get into these videos! Been on a rabbit hole for a while lol. You got my sub😊
On the topic of the 501st making mistakes during the second half of the campaign, I think this is more of a commentary on the Empire as a whole and its over-reach rather than the 501st exclusively.
The 501st's real life equivalent is something similar to the Navy Seals. They're called in for serious missions because they're the most elite unit the Empire has to offer, for when normal units cannot complete the mission. The 501st are more the glue holding the Empire together from any further damage, rather than the 501st being another part of the Empire's inefficiency. Of course, using the 501st as a crutch perpetually to get themselves out of trouble is one of the reasons the Empire themselves eventually fell when even they cannot get the job done.
As for the Death Star mission, the 501st did get complacent in allowing it to happen. But had that been any other detachment, I could have easily seen more Rebels escaping. Bear in mind the sheer size of the Death Star, and the fact that the 501st is not a massive detachment, especially with numbers lost over the years, and I could easily see the Rebels gaining control of weaker parts of the station.
I agree, I should have made it more clear that I was talking about the Empire as a whole. But the 501st show that even their very best aren't performing well
On the bit about Aayla Secura, about not looking her in the eye, I think this line extraordinarily speaks to the deceit of the clones due to their moral corruption as you've pointed out. But there's a sense of immaturity to it, to me at least. They can't look her in the eye almost in the same way that a 9 year old can't look their parent in the eye when they do something for them. Something they feel they could have done on their own. I sense so much resentment from the clones after this level, it's almost as if they realize who exactly they've been speaking of favorably but could also possibly be questioning their own moral corruption itself. They broach asking themselves why killing the Jedi might be wrong through Aayla, but they remember only their loyalty to Palpatine and the coming empire. I think the clones' foresight is actually much further than Order 66, even during the war, it becomes more obvious as the campaign goes on, but even in the moments of the clone war, i believe they know the full extent of what's coming: Order 66, a new empire, the death star, all of it. The horrors of Felucia were made easier by someone they'd been undermining, someone they were going to eliminate completely, and I just think that the clones ultimately despise the Jedi so much that they wish or maybe even believe they could have persisted through Felucia without Aayla's help and vitality. They're not only disgusted with her, they're disgusted by the notion of putting trust in someone other than Palpatine. They're resentful as any soldier would be, but they're resentful of the wrong people, the wrong ideals. In a way, it's quite tragic, because again, they see and experience this kindness given to them with no expectation, something that would likely not be given to them by anyone else, not Palpatine, not the Kaminoans, and they can't stomach the fact that they might be wrong. They dissociate to self-justify their own impending wrongdoings. I think this is briefly touched upon again before Knightfall, where they talk about whispers or inner thoughts of self-questioning the act of killing the Jedi, but ultimately remain silent and let loyalty to Imperialism take over completely.
Idk if I'm quite right about that, but after a lot of reflection on that level and it actually being one of my favorites in the campaign, I thought I'd chip in my own two cents!
This retrospective has given me a new appreciation for the Original Clones.
The Temura Morrison Clones are... Different.
First of all, I want to point out the fact that they are still human. I see a lot of people saying these Clones are only living weapons and nothing else.
And while that's mostly true, that's only a half-truth.
Over the course of the campaign, we see the Clones exhibit all kinds of emotions. Trauma, after surviving the crucible of Geonosis, deception of the Jedi and even disgust of them, fear for the monsters and horrors of Felucia and respect for Aayla Secura, ironically enough, racism towards the Wookies and then eventually respect for them as well. And while it was nowhere near to the extent of the modern Clones, I always felt like there was regret for Order 66.
In the final Utapau entry, the Clone says that it was normally a time for celebration, and that their next orders put pain to those thoughts. Then in the famous Coruscant entry, the Clone says that they remained silent when they stormed the Jedi temple, and that even if they had private, traitorous thoughts, that they didn't say a word.
Now I know these Clones didn't like the Jedi, and in fact _wanted_ to kill most of them, but I always felt like the line about traitorous thoughts was implying that the speaker did, indeed, have them, only they refused to act on them, and carried out orders. And, do I need to explain the celebration line? If they hated the Jedi, Order 66 would have been a perfect time of celebration. Unless there's more to the story than they let on...
And there's more emotions in the Rise of Empire, too. Mostly anger though, with Gizor Delso and the reformed droid army, the reformed clone army, then the Rebellion as well as Princess Leia. But weirdly enough, there's also some existential dread... (or at least, that's how I saw it) when the Clones talk about Kamino in the deleted journal entry.
They asked what they done to upset their creators, asking if they had failed them in some way.
Then the voice trails off, and decides it doesn't matter, and continues talking about the mission. The intro only lasted seconds, but just listen to the conflict and emotions in the Clone's voice... It's one of the most emotional clips of the entire 501st Journal. And then, of course, there's the bone-chilling line of killing an enemy who, in their eyes is like their own cousins, who scream with their very same voice when they die.
Originally, I had the same opinion, that these Clones are just emotionless servants of Palpatine, but that's really not true. While they don't have the depth of the Clone Wars interpretation, there's still a lot of depth to be had in the Clones. On a side note though, I don't think the campaign could have taken place with the modern interpretation of Clones. The idea that it's actually multiple Clones is such a great idea, and probably couldn't exist in the current canon simply because of how nuanced the new Clones are. I mean, look at the Bad Batch. Dee Bradley Baker has such a range of voices and emotions that each separate Clone would have been distinct from each other, and there wouldn't be the interesting ambiguity of the canon voice that leaves you wondering if it really is one Clone, and how many times the voice changes over the course of the war.
By the way, I like this Retrospective a lot. As for the ending, I always thought that the accelerated aging finally caught up to the clones in a dangerous way and the speaker either died of old age, or was forced to retire due to being physically incapable of fighting. I do agree that they wouldn't go down without a fight and just calmly leave the Empire, but being old comes with a whole list of potential reasons the Clones signed off early. The first, like I said, is old age. Then you have muscle failure, which would prevent them from even being able to hold their blaster, let alone shoot rebels with it. At that point, they'd probably rather die than be deadweight for the Empire's military accomplishing nothing and injuring themselves even more in the process. And then there's dementia, which would prevent them from being able to add new journals in the first place. Plus, you have to remember that there was only two-thirds of half of the 501st at this point.
Plus, I love the idea of it being old age for a few reasons. First of all, it's an honorable death. The Clones died peacefully, having disassembled the Republic themselves and building an Empire to take its place, and they could finally rest after all their hard work. Second, it's more of that dramatic irony that works so well in the Clone Wars.
If the last of the Clones did die before the Battle of Endor, it also fits that Chinese proverb mentioned in the video. The last of the Clones die- bad luck. They don't survive to see the fall of the Empire they built- good luck.
And what really makes it even worse is that maybe the tragedy of the Second Death Star could've been prevented were the fighting men of the 501st there.
It's such a fitting end for what is essentially villain protagonists. It's bittersweet, because they got punished for their numerous crimes, both in being unable to partake in the Battle of Endor, and also in potentially having been able to save the Empire, but being unable to due to succumbing to old age. Yet, their death isn't entirely without dignity. They lived glorious lives, and they could at last lay down their weapons, believing that they already won... While not being around long enough to know the truth. That's my interpretation, anyway. They likely were still kicking if they were only 70 at this point, but this is just my headcanon and my thoughts.
The narration really makes the campaign. Incredibly written and incredibly acted. I've heard that Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmond were holding up the Prequel trilogy with their performances, but after playing Battlefront 2, Republic Commando, and Bounty Hunter I think Temuera Morrison stands alongside them in that respect. Jango Fett was awesome, and the games Morrison lent his voice to that came out during the Prequel era really grounded it and made it feel real. His gravelly gravitas lets you experience the universe from the ground instead of the more fantastical viewpoint of the Jedi/Sith conflict. Whether you're playing Jango Fett, RC 1138/Boss, or a nameless trooper, you're just one poor shmuck (In more ways on than one) who got caught up in this ageless war between two factions. And it humanizes both of them, too, by letting you see the Empire from the inside after fighting for the Republic during the Clone Wars.
Such good stuff.
27:09
It is canonically cited that, for what many looked like an excessive portrayal of brutality, was a choice made by commander Bly to make sure she did not suffer when a day he hoped would never come eventually did
58:30 I think this is an example of "You cant kill an idea." Showing that the republic and the Jedi can return in the way Obiwan said to Vader in A new Hope. "Strike me down and I will return more powerful then before." The Jedi as an order are brought together out of a common understanding of how to wield the force. Even the most ruthless of repression wont get them all or stop them from rebuilding.
I've always considered this campaign as an alternate story where the Empire completely won on Hoth destroying the Rebellion so endor never happened.
Jesus I was just thinking about this video and star wars this morning.
It's interesting that as a whole we really love the clones, they're very sympathetic, even when they are put in bad guy roles. Even all throughout the clone wars series they are really relatable characters.
I wonder if that ties into having played these games as these clones and come to put ourselves in their role so often we almost see ourselves as these clones.
It struck me a lot when you talked about how this game really makes us play as the platonic clone as opposed to to being one individual dude throughout the whole story.
This was a really well done video.
Just want to say thanks for this. You provided the most in-depth retrospective I've ever heard on one of my favorite all time games better than anyone else. Kudos!
This is such a good video and by far the best review of the campaign I've ever seen. Bravo and kudos, so much of this video made me think
excellent video of my favorite battlefront game, probably my favorite star wars game, one of my favorite games of all time and the game i've probably played more than anything else.
Loved this mode, tied with galactic conquest for my favorite mode. You really did it justice and put out probably the best video on the subject easily. Many success in your future and past videos.
The reason there was no endorsement mission was because the logs were more of a retrospective on what the troops went through. But they lost, they died. There was no one to make that final log, no one left of the 501st. Pretty depressing to think about but a nice touch
I like to think that the 501st simply wasn't there. They might have been on Sullust or somewhere else.
I'm barely into the mygeeto mission and I like what the writers did with palatine and the clones as a whole, having them act as his own SS in a way, even before the imperial take over
I also think there's an interesting poetic irony on why there's no Endor mission. Back during the Kashyyk mission, the soldier recounts how the only way he thought he was getting off it was in a body bag. Then, with the aid of the ingenuity of the Wookies and Master Yoda, breeding a newfound resoect for the former, they turn the tide, their hope alongside their iron will prevailed. Cut to Endor, the complacency set in and at their most incompetent, they refuse to see the primitive nature of the Ewoks as a threat or worth subjugating. In the end, they lose, their will diminished by the years of complacency, leading to them getting off a second forest planet, now fittingly as their drive to fight had flickered, in a body bag.
Probably not planned, but the parallels are stunningly poignant.
My favorite journal entry is honestly the deleted Kamino one. I wish it had made it into the game, every single line gives me chills
Hey man! This is my first every video from your channel and I will say, this was Pleasant and a nice viewing experience
Dam, I am glad I found this....it is honestly fun to see someone review the campaign of one of my childhood classics
This is the best video on Battlefront 2 on UA-cam. Amazing job!
I keep wondering how a 20 yr old game keeps holding up, and as far as I'm concerned has never been surpassed. The amount of content with a story, intergalactic conquest, instant action split screen sandbox with hunt, conquest, two mode capture the flag, hero mode has kept me and my friends entertained to this day.
Something horrifying I noticed, is that during Knightfall, there are seemingly random spawn points for the Jedi once you enter their vicinity, almost like they were ambushing you…or hiding from you
A counterpoint to playing as Boba on Kamino. He's a clone too. He just wasn't a GAR/Imp clone.
On a completely different not but a few months ago I realized that the clone army are also Mandalorian more or less. Really made me think. And also it being kinda fitting they enacted the end of the Jedi.
Also makes you wonder that if Boba is working with the empire to this degree they didn't need Jango's DNA as Boba is a one to one clone of him. Unless there's a lore reason they couldn't use his DNA instead.