Put yourself in the boots of the stormtrooper you've always been, deep down.

The next link in the mighty chain of Star Wars video games has arrived in the form of Star Wars Battlefront. You'll finally be able to take part in the epic battles seen in the movies, from Naboo to Endor, online or off. Much like Battlefield 1942, Battlefront is about big battles among diverse troops on huge maps, with vehicles thrown in to make things more interesting. But this one is in the Star Wars universe.

The single player mode is divided between the Historical Campaign, as seen in the movies, and a Galactic Conquest mode, which is a series of battles created for the game. In the Historical Campaign, you'll be tasked with certain objectives, like taking over certain points on the map or destroying (or protecting) certain facilities (like the shield generators defending the rebel base on Hoth). Whatever the mission, you'll be part of a larger group of soldiers, and the battles are often a chaotic mess of fun. You'll also be accompanied on some missions by a major character from the movies. Darth Vader will wade into Mos Eisley with the stormtroopers, and Luke can be seen running around the frozen hills of Hoth, for example. These main characters, if you stop and watch them, are clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the rabble on screen, including you, but they never really take over a battle. They exist as novelties mostly, but their presence helps give you the feeling you're really in the battle from the movie as opposed to just another battle in a familiar setting. Galactic Conquest is a battle among the planets, which ends when you've battled on and won control over all of them. The single player campaign is engaging for a while, but Battlefront a lot more fun with a friend playing cooperatively on a split screen. These are big battles, with lots of characters on each side, and coordinating with another player makes it much more interesting. Going online ratchets the intensity up one more notch, with up to 16 players on PS2, 24 on Xbox and 32 on PC. You can win by wiping out the other side or by controlling all of the command points on the map. Accomplishing one usually leads to the other, so the goals aren't exactly complicated. Each side starts with around 200 lives to be used among all the players, so battles can be long and momentum shifts between equally matched sides are common.

To make the massive maps more navigable and more dangerous, there are a slew of vehicles just waiting to be put to good use. There are AT-ATs, which are very useful as mobile spawn points but aren't much fun to drive. The snow speeders from Empire Strikes back are available, complete with tow cables for tying up AT-ATs. The smaller AT-STs move much more quickly and have a larger firing radius, which makes blowing up pedestrians a game in itself. There are X-Wings, Tie Fighters, tanks, land speeders, troop carriers and even those big, funky-shaped droid vehicles from Episode II. The control for each varies, from plodding to unwieldy and wildly sensitive. For example, flying a snow speeder is so daunting at first that it doesn't even seem worth the trouble. But once you've mastered it, the effectiveness of strafing from above makes you appreciate the decision to make some vehicles hard to master.

Some maps feel truly empty without full squads on both sides, so the unused slots will be filled in with computer controlled bots. The A.I. of the bots in Battlefront isn't great - it's not unusual to see them getting mowed down like bowling pins. But let's not forget, these are battles between rebel soldiers and stormtroopers, mostly. The average stormtrooper apparently is the result of a sophisticated cloning process, but evidence from the movies suggests it's a lot more like inbreeding. They're lucky to hold and fire a blaster without hurting themselves. They have trouble hitting farm boys from 20 feet, so to take issue with their skills in the game goes against years of Star Wars mythology.

Before each fight, you'll pick your class, the name of which will depend upon which side you choose and the era in which you're playing. Each side has the following: a basic soldier (a stormtrooper with a basic blaster, for example), a sniper, a soldier with a missile launcher, and a pilot. The weapons available to each vary slightly depending upon the faction. The droid army from Attack of the Clones, for example, also offers a droideka, which has shields and the ability curl up into a ball and move much more quickly than those on foot. The other factions don't offer that, but they do offer soldiers with jet packs.

Your choice of classes will rest with whichever weapons you prefer, and each has advantages. The pilot, however, is different. His grenade launcher is probably the least useful weapon, but he's the only one who can dispense med packs and ammo, and repair droids (which also dispense health and ammo). But it's his flying skills that set him apart. Vehicles driven by a pilot will slowly be repaired over time. That ability makes their relative uselessness on foot more than bearable.

It should go without saying that the sights and sounds of Battlefront are top notch. The presentation, from menus to gameplay, is perfectly tailored to the identity of Star Wars. Each of the 16 maps on 10 planets is detailed and intricate, and most are familiar from the movies. If you prefer to play the game as an FPS, you can do that. But if you'd rather see a little more of the sights around you, switch to third person. You can switch your view from first person to third at any time.

The large scale battles of Star Wars Battlefront are a welcome addition to the Xbox online library and a nice change of pace for those who have spent a lot of time with games like Battlefield 1942. It stands out from other games of its type because it's Star Wars, but it also doesn't rely on the license to be fun. The maps offer opportunities for strategy and the online battles are a blast. If you're a fan, there's a good chance Battlefront will become your go-to game for online mayhem, particularly if you've always wanted a chance to blast Ewoks.