Star Wars Battlefront. Ask any 20-something and they will tell you it was one of the highlights of their childhood. Popping that disk into the PS2 and living their Star Wars fantasy, be it the Republic vs the CIS battling on Coruscant, or the Empire vs the Rebellion on Yavin IV, or blasting their way through the Imperial fleet above Hoth in an X-Wing. Battlefront 2 was a game that I could have played through the night for a week straight and still not get bored. It might shock you that after hearing that, the EA reboot is absolutely disappointing.
Lets start with my gripes, of which there are many, shall we? The obvious elephant in the room would be the distinct lack of content. Currently we have 13 maps, that doesn't sound too bad right? It doesn't until I mention that these 13 maps are on four planets and they are mode locked too. We have Tattooine - lots of sand, Endor - lots of trees, Hoth - lots of snow, and Sullust - Basically Hoth except its not snow and theres tons of lava. While the maps on each planet ARE different, they really don't feel special like the old Battlefront games maps did. They had far more soul than the Battlefront reboot, here they feel like fighting on a knock-off movie set. Did I mention that game modes are locked to different maps? Walker Assault uses one from each planet, and being as its essentially the only game mode that feels good to play, you get tired of the maps super quick. I have put about 7 hours into the multiplayer and 4 of those were spent in Walker Assault. I am tired of seeing an AT-AT trudge through sand and snow already.
You might be asking - why do I only rate Walker Assault as worth my time? Honestly, its the only game mode that I cant play a better version of elsewhere. Supremacy (the reboots version of poor version of Conquest) plays like Team Fortress 2's Symmetric Control Point mode. Why they decided this was a better choice than Conquest, I have no idea. Team Deathmatch is little fun due to the shooting mechanics (not to say they are bad, but they *are* too simple to enjoy TDM). Fighter Squadron was something I was super hype for until I discovered that the flight controls are LITERAL ASS. Seriously why couldn't they just use the Battlefield flight model? At least that worked... Can you see where I am going with this? And that isnt even touching the completely fucking backwards spawn system, its so frustrating when you get a hero character like Boba Fett or Darth Vader camping your spawn in Walker Assault and literally being unable to do ANYTHING.
The single player/co-op mode (Missions, as they call it) is also rather lacking. There are five short training missions that teach you various mechanics. These are probably the most offensive to me - they took the time to voice act these and give them their own unique maps only for them all to be done in 20 minutes? What's the point of that? The survival mode gives each planet its own map to hold out against 15 waves of gradually more difficult imperial troop and honestly if it didn't drag itself out for as long as it does it might be somewhat enjoyable. I would have liked customisable loadouts and something more than just popping a pod every couple waves for some RNG bullshit pick-ups that 9 times out of 10 are completely pointless. The last part, Battles is completely yawn inducing - you have what is essentially a Kill Confirmed game mode in either regular soldier version or hero version - you can do these against a friend which is nice I suppose - but ultimately its just a cute waste of time.
Thankfully it isn't all bad news. The game honestly looks gorgeous. Endor is stunning, as is Sullust. The attention to detail on the weapons, vehicles, characters.. hell *everything* is spot on. Not only does it look Star Wars, it sounds Star Wars. Nothing would be out of place in the movies and that is absolutely fantastic.
On the whole though I am, as I said, super disappointed by the game. I could excuse the lack of Space Battles, the lack of Galactic Conquest, the lack of prequel trilogy IF THERE WAS A GAME TO BACK IT UP. There is so much wrong with this that they had nailed with the previous installments that it just feels like it has no soul, no purpose other than to be a big ol' milk machine. DICE have said they will be supporting the game with free maps and modes (the Battle of Jakku content sounds nice) but I dont think it will last for long. When a game has fewer players than EVOLVE you know they fucked up.
I struggle to give Battlefront a 7/10, purely on merits of its audio/visual design. I think it was Totalbiscuit who said this game has the depth of a puddle, and honestly I dont blame him.
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