Star Wars has had a reasonable game career when compared to others film-based games (looking at you superman) but besides the amazing Lego Games and RTSs there’s the Battlefront games. I grew up on these games and got endless hours of entertainment from them.
The Galactic conquest gamemode felt like you were progressing in the game and when you finally take over that last planet as the Empire it makes you feel so good knowing that every battle you had to fight. I couldn’t give you a good opinion of Online gameplay since back then I didn’t even know how to hold a controller properly let alone make a email and password to login but I can give you the immense 100 v 100 battles you could set up. Nothing could compare to the feeling of walking out of the Hoth base to see a giant battlefield in front of you covered in things you can actually interact with. My favourite thing to do was trying to rope down the AT-ATs as the rebels since it felt like you were actually helping but come my time to be the empire I flipped the tables and just aimed to get Darth Vader, Walking through the snow throwing your lightsaber every now and then and just generally feeling like a Sith Lord was an amazing power trip for me and I thought It couldn’t be achieved again.
So skip to E3 of 2015 where to my surprise, Star Wars: Battlefront is announced. Now believe when I said I was suspicious, EA out of all the companies aren’t exactly the most liked but what annoys me more was that DICE (the creators of Battlefield) were making it. I knew from that day that what I was waiting for is Star Wars: Battlefield DLC, as much as I enjoy the Battlefield games made by DICE and especially the graphics from the Frostbite Engine but knowing EA they will probably whip DICE into place and make it use the same formula so they can guarantee sales.
So I tried to get this off my mind till the sudden release of the Beta that just occurred and with me having such a radical opinion of the game I knew I had to jump in…but firstly I had a 10 GB download to do. So after playing the game till the max rank of the beta I thought I had a good enough opinion for it. Now I will give it credit for its visuals and sound, compared to Battlefront 2 potato graphics anything would of been better but its nice how much detail they put into it, even the blasters sounded real and the X-Wings flying over really added to the experience.
Although, the gameplay was nothing new, it was just Battlefield but with different gun mechanics. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Battlefield but when you take it, add a few things to make it look spacey then slap the Battlefront name on it and call it new, your crossing a line. The Battlefront franchise has a history behind it, a lifetime of good memories and experiences so nothing really hurts more to say that its a bad feature to the franchise because people have waited a long time for the game. Its the little things as well, the gun sway is exactly the same from Battlefield as well as the 3rd person cameras, sure the HUDs a bit fancy but the gameplay features are just generic Rush or capture the hard-point. Also they took out the feature of earning your killstreaks and more just running around the map and picking up powerups, this means the guy who sits at the back waiting for them to drop gets to play as Darth Vader whilst your busting your ass sniping all the guys taking out your AT-AT, it just takes no reward from doing well in the game, its a shame as well because the spaceships and Jedi were done pretty good.
Its also what they announced what wasn’t going to be in the game, like the Galactic Conquest which I have already talked about as well as no campaign being made and to be honest I really would of liked to see that. Every announcement makes me feel even less and less sympathy for DICE and more anger to EA.
Anyway, that’s one strike EA, just don’t fuck up Mirror’s Edge,
– Sam Burdis
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