Star Wars: Battlefront is something of an enigma. With Star Wars hype at an all-time high these days, many expected the game to be an unmitigated success — however, claims that EA and DICE were holding out on content started to circulate, and Battlefront's momentum started to falter.
One thing that's seemingly held Battlefront back throughout development is its name. The first two titles were some of the most successful Star Wars games ever made, and they represent a lot of fond memories for a lot of different people — can a game that's seemingly so different from its namesake hold up under the weight of all those expectations?
Now, following a highly successful beta, Star Wars: Battlefront is finally here — and, while it's easily one of the best-looking games ever made, does that same prowess transfer over to the gameplay? More importantly, is there actually enough content on the disc to keep players invested for more than a few weeks?
First and foremost: anyone expecting a traditional single-player experience in Battlefront won't find one, plain and simple. That's not to say that there aren't any solo modes, it's just that any sort of traditional single-player campaign has been nixed entirely.
In its place, are a few separate modes: Training is about as self-explanatory as it gets, Battles are small skirmishes against AI enemies (or another player) and Survival is all about fighting off wave after wave of computer-controlled bots. While they're all perfectly playable, they're not exactly engaging: the AI isn't all that dangerous, even on the higher difficulties, and playing through 15 waves of Survival without someone else to help starts to feel like a grind.
All in all, the game's solo modes won't hold anyone's attention for very long — while it's always been clear that online multiplayer was Battlefront's primary focus, it's a shame that the solo modes seemingly suffered as a result.
When it comes to playing online, things are more fleshed out. The game's multiplayer is basically split into two different sizes: there are more intimate skirmishes between small groups of infantry, and massive battles between two opposing armies.
Most players will want to start off with Blast. This mode is Battlefront's take on classic Deathmatch, and as the most basic mode in the game, it's a good way to get used to how Battlefront plays. From there, players can try out Droid Run and Drop Zone, which both focus on capturing points, or Cargo, which acts just like Capture the Flag. Hero Hunt works just like Juggernaut, with one player taking over as one of the game's Heroes while everyone else tries to hunt them down. Finally, there's Heroes vs. Villains, and it plays like a Star Wars version of VIP: protect your side's Hero characters while taking out the other team's.
In terms of larger conflicts, players will want to hop into Supremacy or Walker Assault. The latter is largely unchanged from the beta: Rebel soldiers will capture points to weaken the massive AT-AT walkers, while Imperial Stormtroopers will try to shut them down. Supremacy, on the other hand, is a relatively simple Capture-the-Point mode: players will try to defend and capture individual points on the map, and the first team to capture all of them wins.
For the most part, the game's modes aren't all that different from those found in other modern shooters, but one stands apart from the rest: Fighter Squadron. This mode ditches the ground-based combat for one giant dogfight, and it's fantastic. The mode feels more like the movies than anything else in the game, and while it may seem intimidating at first, Fighter Squadron is one of the best parts of Battlefront.
Multiplayer maps are split up across four different planets: Tatooine, Hoth, Sullust and the forest moon of Endor. Individual map selection is based on the game mode — you won't find yourself playing Droid Rush on a Supremacy map. They're all intricately detailed and extremely well-designed, but as with the rest of the game, the variety is somewhat lacking. The maps basically boil down to desert, ice, lava and forest, and their repeated appearances across a variety of modes can feel a bit light after extended play.
When it comes to actually playing the game, Battlefront is pretty standard stuff. If you've ever played a Battlefield game, you'll know what to do: aim down the sights, pull the trigger and throw a few grenades. As with most other modern shooters, new weapons and gear can be unlocked via leveling up and spending credits.
What differentiates Battlefront from other shooters is the focus on power-ups. Standard power-ups include special gear like turrets and rocket launchers, vehicle power-ups are used to call in X-Wings and TIE Fighters, and Hero power-ups call in the game's uber-powerful Hero characters. It all works, but the generic presentation leaves something to be desired: running up to a floating icon just doesn't carry the same weight as scrambling through a hangar, climbing into an X-Wing and taking off manually. Hero power-ups can be especially frustrating, and it's entirely possible to go through an entire match without even seeing one, let alone picking it up.
When it comes down to it, Battlefront is fun to play, but there's not much here to differentiate itself from other shooters on the market. Again, it's all perfectly functional, and Battlefront can be a blast to play, but it's a little disappointing that EA and DICE didn't try to push the Star Wars license a little harder.
Battlefront's content (or perceived lack thereof) has been a divisive subject for some time now — but if there's any one thing that everyone can agree on, it's that the game is absolutely gorgeous.
It's the sort of game that continues to look better and better the more you play. Sure, first impressions may zero in on the scale of the AT-ATs walking overhead or the absolutely massive battlefields, but it's the little details that really pull the whole thing together. Seeing the dust on a Sandtrooper's armor, flying through a cloud in an X-Wing or watching the snow cascade over a trench on Hoth — it all adds up to one of the most gorgeous games ever released, Star Wars or not.
What's even better is that the game's performance is 100 percent rock-solid: on the PlayStation 4, Battlefront manages to hit 60 frames per second and never lets go. Considering how many particle effects, explosions and high-detail character models can be onscreen at once, it's impressive — no matter how hectic everything gets, Battlefront's performance never stumbles.
The game's sound design is just as strong: everything, from the standard blaster to the roar of a TIE Fighter, has been perfectly recreated. John Williams' famous score also returns to highlight major moments of a match, and while DICE has peppered a few original tracks in, they blend so seamlessly into the rest of the game's audio that you'd be forgiven for never knowing they were there. The only real negative is the voice acting: while standard soldiers are fine, the game's Heroes and Villains sound like B-list impressions (and the same could be said about their character models, too). It's distracting, sure, but it's far from hindering the rest of the game's presentation.
At the end of the day, Star Wars: Battlefront is hard to recommend. Not because it plays poorly or it's that it's ugly or that it doesn't do Star Wars justice — in fact, it's the complete opposite. It's a beautiful game that any Star Wars fan will appreciate, and one that shooter fans will enjoying playing.
No, the game is hard to recommend because players can see absolutely everything the game has to offer in the span of a few hours. Previous Battlefront games were far from perfect, but they at least offered a wealth of different modes and modifiers for fans to play around with. Even when compared with other recently-released shooters, Battlefront doesn't come close to offering the same amount of content.
It's a lot of fun, and it serves as one of the most faithful adaptations of the franchise outside of the movies ... but there's just not much here. The fact that EA blatantly advertises the Season Pass on the game's main menu almost feels like an insult: sure, there's not much to the game now, but if you drop another $50, you can get the full experience!
It's safe to say that anyone expecting an experience along the lines of the first two games in the series will be disappointed, as will anyone hoping to play through a new Star Wars story or anything other than multiplayer. For everyone else (especially Battlefield fans), there's a fun multiplayer experience here ... just don't expect it to last too long without buying a few DLC bundles.
Pros
| • Shooting feels great • Absolutely beautiful • Incredibly faithful take on Star Wars |
Cons
| • Generic shooter gameplay • Boring single-player options • Overall lack of content |
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