By: Tyler Miller
After almost a week of being live, the beta for Star Wars: Battlefront II will be over soon. I didn’t get to jump in until it was available to everyone, but after spending the past few days playing the beta, I’ve gotten a full view of the game and it’s mostly positive.
While I never had 2015’s Battlefront, I did play the beta for it, and the actual game on multiple occasions. The game was fun for a bit, but it just wasn’t enough to make me want to buy the game or play for extended amounts of time. There was no class system like in the original games, there were only a few modes and planets to play on, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the game having tokens out on the map for Heroes, vehicles, and power-ups. It made it a game of hoping you could find the token and get to it before someone else did. All of these different aspects came together to make the game feel a bit more arcadey than I would’ve liked it to feel.
Based on the beta though, Battlefront II is a step up from the first game in a big way, fixing just about every wrong that the first game had. The beta consists of a couple different modes to play. Arcade mode (which can be played with 2 players) only had two missions available, and they were very easy. This really serves as a tutorial/test ground for people to jump into before going into the multiplayer offerings that the beta had. The three modes available in multiplayer are Strike, Starfighter Assault, and Galactic Assault. Each of the three modes is an attack/defend mode, but Starfighter and Galactic Assault have multiple stages to them, whereas Strike has only one.
All three modes are fun, but for me, Starfighter Assault just barely edges out Galactic Assault as my favorite mode. Flying in space in an X-Wing or TIE-Fighter and chasing down the opposing team was a thrill ride and I could spend hours playing that mode and never get tired of it. Galactic Assault was plenty of fun too. Fighting in the city of Theed on Naboo as either the Clones or the Droids was great, and each progressive stage of the battle just got more and more intense, and also more fun. Rounding out the multiplayer modes is Strike, and although I enjoyed playing it, it didn’t keep my attention as well as the other modes.
When it comes to the changes that the game has made, this time around we have an actual class system with four different classes for us to use. These classes each have their own unique weapons and they all specialize in a different area. The Assault class for example is your standard rushing class, whereas the Heavy class focuses on laying down the big suppressing fire on your enemies. It allows you to feel like you’re contributing in your own way by playing a certain class, similar to how DICE’s trademark Battlefield series makes you feel. I’ve spent most of my time playing the Heavy class because I liked using their unique sentry weapon that unleashes a rain of laser blasts down on the enemy, but I also dabbled with the other classes as well.
The other new addition to the game that I liked is the Battle Points system. By doing things during a match such as damaging an enemy, killing enemies, going on streaks, or playing the objective, you get points that you can accumulate. These points go towards being able to use a stronger type of soldier, a Hero character (the most expensive reward), or a vehicle in Galactic Assault mode. This system is much better than the one in DICE’s previous Battlefront, as it rewards players for playing the game and for playing well, instead of rewarding people who managed to find a token on a map first. There’s a sense of satisfaction in racking up 3,000 points to play as a Wookie that can turn the tide of a battle if used correctly. Gaining points wasn’t that hard to do either since you can get them just by playing the game, so one should be able to earn at least one of these rewards during the course of a match if they’re playing well.
Needless to say as well, but the game is simply stunning. DICE has recreated the Star Wars universe in a way that no other company has yet, and it’s a sight to behold. The clean and elegant city of Theed is a beauty, and every time I played Galactic Assault, I found myself in awe and seriously impressed with how good a job DICE did. The same goes for the sound design. The cry of a TIE Fighter careening through space as they chase down and fire on an X-Wing will make you feel like you’re in the movies yourself. It’s amazing that they managed to make the game look as good as it does without any performance issues at all. During my time playing the beta, I didn’t encounter any frame rate hitches at all, nor did I encounter any lag, which is a good sign for the final game.
What’s not a good sign for the game though are the progression system and the “crate” system (Battlefront’s version of loot boxes). Instead of having a normal progression system like most shooters, DICE has decided to lock progression behind Star Cards and their loot crates. So although you rank up your account by playing the game, you don’t actually level up your classes or ships that same way.
You instead level them up by getting Star Cards for them. Star Cards return from the first game and there are two different types: boost cards, and ability replacement cards. Boost cards will enhance some aspect of your class or vehicle, while ability replacement cards will swap one of your abilities with a different one. These cards can be upgraded as well to make them even more powerful and give you better perks. The more cards you have for a class, the higher its level is. The higher your class’ level is, the more cards you can equip to it, which means you have more ability options. This only works though if you can get the cards for the class. You see how this is problematic?
Although you can get the loot crates using in-game credits, you’re still at the mercy of RNG. You have to hope that you get lucky and that the past couple hours of your time haven’t been wasted, and that you’ll get a card for the class you’ve been using all this time, and not one that you haven’t been using at all. The fact that progression is locked behind the loot crates and Star Cards is only going to incentivize people to spend real money on the game so that they can rank up their classes faster and have a major leg up on those who may not be able to afford to do that or just don’t want to pay to have an advantage in the game. You can also use parts to craft upgrades for your cards, but the amount of parts needed for the different upgrade tiers increases with each tier, and amount of parts you get from crates is minuscule compared to the amount you need.
I wouldn’t be surprised if on day one there are people with multiple classes maxed out with a number of powerful cards to use for them because they spent hundreds of dollars on the game to get an immediate on advantage over everyone else. Pricing for the real world money that you can use to buy the crates is unknown as of now, but that’s neither here nor there. Just being able to pay for a tangible advantage over other players isn’t cool at all. The entire system is very shady and reeks of nothing but greed from EA.
Overall, Battlefront II is shaping up to be a great game and a big improvement over the first game. The gameplay feels great, the modes are fun, and the game is just drop dead gorgeous. There is no other Star Wars game that captures the look, feel, and sound of the Star Wars universe as much as Battlefront II does, and DICE deserves props for pulling that off. Even with all this in mind though, the thought of loot crates and the game’s scummy progression system are in the back of my mind and I can’t stop thinking about how they can ruin a game that is a lot of fun. I doubt they can at this point in time, but I sincerely hope DICE and EA rethink the entire progression and loot crate system and make it one that’s more player friendly, and not money friendly.
TheComfySpot 