Over this weekend I spent most of my waking hours inside the Star Wars Battlefront Beta head deep in Hoth and the Walker Assault Map. It’s been 10 years since battlefront 2 launched. I’m not alone in saying I’ve been awaiting this game with open arms. Like any diehard fan I was curious, excited, and maybe even skeptical. Let’s face it, the expectations behind this game has to be intimidating for any developer. That’s a lot of pressure. It takes more than star wars skins in battlefield 4. How do you avoid pissing off some of the most devoted fans in science fiction history? I’ll tell ya how… Take the best features from the most beloved games made in the last 20 years. The perfection and variety behind Battlefront uses lessons learned from Battlefield, Halo, Twisted Metal, & Uncharted.
Lasers! (Not the doctor evil kind) The “gunplay” or should I say blaster play is spot on for what you would expect in the star wars universe. You aren’t plagued with wild recoil. The lasers actually have a travel time, shots don’t instantly hit the target like an arcade shooter. The emphasis on sustained fire really does remind me of uncharted multiplayer. You actually have to lead your crosshair ahead of a moving targets, achieving kills at range is a testimate of skill. “Time to kill” aka HP reminds you of halo in that you actually engage in a fight with someone. A world where shooting first doesn’t guarantee the kill.
Fluidity. The movement is smooth, the lack of a sticky cover system reduces convolution. You don’t get stuck on corners or misplace yourself. The parkour super human agility the jetpack gives you really rings true to Boba Fett. The ability to fly through the air with a jetpack and smack down unscathed is SO FUN. Getting to mountain tops or being able to sneak in that last kill before blasting off as you’re overrun is giggle inducing. Everything about the environment can be taken advantage of. You don’t get that “invisible wall” or “I’m not supposed to be here” reaction. If you took the time to jetpack up and climb a mountain you are rewarded. Positioning doesn’t feel as important in other modern shooters as it does here. Being able to toggle between 3rd & 1st person really made this game special for me, I’m a huge fan of 3rd person shooters and wish more games allowed this option. Seeing your characters adds so much more for me on terms of positioning, I like playing off cover and corners. Alternatively you can stay in 1st to line up ranged shots easier. It’s the best of both worlds
Power-ups. It’s SO refreshing to play a game with power-ups. These days the most you would expect is a helicopter spawn point being camped by 5 people who all want to drive. This is old school, this is Twisted Metal! Cruising along, spotting the awesome aesthetic of a spinning missile or mine icon only this time Squad Shields, AT-ST’s & hero pickups. The Hero pickup gives you a limited time to play as Darth Vader of Luke Skywalker. Playing as a hero feels like a MOBA, keys 1-3 are your core abilities. Force push, forward lunge, force choke, lightsaber throw (depending on Luke, Vader) are at your disposal. While a hero you have increased agility and feel like an absolute badass. That is until the time runs out or you get DPS’d down. My first time finding a hero pickup I spawned in as Luke. I see Darth Vader swinging his red saber on rebels across the map, I immediately bee-line across the surface of Hoth consciously passing storm troopers, walkers, leaping across terrain, deflecting lasers just to fight and destroy Vader. Some may have been more conservative with their hero power but in that instance going after the Vader I spotted across the map that was killing my friends was the single most exciting multiplayer moment I’ve had, I think ever. (I kicked his ASSSS, Jedi FTW)
Imbalances (the good kind...wait what?) Walker Assault is a 20v20 gametype where the rebels must defend a base while the empire throws everything they have at you as seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Multiplayer games often go for a perfect 50/50 balance in competitive multiplayer. This specific gametype opts to not give a shit and stay true to the scenario! THANK YOU!!! As the rebels you get a sense of being overrun and against the odds as in the movie. The empire has AT-AT’s & AT-ST’s marching towards the shield generator as rebels attempt to hold ground. Downing one of the AT-AT’s is incredibly difficult unless people work together in mass or have some gnarly pilots haha. On the other hand playing as the empire is often a shit show of free kills on desperate defenders. This adds value to a rebellion win which is rare to be honest. That’s the fun of it, things can play out differently IF your team works together, it’s exciting to be part of the rebel team during a win, seeing both the AT-AT’s fall with the rebel shield generator still standing. It plays off the innocent imaginations of our childhood. What if the rebels won on Hoth?! The community is split on this decision, one group wants an even field for competitive multiplayer while the other group wants authenticity. Personally I love the current iteration of Walker Assault. Instead of changing it I would love to see a separate scenario where the empire is suffering from similar circumstances, maybe the fight for the Death Star or Endor? A map with the empire being on the defensive would the better approach to adding balance. Don’t attempt to make Hoth balanced. That fight never was. Just maintain variation in map design, which I believe they will.
Star Cards are the title of perks in Battlefront. As expected in shooters you have progression and unlockable abilities. Unlocking them is nothing new, you play, earn XP and purchase. The main difference that stands out to me is the resource management. My main example is the Cycler Rifle, instead of giving players a sniper class or pickup you actually have a sniper perk. This perk adds a sand-trooper style musket to your inventory. Upon pressing “3” you pull out said rifle and only have one shot. That one shot will do 90% damage, only insta-killing on headshots or wounded targets. This is basically the Scout in Counter-Strike. Just having a one shot sniper on a 6 second cooldown with unlimited ammo is balanced in my opinion. You can still have dedicated snipers without sacrificing your build or shoehorning yourself into that camping mindset. It adds more utility and risk in using your one shot. You can damage someone then off them with your primary blaster or take advantage of sniping when you’ve found yourself at higher elevation. Very reminiscent of the Halo B,X,R days or unloading a plasma pistol then finishing with a BR Headshot. It’s fast, effective and balanced. The old One-Two we used to call that. Perfect blend of utility with variety.
In conclusion I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Star Wars Battlefront Beta. EA/Dice really came out swinging. Obviously we would love a single player story mode but I’m okay without one, at the end of the day we as players wanted battlefront and here it is! There’s plenty of star wars story driven games that we played and quickly stopped,LOL. The developers did a fantastic job making this game feel and play like well STAR WARS! this will be the game I play over and over again even when exhausted of traditional multiplayer shooters. Based on what I’ve experienced so far there will be a lot of satisfied star wars fans November 17th. They did us proud
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