Video Game Review: Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars is one of the most recognizable entertainment brands with a huge cult following 38 years after the first film was released. The gaming studio DICE is also a great studio with a reputation for making fantastic large-scale multiplayer shooters. So you’d think putting these two together you’d get a home-run of a game but for some odd reason, Star Wars Battlefront isn’t the game it should be. Instead, it’s an online-only bare bones multiplayer shooter.

DICE for the uninitiated, are the studio behind the critically acclaimed Battlefield series, a game known for its online multiplayer. It features large scale maps, destructible environments, vehicles, and objective based modes that encourage team work. Battlefield also features a character class system: assault, engineer, support and recon classes. Each class has unique abilities, for instance engineers can repair vehicles while support units can revive fallen soldiers. The Battlefield games also feature an unlock system that encourages you to play more to gain more weapons and more customization features, like skins for your guns, new camo for your soldier or new attachments for your weapons. Battlefield has been my favorite multiplayer shooter because of all these things. All in all, if any studio was going to make a new fantastic Star Wars game, DICE would be it.

But DICE played it too safe. Star Wars Battlefront feels like an introduction to online shooters for the casual gaming audience which in itself, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are nine multiplayer modes with some of these multiplayer modes having up to 40 player battles (so 20 v 20). Each mode has up to four or five different maps based on the Star Wars worlds Tattoine, Hoth, Endor, Sullust and Jakku. You can choose to either be a Rebel soldier or a Stormtrooper and as you level up you unlock new weapons, gear and abilities. When you’re fighting you’ll also come across various items you can pick up on the battlefield which includes things like shields, turrets or the ability to control certain vehicles. Once in a while though, you’ll come across an item that will let you take control of a hero or villain like Han Solo or Darth Vader, depending on which side you’re fighting for.

Nine multiplayer modes seem like a lot of content, but not all these modes are interesting. Most people will probably stick to four of the nine. Supremacy, Walker Assault, Blast, Drop Zone and Cargo were modes I constantly played, with an occasional Fighter Squadron match. The problem with some of these modes is that if the team you’re put into is terrible, there’s no way to win the match no matter how good you are. That was one of the major issues I had with the game, there’s no way to encourage team-work, no mics or anything to communicate with your squad. The other modes in the game are fun but they get dull pretty quick. One of the other issues I have with Battlefront is that you only have one load-out to customize at the start of the game and you can’t modify it mid-match. So say you go into battle holding a grenade, a pulse rifle and an ability. Then you notice your enemies are using vehicles a lot and you have gear unlocked that would be effective against vehicles, you can’t do anything about it. It doesn’t make sense to me because the majority of multiplayer shooters let you customize more than one load-out for exactly these kind of situations. The only way to unlock a second load out is by ranking up to level 11 which can take quite a bit of time. It’s mystifying as to why they put this behind a lock.

The game is also lacking in customization options. The game comes with generic Rebel soldier faces you can choose from, but you can’t change any details like facial hair or hair color to further customize your character. You also can’t change colors, or really do anything to your character. When it comes to Stormtroopers, the only customization they have is removing the helmet to show the same generic faces you can get for the Rebel soldiers. I mean, why would anyone choose to do that when the Stormtroopers are all about the helmet! It would have been cool if they would have let you customize your own Stormtrooper, either by changing armor color or some other minor details. It’s very disappointing. On top of that, the weapons all feel very similar and they don’t feature any customization options either. So you can’t unlock skins, scopes or other attachments for your weapons.

Those things aside, there are still some positives for example the game looks and sounds amazing. I’ll even go as far to say it’s probably one of the best looking games out there right now. The game itself is a lot of fun, it’s entertaining, it’s hectic and a lot of crazy things can happen on the battlefield while you’re playing. I’ve seen a group of Stormtroopers running away from Luke Skywalker, I’ve seen X-Wings and Tie-Fighters engage in combat while I was gunning down Rebels and I’ve been part of huge scale battles with lasers flying all over the place.

I mostly played Battlefront with a friend of mine who lives in the U.S. who also happens to be a Star Wars fan and the game was definitely more enjoyable that way. Besides the online competitive multiplayer modes, you can play a few other modes with a friend, most notably Survival mode. Survival mode can be played online or offline, so it’s nice to have an option to play split-screen. The point of Survival mode is to fight through wave after wave of enemies while completing simple objectives. There are four maps in Survival mode and each map has five hidden collectibles, so this mode has a bit of replay value to it.

There’s an expensive season pass ($50) that I’m not even going to touch, because that’s a ridiculous price to pay for content that should have honestly been in the game at launch. If you check the Battlefront website, the season pass includes 20 new pieces of tech, including weapons and vehicles, four more heroes, 16 (!?) new maps, four new game modes, a new emote and a two-week early access to each expansion pack. That seems like a lot of content to leave out of a game that is lacking in content.

I think most of us were all hoping that DICE would just add a Star Wars skin over their Battlefield games and that didn’t happen. At the end of the day Star Wars Battlefront has its own identity, as shallow as it might feel, but it sets up the groundwork for (hopefully) a much better sequel. DICE also have a good reputation of supporting their games wayyy after release, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot more maps added to Battlefront.

Is it worth the full price? I can imagine this game being fun for 12-15 hours and then it’ll turn into one of those games you come back to every once in a while when updates come out and free maps get released. At the moment there’s nothing interesting to unlock so there’s no point in consistently coming back to it.

This game is something that most Star Wars fans should play, even though it has its issues, it’s a decent game. The shooting mechanics feel good, controlling the various vehicles in the game is great and DICE has the general feel of the game down. They’re promising a lot more content down the line, more game modes, more maps and more heroes. If you’re not a fan of the franchise than I would suggest keeping away, because there isn’t a deep experience to be found here and you’re better off enjoying Battlefield 4.

Star Wars Battlefront was supplied by X-Cite. The game is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Score: [rating=3]

Post by Patrick