Star Wars Battlefront

First off if you knew what this review was about by just reading the quote then you are a true Star Wars fan, bravo! Funny business aside this was my most anticipated game of the year for many reasons. I consider myself to be a big Star Wars fan and to actually be able to play as my favorite characters in a video game is extremely exciting to me. The game was developed by EA DICE, with help from Criterion Games, published by Electronic Arts, and distributed by Lucasfilm Ltd.

Now that you know how much I was looking forward to this game I hate to start out on a bad note but I must. There was no real campaign that the game offered. I can see how maybe someone did not want to have a story that did not match up perfectly with the movies, but still I was quite disappointed. Instead the game suggests you start by playing the Solo and Co-op missions or Survival offline to gain some gameplay controls before jumping into the multiplayer. Luckily this game has split-screen as an option for both Co-op missions and Survival mode. Unfortunately I have noticed a considerable drop in frame rate speed when playing split-screen with a friend.

So first things first the beginning missions are under the Training category, which does exactly what it sounds like: getting the new player familiar with the controls of the game. These can be played either solo or co-op. The main focus of the training seems to be getting familiar with the vehicles that you can use, such as X-Wings, speeder bikes, and even an AT-ST. My favorite training mission personally had to be the one where you get to play as Darth Vader and slaughter countless rebel scum, all while learning to master playing as one of my favorite villains of all time. Now the game is only rated T so there is no real gore or loss of limbs when getting hacked by a lightsaber or blown up by explosives, but it is still extremely exciting playing as different heroes offered in the game, especially in multiplayer but we will get to that later. Each training mission also has the chance to earn up to three stars, which give you credits that you can spend towards purchasing new weapons online. Getting three stars on all missions did not take very long to accomplish, as it is just the basics.

Next under “Missions” you can play battle mode, where you can play as either a rebel trooper or stormtrooper, whichever side you wish to play as. You can play either solo vs. an all A.I. team, or you can play co-op vs. another player. The only problem with this is that you cannot search for another player online to fight against; instead you can split-screen vs. your friend or you can choose a partner to play against on your friends lists (we will talk about partners later in multiplayer). Basically what happens in these battles is you must kill the opponents and collect the emblems they drop (almost exactly like kill confirmed if you are familiar with Call of Duty multiplayer). As you progress and get more points the enemy team will get progressively tougher, adding in people with homing rockets, jetpacks, and heavy blasters. Now the scoring goes to 100 points, with each weaker enemies, such as regular troopers and snipers, being only worth 2 points, but harder enemies, such as jet troopers and heavy troopers, being worth 5 points each. These missions also offer star rewards for credits to spend as well, up to 5 stars per battle. I personally have not gotten every star yet as to get them all you must do different tasks, including winning on Master difficulty, which is way easier said than done. If you end up dying the enemy team will gain 10 points I believe, so you must stay alive. Lastly there are also Hero Battles, in which you play as a hero for the rebels or the empire and I consider these to be much easier since you can overpower regular troops quite easily, but be warned if you die the enemy gains 20 points, a true game changer that can be quite devastating and frustrating to deal with.

Lastly for offline, my personal favorite is the survival mode. This I would highly recommend playing with a partner unless you are doing the easiest difficulty as hordes of imperials can swarm you very quickly if you do not know what you’re doing. Once again you have 5 stars you can earn on 4 different maps that earn you multiplayer credits for completion. There are 15 waves of rebels/imperials that you must fight off to complete the mission and escape the sticky situation that Admiral Ackbar decides to leave you in. You do get help, as every 3-4 rounds a drop pod will fall from the sky with 3 power ups inside, but you must capture the pod before your enemies do or you forfeit the help. Sometimes it is honestly not worth leaving a good hiding spot to go get the pods, especially when you get to hard and master difficulties.

After you feel confident enough to take on other players it’s time to hit multiplayer mode in which there are 9 different game modes and 1 DLC game mode as well. I will discuss my top 3 that I consider to be the most fun (I do not find every game type to be enjoyable unfortunately). I really enjoy the big team battles, so I enjoy Walker Assault and Supremacy the most if I’m in the mood for all out chaos warfare. Both types are 20 vs. 20 online with almost every vehicle at your disposal, including both aerial and ground units, and the ability to play as a hero if you get lucky enough. Now to play as a vehicle it’s not the same as Battlefront 2 where you go find one and get in. Instead you must pick up a token which will have the vehicles symbol on it and then you can cause massive destruction to your opponents until they get smart and try to blow you up. In Walker Assault the Imperials are tying to get at least one AT-AT to the end of the map to blow up a rebel transport ship or shield generator. Rebels must try to activate 2 uplinks at a time (spread out in 3 different sections of the map), which will call in Y-Wing bombers to take down AT-AT shields, or else the walkers will not be damaged. Supremacy is more all out war, as there is no objective but to kill the enemy as much as possible. My final favorite game type has to be Heroes vs. Villains; a small 6 vs. 6 game type in which players switch off between rounds playing as the 3 heroes (Luke, Leia, and Han) taking on the 3 villains (Vader, Palpatine, and Boba Fett). I like this game type because you are guaranteed to play as the hero characters a few times, giving players the ability to train as heroes for when they are lucky enough to pick up the hero token in other game modes. My only downside to this game mode is that lightsaber battles between Luke and Vader are quite erratic and wild as you just swing around blindly. It just looks very silly.

I want to end on my personal feelings on the game as a whole. The gameplay online is very smooth and flows well. I rarely experience lag when playing online and getting into a full game takes only seconds when playing any of the game modes mentioned above. Less popular game types can take much longer to find people, sometimes resulting in me getting frustrated and not playing that mode after waiting 10 minutes or more. The graphics of the game are stunning when compared to the old games. The game producers did an amazing job at making you feel like you are really fighting in scenes from the movie, with my personal favorite map being the forest of Endor. Also I think the game could have expanded more on the party system, as you can only play with one other partner of your choosing and if more friends want to join you must join the game and hope there are enough spots for everyone. I also feel as though the multiplayer can be extremely repetitive and have nothing left to unlock to strive towards. There are only 4 maps currently with 1 DLC map which is just not enough content to play on. I also believe they need to have more customization for your personal character, since you can really only change their face and hairdo, rather than playing as different races or having custom armor.

Score: 7/10

Trophy difficulty – Medium: Most trophies are quite simple, but some require getting kills in multiplayer on specific game types or vehicles which can be frustrating for some. Survival and Battle trophies on the hardest difficulty can be daunting as well.

Recommendations – If you enjoy the warfare style of Battlefield (with vehicles, destructible items, and chaotic gameplay) then I would recommend getting this game. Also if you are a Star Wars fan then I would highly recommend this game.

*This game review was done on the PS4 version of the game. It is also available on Xbox One and PC.

This review was originally written for Real Dream Productions. You can read more HERE.