What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here!
The Battlefront 2 beta was a couple of weeks ago and true to the mantra better late than never,
I am finally getting around to putting together my thoughts on the game so far.
So let’s get right to it!
As you may well be able to guess from my gaming handle, I am a long standing fan
of the Star Wars franchise.
The films, novels, countless video games, I’ve consumed them all and of course I am
always interested in new Star Wars themed games.
I gave the previous Battlefront game a good go during its beta and while the graphics
and the game’s setting were great, the multiplayer experience delivered by the game was not only
a little thin but also too arcady for my taste and that’s why I never got into the game
enough to start covering it on the channel.
After playing the beta for Battlefront 2, I can say that the new title has improved
the multiplayer experience on quite a few levels in addition to providing a single player campaign.
So at first glance everything is looking great for Battlefront 2 but there are also some glaring issues.
Let me start off with what I am expecting from the single player campaign based off
of the trailer video that was available in the beta.
I like the idea of fighting on the imperial side, one of my favourite star wars games
from back in the day was Tie Fighter and being able to return to fight for the dark side
is a nice idea.
As long are there is not some "coming to the light" moment
where the main character turns against the empire.
Please let there not be anything like that.
And apart from that,
the fact that the main character is a female Special Forces storm trooper of undefined
ethnic origin doesn’t really fit in with the classic image of the galactic empire but
is not surprising, given the current trend in video games of ticking all the diversity boxes.
So yeah, the bottom line here is that I really hope that the Battlefront 2 single player
has a great story that can appeal to newer star wars fans as well as those of us who
are more attached to the old storyline.
I also hope that it’s substantial enough to be more than just a token add-on to a game
that will certainly be focused mostly around the multiplayer mode.
I really want it to be great but only the final release will allow us to know for sure.
Speaking of multiplayer, the intro to the beta voiced by John Boyega boasts about how
much bigger Battlefront 2 will be at launch compared to Battlefront one and that’s great!
It’s nice to see a game that is significantly more fleshed out and for me in particular,
the addition of the space battles is an awesome move.
The small scale, objective based PvP battles were decent fun, the large scale ground assault
mode was even better but my favourite of all were the the Starfighter space battles.
I played that mission far more often than was healthy but it was just that much fun.
Sure, it was still a very arcady experience and not being able to set up my flight stick
was a disappointment but I’m sure that functionality will be added in the final release.
Maybe not on launch but I have to assume that joystick setup will be added at some point
just like for Battlefield 1.
The ground battles were certainly action packed and decent fun for a few rounds but considering
that Battlefront is developed by DICE, it’s a shame that the gameplay is far closer to
the Call of Duty multiplayer than the Battlefield franchise.
As I explained in my video discussing the CoD open beta,
the fast paced, “run n’ gun”,
every many for himself style multiplayer isn’t quite my cup of tea.
The thing that makes me come back again and again to games like Rainbow Six and Battlefield 1
is the ability to co-operate with friends and teammates.
And that’s something that I miss in Battlefront.
Sure, you can squad up with origin friends and you will then be placed on the same server
and the same team as them but that’s where it ends.
The fact that you spawn randomly with other players that might not be in your squad, makes
sticking and working together basically impossible.
You’re just kind of playing on your own and might occasionally bump into one of your friends.
And this issue goes both for the infantry and the star fighter gameplay.
In addition to this, something that concerned me while playing the CoD beta
was that the weapon upgrades and customisations felt a little too powerful and if anything, Battlefront 2
has created a system that is even worse.
The star cards you could equip in both infantry and Starfighter games during the beta could
be incredibly powerful; for instance increasing bomber health by 40% or making Boba Fett invincible
while he’s using his rockets.
Even during the short time that the beta was available, I ended up in a good number of
games where a guy with a couple of golden star cards was basically untouchable and the
balance of the match was completely destroyed.
What’s even worse is that the best way to get star cards and weapon upgrades was from
loot crates that in the final release will be purchasable with real world money.
Look, if people spend enough time with a game and want to put some money into micro transactions
to buy loot boxes for weapon skins or character uniforms, that’s perfectly fine by me and
if you can earn those things with in game challenges, alpha or battlepacks, then all better.
Being able to gamble for significant and almost game breaking upgrades is deeply concerning
and I believe the accusations of “Pay to Win” that have been made against Battlefront
are fully justified.
EA has responded to these concerns in a recent dev blog post that reads as follows:
Ok, so maybe the game will not be fully and completely “Pay to Win”.
Tying unlocks and the most powerful upgrades to in-game related actions and achievements
is certainly better than someone being able to drop $50 or $100 on loot crates on day
one and then being basically untouchable for a good while.
Nevertheless, this statement doesn’t address how overpowered some of the upgrades were
during the beta and I think that irrespective of how many of these upgrades you can gamble
for versus how many you have to earn in game, giving players the ability to upgrade their
characters and ships to the point of being virtually undefeatable by anyone who doesn’t
have those upgrades still has the potential to ruin the game for new or casual players.
Of course these upgrades may be tweaked before final release but the whole issue is a definite
red flag for me.
So the bottom line is that despite being a huge star wars fan, this game might be more
about the single player mode for me and that only if it turns out to be good.
A potentially unbalanced multiplayer in which co-operating with my friends is going to be
really tough is just not something that can compete with the established multiplayer games
I am still playing right now.
But as always, those are just my thoughts on the matter.
Did you play the battlefront 2 beta?
How did you find it and are you now looking forward to the final release more or less?
Let me know in the comments section below and with that:
I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next one!