STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT

Never tell me the odds…

It’s finally here. No, not The Force Awakens. The next best thing. EA/Dice’s take on Star Wars Battlefront. While it’s very different to the games of old, it’s still brilliant. And, it’s by far one of the most spectacularly beautiful games I’ve ever played.

I’m not over exaggerating. The attention to detail on almost everything is unbelievable. From the forest of Endor, (In my opinion the best looking map - I'm not lying when I say it looks better than real) to the battle scars on the star ships. Everything looks like it came straight out of the original trilogy, and then made into 1080p. The sounds as well, like the screech of Tie Fighters or the individual blasts of a rifle are perfect. My only issue with the sound effects are that the heroes’ voices aren’t taken straight from the movies, despite the fact all their lines do. Instead we’re treated to a weird sounding Luke and a poor attempt at Darth Vader. The only one who sounds even near right is Han Solo.

Speaking of heroes, there’s six. On the light side: Luke, Leia and Han Solo. On the dark, Vader, the Emperor and Boba Fett. Each have three power ups. What surprised me most was that the gun wielding heroes don’t suffer in comparison to the others. Their blasters are buffed up so they do a similar amount of damage. The most fun to play as? Luke and Boba Fett. Without a doubt. Luke is fun quick, while Fett’s just Fett. Enough said.

When we were treated to the Beta earlier this year, fans went crazy. Some loved it, some didn’t. Either way, there’s no denying it was fun as hell. Apparently the makers have listened to feedback, as some of the problems have been fixed. AT ATs are no longer completely unstoppable, giving the Rebels a change of winning for once.

The big focus of the new game is multiplayer. The game features a lot of game modes. To name a few: Walker Assault, Fighter Squadron and Heroes vs Villains. Walker Assault is about bringing down Imperial AT ATs, Fighter Squadron is a battle in the sky, and Heroes vs Villains is exactly what it sounds like. Each mode feels distinct, and plays, on the whole, very, very well. Fighter Squadron is very fun, even more so when you find the hero power ups: the legendary Millennium Falcon and Slave 1. Both look brilliant and sound fantastic. They’re a lot stronger and more powerful than the other ships. Walker Assault was very unbalanced in the beta. Now, the Rebels are on an equal footing with the Imperials. The other modes are too numerous to mention. Hell, I haven’t even played all of them yet.

While the majority of game modes are multiplayer, there are a few fun single player modes as well. They’re all player vs AI, or if you’re playing with a friend, player vs player. Survival is basically Battlefront’s version of Halo’s firefight. Battles are fun too, giving you the chance to play as foot soldiers or heroes/villains with a squad of friendly AIs. One of the tutorial missions in particular, Endor Chase, is immensely fun. Chasing down a small batch of rebels, you’re fast and can’t make mistakes. It gives you the basic run down of how not to crash into a tree and die.

There is one fall down for the game which stands out. There are only four planets. They may each have variations of maps, but it’s noticeable. I know EA will release more, and make us pay a stupid amount to play on them. The old battlefront games had loads of maps, and now we have only four. They all look and play great, but looking at the same landscapes over and over again can get old. Same goes for heroes. Although the only one they could probably add is Chewbacca.

When Battlefront was announced at E3 a couple of years ago, everyone lost their minds. The hype soon built when we were given Alpha footage, and then the trailers came rolling in too. The thing is, it was always going to be good. Even if it was bad, it’s still Star Wars. As a friend said, there’s no other game that gives you the same feeling when a tie fighter flies over head. Amen to that. That’s exactly what this game is: Nostalgia overload. And it works. Really, really well.

When more maps become available, I’ll happily give this game a 10, even though it may just be a rehashed Battlefield. But who cares. Star wars is back, and there’s less than a month to go until The Force Awakens comes out. Until then…

9/10

All pictures below are from my own gameplay experience…

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