Background:
Star Wars Battlefront is based from a rather unknown film series, for those who live in a Fallout Vault, called Star Wars. There have two main titles in the series, with at least one for the PSP, which were both fantastic for the time and still hold some merit in the fun department. The basic premise of these games is to play a warfare game in the immense setting of Star Wars and the first 2 installments captured this perfectly. Not only with the well designed maps, but with the number of them as well as having basic and effective gameplay element such as classes for teamwork, and a great number of vehicles. Both the ground and vehicle aspect of the game really made you feel part of the Star Wars world with only the base colour beacons giving away the fact that this is a game and not a film. They both had limited but fun Story Modes and a mode called galactic conquest which was a turn based strategy mode which you took control of planets in regular game modes, gaining credits to buy Jedi allies and power ups. It was a great time to own a game console.
Gameplay:
The new Battlefront game has the usual set of game modes such as TDM, or Blast, and Supremacy as full scale war style game as well a new game entirely based on the walker assault from the Empire Strikes Back film where the Empire defend the Walkers so they can wreck the Rebels home. Although these modes are well designed they can only be played online which is rather lazy when they already had a template to work from. There are still multiple weapons but no classes, which I think they replace quite well with optional load outs filled with anti-tank missiles, snipers and jet packs. As you can only have two extra pieces of equipment the amount of combinations do keep the game interesting.
The main weapons do feel great with their sound designs and thermal impacts when they make contact with a target, be that human or tree, and many may feel disappointed with the lack of truly unique weapons, with the game just having you choose your preference of rapid fire, power or balance. If you were looking for more you will feel let down. The problem with this system is that no weapon has a play style and it's mainly luck, especially when after a couple of blasts with any weapon accuracy becomes a thing of legend, so most gun fights are luck.
The guns may feel lacking but there are plenty of power items like thermal grenades, aka mini nukes, shield generators and Droid allies. But these are acquired via floating hologram things making the experience feel rather childish and unrewarding where everything is gained through a Random Number Generator which is totally different to the old Battlefronts true war like feel and that RNG is the mark of a badly designed game.
But there are still vehicles right? The meat of the old Battlefronts and something that made the games feel EPIC. There are AT-ST's for the empire which are great to play with… and that's it. Well there are speeder bikes on Endor but they are uncontrollable and pathetic so as good as don't exist as no-one uses them. It is fairly weak that there is only viable ground vehicle in the game.
So ships are here aren't they? Of course they are, but they feel like they are there because they have to be rather than because they should be. Both sides do have them at least but they have the most basic control scheme that they can't be used to any real effectiveness beyond a basic level. You can go forward, turn, and every maneuver is a single button press so is a completely shallow experience to pull off. Also flying them takes you out of the battle and only allows you to fight other pilots making them completely useless except in there own game mode, which is admittedly fun.
Finally Heroes. They are here. Again it is a floating pick up so is random and not tactical in any way. It is the epitome of fun to play as Boba Fett or Luke Skywalker but the complete randomness makes acquiring them a hollow victory. Each side has three heroes to choose from and all are balanced on the Heroes vs Villain mode so choosing the support characters, Leia or the Emporer, is a waste.
There may as well not be a single player though as they are the most ill-conceived and terrible horde and bots mode I have ever played… and I played Brink. SO forget playing this game offline.
Graphics:
Star Wars Battlefront is one of the most good looking games ever made. Just to be clear before I say why I don't care. They are so good they make me weep with the knowledge there are only 4 maps, 5 with the free DLC, and other maps many will use to defend this are just segments of the large maps hacked away to make room for smaller game modes. It looks picture perfect, but after a few hours playing you will stop noticing the looks and start noticing the lack of environments to explore.
Conclusion:
This is not a memorable experience to play, but it is a fun arcade game and it is worth getting for that. It just doesn't offer anything more than a couple of games of mindless blasting at a time to sink your teeth into to call this a great game.
I recommend buying this game but only for those who don't already have Call Of Duty, Battlefield or Halo.
If I had to score this experience it would be the following
It's just an okay game and if it was anything but Star Wars would be quickly forgotten.
