Star Wars Battlefront II

Sometimes there are careers that I think I'd be f**king amazing at. Not that I'm currently displeased with my current career/life, but the expletive is in that first sentence because it comes from a place of anger. 

Head-shaking anger. 

The executives at Electronic Arts, who undoubtedly have their hands all over Star Wars Battlefront II, are morons. Trying less to sound like a pissy gamer and more like a businessman, Battlefront II -- the disappointing sequel to the disappointing original reboot of one of the best game series ever made -- should have been a Grand Slam. Done right, EA could have printed themselves money (at least more than they already made on it). Where I had a certain amount of forgiveness for the first game, I lack empathy here. The first was bare-bones and rushed to coincide with the release of The Force Awakens. But at the end of the day, it was awesome to have Battlefront back with spectacular next-gen graphics. We may have only gotten a third (or less) of a full game, but there was excitement and newness to it. 

Battlefront II had the ability to right all the wrongs of its lacking, but strong-concept predecessor. It legitimately had the ability to become an all-time classic like Titanfall 2 (side bar: oh look! another game somehow marred by stupid executives at EA) by adding a memorable campaign, giving us an involved and deep multiplayer, and expanding to all seven [now eight] films. One would assume with the general UIs and party/chat/matchmaking capabilities of their other titans, including Battlefield I, that the game wouldn't struggle here. 

Before I start trashing on Battlefront II it should be stated that it is a much more complete and better game than the first. I'll eventually reach what I liked about it in time, but I circle back to my original disclaimer that there's no excuse this time around and I'm less forgiving. Stringing together a series of dumbass decisions, EA very nearly killed this game before it got off the ground. 

Even the bad guys are pissed off!

Ignore the idiotic progression system that was such a misfire it got governments (who had to judge if it was "gambling" or not) and Disney (who was so pissed off that it would affect The Last Jedi box office) involved, but instead let's focus, at least to start off, on how much better this game could have been, shall we? I want you to imagine Battlefield 1 and all the great things that game entails. Expansive modes, intuitive party system, worthwhile class differences, great balance, ability to stick together with your friends, smart spawning system that gives an overlay of the map and friends, etc. etc. etc. Now imagine that...but with a Star Wars skin. And there's your answer. EA would have had a dramatically better game with a straight-up clone of Battlefield 1 but instead they botch technical aspects left and right in Battlefront to the point of head-shaking frustration. I could go into savage details here, but it would get technical and it's just better to summarize with the absolute shock I had there wasn't more correlation between a HIGHLY PROVEN MODEL and a game with this much potential.  Especially when they're made by the same company (EA) and developer (DICE). Explain that one?!?

Moving on to the progression system, EA should be ashamed of themselves. Apparently some sort of fix is on the way but it's probably too little too late and just as dumb. Most games will reward your playtime with experience points to progress on the skills/character/weapon you currently use. Doing this allows you to level up and unlock new, often better skills, etc. It's intuitive and it's what makes the "grind" of multiplayer so addictive and fun. EA thought "Yeah, f**k that noise" and decided it would be better for gamers to earn next-to-nothing for playing in the form of credits. These credits can be exchanged for loot boxes with God-knows-what inside of them that may or may not level up anything you care to use. Or you could waste the much more rare, "Parts" to create the Star Cards you want. Star Cards (the attributes you attach to characters) are dumb enough as is, but I can deal with them. The fact that you must earn fake money at a snail's pace -- and yes, it's still slow -- to get RANDOM upgrades is so dumb, I ask myself why I don't go steal a 7-figure-job from an EA executive based on the incompetence alone. Rightfully so, gamers raged and the result was a lot of noise with little action, a half-assed "We're sorry", and a drastically damaged reputation for the game and DICE (who largely shouldn't be to blame here). It's such a big deal because EA thought they'd make money off people buying these loot crates to progress/unlock faster. Example scenario:

"Oh...you like to play as an interceptor-type starship?"
[Player opens 50+ loot boxes -- only 3 things are interceptor-based]
"That'll be $4.99 for X amount of loot boxes. Fingers crossed you get what you're looking for! Or you could always play another 30 hours!" 

It was greed on an unparalleled scale and EA deserves every metaphorical middle-finger that came to them, especially given the fact that the game underneath, while improved, still has substantial shortcomings. 

"Makin my way downtown, faces pass [mumble mumble]
And now I WON-DER! If I could faalll" *gets shot and dies* Damnit!

Truthfully those are the two biggest issues I have with the game, but they're substantial enough to really hurt the experience and longevity of the game. Luckily to somewhat counteract those issues though, we have a more complete game overall. The single player campaign has some fair gameplay with a surprisingly gripping story that I was interested to finish less because it was fun, but more because I was interested. Iden Versio's character arc is well done and borderline worthy of a Star Wars Story film of its own. There are a handful of cameos that are shoehorned in, but I appreciated the gameplay variety they provided. It's not the near-GOAT that Respawn was able to fire back with on Titanfall 2, but it's appreciated that it was included at all. However, part of me still wishes that there was a mode similar to what was found in the old games along the lines of "Galactic Conquest" where it's just a bunch of big AI battles across each map. Maybe one could organize something similar in Arcade Mode (I've honestly barely touched this section of the game), but having arguably 2 campaigns -- one with story and one where you're just experiencing the maps -- would have been nice.

Ooooo new trilogy stuff!

The gameplay for me is also where I hesitate to call Battlefront a heavy-hitter. There are two variations: Galactic and Starfighter. Galactic battles are when you're playing as a character on the ground in either first-person or third-person mode. Given this choice, it's often best to be third-person because of the extra vision you have, but it's then sad that Battlefront II feels dated here. Outside of the general fact that I'm just not that good at the on-foot battles in this game (meaning that I rarely got to play as heroes which is another complaint), I thought the controls were often awkward and sometimes not all that responsive. You character feels rather unable to do some simple tasks -- I can't tell you how many times I couldn't "jump" onto a ledge that I seemed to only be missing be mere centimeters -- and they don't have a very great range of motion to evade. In a day and age where third person shooters in particular have a lot of maneuverability (something The Division did damn well), Battlefront II's gameplay feels stuck. It does create more chaos, sure, and I'm not positive that introducing a cover system would be the answer (though I think it would have been a net positive), but when I think of games that control and feel great, I won't be thinking of this one. Heroes are frustratingly even worse as they're incredibly quick with seemingly little accuracy. Again, some of this points back to my lack of skill, but they generally feel unwieldy and easily defeatable unless a highly-skilled-defensive player is at the helm. 

Strangely, on the other hand, you have Starfighter Assaults which are best just described as "space battles" and are the single biggest win for Battlefront II and I'd even go so far as to argue that they're reason enough to pick up the game once it's at a $30 price point (likely soon). They'll make you long for a new Rogue Squadron game, but really it's just a representation of the things this game does right. Vehicle control is spectacular and responsive, the balance between classes is spot-on, heroes are fairly priced and insanely fun to control, and the rounds are often quick, intense, and dramatic. It's weird that some of my favorite gaming moments from 2017 are packaged in arguably the worst game that I purchased this year, but truly Starfighter Assault is the saving grace of this game. Navigating through intense, debris-laden battlefields in space, trying to complete difficult objectives, all the while killing as many enemy ships as you can is addicting and more than often creates moments of high-intensity greatness where you and another ship play chicken, only for you to win out and fly through the explosion of their demise.

That bit leads to my final point, and it was a quality the first game shared too, that Battlefront indeed feels like a Star Wars game and that's an awesome feat. It adds a lot to what would be an incredibly average game without it. The graphics are still absolutely stunning most of the time and you'll find no complaints from me there. Likewise, and probably to a greater impact, the sound design is impeccable. Sounds from all over the Star Wars universe are here, with a few fan favorites (Ion bombs from Boba Fett's ship) making appearances too. Unfortunately, with every good decision/quality comes a half-baked one with this game. It's still largely original trilogy characters and settings and the options for heroes and villains are odd, to say the least. To see Bossk as an option but be missing out on other "DUH!" characters like Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, General Grievous, Mace Windu, Jango Fett, etc. etc. etc. is just flat out dumb and there are also a lack of Prequel and New trilogy events/maps. Maybe they'll come along as this "free" DLC we've been hearing about -- there already was a pretty substantial Last Jedi addition -- but it's definitely not an even spread like the OG games were back in the day. 

The best parts of the game, by a mile.

And I guess that's really the downfall of Battlefront II. It does some things right and some things incredibly well but it's consistently held back by dumb decision after dumb decision, most of which are driven by greed. There's a version of this game that is an all time classic and has such great replay value that people would be heavily in the community until Battlefront III. And to be honest, I think that version was easily obtainable. But EA continues to want to hold back it's perfection from gamers in order to milk them and make them want. This second iteration is undoubtedly "better" than the first, but comes with too many shortfalls to make it excusable for a company with this much experience on a second attempt. Let's just hope with them owning the Star Wars license that they start to treat that great responsibility with a little more respect.

CONS

• Some idiotic technical choices and decisions that are things that should be so simple in 2017. Especially when you are working with the same company/developer that made the uber-successful and smart Battlefield I 
• Easy example: I get "extra credits" by playing "close" to my friends on the battlefield. Ignore the fact that's almost impossible in Starfight Assault and instead answer me why I can't spawn on my friends on the ground to provide them support and remain close to them? 
• Star Cards are dumb, earning credits to unlock Star Cards at a snails pace is even dumber, and using Star Cards as the only form of progression in skills/powers access is the dumbest -- not to mention greediest -- progression system ever. When your players see no rewards for focusing their play on a particular class or ship, they'll feel like it's a waste of time
• Unbalanced settings/characters between all three trilogies. Given that the first game was only the original trilogy, it should have been skewed to the other two this time
• On foot gameplay feels aged when compared to others. A lack of a cover based system is the most immediate flaw, but in general the third-person vantage point makes your characters agility/maneuverability feel limited
• Partly my own skill but heroes/villains feel weak unless you are heavily-defense oriented while playing as them
• Some huge misses in what heroes, villains, and other ships/characters were chosen. #wherearemydroidekas?

 PROS

•  The game is a technical marvel and truly feels like Star Wars 
• Graphics are often superb and locales look spot-on
• The sound design is top-notch and features sounds ripped right from the films
• I really enjoyed the campaign's story. It's gameplay was good/great but I was continuously interested in where our protagonist was going and what the conclusion would be. Kudos there on a solid addition
• Free promised DLC is one way to save your a**. 
• Starfighter Assaults are an area where the game could almost be considered perfect. I don't say that just because I'm good at them, but they're genuinely well designed and often intense. A great addition/evolution of what the first game had
• Can be wildly fun when you look past all the nice-to-haves and even must-haves that didn't make it into the final game

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10