Yesterday, the first footage of Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017) was leaked 4 days in advance of its scheduled debut at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando. I’m a big fan of the Star Wars: Battlefront (2015), when you look at it as a whole with the downloadable content (DLC). It’s a solid online multiplayer game that in my opinion translates the experience of watching a classic Star Wars battle into a game better than any other.
Many players criticized its lack of a single player campaign, which were a good feature of the mid-2000s Battlefront games, but far from the highlight for me. Those campaigns would essentially let you play through the entire, albeit roughly adapted Star Wars saga in a majority of its famous battles, which is cool, but until now I’ve always liked Battlefront games for their multiplayer. I’d rather play them with other people, or a single player Star Wars game with an original plot, than just retread the plot points of the movies by myself.
However, this campaign for Battlefront II actually looks kind of inspired; with an original plot set post-Return of the Jedi that appears to focus on a female Stormtrooper. It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten an original, single player Star Wars game so I’m really looking forward to it. But some of the first comments I saw on this teaser were people complaining about the addition of a single player campaign… really?! Then don’t play it. I don’t understand.
Also confirmed in the trailer is the addition of content from the prequel trilogy, which I’m generally not a huge fan of, but they were in the 2000s Battlefront games so I kind of appreciate that from a nostalgia standpoint. Those games were much better than those movies. Given that the campaign takes place post-Return of the Jedi, I think I’ll have enough non-prequel content to keep me satisfied. I just hope we’ll be able to separate the trilogies when seeking out matches; or actually have a say in what map we want to play on when matchmaking. It was disappointing that wasn’t a feature in 2015 when the match customization in the 2000s games was so good, although that’s comparing complex online multiplayer filled with dozens of players apples with 2005 local multiplayer oranges.
I have to say though, up to 4 player local multiplayer was a staple of the older games, and that was replaced in 2015 with a half-assed 2-player split-screen mode… Why? Bring back the 4-player! I know that it’s probably too much for one game system to handle with graphics being so good now and whatnot, but I can’t help but remember how much fun that was. If you played 2015 online with friends I’m sure neither of these issues bothered you much though; my friends just prefer to mooch off of my game systems instead of buying their own. I suppose I’m getting off track a bit, but I want to make sure my concerns are aired in case any people working on the game are reading. Heh.
I’m down with the addition of sequel trilogy material as well, but one red flag in the trailer I noticed was this: Pre-order to get Star Wars: The Last Jedi Heroes. We’ve seen literally twenty seconds of this new game and already they’re at it again with the incentive bullshit. I really wish they would give us just one price point…say, $60… and let us buy all of the content, no pre-order required, just a customer purchasing a game. Is that really too much to ask for now?
This probably means they’re going to go the DLC route again, which was a terrible way to release 2015; what would have otherwise been a pretty well-rounded game with plenty of variety was split in half, one half put on a $60 disc and the other half released in chunks over the course of a year for another $50. How about this, this time around I’ll wait until a few months after Battlefront II launches, you know, when the price drops to $20 because of the stupid DLC (again), buy the stupid DLC, and then I’ll actually have spent an average amount of money for a game with an average amount of content. Once the DLC is released over the course of a year. Of course, then I’ll also have to factor in the $60 yearly Playstation Network fee.
But hey, we can ride tauntauns again.
Nitpicks and consumer woes aside, I’m sure the game will live up to its purpose: to deliver another fun, action packed experience in the Star Wars universe. I now leave you with an underappreciated gem I made when the 2015 Battlefront came out.
Let us know what you think of the content being added to the sequel!