Star Wars: Battlefront

PROS * The game's photorealism is among the best I have seen by 2015's standards. / Although SWBF now offers the liberty to customize characters, select pistols, rifles, and secondary items (rocket launchers, jump packs, grenades, bacta bombs), there are principally no classes, and positions in gameplay are limited to staying in gunfight with primaries and often no strategy (since health regenerates and ammunition is infinite), with secondaries only occasionally accessible throughout.

CONS SWBF is perhaps the most poorly implemented game of 2015. Faithless and with no Galactic Conquest, prequel content, or campaign (which they were developing) and only 4 worlds and minimal communication among players and AI bots, it tends to 10 uncustomizable game modes (14 with expansions) which ultimately could have been merged into 4 (or 6). Of the 27 maps, 20 are multiplayer underutilized for numerous game modes, and only 7 of them (excluding 1 from expansions) are also available in single-player.

CONCLUSION: For casuals, EA SWBF is a visually awesome but overall mediocre FPS indistinct from other more original competitors; for veterans, with the developer's ungenerosity and lazy care, it is a callous experience that exposes Electronic Arts as having joined the Dark Side. For a game with a high budget, high expectations, aggressive advertising, and the enthusiastically hyped-up media, EA SWBF is the apex of the 2015 games that are critically disappointing. I never bought anything from EA since. (Actually I did purchase a large expansion pack, but that turned out to be ungenerous and equally callous, which made for an even worse experience. Fortunately, I fully refunded for that, and that is--and will be--the only exception to my refusing EA's services.)

Is this the game that can beat Star Wars: Battlefront I and II? In short no it isn't. This game had so much potential to provide hours of fun game-play that you can experience while being part of the Star Wars universe but unfortunately it falls flat in a mere 2 hours. First things first, the game looks gorgeous. It could arguably beat most games that have been realised on the this generation. One of the main competitors for the title is Ryse: Son of Rome and we know the shortcomings of that game as well. Right of the bat you'll realise that the game has been created near perfectly for example Endor looks stunning from the massive trees populating the map to the riverbed following along the ground. The Walkers look amazing and so do the explosions, pretty much everything about this game looks stunning. Moving onto the sound which is again like the graphics amazing and fans should be pleased. The lasers shooting out the barrel of the guns sound great. The soundtrack is fantastic but the voice overs aren't that great. I'm pretty sure only Anthony Daniels (C3PO) was the only actor from the films to come and do a voice over for the game. Another notable inclusion is Sam Witwer who played Star Killer in The Force Unleased. I'm not saying the voice overs aren't good. They are but they're not perfect. Now onto the bad points of the game the map design is lacklustre, they just seem generic and like no effort has been put into them. They aren't too memorable either. The guns have very little recoil so there isn't much skill involved with kills. The customisation is very limited, you can only choose from a list of preset faces and if you want a scout trooper you'll have wait till over rank 30. In a Star Wars you would expect at least one mission/mode to take place in space but nope the closet thing you have is hoping in a X-Wing or Tie Fighter etc and having dog fights in the sky but for some reason space wasn't included. The only worth while mode is Walker Assualt but even that can get boring. We all know this game will sell and EA knows this so they have already started working on the sequel. Star Wars Battlefront isn't worth the money you pay at the moment. My recommendation is wait for a massive sale.

Star Wars Battlefront III or rather the uninspired "reboot" of the original two games, shows DICE and EA pumped all their resources into making the game nice and pretty but lack in the game play department. Perhaps instead of taking a glorified field trip to Skywalker Ranch and all the filming locations of the Star Wars films, DICE would have better spent their time playing the original two Battlefront games and refining all the fine elements from them and weeding out the weaker elements. But instead they fall back onto making the game like every other first-person-shooter to have come out in the last several years. With half of the worlds as the original two Battlefront games with no first-player campaign mode, (Galactic Conquest, Story Mode, Instant Action) and most of the actual meaty content relegated to online play, assuming you can shell out the money for XBox Live.

The game's main modes are glorified tutorial quests, survival campaigns and death matches all feeling so underwhelming and just not fun. Star Wars has a plethora of planets, worlds, concepts to use but DICE went with the familiar few with the addition of one or two more to make it look like they're actually trying. There is aerial combat in the game but it's very stilted and just kind of boring; though I never cared much for the space battles in the original Battlefront. Oh but there is more content if you give EA Games even more money for a "season pass." In other words pay twice for the price of one game! I had little hope when I heard EA was going to be the one behind this game and the end result was exactly as a I expected, dull, inspired Call of Duty Clone catered to the annoying little kids who have been raised on Call of Duty. The missions are dull most of the content is online and multiplayer because apparently EA thinks nobody plays games alone anymore. The graphics are pretty but that's no surprise there and the game does control very well and shockingly you actually get the option to play first or third person. Battlefront is garbage, the originals were far better and it's hard to say why EA couldn't stick to that concept.

Star Wars: Battlefront isn't the deepest game and the leveling mechanics are thus a bit pointless but high level players won't be able to overrun new players with better gear thanks to that. I thus managed to become a MVP within the first hour of play and i don't mind the lack of a campaign due to Dice's mostly bad track record.The new novel "Battlefront: Twilight Company" fulfills that role just fine and there is nothing wrong with having a focus either. The whole experience itself is more importantly the most force accurate in the history of Star Wars games and my biggest gripes are fixable balancing issues and a few glitched achievements (The horror!). The graphics and sound are further some of the best on the market and the sense of scale is awe-inspiring. The amount of modes/maps is fine enough and the sequel is destined to make this game absolute but EA started on the right note with the license.

Star Wars Battlefront is definitely a Star Wars game through-and-through, but it's still an EA-DLC-scam that demands you pay Season-Passes all-up. There are modes to enjoy here and there, but the game feels like it's just a placeholder for EA's future Star Wars games. Not too bad, but not all that special either.

At least with Battlefront II it seems that EA's apparently learnt that content over emptiness is the real way to sell their games. The older N64 Star Wars games, Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron and PodRacer are more complete than this 2015 game. AND THOSE GAMES CAME OUT NEARLY TWO DECADES AGO!

If there was any bad to have come out of Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, it was the resulting deal with EA that was their real mistake. That and their shutting down LucasArts' developing arm.

If you're a fan, get this. But if you want a more complete gaming package, look elsewhere. That, or just wait for the next EA Star Wars games.