Star Wars Battlefront was an alright game. For a fresh start on a new franchise, it was clearly decent stuff that was backed by a visual engine from DICE that looked impossibly good. It was smooth, it played exactly as you expected it to when you factored in its Battlefield DNA and having the chance to run around as Darth Vader and Rogue One the hell out of a squad of Rebels felt viscerally fantastic at least.
It’s just that Battlefront was a bit of a barebones game on launch. Unless you were prepared to pony up the extra bucks needed for the season pass (something the game itself felt like reminding you about constantly uuurrgghhh), the options available were about as scarce as Geoff’s love for the franchise. I hope that Star Wars Battlefront 2 can remedy that, seeing as how the leaked trailer above focuses on content from across the prequel, original and sequel eras.
I also took a few screens to examine, because dammit I’m going to earn the right to sleep in my Wookie-themed PJs! Let’s start with:
“Honey, I’m going to be a bit late back from work today. The work kind of just…exploded”.
While the protagonist of the first Battlefront was essentially a nameless grunt, the idea of playing as a soldier on the frontlines of the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire was strangely satisfying. This time around, Battlefront 2 actually chucks in a proper story mode, and that’s what has me eager for the game. Will the protagonists have name to go with their faces? Probably.
Playing as a hero may have been swell in Battlefront…but so was playing as a Sith Lord or the last Jedi knight. Battlefront 2 is promising characters from across multiple eras and hot diggity dog that’s Darth Maul over there engage Daniel Bryan YES! chants to maximum.
…And Yoda. Smiling face emoji. YES! YES! YES!
We said all eras, right? Because it looks like Daisy Ridley’s Rey is going to enter the fray as well, bringing Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren along for the chase.
It’s still an EA game, so don’t forget about all that DLC. BUY THE DLC. YOU LIKE THE DLC. YOU LOVE THE DLC. YOUR LIFE IS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT DLC.
I utterly adored the dogfights of the first Battlefront. A mode that felt pitch-perfect, it was simple to hop into and managed to capture the feeling of being one Rebel/Imperial against dozens of other fighters in the air. If we’re getting more locations and a stage where we engage TIE Fighters across the First Order headquarters on Starkiller Base, then I’m going to be grinning from ear to ear.
That’s about the meat and potatoes of it then. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is out in Q4. Expect a few more details possibly to jettison out of the Star Wars Celebration airlock where this trailer was probably meant to debut originally.
Last Updated: April 12, 2017
Captain JJ
April 12, 2017 at 08:13
Finally a character from the prequels. Darth Maul is the shizz. As bad as Battlefront was, maybe, just maybe, this one might be something.
Matthew Holliday
April 12, 2017 at 09:32
Maul is such a good bad guy.
Battlefront did so many things right, but it did so many things wrong aswell.
heres hoping, i guess.
Skyblue
April 12, 2017 at 11:51
He is an awesome villain. The only thing Lucas got right in that movie along with casting Liam Neeson.
Captain JJ
April 13, 2017 at 08:17
I bought Battlefront, the only good thing I’ve found about it so far is the way it looks. In my experience and personal opinion, other than that and the Star Wars theme it has nothing going for it.
Skyblue
April 12, 2017 at 11:49
Darth Maul was the designers second worst nightmare. George Lucas asked him to design the scariest villain he could think of and he said he was terrified of clowns. So George said lets go with your second worst nightmare.
http://filmsketchr.blogspot.co.za/2012/04/see-star-wars-darth-mauls-secret.html
Ottokie
April 12, 2017 at 08:29
Did not buy the first Battlefront ✓
Not going to buy the second Battlefront ✓
Matthew Holliday
April 12, 2017 at 09:31
Didnt buy the first one.
Not ruling the second one out, but its one game I dont have enough faith in to pre-order.
Captain JJ
April 12, 2017 at 09:35
Yea. Wise move.
HairyEwok
April 12, 2017 at 08:57
Same Frostbite engine as Andromeda, still way better faces.
Ottokie
April 12, 2017 at 08:59
You make fem shep sad 🙁
https://geekreply.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/rgt.jpg
HairyEwok
April 12, 2017 at 09:00
Why does it look like she had a stroke….
Ottokie
April 12, 2017 at 09:02
She just realized she has a pirated version…
Daniel Hallinan
April 12, 2017 at 09:16
If anyone’s curious, that smaller Star Destroyer shown in the trailer is an Imperial Raider, designed specifically for engaging enemy squadron threats. It’s really cool to see it in the trailer, because it was designed in the last year or two by Fantasy Flight Games (in cooperation with Disney, etc) for their X-Wing and Armada tabletop skirmish games – and I fuckin’ love those games and the company 😀
They designed it because, when looking at units and balance for the games, they realized the Empire had no ship designed to intercept or squadrons, so they made one 🙂
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8aa4fed0a531985b54fa307ce93b0076f7c2676260f5ea22a92c29a4cbe03717.jpg
In general though… I felt the air combat (which was what attracted me, due to playing the above mentioned games) was severely disappointing. Way too simplistic, and awkward balancing of the faction ships which lent more towards homogenization rather than diversity (ie, giving TIE Fighters any form of ordnance) was frustrating.
Again, I know this is because I’ve been exposed to a much more in-depth approach to the dogfighting in Star Wars… bet even the old X-Wing / TIE Fighter games were so much more interesting.
Lu
April 12, 2017 at 10:52
That is a pretty ship. Love the TIE style wings.
Honestly I have yet to find a combat flight sim that matches X-Wing / TIE Fighter.
Skyblue
April 12, 2017 at 11:45
TIE Fighter, oh the glory!