Star Wars Battlefront won’t be anything like Battlefield

I feel a disturbance in the Force. No wait, that’s just my KFC Dunked Zinger Wing lunch reminding me of the dark side of the colonel. What I do see however, is a new Star Wars game on the way. A new Star Wars Battlefront! Sure, it may not feature nearly as many modes as the original two Battlefront games but what the hell, my obvious fanboyism is clearly not allowing me to see that. It’s a DICE game through and through, and I’m hoping that it doesn’t bother too heavily from their Battlefield series. Which is one of the main development focal points of this game apparently.

Speaking on Reddit, producer Jesper Nielsen updated Star Wars fans on the game. First up, Nielsen explained the reason why this Battlefront wouldn’t include content from the prequel trilogy or the massive Clone Wars from the far-superior CGI-animated TV series:

Sometimes you have to make choices, and those choices may be hard. We are the ones making the game and have to making hard choices sometimes. One of them was to focus solely on the Original Trilogy. The reasoning I’d rather have someone like Figge comment on.

Oh yeah, that totally answered my question. Main concern though? Making this game not feel like a Battlefield game, which would hopefully mean that I have an actual chance to kill some Rebel scum for a change. “I can absolutely guarantee you that it feels nothing like Battlefield. That would be like saying Halo or COD feels like Battlefield. Or the original Battlefront games,” Nielsen explained.

So far, Battlefield looks like a ground forces only kind of game. But Nielsen revealed that space battles could eventually pop up, thanks to the fact that game decisions were handled by the team more often than EA’s corporate structure:

We have and are still discussing space every now and again. We know it has some very exciting prospects. So of course that would be fun to explore! When and if that will happen is impossible for me to say, but no, we’re not saying that space battles are evil and that we will never, ever touch them with a ten-foot pole.

TBH, by far the majority of ideas and main decision making is not made by higher-ups, but by the team. And yes, what you see in DLC is sometimes the result of things that you started thinking during the latter part of development.

We have a word in development for constantly adding new features: it’s called feature creep and it’s absolutely paramount to avoid that in the latter stages if you want to build a good game. It’s hard though! But as you will quickly learn as you embark on game development; the truly hard part is finishing and shipping the game.

How about some replayable missions then huh? Apparently, this Battlefront will feature plenty of them:

What I will say is… I haven’t tried every single mission yet and obviously we’re not done with the game yet, but from what I have played, I think they offer some great experiences and I think for at least some missions, they will have great replayability.

I’m a Star Wars fan through and through, but even my expectations can be classified as cautiously optimistic. I love the fact that this will be an old game from an older era with the visual power of today. I’m just apprehensive that no matter what DICE or EA promise, we’re going to get a lighter version of a great franchise game that pales in comparison to previous and older entries. Still, prove me wrong EA. And I’ll gladly admit it.

Last Updated: April 23, 2015