Star Wars Battlefront 2

Be aware this review contains spoilers for the campaign mode. 

Star Wars Battlefront 2 has been a highly anticipated game that has also had its fair share of controversy with regards to micro transactions, loot crates and pay walls. As a Star Wars tragic this game has been one I have been waiting with bated breath for and after the disappointment of the 2015 Battlefront I was hoping and praying that this new venture would improve upon the last title. 

Battlefront 2 finally introduced a long awaited campaign mode which I was so excited to play. It takes place towards the end of Return of the Jedi during the Battle of Endor and then fills in some of the missing time between then and The Force Awakens. You follow the Imperial Special Forces commando unit Inferno Squad, led by Commander Iden Versio, daughter of Admiral Garrick Versio, and made up of Agents Gideon Hask and Del Meeko. Upon witnessing the destruction of the second Death Star, Versio's troops look to her for direction. Versio tells her troops that they will avenge the Emperor.

The story ends up spanning thirty years, beginning in the waning months of the Galactic Civil War and concluding around the destruction of Starkiller Base. Gameplay is broken up into segments where you play as Versio and then take the reigns as other Legacy characters such as Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, Han Solo & Princess Leia Organa. In theory it may have sounded like a good idea to include all these other characters, but unfortunately it detracted from Versio’s story and character development. In the grand scheme of things you hardly got to play as the main character that the game which was very disappointing. The spotlight was moved so  quickly off Versio, resolving her internal conflict with little fanfare to focus on iconic heroes and a far more traditional good versus evil storyline which was a poor and very safe narrative choice in my opinion. 

Iden Versio was a really intriguing and interesting character but ultimately ended up falling into classic Star Wars cliques. The marketing for the game made it appear as though you would be playing as this stone cold Imperial comander who was 100% loyal and committed to the Empire and yeah you do do that for about an hour and then she switches sides to the Rebels after the remnants of the Empire decide to attack her home world of Vardos. It was a far too predictable path to take her story down. And although I did think that she would turn to the good side at some point, I didn’t expect it to happen as fast as it did. In saying that, hopefully with more development I believe Versio can stand up with the likes of Rey and Jyn Erso as heroes young kids can look up to.  

The length of the campaign was extremely and disappointingly short coming in at about 5 hours. With a game like this in which the single player story had been so heavily marketed I just expected so much more. This is even shorter than most of the recent single player DLC such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted so it just adds to the disappointment.  

Visually the campaign mode looks fantastic with environments looking lush and character models looking as realistic as ever. An especially good job was done on the Legacy characters which can be so hard to achieve some times.  

The voice acting found in the campaign and throughout the game as a whole with a few exceptions has been done extremely well. Janina Gavankar delivered an inspired performance as Iden Versio which made me really connect with the character as the story progressed. It was also fantastic that the developers were able to get the likes of Daisy Ridley and Billy Dee Williams to reprise their roles and also be able to find quality voice actors to fill in other key roles such as Luke, Han & Leia. All of these characters voices sounded convincing and never distracted from the fact that they were not their original actors. The only issue that I had in terms of voice acting was with Kylo Ren who sounded nothing like Adam Driver when he wasn’t wearing his mask. It’s very unfortunate that they were not able to get Driver to voice Ren as it would have prevented the one small blemish on what is a really stellar voice cast. 

Star Wars Battlefront 2 will be adding 3 new chapters to the campaign for free on December 13 callled Resurrection in which you will rejoin Iden Versio during the days of the First Order’s rise to power. The campaign included on day one was unresolved and finished on a pretty uninspiring cliffhanger which begs the question, why where these 3 extra chapters not included from the start? Unless they feature content that ties into The Last Jedi and could be considered spoilerish then why not complete the story from the start? It just feels lazy to give out a half baked story when you've had so much time to craft something really memorable and amazing.

Overall, the campaign was a decent experience but in the end was far too short in length, fell into the typical Star Wars tropes of bad guy turning good along with not nearly enough time spent fleshing out and playing as the main protagonist, Iden Versio. It ended suddenly, teasing new content that will release alongside The Last Jedi which will hopefully resolve loose story threads. But at this moment in time Iden’s story feels insubstantial as a result. 

The multiplayer is where the heart of Battlefront 2 lies. There is a total of 5 modes to play which are Galactic Assault which is centered around unique set pieces set across the eleven planets and locations featuring all three Star Wars eras involving a team of 20 attackers against 20 defenders, Starfighter Assault which places you in space and planetary atmosphere battles involving 12 attackers against 12 defenders, both teams being reinforced with an additional 20 AI ships, Heroes vs Villains is a team deathmatch mode involving the heroes and villains found in the game with four light side heroes facing off against four dark side villains, Strike involves battles in close quarter scenarios involving a team of eight attackers aiming to capture a unique objective from a team of eight defenders; essentially one team capture the flag and lastly Blast which is a standard team deathmatch between two teams of 10 players in which teams try to reach 100 total combined eliminations before the enemy team can. 

All of these game modes offer a nice range of variety and appeal to all types of play styles. You might be more inclined to play in a large group with Galactic Assault or enjoy piloting spacecrafts and play more Starfighter Assault. It really has something for everyone which is an aspect that the first game lacked.

My favourite mode would easily have to be Heroes vs Villains. It was a mode that originally featured in the 2005 version of Battlefront 2 and was something that I played so much as a kid, so to see it make a return here was fantastic. The gameplay was frantic and so much fun. The feeling you get when you get to run around as your favourite character is something that is so magical and amazing. All of the characters felt balanced except maybe for Yoda who has such a tiny hit box that can be extremely difficult to hit him. But apart from that it is an exceptionally enjoyable mode that captures the essence of the old game. 

A mode that I would love to see a return of in future DLC is Galactic Conquest which was a mode that featured in the very first two iterations of the Battlefront series. Galactic Conquest had the player commanding a fleet throughout the galaxy conquering and protecting planets, much like a game of Risk. When two opposing forces reached the same planet, the game switched to the traditional perspective, and the player had to eliminate the enemy faction to gain control of that planet. Players gained credits for performing well which could be used to buy new character classes, a new fleet, or bonuses that provided additional support when attacking or defending a planet. Adding a mode like this to the game would help to greatly extend its life going forward and would be a great bring back the nostalgia of the old games.

In the future, I hope that the Conquest multiplayer mode is added to the game. Conquest involved players capturing and holding strategic points on the map, known in the game as command posts. Players captured command posts by standing near one until its holograph transitions to blue, indicating it is held by their forces. Players could also capture both enemy command posts, which were designated red, and neutral command posts, which were white. When all command posts belonged to a given team, a twenty-second timer began in which the opposing team had to deenergize a command post or they lost. It was one of my favourite modes to play in the original Battlefront titles and I would be so overjoyed if they brought it back. 

A big problem that I encountered while playing multiplayer was the amount of time it took to get into a game. It could take sometimes between 5 and 10 minutes just to join a match which became extremely frustrating and made me feel as though I was spending more time waiting to play the game instead of actually playing which isn't great and I hope gets improved upon going forward.

There has been a lot of discussion and controversy surrounding the progression system, loot crates and pay walls that have been included in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and and they are 100% warranted. The progression system is quite frankly one of the worst I have ever experienced in any multiplayer game. It is confusing, slow and unnecessary. The fact that the contents of crates is completely random and you get star cards for classes and heroes that you never use is ridiculous. And speaking of heroes, I have spent all of my hard earned credits trying to unlock them which is one of my biggest issues with Battlefront 2. I paid $80 for the game, every single hero and villain should be unlocked from the moment I load the game up for the first time. Sticking them behind pay walls is an absolute joke and means that instead of spending my credits on stupid crates to try and upgrade my infantry, ships and heroes I have been spending them to unlock heroes that should have been available from the start.      

I hope that the Star Wars community keeps on raising their voices in regards to the aspects of this game that are terrible and take away from the experience, because underneath all the crap is a really good and enjoyable game. In the future, I hope that more heroes and villains from the prequel and sequel eras are introduced as DLC along with new maps, especially Mustafar.  

Battlefront 2 is a great game for anyone who loves Star Wars. It captures the core essence of what makes the movies so fantastic, but unfortunately it gets dragged down immensely by a shocking progression system and pay to win elements that greatly sour the overall experience.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

3.5/5

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