DICE’s recently launched Star Wars: Battlefront is the third installment in the Battlefront franchise releasing 11 years after the first title in the franchise also titled Star Wars: Battlefront, which released in 2004, and its sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, which released a year later, in 2005 (I’ll just refer to the 2015 title as Battlefront 2015 from now on).
Battlefront 2015 excels in providing an immersive Star Wars battle fantasy experience, beautifully chaotic ground wars between Rebels and Imperial soldiers, and well-rounded heroes that bring an awesome, yet balanced advantage to any team fight. However, this entry doesn’t come without its flaws, and there are many. From the mismatched set of game modes and hilariously bad voice stand-ins for classic Star Wars characters, to the very shallow multiplayer experience, Battlefront 2015 is far from the franchise’s best entry.
As a huge fan of Star Wars, seeing classic battle scenes come to life in beautiful 1080p, 60 frames per second gameplay action is almost breathtaking. It’s clear that DICE has put an incredible amount of detail into creating an authentic Star Wars battle experience. The graphics of the game are absolutely stunning, and when combined with the enhanced musical score, create an awesome adaptation of the classic films. The comical blaster fire flashes, sparks, and sounds, the awesome might of classic Star Wars heroes, and locations set on memorable planets–it’s the Star Wars fantasy I’ve always wanted to live.
Furthermore, it’s just plain fun. The big team game modes of Battlefront 2015 (Walker Assault and Supremacy) provide fast, hectic, and thematically balanced 20v20 player battles that you just won’t find anywhere else. Whether you’re an Imperial Stormtrooper crushing the Rebel Alliance in an unbalanced, yet movie-reminiscent showdown on Hoth, or a Rebel Soldier teaming up with the Ewoks to blast away AT-STs on the forest moon of Endor, there’s tons of authentic-feeling fun to be had.
But, of course, Battlefront 2015 suffers from the same sickness that rocks many Triple-A titles these days. For starters, the game modes in the game just don’t compliment each other well. The big team modes, such as Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Fighter Squadron (the game’s answer to space battles which falls a bit short of expectations but still provides a solid air war experience), are tons of fun and fit well with the Battlefront feel. The other multiplayer modes just feel like standard, tacked-on shooter modes that could be excluded from the game altogether.
Cargo, Battlefront 2015’s rendition of the classic game mode Capture the Flag is little more than a camp-fest with unexciting team-based gameplay. Next, you have Droid Run, which is basically the same thing but with moving objectives. Then there’s Drop Zone, which is a little more entertaining but basically a team deathmatch variant, and lastly you have Blast. Blast is the game’s team deathmatch, and is painfully bland. It’s not really the game’s fault though, as only so much can be done with a game mode with no actual objectives other than “kill the bad guys.”
Additionally, when you pick up a hero power up, you’re greeted with a brief cutscene in which the hero enters the fray and proceeds to deliver a one-liner more awkward than a pre-teenage boy at a school dance. Which wouldn’t be so vividly out of place if the entire rest of the game wasn’t purely focused on creating an authentic Star Wars experience.
On a similar note, the heart-wrenching flaw in Battlefront 2015 is that despite the game looking, feeling, and sounding like a Star Wars adaptation, the multiplayer experience is unexpectedly shallow. There are, of course, weapons, items, and abilities, to unlock, but there isn’t a huge variety of gameplay styles offered by unlocking those things, as most of it boils down to “thing-that-kills-faster,” “thing-that-goes-boom,” and of course: “thing-that-speeds-up-killing-faster.
Battlefront 2015 is a really solid entry into the Star Wars Battlefront franchise, but it just doesn’t live up to it’s predecessors. But could it have, being released a decade later? My advice is: if you’re a casual Star Wars fan looking to bide your time to the release of Episode VII in December, Battlefront 2015 is a great way to get your Star Wars fill until then. But if you’re looking for an extremely solid Star Wars video game to live out your fantasies in, wait a few months. There are 4 DLC packs planned for Battlefront 2015, and after they’ve been released, there will almost definitely be an edition available for purchase that includes all the extra content for a lower price than the base game was upon release. That’s when you’ll want to pick up this game.
