Star Wars Battlefront may turn out to be a bad game. Star Wars Battlefront may turn out to be a good game. In truth, we don’t really know what Star Wars Battlefront will be like, aside from the tidbits of information we’ve received from EA/DICE, but that hasn’t stopped a very vocal group of fans of the series from grimacing with disgust and already writing off one of the most heavily anticipated games of the year.
Also See: Star Wars Battlefront: Everything We Know So Far Including No Space Battles and Force Awakens DLC
There are a number of reasons why this is the case. Following the launch of the game’s debut trailer DICE revealed more details regarding the game, some of which highlighted features that had been cut from the game along with certain aspects that didn’t fall in line with our expectations. The space battles that had been introduced in Star Wars: Battlefront II have been removed, meaning that the ground-to-space combat many had been hoping for aren’t going to be a reality after all. A single-player story mode has also been jettisoned in favor of “crafted missions” that can be played in either single-player, online co-op or offline split-screen. The player cap is lower than expected, clocking in at a maximum of 40 players per session, while on-rails vehicular combat sections featuring AT-ATs were announced, taking away some of the freedom players experienced with vehicles in the previous entries in the series.
With the backlash inevitably intensifying, DICE’s developers have been forced to take to the likes of Twitter and Reddit in order to justify their decisions, explaining to the angered masses that these design choices were made to benefit the game, though few are buying that explanation. Instead we have become stuck in a perpetual circle-jerk, where Battlefront fans are falling over one another in order to mourn the supposed demise of the series under the guidance of Darth DICE and the Dark Lord of the Sith, Emperor EA.
All this, and we still haven’t seen a snippet of gameplay footage.
A new Star Wars Battlefront game has been in heavy demand for many years now, so much so that the majority have already decided exactly what they wanted to see from it. EA/DICE’s announcements have simply swerved past expectations in order to introduce elements to the series that no one had thought of, therefore making them immediately opposed to the idea of changing up the formula and going in a different direction. The general consensus appears to be that DICE is making Battlefront too similar to its Battlefield series, a complaint which is actively being contradicted by people bemoaning the game’s player count with the argument that “Battlefield 4 had a maximum of 64 players, so therefore that should also be the case in Battlefront.”
While thoroughly enjoyable, the first two Battlefront games were hardly perfect. Blighted by repetitiveness, some of the announcements from EA/DICE suggest that they are working to add more elements to the base game despite the heavily discussed amount of content they’ve removed from the series. Take the criticized on-rails sections, for instance. When taken at face value, on-rails vehicular sections sound like the antithesis of fun when compared with the level of freedom that was granted to players in the original games. However, when you read what one of the game’s devs had to say about this gameplay change, it actually sounds – dare I say it – fun.
Responding to criticisms of the announcement, the dev replied:
“All I can reference right now is the showcased gameplay clip with AT-AT’s on Endor that are on-rails. Once you try it out and/or see gameplay, you will understand why it’s important they’re on-rails. They’re the objective and they need to be going in certain directions. I’m sure the people who work on the game design here can/will comment on it down the right, but trust me, they are only doing their best to create what will be the most fun and exciting experience, and these are some very talented, smart people. Be skeptical, sure, but give it the benefit of doubt until you try it out.”
A new game mode in which players are tasked with guiding an AT-AT to an objective whilst their opponents impede their progress? That’s certainly a departure from the handful of modes we were treated to in Battlefront I and II, the majority of which revolved around simply capturing objectives and killing enemies. In reality, the space combat missions were so popular because they offered something different from the main bulk of the game, which largely revolved around capturing/killing. These limited gameplay options were fine back in 2004/05 when the original games were released, but in a time when there’s an abundance of online shooters, the introduction of new, unique game types is necessary. Again, there’s no way of telling whether or not it will be an enjoyable addition to the game as WE HAVEN’T SEEN ANY GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE YET, but it could be good. Or it could be bad. Who knows?
Star Wars Battlefront may be the awful addition to the series that people are already claiming it will be, but it might be best to wait it out a little while until we pass further judgement. By a little while, I mean until we’ve actually seen anything from the game other than a two-minute trailer, a handful of screenshots and a few Reddit comments from its developers. Star Wars is back, so let’s just be happy, eh?
