Ever since Episode IV- A New Hope was released, Star Wars has become one of the most well-known franchises all over the world. In fact, it has one of the largest and oldest fanbases of any other entertainment franchise out there. While the movies were really advanced for their time, it wasn’t until 2004 that we got a first person and third person Star Wars game that put us directly in the middle of all the action. Many of us remember spending countless hours playing the original Battlefront and Battlefront II. Those games were super popular back in the day, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when fans of the franchise were hyped after EA announced that they were remaking the game, the result of which was delivered as Star Wars Battlefront in 2015.
Despite all of the hype, it received some negative reviews due to the many things that the game was lacking compared to its predecessors. The campaign was nothing more than a bunch of co-op missions without any story, and interesting elements like the massive space battles were not included. Because of this, a lot of the fans were disappointed but EA realized this and decided to fix things with the announcement of Star Wars Battlefront II. This time around, the game intends on delivering one of the most amazing Star Wars experience to date, and if you’re a Star Wars fan like us, you’re no doubt excited for this game. With less than a month to its release, we decided to send our Bothan spies to do the digging and bring back rumors that have been confirmed and also those that we hope are not a part of the game. Hopefully, this article will help you decide whether to get that pre-order or not.
15 Confirmed: There Is Finally A Proper Single Player Campaign
One of the biggest problems that a lot of people had with the first game was the lack of a proper single-player campaign. It had no story and featured repetitive missions which required players to perform the same tasks over and over again, usually fighting hordes of enemies. There was no narrative, making the single-player campaign basically useless.
The guys over at EA took notice of this and decided to shift the focus on the single-player campaign in Star Wars Battlefront 2. Besides, a Star Wars game without a proper campaign story doesn’t make any sense which is why this was really important. The inspiration for the campaign story is derived from both the comics and films so we’re really hoping that this will be good.
14 Confirmed: The Story Will Showcase The Empire’s Perspective
As we’ve already mentioned, campaign for the last Battlefront game was an absolute disaster with repetitive missions and a non-existent storyline. This time around, however, the core focus is on the single-player campaign and the developers had plenty of choices about which direction to take the story in.
Players will follow the story of Iden Versio who serves under the Empire as a specialist trooper. According to the campaign director, the story is unlike that of Battlefield 1 where players experienced multiple War Stories set throughout World War I. Instead, it will follow Iden Versio along her journey and will occasionally switch perspectives, also providing the players a chance to play as some of the most iconic heroes of the franchise.
13 Hope NOT: The Dreaded Loot Boxes Are Back
Ah yes, the horrible loot boxes. In case you haven’t heard about the recent loot box controversy, allow us to explain. A number of players have started petitions to stop video game developers from introducing loot boxes into their games and it got to the point that the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) had to step in.
The announcement to kick off this controversy was made by EA when they confirmed the use of loot boxes in Battlefront 2. For many players, this wasn’t very good news because weapon upgrades and abilities now require items from loot boxes. Once these become purchasable, all of the paying players will clearly have an advantage over those who are trying to grind their way up. What makes this entire deal worse is the fact that loot boxes are the only way of unlocking any upgrades.
12 Confirmed: Multiplayer Will Span Across All Eras Of Star Wars
Now of course, how can we possibly skip the multiplayer. It’s one of the biggest reasons why people will be buying the game in the first place. Similar to how the single-player campaign has been improved this time around, many issues with the multiplayer that plagued the first game have been fixed as well.
Four classes will be introduced in Battlefront 2, those being Assault, Heavy, Specialist, and an Officer class. Other than that, the multiplayer maps will be set around some of the most iconic locations from the Star Wars franchise. So, whether you’re a fan of the prequels despite what everyone else thought, or would like to see locations from the newer films, you certainly won’t be disappointed.
11 Confirmed: A Nintendo Switch Version Is Still In The Talks
For most of the developers coming out with AAA titles, their focus always seems to be PC and console gamers, more specifically the PS4 and Xbox One. This makes sense since the hardware behind these machines is quite powerful and capable of handling demanding games.
The same cannot be said for the Nintendo Switch because first, it’s supposed to be a portable console and second, it’s better than the other consoles when it comes to exclusive games. That still doesn’t mean that Switch owners have to miss out on all the fun though. According to David Robillard, producer at Motive Studios, a Switch version for Battlefront II is definitely in consideration if EA notices an opportunity. This will most probably happen after the game is released on all the other major platforms so fingers crossed.
10 Hope NOT: Slaughter Boxes Continue To Be A Nuisance
It seems that this is one issue that the new game will be carrying over from the old one. The first Battlefront was filled up with slaughter boxes, small chokepoints on the map where players from the opposite teams keep shooting at each other without any of the sides actually making progress.
During the time that we got to spend playing the Battlefront II beta, we kept getting into situations where a tiny chokepoint was the focus of the battle. This is made even worse when a player comes rushing in as Darth Maul and basically destroys everyone. For some people this might be reminiscent of the many action sequences we get to see in the Star Wars films. However, that doesn’t really translate as a good experience in the game. We’re hoping that EA will take care of this before the release of the full game.
9 Confirmed: The Visuals Are Simply Stunning
When it comes to visuals, the first Battlefront game was simply the best-looking game of its time. That was one thing EA got right despite the list of so many other things that were wrong with the game. With Star Wars Battlefront II, the story is not any different. This has to be the most stunning Star Wars game that we have played so far.
Given the impressive visuals, it won’t be a surprise if the Xbox One X ends up showcasing the game as its flagship title since no other titles for the console are coming out at launch. Still, the game looks incredible on the PS4 Pro and hands down this has to be the best part about the game. Everything from the action to the little details is meant to look as cinematic as possible.
8 Confirmed: It Won’t Be Anything Like EA’s First Battlefront
Players were pretty hyped when EA announced a new Battlefront title since it had been a while after the release of the last Battlefront game, however, what they ended up receiving was a total mess. The campaign was easily the worst part about the game with a nonexistent story and repetitive gameplay.
Then there was the lack of space battles, something that had made the original Battlefront games so popular. All of these combined with a number of other issues gradually turned many players away from the game. Thankfully, EA paid attention to everything that went wrong with the first game and has tried to fix most of those issues in Star Wars Battlefront II. Hopefully, players will get to have a more refined Star Wars experience this time around.
7 Hope NOT: The Game UI Really Isn’t The Best Around
Similar to everything else in the world, Star Wars Battlefront II has its own set of issues so it’s far from perfect. While the visuals are stunning on one hand, the UI really isn’t the best.
For most people this might not seem like a huge issue right now, however, something like this quickly becomes annoying once you finally have to use it multiple times when playing. All of the menus in the game have some sort of weird text warping effect which makes it incredibly difficult to read and is very straining for the eyes, often times resulting in a headache, yes, it’s that bad. It seems as if EA was trying to go for the retro-futurist look that many consoles feature in the Star Wars universe but sadly that doesn’t seem to be working. Despite being a minor issue, it should be definitely be fixed before release.
6 Confirmed: Pick-ups Have Been Replaced With A Points System
Star Wars Battlefront 1 featured a pick-up system, meaning that players had to grab certain pickups to unlock, let’s say, an X-wing or a powerful hero. Unfortunately, this was also one of the shortcomings of the game as it allowed people to frequently camp outside the spawn locations for these pickups, putting other players at a serious disadvantage.
To curb this problem, EA is introducing a points-based system in Battlefront II. Players will now earn points as they play the game. Once enough points have been accumulated, they can then be spent of different loadouts that feature vehicles or heroes. This will hopefully make the game more tactical, forcing players to go out and play to collect points instead of camping in certain spots.
5 Confirmed: Strike Mode Brings More Strategy To Multiplayer
If you’re the person who gets frustrated when a hero jumps in and basically slaughters everybody then this is the mode for you. There is no such thing as heroes here, except for maybe Chewbacca at the defending side. Strike mode introduces infantry based combat where two teams of six go against each other.
The objective of this mode is to have a multiplayer mode that involves strategy instead of the usual run and gun stuff. One of the team gets assigned as the attacking team while and are tasked with retrieving an artifact while the other team has to defend. The game is won if the attacking side delivers the artifact to the safe zone of the map or if the defending team make the attackers run out of spawn tickets.
4 Hope NOT: The Map Selection Doesn’t Seem Very Great So Far
We’re still not sure about the number of maps that will be included in the final release of the game, however, we’ve not been very impressed by the selection of maps that we’ve seen in the beta so far.
One of the playable multiplayer maps is on Naboo, and while it seems quite big, it is essentially a long corridor during the first stage and if by any chance you get inside a ship, you’ll be able to cover the map in under a second. This small size essentially makes it impossible to target someone when piloting one of the ships. The second half of this map is littered with chokepoints that quickly turn into those dreaded slaughter boxes once the game starts. Hopefully, the final version of the game will feature bigger maps so we’ll have to wait for that one.
3 Confirmed: Pre-ordering The Game Will Unlock Star Cards and Skins
Remember the days when you had to go out and physically buy a game? That was quite some time ago and since then, digital games have taken over. This has also allowed developers to provide the option of pre-orders for players. It means that they can purchase a game before it is released and enjoy it the moment that it comes out, with some additional perks of course.
These perks come in the form of Star Cards and skins for players who pre-order Star Wars Battlefront II. Now, some people do disagree with the system of pre-ordering since it essentially allows people to purchase a game before fully knowing what it will bring. For our readers and those who are willing to wait, we suggest that a wise choice would be to wait a few days for the reviews before getting the game.
2 Confirmed: Starfighter Assault Mode Is The Best Thing Ever
This one is for all of you who missed those epic space battles that made the original Battlefront games so great. We had a blast playing this mode in the beta, in fact, it was way more exciting than any of the ground combat.
It will take most players a while to get a hang of the controls but once you end up doing that, its all about hunting down opponent ships and taking on the massive Star Destroyers. The objective is to either destroy or defend the Star Destroyer and players can use the points system to unlock the most well-known ships of the franchise like Vader’s iconic TIE fighter or the Millennium Falcon. The starfighters can also be customized using Star Cards and much more.
1 Hope NOT: Certain Heroes Are Way Overpowered Than Others
Betas for games are usually launched to give developers a better idea of things that need to be fixed before the final launch of the game. While Battlefront II has improved in a lot of areas where the first Battlefront failed, it has also highlighted some of the problems that it currently has.
One of these is how the heroes are being handled. On one end of the spectrum, certain characters like the Wookie warrior are so underpowered that they’re basically useless while on the other end, someone playing as Darth Maul will easily rake up around 40 kills. This is one of the things we’re hoping will be fixed once the game comes out since the developers now have all the feedback that they need to fix all of the bugs.
