Star Wars Battlefront was the major release of last week. How are you all finding it so far?
As someone who never really got into Battlefield, I very much enjoyed the Battlefront beta. But the vibe I’m getting from everyone is that Star Wars Battlefront is very light on ‘content’. Light on maps, light on stuff to do. Just a bit light in general. That, combined with the overpriced Season Pass seems to be rubbing folks the wrong way.
DICE seems to have made Battlefront a little more accessible that Battlefield, which makes sense given that DICE should be aiming for a broader audience, but I’ve seen a lot of complaints that the game just doesn’t really have that much depth as a competitive shooter. Again, this is fine. In a strange way it’s making me more keen to play it. Mainly because I feel as though I can jump in without getting completely wrecked for the first hour of so.
But Star Wars Battlefront seems to be lacking as a value proposition. That appears to be the issue here for most people. Which is a shame.
What are your thoughts so far?
Comments
55 responses to “Community Review: Star Wars Battlefront”
Really enjoying it so far (Level 11).
Favourites:
– Blast
– Heroes v Villains
– Supremacy
– Walker Assault
Meh:
– Fighter Squadron
– Cargo
– Hero Hunt
EDIT: I should add that I’m not really a shooter fan, but I love Star Wars. Seeing all the little environmental touches in the game is amazing. Running through Endor and seeing a little Ewok running into his house made my day, as did discovering the Sarlak pit could actually eat you up if you fell into it, complete with digestive noises… lol. In Heroes v Villains there’s even commentary between the different characters. I overheard Palpatine saying to Vader something like “I wonder if your feelings on the matter are clear” as they were going off to find ‘young Skywalker’. It’s the best 🙂
What don’t you like about fighter squadron? That’s easily my favorite game mode so far!
It seems to be extremely chaotic, often with lots of obscuring cloud, and with objectives that are pretty one-dimensional. I don’t mind it, but I don’t count it amongst my favourites by any stretch 🙂
The chaos is what I love about it! The clouds are a nice addition and help when you’re getting chased IMO and the objectives are no more one dimensional than the other game modes – kill the rebels or take out the walkers etc.
Each to their own though of course! It probably helps that 95% of the time I’m top of the winning team, so I’m sure that adds to the enjoyment 😛
Without a single-player campaign, and the prospect of paying a hundred and fifty bucks for it plus the base game if they do decide to launch it as DLC, there’s little to interest me in Battlefront.
I wonder if publishers or developers realize that there is something realistically approaching a finite audience for multiplayer-only, and that this demographic moves to where the action is, resulting in every new entry directly competing to devour its competitors’ audiences, giving the product a hard expiry date that single-player games don’t have.
That migratory audience IS the only content in a multiplayer-only game, and when it’s gone, the game is useless. Even at the best of times, that content is limited by time of day or geography.
Multiplayer-only games are a best viewed as an event; essentially temporary in a way that other games aren’t.
Good point. I think that with your CoDs and Battlefields this is extremely relevant. I hope that for stuff like Star Wars Battlefront you’ll get a hardcore segment of the player base that will be playing it for years to come, like those who love Team Fortress or Counterstrike.
Right. Battlefield’s always been pretty enduring, but with a very small, hardcore fanbase.
For everyone else, MP-only games take on the ‘event’ style of thing… Hey, remember when everyone was playing Evolve/Titanfall/Mario Kart 8/Rocket League/etc?
The event comes and goes, and everyone but a small collection of die-hards hangs about because they’ve found their niche (or they got really, really, really good at it and are now invested in their proficiency).
That’s why Battlefront 2 still has it beat. Not only is there way more content, but you can play matches with bots.
Even Gears of War 3 knew to add in bots. In fact, let’s go back and play Gears of War 3.
You can play against bots in this one too though..
Wow, really well said, Transientmind! This is the EXACT reason why I have gone off multiplayer games in general (and why I’ll never touch a game that is multiplayer only). I was getting so tired of buying annual franchises just to keep up with the multiplayer scene (which to be honest I was never having that much fun to begin with). And to think that some twat from EA said something about single player campaigns becoming extinct! If that day ever comes, and it’s only multiplayer games that are available, I’ll be playing *old* games for the rest of my life 😛
Titanfall is probably one of the best examples of this.
Hyped to the moon and back, and now you can barely find anyone to play against because there’s negligible interest in the game anymore.
Titanfall is probably one of the best examples of this.
Hyped to the moon and back, and now you can barely find anyone to play against because there’s negligible interest in the game anymore.
I love it. I love star wars. I believe that the reviews are probably correct (i.e. it’s only an average FPS in many ways). For me though, the simplicity, the graphics, the sound, its overwhelming. I enjoy it FAR more than battlefield. The arcade style of it places it somewhere closer to destiny I think in terms of shooting mechanics. It seems way more forgiving. I really like the game modes too. Walker assault is perfect. I don’t care if it’s unbalanced – perhaps it should be!
Hearing the Star Wars main title theme as the Battlefront logo pops up at start never gets old 🙂
Yeah. Its grand. The nostalgia is a big part. But it’s an art not to fuck that up… just ask George Lucas. He knows how to mess with nostalgia.
Love it – pretty much same sentiment as what others posted. So much fun!
Love Walker Assault and Supremacy. The other game modes I haven’t really tinkered with all that much.
I love the Star War
I paid $65 for it and at that price, i love it. BUT i can’t argue that it does feel light on and the modes i enjoy now i might not be loving in a few weeks. But right now it’s great. Gfx, sound, setting are all brilliant. And i know they’ll tweak the game over the coming months.
I do not regret the decision to buy this game.
Why isn’t there a game; Rainbow Six Vegas 2 but Star Wars??
This game makers. Have my $$$ dammit.
Fingers crossed that a Republic Commando remake could take on this tone.
Its ok in short doses. If I play more than about 2 hours straight I started getting frustrated with its shortcomings. Also I can only handle the online FPS player base in the same small doses. If there’s an OP weapon or perk to be spammed and abused you can bet that 75% of the players will.
I’m loving it, currently level 42, enjoying the more arcade style shooterish aspect of it. Wasn’t looking for an overly complicated FPS, there’s plenty of others that are built specifically with that purpose and didn’t want this to be one of them.
Games modes are all fairly great, love walker assault, supremacy and drop pod one. Fighter Squadron needs to be reworked, feels ultimately pointless, they need to add ground targets or something to make it more interesting.
Obviously the game looks and sounds absolutely amazing, the whole Star Wars thing has been nailed down perfectly.
Downsides for me, I would of liked more depth in some of the single player/co-op stuff. But that’s about it, oh and impact grenades…
EDIT – Someone else mentioned team balancing, this definitely needs to start happening/be fixed. Quite a few games in the smaller modes it’s literally been 5v0 at the start of the next game. One person joins then quickly leaves due to being now 5v1. Thus it takes ages to get back to appropriately sized teams.
Holy crap! Level 42!
I’m playing on PC so have had it since Tuesday. But yeah have obviously spent a fair bit of time in game. Switching game modes to satisfy your challenges is a good way to maximise your xp gain too.
It’s exactly what I expected from a Battlefront game, and I’m having a great time with it. The main complaints I have are functional issues (lag spikes, getting stuck/falling through terrain) but there is an issue with imbalanced teams not being adjusted.
I had a look in the missions section last night for the first time since beta and am surprised at the amount of single player content there. It’s not a campaign, but there’s plenty to do.
And it’s tough (at least for me)! I struggle to beat a battle mission on Hard. Haven’t even tried Master difficulty. The game lulls you into a false sense of security because once your score starts to rack up, the game throws in ridiculous numbers of tough enemies 😛
I honestly got bored of the game in a day.
PC.
The unlock system probably isn’t actually much of a grind but when you’re losing interest in the game, it certainly comes across that way.
You can only view your ping with console commands and you may be in a local server with a ping <50 or it may put you in a server with a ping >300. Or it may put you in a lobby with no one where you will sit forever. Where you leave and rejoin to be put in a game. The match making is bad. Really bad. No migration once you’re in a lobby.
Graphics wise it is stunning. It truly looks great and runs well for me on a 980 ti in 1440p.
I hate the fact aiming down sights does nothing. To me it feels like it removes control and skill out of it. I want more control over choosing the gun I want, the scope I want etc. Instead all guns seem variations of themselves with slighting different fire and damage rates. I miss gadgets and classes from battlefield. I want more control and variability in how I play.
The buddy system and no squad makes team work and playing with friends hard. You push all the way up, die and spawn at the other end of the map. The reward for trying to play strategically is low because it’s so much harder to keep those gains and the shitty netcode means you can just both die with out warning.
People tend to play as a free for all. At least in Battlefield one good squad can win the game, two man squads simply isn’t enough to make a difference.
I hate the pick up system. I want to run up to an X-wing and jump in, take off ect. The way it works now, people are playing the match, come across a token and suddenly leave the battlefield. People get distracted by the tokens mid battle.
It’s like, shooting enemies, moving up… OH a token… they run to it ignoring the battle.
Some modes like Heroes and Villains would be great with VOIP. That’s another major thing lacking, VOIP. Crap like, ‘use your favorite chat with your friends,’ doesn’t work when you can’t recommend to your friends to buy the game.
On the first day this was out, I was off playing CSGO again. I have probably put more hours into Black Ops 3 and Battlefield 4 (and CSGO) after Battlefront came out than into Battlefront. As a massive shooter fan and a MASSIVE Star Wars fan, this is really annoying and should not be the case.
It’s just not a satisfying game play. The annoying thing is, if they had actually made a re-skinned Battlefield, even a bit more casual. I think the game could have been great. Certainly a lot better with a lot more depth.
You know how Duke Nukem 4 Ever came out and it was all, ‘oh it’s back to the old simplistic days of shooters.’ Well this is that, but like Duke 4, it just isn’t fun when you’re used to playing better more advanced games. It’s way less interesting and stunning graphics doesn’t make up for it. It’s really hard to shake up the game play.
After over 1000 hours in BF3/4 I can still jump on TDM and have fun. I don’t think I ever truly had fun beyond admiring the environment trying TDM in Battlefront. The objective modes have some fun, but the lack of strategy and team work isn’t appealing and often makes levels a frustrating grind. Pushing up and dying. Spawning other end of the map. Pushing up again, dying because no one is working as a team, lacking the game mechanisms to encourage it.
Also lets face it, Walker Assault and Supremecy are the same mode, except one has an AT-AT.
Other modes, suffer the same TDM issue, gun play and game play being so simple takes away the fun.
You have good points, but I disagree about the matchmaking thing. Usually it takes me around 3 seconds to find a game with 19/20 and 20/20 players, I never noticed any lag ping or otherwise. I just wish there was more variety in the weapons.
Have never not had a fun time logging in- even the single-player stuff is pretty fun in an arcadey kind of way.
Don’t let your expectations get in the way of a good time. Just get in there, start killing Rebel scum and enjoy the ride!
…unless you’re on Endor, in which case just get in there and start being killed by Rebel scum that blend in with all the foliage while you stick out like a sore thumb in your shiny white armour 😛
Just hide in the bunker!
I think that’s probably the best way to do it, hoping that Luke gets impatient and storms in without Han as backup.
Absolutely one of the very best looking games I’ve seen, especially Endor at night. I feel like this will be another Titanfall where we all play it constantly for a while and then the community drops off after five months or so. Very light on content. Glad I paid only $64 for it.
im loving it up to rank 13, mostly been playing droid run, but with the same maps used for each mode it does get a bit samey regardless of the objectives.
I’m torn. At times it’s great fun. But it is absolutely lacking content and without squads or multi seat vehicles there isn’t really any team work on the big maps. You can’t really tell what difference your presence makes to the outcome. Looks and sounds beautiful though. Also, the jetpack should be a standard item from the word go.
I agree on the jet pack being standard. It’s a must have.
It’s enjoyable as an every now and then game. I can only bear 2-3 rounds before I get bored though. Needs a story single mode.
The gameplay itself is fun, the nostalgia is of course great and with a handful of friends it IS fun. However there are a few annoying game play issues and a swag of out of game issues.
– The match making system is pretty horrid, finding a game a few days after launch of a AAA title should never ever be an issue…but it has been a number of times for all game modes. Having to jump in and our or wait for a full server sucks.
– No server browsers suck, but match making at least means that we get balanced games with matches based on player skill right? WRONG! There isn’t even team balancing or shuffling so servers nearly always result in one team being stacked and winning most games. The first night I played we lost 6 games in a row. The second night we won about 15-20 in a row and the final night was a mix as we kept changing game modes.
– Server rotations mean you always play the same side on the the same map as the sides alternate and there are an even number of maps. Pretty silly.
– The menus all seem pretty slow to load for unknown reasons and the way you are locked into watching all the credits come up is frustrating as hell. Let me skip it ffs.
– Spawn camping is frequently a major issue due to map design and spawn locations/detection. The biggest issue that comes to mind is the second last spawn spot for the rebels on Hoth for Supremacy. How was this missed in QA? I expect better from DICE.
– The vehicle/item pick ups are often in locations that get easily cut off from the enemy meaning that if a team has the upper hand the losing team can’t get to pickups meaning they struggle to turn the tide, especially if the enemy keeps getting hero pick ups and the losing team can’t.
– Primarily in Walker Assault nearly the only thing needed to win is air supremacy. While the empire can win if the Rebels own the skies the Rebels have ZERO chance if the Empire owns the sky. This isn’t a terrible idea but too often the Empire gets the upper hand and the Rebels have no recourse. A couple of good empire pilots can kill a Rebel pilot before they have a chance to fight back and getting air assets to begin with requires you to find and activate pick ups, which makes having some sort of coordinated push back in the air impossible.
– In the air combat mode (Forget the name) the Falcon just has too much health. It seems OP to me though I haven’t played it enough to be sure about that, could’ve just been pilot skill. Regardless its just a shit mechanic, the Falcon flies around slowly while a whole bunch of Tie Fighters shoot at it slowly whittling away its health. Pretty boring.
– Turrets seem to do zero damage to the AT-ST however the ST’s completely wreck turrets with a few shots, this seems kinda dumb.
– The DL44 (Han’s pistol) seems OP as hell but then I haven’t unlocked it and not everyone uses it so maybe not. A few of the guns you unlock are just flat out better than previous weapons rather than balanced differently. I never understood the idea behind the most experienced players having access to the best weapons and the least experienced having the worst.
– While flying you get a warning about a missile lock but (as far as I can tell) no way to know how close it is making evading it with a roll entirely luck based.
– The layout of some parts of some maps just seems very poor. A few I can recall are turbo lasers and a spawn point with LOS directly to a cap point, a Rebel spawn point within direct LOS of an advancing AT-AT, a few spawn points directly in the path of where enemy will be advancing, a cap point that has LOS to the rear of an enemy spawn point. Probably a bunch more that I forget.
A lot of these issues might be expected from an inexperienced studio but from DICE I expect better. If they don’t fix the gameplay issues fairly quickly I can see people getting bored of the game fairly quick. If they don’t fix the match making/server type issues fairly quick I can see people getting frustrated and just not bothering no matter how good the game is.
After playing 10-15 or so hours I can see myself sinking another 10 or maybe 20 hours into it over the next couple of weeks, but after that I expect to rarely play it. There is currently zero chance I’ll pay for DLC.
When someone fires a missile you can hear a high pitched beep that gets faster as the missile gets closer IIRC.
In regards to the Falcon having too much health, it goes down pretty quick when Slave is there. Not to mention you can’t escape a group of tie fighters on your tail without backup, you’re pretty vulnerable. The issue I’ve found is people either crash or get shot down just after picking up the Falcon/Slave which means one team is down a hero for an extended period of time. If that’s the case and the hero ship is well guarded that’s when it gets a bit one sided.
I haven’t been able to pick the quicker beeping sounds, I’ll keep an ear out for them. Cheers.
Myself and 3 friends were following the Falcon and pounding it with lasers and missiles and it was still taking minutes to kill which meant we fell behind while not killing anything else. Hopefully a bit of a balance tweak happens.
DL44 is a bit op, but it’s supposed to be as it’s high tier, so most people haven’t unlocked it yet.
Loving it. Yeah it could do with more maps etc, but for $63 – very happy with my purchase. The production value and attention to detail is simply superb.
Games used to be fun and weren’t just about progression.
Funnily enough, everyone raved and played Rocket League and the only progression you got there was a new colour or antenna item. But people kept playing.
If a game is fun, looks and sounds great. What’s the problem? I don’t want to have to sink in 200 hours to unlock stuff so I can be competitive. If I play a few hours a week I want to have fun and not feel left behind everyone else who is already level 50.
Rocket League is pure unadulterated joy though and a unique premise. No fluff, no fuss, just immense gameplay. Can’t compared that to Star Wars imo.
Yeah I tend to agree, while I do appreciate a game where it rewards you for putting the time in, I also can definitely enjoy a simple easy to pick up and play game.
Loving it so far (PS4). Just at level 14 so just got the jet pack. Recommend it. Pure casual Star Wars fun.
I feel there is a massive amount of negativity out there for it. I can’t understand the mentality of gamers sometimes. So much angst…
Obviously it is mainly multiplayer so those complaining about the lack of maps after playing Walker Assault constantly for 20 hours. Honestly, mix it up a bit. Blast and Drop Zone are excellent as well on their smaller maps. Lots of carnage. Fighter Assault is a great 5 minutes as well. The star cards give a lot of potential mix ups as well. Go for a vehicle hand on Walker Assault and a close range hand for Blast. There is a lot of different play styles if you take the time to give them a shot.
With the price and DLC season pass. You can pick it up in JB for $68 and pick and choose the DLC over the next year. Nothing different from COD, Battlefield or Destiny. Just the way of the world now. Skip on a couple of coffee’s a week or bring your lunch to work instead of buying it and you will have the season pass paid off in a month. Or dont, if it isn’t your cup of tea. Just please don’t whinge incessantly about it for the next year.
Too much logic in this post.
Or complaining about it being ‘ridiculous and random’ because people do weird stuff that doesn’t make sense. IT’S A MULTIPLAYER GAME!!!!
I think it’s great! I have a few issues with lag spikes in the larger game modes like supremacy and walker assault but other then that, I can’t complain.
TBH, I haven’t had any bad glitches (aside from the sound glitch, where you have to quit and re-open the game to fix) at all. It’s been smooth sailing for me.
Any negative things? Yeah, for me The lack of maps. I know it’s still early days, but for the price I paid I expected more ‘battlefields’. I think Jakku should’vve been a day one map. I want to run around on/in the Deathstar. I want space battles inside Star Destroyers etc. 4 maps gets old pretty quick as it doesn’t allow for enough variety before you’re back in the same place again. Just for fun (I know many will probably disagree) I think the should bring over some Battlefield maps and convert them to the Star Wars style for a laugh. AT-AT’s marching across Caspian Border anyone?
The only other negative is that damn DL-44 blaster pistol! However, it’s there for everyone to use so….
Everything else is positive though, with big +’s for sound and visuals. And it isn’t as badly broken as BF3 or 4 on release. Perhaps the old EA/DICE combo is making a bit of a turn around in that department. Always happier for them to have less content on release, if the content works!
I would love to do some movie missions, like the trench run on the Death Star in an X-wing. That would be great. Definitely getting tired of the same few levels.
Yip, a fighter squadron DLC map based on the Death Star trenches would be excellent.
If I was playing this on my own I’d probably give it a miss, but a bunch of friends decided to buy it and play it together and it’s been an absolute blast so far.
I’ve been loving it so far. A very basic game but it’s fullfilling my star wars needs.
Fighter squadron is incredibly addicting, the only thing that needs tweaking is the rebel’s shields and it would be pretty much perfect.
I’m loving it. It’s more approachable than many large scale online shooters and though that has been a source of complaints and lower review scores, it suits me really well.
I’m time poor these days so I don’t have hundreds of hours to invest in leveling up and character development. I’ve found that I am pretty effective straight off the bat in this game, without setting the world on fire. There is plenty of challenge when t comes to playing the better players and it’s really easy for me to just jump in.
In many ways, it’s similar to Splatoon, which I also love for its ease of approach and getting up to speed.
Having a blast with this game. It’s unfortunate that games must have near unlimited ‘depth’ to be worthy of high scores. I’ll again reference splatoon which was a breath of fresh air to the shooter genre this year.
This game is brilliantly executed and full of fan service. Loving it.
Caveat: the season pass does seem a bit steep, and the apparent weighting of content towards DLC does seem very ‘EA-ey’ and in poor taste.
Really enjoying the game when it works. Not sure if it’s my net or the game but i’m disconnected from the EA servers every few games. (PS4)
I love that its a “simple” shooter. Makes it really easy to pick up and have a few rounds without thinking too much. Allowing for a more chill atmosphere than most shooters.
The graphics, sound and authenticity to the star wars universe are amazing. All the sfx from blaster fire to the score just scream star wars.
I play Walker Assault and Heroes Vs Villians the most but am starting to look at other modes.
If I were to winge about anything it’d be the lack of content.