Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is upon us, ending the sequel trilogy and sparking plenty of debate. The final chapter of Rey and Kylo Ren’s story brings new locations and evil goons, some of which have been added to Star Wars Battlefront II. This batch of content rounds out what was initially a troubled game, and it also feels like an end of sorts. Battlefront II’s had a long journey, but now that it spans the nine major films it finally feels complete.
Battlefront II’s new content, added last week with the release of The Rise of Skywalker in theatres, isn’t as dramatic an addition as its Clone Wars content expansions. Those added huge new maps like Geonosis and greatly expanded Battlefront II’s scope. The additions for The Rise of Skywalker are more about finally bringing the Sequel Trilogy content up to snuff with everything else. It’s been a slow drip, as content needed to match up with film releases. At launch, there wasn’t nearly as much going on for the next generation of Star Wars within Battlefront II. That changed as The Last Jedi brought new heroes and maps. This new update brings special units and a new location that bring the Resistance and First Order factions to life.
Surprisingly, it’s not the new map that does the heavy lifting. There is another battlefield—the tropical and dense Ajan Kloss— but it’s not a huge shift from what’s come before. Players have already blasted through the forests on Endor and the outskirts of Takodana. Ajan Kloss keeps the feel of those foliage packed maps. The wide open outside eventually narrows into a battle inside a Resistance base. This usually means the First Order needs to be more aggressive, else the good guys dig in hard to repel their attack. That’s all well and good, but it’s made more exciting for new characters and support units. Battlefront II might be a game about heroes and villains, but there’s plenty of room for sidekicks too.
The Rise of Skywalker’s new units add a much more furious. The Resistance, for instance, has a beefy new support unit— the Ovissian Gunner— whose beefy chaingun can fire incredibly fast or be modified to fire huge explosive rounds. It means players can hunker down to fight off tons of rushing infantry but also gives a means to annoy enemy vehicles. Meanwhile, the First Order gains rocket jumping jet troopers and red-armoured Sith Trooper who can scan for nearby targets or toss grenades that prevent opponents from healing. The resulting mix of units and fighters increases the pace. It means relying less on heroes like Kylo Ren, Rey, or Finn. There’s more options for spending your battle points, more units to hop into and cause havoc with. It brings personality to each faction as well. The Resistance and First Order never felt fleshed out compared to factions like the Empire or Republic. Now, there’s a greater sense of the Sequel Trilogy’s fresh new era. There’s more on the way, as well, including the curious but certainly adorable addition of BB8 as a hero character next month.
Battlefront II released to immense controversy thanks to shaky game modes and gameplay altering lootbox rewards. That was two years ago, and the game has grown into something far better. Battlefront II is not what it was. It’s added more dogfighting battles, tons of heroes and new looks, additional maps, and expansions that have shaped it into a proper road trip through the franchise’s biggest moments. The Rise of Skywalker has the impossible task of ending a franchise and time will tell how fans look at it. Battlefront II had what felt like another impossible task: win back fans. Slowly but surely it has, and The Rise of Skywalker provides a perfect capstone to the journey. Maybe there will be more content and excitement to come but now that we’ve journeyed to this point, Battlefront II feels complete.
Editor’s Note: This article has the US release date. We will update this article as soon as possible with an Australian release date, if available.
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