Star Wars Battlefront 2‘s new update overhauls the game’s loot box laden progression system. One of players’ biggest complaints since before the game was even officially out was how hard it was to unlock iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. A new patch finally unlocks every hero character in the game.
Prior to the game’s release, an unassuming gamer named Conner Rust calculated how long it would take to unlock certain characters in Battlefront 2, and concluded that unlocking a hero such a original trilogy protagonist Luke Skywalker would take nearly 40 hours of gameplay. He posted his findings to Reddit and they went viral. An EA rep’s comment in defence of the process became the most downvoted Reddit comment of all time, and the company later cut the cost for unlocking heroes significantly. It was one issue in a sea of problems that included notorious loot boxes which granted players statistical advantages and could be purchased for real-world money. As part of a major overhaul to the game’s progression system, Battlefront 2 will now give all players immediate access to every hero.
“Along with these changes, we’ve also unlocked all currently available Heroes and Hero Ships for everyone,” community manager Mat “Sledgehammer70” Everett said in an official post. “With all characters now having a Unit Level, we don’t want to limit anyone’s chance to progress as we change the way you interact with these characters.”
Players logging into the game today will first have to download a small patch before having access to every hero and their ships. The patch adds Cloud City of Bespin to the game as a map for Blast Mode, Heroes v. Villains and Arcade Mode. It also unlocks every ability-granting Star Card in the single player Arcade Mode to allow players a chance to experiment with character loadouts. This change comes as EA also prepares to remove Star Cards from loot crates and limits microtransactions to cosmetics, and is one more step towards earning the goodwill of players burned by the game’s earlier, greedier mistakes.
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17 responses to “EA Finally Unlocks Every Hero In Star Wars Battlefront 2”
Sadly I think it’s too late for this game to ever recover, however it does make me a little bit more optimistic about Anthem.
Why? Need 4 speed & their sports titles are just as bad & the only game getting revamped is StAr Wars BattleFront 2 because of the backlash & Disney, I would be very cautious approaching any EA game if i was you.
Yeah, kind of agree I think Disney told them to sort there shit out or lose the Star Wars franchise. All the negativity was bound to hurt the brand, a little to late though I think.
I do hope this means we will see a action adventure or RPG now though.
Yes i would buy a Star Wars action adventure or Rpg or Rts even, Anything with more depth than what’s currently on offer.
My one fantasy would be to see a MGS 5 Phantom Pain – Star Wars mashup, the slow paced action that held true to the 1970’s Diesel punk styling of the SW universe.
I could see that working well. I too would like that slow pace as opposed to the frantic pace of every Star wars game i’ve played.
Anyone that had played even a little bit had already unlocked all of the characters anyway. Pretty sure it took me less than 40hrs and I wasn’t even focusing on characters but also buying star card packs.
Anyone at this point who is still playing has unlocked everything. The EA & DICE solution to removing micro-transactions is why everyone knows progression is screwed. The game up until this point gave you limitless crates parts and cards so the only thing holding a player back was to god-awful leveling based on kill count. Which leads to the broken match making and the screwing-over of the young/new Star Wars fans who become cannon fodder for the 30,000 point-per-match-getter’s.
When the main game mechanic is “grinding” you’d think the only way is up. but again this solution only rewards the pros and leaves the rest to throw their controllers at the wall in frustration, because who doesn’t love a game of spawn – die – re-spawn.
While I’m between first and last mostly, I feel so sorry for the guy who has played for 20mins and gotten 1 kill (or worse), this is reflected in the between-match drop out rate.
If you want to make the game an actual game give players a bonus during a match, and strip them after each round.
Also the game tracks your entire progress, give a little something to the guy getting constant 1 v 20 kill/death ratio so they have fun, and take away something (add a challenge) from the 50 v 1 players. This worked great in Wolvenstein ET.
But alas, true game play doesn’t drive the bottom dollar as much as screwing the customer and smearing a brand name in the process. EA holds sole rights to the Star Wars VG money train no matter the lost fans at getting than money.
I wouldn’t exactly call this taking steps to build goodwill again.
This is like the step before free to play for a dying game.
Eh, it’s a step toward regaining Disney’s goodwill – I imagine EA wouldn’t be too happy if they lost their exclusive right to
print moneymake Star Wars games.I’ve been wondering about that too.
I imagine Disney has made some very serious statements to EA.
I wish they would lose it though. I’d really love to play a more cerebral game and EA just doesn’t make those.
I didn’t release just how hollow the game is until I had to play offline last night due to server maintenance.
Every single option was disabled, including the single player arcade unlocks, and over 80% of the content on the disc was unavailable due to being ‘multiplayer only’.
There is no love or passion for wanting to give the player a nostalgia filled Star Wars experience, everything in this title is directed towards making money for the executives. There is not even offline GA & SA maps to practice on or to play with your kid, basic things that are included in every other shooter title.
It is an interesting step in the way games are made, and who they benefit. From a macro to a micro level this title was never going to be a game that people gush over, it was all about shipping the bare minimum and slapping Star Wars on the box so it can print money. Sadly I fell for it, I went through the site trying to find every facet about the changes they’d made. Even to this day the ea.battlefront2 site doesn’t mention that although it has custom arcade, it doesn’t include anything but tiny boring maps. It’s also a shame cause I know the dev’s spent allot of time burning-out to make this game look amazing (and it does), but in the end the suits at the top are only interested in getting more money for the pile, while they sip champagne on their boats.
What I want out of this is for everyone to legitimately scream about how bad EA has tarnished the Star Wars brand, that having sole rights for Star Wars games is turning people away from the movies. However I know that won’t happen, as a fan I couldn’t pass up the game and neither can anyone else, when there is only one SW game on the shelf for PS4 and Xbone you’re printing money regardless.
Before this game came out I was so excited for it. It looks and sounds amazing, the gameplay looked really fun (especially the space battles), it had single player (a massive plus in my mind) and I enjoyed the small amount of the original when I played the beta a while back.
Then the game was released. I’m not one to jump on the hate EA hype-train, but I was totally disappointed with the limited single player experience (going by reviews) and the hours required to progress in multiplayer was way too high. I don’t mind occasionally dipping in to multiplayer, but I play nowhere enough to get any benefits out of it. A real shame. I still might pick it up once it hits the bargain bin, but I have too many other games I’m playing/want to play.
Already too late. I am boycotting all starwars movies because of what they did with this game. EA and Disney can suck it. Japanese anime is better than Hollywood movies these days anyway..
I’d hate to admit it, but I agree. There has been some real strides in story telling from Japan, while their game mechanics are trying more than the western copy/paste mentality.
This game is everything bad that has happened to video game shooters with, I can only assume, a massive “safe bet” & “guaranteed 15% stock return” plastered on the design document.
This title has taken all the fun out of what a Star Wars video game could be and doesn’t come close to the adventurous spirit and innovation the movies are known for.
Too little, too late. No thanks, EA.
I think someone other than disney and EA should be in charge of Star Wars. So far disney’s Star Wars trilogy has been predictable rehashes of the original movies and the games published by EA have been average at best.