Here is the first look at Star Wars Battlefront beta which I have had the pleasure of playing on the PS4. Star Wars Battlefront is under development by EA Digital Illusions CE and is going to be published by EA themselves. Battlefront uses the Frostbite 3 game engine and is a first person/third person shooter in which players take control of either the Rebels or the Imperials.
There are many good things about the game. The gameplay flowed very well and is true to the films as it is extremely accurate and keeps true to the Star Wars theme. We saw familiar scenes such as the battle between Rebels and the Imperial troopers on the frosty planet of Hoth. You also get a look into other aspects of the Star Wars universe which can be seen on Sullust, something we’ve not seen between episode 1 and 6. You can animate your characters to call over your team mates, I think this is a great addition to the game and I hope you can customise these animations a lot more in the full game. The servers were amazing, I didn’t experience any lag or any problems, you joined games within 5-10 seconds. In two of the three maps on the beta there were tiny creatures which you can see crawling across the ground which I love, as these tiny details just kind of makes you feel a lot more pulled in and intrigued into what the full game has in store. Another great thing to point out is the music in game, this is true music from the Star Wars films which gets you humming the tunes as soon as you hear them.
On the Battlefront beta there were 2 multiplayer game modes and one map per game mode. One game mode is Walker Assault which sees the Imperial troopers fight Rebels and push forward to the Echo Base shield generator on Hoth. You blow up these generators if your AT-ATs push up far enough and if you survive the attack on your AT-ATs from Rebels. In this game mode you can play in two AT-ATs which you gain the ability to do so from a pick up ability on the ground. With this ability you have 12 seconds to activate it but you only have 90 seconds in control of the weapons on the AT-AT as they are on a set movement path. You can also get pick ups for AT-STs which you can stay in until they get blown up. There is also a lot of other pick ups dotted around the map which include Orbital Strikes, X-Wings, Tie-Fighters etc. This game mode is like Rush on Battlefield which you have to attack or defend two objectives. If you are playing the Rebels you will have to attack the objectives and once the AT-ATs shield are down, you must shoot them in X-Wings or A-Wings; in order to win you must take down both AT-ATs. On the Imperial trooper side you must defend and push forward once your AT-ATs have moved up far enough.
The second multiplayer game mode is called Drop Zone. Which you play Rebels against Imperial troopers but fight for the escape pods which land on the ground. You need to capture and hold these escape pods until the timer on the pod goes down, once this does, the pod door opens and drops out 3 pick ups which you can use. This is a simple attack and defend game mode which I find a lot better to play than Walker assault as the teams are a lot more equal rather than one team having lots of machinery and the other not. It’s quite a simple game mode but really fun to play if you have a good team who like to defend and attack. There was a survival game mode on the beta which could be played by yourself, co-op or split screen. On the beta you were playing against 6 waves of AI, you spawn as a Rebel fighting the Imperial troopers; some are more difficult than others, you encounter snipers, AT-STs and a few other troopers. This game mode is fun, a little boring if playing on your own but otherwise a difference than playing multiplayer or if you are looking for an all round different mode to play with some friends. In Walker Assault you could play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. I only got the opportunity to play as Luke Skywalker twice but it is really, really fun. You could play these characters for 90 seconds then you die.
Now, as expected, betas do come with some minor issues but it is a work in progress and this will not be speaking for the final release of the game. Having played for all of the time the beta was released for there are a lot of subtle changes that I believe should be implemented. The first thing I’m going to point out is that weapons in the whole need to be nerfed. It is so easy to kill and to die. Especially if you get shot by a cycler rifle, one hit by those and it puts your heath down to 10 from 100. In Walker Assault, the spawn system isn’t very great. If you are playing as the Rebels, the Imperials can get past your spawn points and spawn camp you. This can be quite annoying as you can’t spawn anywhere else so I think this need to be sorted – implement some kind of way to stop this happening as it is not fair. Also in Walker Assault, Rebels have a lot less machinery than the Imperial troopers do so you almost always lose if on the Rebel side unless you work well as team. Over the beta I only ever won two games on the Rebel team, Dice have stated the Rebels were at a disadvantage due to “balancing issues within the beta”.
If you are not quite sure if this game is for you, then look online at videos which people have posted of them playing and see if you like the style! It’s a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed playing the beta and am looking forward to the release of the full game which is the 17th November 2015 for North America and the 20th November 2015 for Europe.
