Star Wars: Battlefront. Not Battlefront 3, just Battlefront. This isn't a so much a sequel to the incredibly popular Battlefront games of the past but more of a reboot. The premise is still the same as before but the game mechanics play out a fair bit differently in DICE's iteration of the popular franchise.




Upon pressing play for the first time I was greeted to playing as Darth Vader eradicating waves of Rebel scum while the rest of the game was installing. A familiar touch, pulled from the likes of FIFA's training ground free play, but a nice touch all the same. Upon full installation I felt rather awe inspired by the clean and authentic feeling menus that felt like they were designed for a Star Wars game. Leave the control pad idle for a minute or so and you will be treated to the odd cameo appearance from R2D2 and C3P0, or an Imperial Walker scaring off an Imperial Mouse Droid. It adds nothing extra to the game but it certainly helps with capturing the charm that the Star Wars universe is known for and throughout the game it is little extra details like this that help add to Star Wars: Battlefront’s authenticity.

Star Wars: Battlefront features 4 planets, Hoth, Endor, Sullust & Tattooine, with a total of twelve different maps spanning across them all. Each planet captures how they are portrayed in the movies really well with various weather effects, like rain and snow lashing away at you depending on which map you are playing on. One more planet, Jakku, will be released for free as DLC on December 8th and will add an extra two maps tying past films with Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens. It doesn’t feel like a lot of content, and the quantity of content on offer certainly something that has come under hot scrutiny by fans of the franchise but there's no arguing about the quality and attention to detail in all of the maps on offer. In an age where developers like Treyarch cram their games with so much content that feels disjointed and never quite fits in as part of the experience they are selling, it is definitely a good case for quality over quantity.

There are numerous multiplayer game modes to play across these maps. Supremacy sees you fighting a large scale 40 player war that can be fought from the ground or the sky as you fight for control of five key points across the map . Walker Assault will pit players in a battle as either an Imperial soldier to escort Imperial AT-AT's en-route to destroy a Rebel ship or shield generator, or as the opposing Rebels attempting to stop the Imperials from achieving their goal by holding key points on the map which will allow them to call in bombing runs on Imperial AT-AT's. Both modes allow you to take command of a variety of vehicles and turrets from the films, Imperial AT-ST's, Speeder Bikes, Y-Wings, X-Wings, A-Wings, Tie Fighters, the list goes on. Fighter Squadron allows you to engage your enemies from the sky in the numerous afore mentioned spacecraft & adds the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 on top. Drop Zone, which featured in the beta sees you fighting to take control of various drop pods that fall across the map. Heroes vs Villains sees heroes and villains from both sides battling it out with others playing as troopers to help keep them alive and score points for their team. Hero Hunt has one player taking control of a hero or villain from the game with the rest of the players on the opposing team hunting the hero down. Standard game modes feature too, including Blast which is Star Wars: Battlefront's Team Deathmatch mode, Cargo, which is essentially the games version of Capture the Flag, and Droid Run which is plays out as a mobile Domination game type.




Although there is no campaign mode present there's also various game modes that can be played solo or with a friend via online or split screen. Tutorials can be accessed from the main menu at any time by pressing X. Training missions take you through the basics of moving and shooting, controlling heroes and piloting vehicles but are over relatively quickly, though completing them with three stars may be challenging for some. I do however feel that some focus on training for the objectives in game types like Supremacy and Walker Assault would have been beneficial to the game. Survival mode pits you up against waves of imperial enemies that get increasingly difficult as each wave is defeated. These can be difficult to play solo so can make for a nice challenging game type for the average player. Survival is good fun played solo or co-operative but lacks the depth found in other similar game modes such as Horde from Gears of War 3. The last mode, Battles, basically pits you as a trooper or a hero/villain versus the AI or a friend in a kill confirmed game type. These can be quite fun and also make for good training for online play.

There's character customisation on offer without it being overly canon, or game, breaking which is something DICE have done really well. You can play as a male or female trooper on both sides with various hair styles for each standard face unlocked as you level up via in game credits earned by playing the various game modes or by playing the well made Battlefront Mobile Companion App. Once you reach level fifty you can unlock heads of various Alien races, including Twi'lek and Zabrak among others, though they aren't customizable. There are also three emotes you can perform during a game and each one of these is customisable as they are unlocked, many of which are little nods to the Star Wars universe in some way or another.

Outside of the purely cosmetic there are currently eleven primary weapons that can be unlocked as you progress through the game. You cannot modify the weapons permanently which keeps the game fairly well balanced and fair. There are seven special weapons, among other equipment such as grenades, & scanners, that can be acquired through unlocking Star Cards, which is Star Wars: Battlefront's way or allowing you to loadout your character. You can hold up to two hands of three cards at any one time, with one of your cards being reserved for a special trait or ability such as converting primary weapons to Ion weapons to take down vehicles or shields, or making you harder to spot on the radar, and upon use they recharge over a set cooldown time. Your trait cards are powered by charges which you will find littered around on the battlefield. Run out of charges and you won't be able to use your trait card so it's important to pick these up whenever you find them.




Unlike DICE's other popular franchise, Battlefield, you cannot just find an vehicle in a hangar and pilot it from the start of the match. This also applies to heroes as well. You have to find a token on the battlefield and walk over it. Once you have acquired it you can then call in the hero or vehicle to assist in the battle and you will take control. If you are shot while trying to call a hero or vehicle in you will be interrupted and have to start the call in process again. If you are killed then you lose the token. I found this mechanic a fair way to allow everyone a good chance of playing as a hero or piloting vehicles rather than it being a race to whom can get to the hangar first or based solely on who is better at earning a killstreak although it does come at the expense of making Star Wars: Battlefront feel more arena like.

Heroes add a great dynamic to Star Wars: Battlefront and can really turn the tide of a battle if used properly. Each hero gets three abilities that can help them take down enemies or add support to their team. They have a lot more health than a regular trooper and can do more damage so their presence is strongly felt on the battlefield and they take co-operative efforts to take out out of the fight. You certainly want to be wary tackling them on their own, even when they are at very low health. Playing as a Jedi or Sith feels absolutely epic, though the lightsaber combat feels a little unfulfilling in regards to it's depth. Deflecting Blaster fire with your Lightsaber or using powers like Force Push or Force Choke are great ways to show your knowledge of the force to the enemy and feel fairly satisfying to watch. Although strong your powers have a recharge time just like the Star Card system and when you block Blaster fire a counter will deplete while you hold the block button. Once it's depleted you will not be able to block anymore until it replenishes.




A rather odd choice is the squad system, or should I say a lack of one. Instead you are randomly partnered up with another player on the team who is highlighted with a yellow aura, with no real incentive or role system in place to actually stick with your partner. You can spawn on your partner at any time that he is alive during the match. When a hero is present you can also spawn as a bodyguard to that hero which gives you some extra abilities that you can use. The problem with either of these however is that there is no way to communicate with your partner, or hero, during the game to co-ordinate your efforts. It's arguable that people generally sit in party chat most of the time anyway but all in all voice chat should be a mandatory feature for a multiplayer focused game. The player should have the choice whether they sit in a public voice channel or not.

The biggest issue in Star Wars: Battlefront however is the spawning issues. This is something that needs to be addressed by allowing the player to visibly see where he is going to spawn and to allow him to choose from various spawn points so to remove the spawn killing aspect that the game currently suffers from. It hurts an otherwise good gameplay experience when you spawn right in front of an enemy to be shot in the back and could be so easily fixed by simply allowing the choice of where to spawn. You can spawn on your game given partner by pressing Y instead of X but again you just don't know what you are spawning into as there's just no way of knowing.




So now the content itself is out of the way just how does the game actually run? DICE have made sure that the game has been tailored around each systems hardware and it clearly shows. Star Wars: Battlefront runs at 720p natively, upscaled to 1080p and runs at 60fps but despite this, running on the Frostbite engine, it looks fantastic and there is very little compromise in overall texture quality or foliage density. Shadow quality is of a good standard and post processing effects don't look out of place or rough. FXAA has been used to smooth out any rough spots and overall it works well. Animations in general are of good quality though the physics can produce some hilarious results at times. What ultimately makes play Star Wars: Battlefront unique and standout from other shooters that saturate the market is the ability to change from first person or third person view on the fly during the game by pressing and holding down on your D-Pad. You can also change from right handed to left handed in third person by tapping down on the D-Pad. This is a nice touch that allows the player to play from a perspective that they prefer though it does come with the issue of the third person perspective advantage though I don't feel it affects the game on such a huge scale that it feels unfair. Graphically this is arguably the best looking title on a console yet, regardless of platform, and it's native resolution quite simply has no negative effect on that statement.

The audio is pretty much as good as you would expect from any DICE or Star Wars experience, with the Star Wars audio effects really giving a lot of weight to the authentic attention to detail that Star Wars: Battlefront has been given by the developers though some of the voice acting feels a little out of place at times. It's hard to remember that this is still just a video game when everything else about it pulls you into the Star Wars universe so well and oh boy is it done so well. The thump of Blaster fire hitting a support shield that's protecting you and your team mates sounds safely satisfying, while you will never ever mistake the sound of X-Wing Cannon fire for anything else. The audio options included allow you to tailor the experience based on what sort of setup you have, as well as play with the dynamic range. You can also disable the music if you really want to, though nothing beats annihilating Rebel scum as Darth Vader to the Imperial March.

Star Wars: Battlefront runs really well online for the most part. I experience the odd bit of rubber banding once in a while which can be a little annoying and did once experience a game breaking bug where the Walkers didn't spawn which led to both sides just battling it out for the better part of an hour just for the fun of it. It was chaotic seeing forty players in a bunker throwing grenades at each other and watching the carnage that ensued, but also somewhat fun to watch, even though the game was essentially broken at that specific point. Fortunately I only experienced this the once and I am yet to experience any other issues online.




Overall Star Wars: Battlefront is a good quality Star Wars experience that really makes you feel like part of the action however it's not without it's flaws and falls a little flat in terms of content, partly because of DICE's adherence to authenticity. If you're not the type that's bothered about not having a campaign to play through it's definitely worth a purchase, and if you are a Star Wars fan you will certainly appreciate the extra attention to detail.