Star Wars Battlefront (Game Review)

It's been 10 years since Star Wars: Battlefront II, and at long last, EA DICE have graced us with maybe the most realistic Star Wars game to this date. We now can play a game where we see the most realistic graphics, hear the screaming Tie-Fighters overhead, watch and listen to the blaster bolts fire across the map and we finally feel like we're living the Star Wars experience. Besides a few flaws and limitations, see here why the new reboot Star Wars Battlefront is a must-play game.

During the era of the Playstation 2 (and other consoles), Star Wars fans were blown away by the first Battlefront game in 2004. We had a simple action shooter with good mechanics, accurate detail to planets and characters and a variety of music and sound effects from the films. Besides the poor AI and no Single Player campaign, the game was flawless back then (and is still considered nowadays).

Then a year later, we all played what most people call "the best Star Wars game ever", Battlefront II. Continuing on from almost all that the first game had to offer, there were lots of added features including space battles, a Campaign Mode to play as the 501st Legion (soon to become Vader's Fist) Clonetroopers in a story mode similar to the films and series which is also told from an autobiographic point-of-view, Galactic Conquest which is a strategic mode to conquer other planets whilst fighting opposing sides (depending on your era) and an Instant Action mode where you can set up any battle the way you wanted and jump straight into the action. This game was beyond exceptional as even to this day, me and my friends play it on 2-4 player and go crazy whether we work together/ against each other or have a long period of heated battles whilst playing on Hero Assault as any hero or villain from the Star Wars Saga (remember those days?)

But anyway, this one has met my standards (not to the full extent, but more on that later).
It's a fresh reboot with up-to-date engines and graphics to help it stand out from it's predecessors. Though it's not the "full-package" and everyone can agree on that. I will give it credit for it's many positives which I am thankful for. I have been buzzing about this since it's world premier teaser trailer we all saw at E3 2014. And then we were blown away with the game play video at this year's E3.

I did have a blast and was blown away back on the 8th October when I played the BETA gameplay for a week.

The Graphics are dynamite, no wonder since it's made by EA and DICE who are most famous for the Battlefield games along with other sensational visuals and some of my favourites such as Dead Space, The Sims, Mirror's Edge and Titanfall etc. I reckon an unbelievable amount of hours must have been done to make this game as jaw-dropping realistic as possible. It's great we can switch between First and Third-Person like in II and even by switching between views, we can see the magnification, detail and colour all change to help show off the hard work.
I rather like seeing all the blasters, vehicles and worlds up close because it proves that the artists and graphics designers didn't just spend a short time on the weapons instead they focused on everything to keep the balance and go beyond the length of detail for a Star Wars game.

The music is nostalgic and from what I can point out, I recognise it all. Though if I'm honest, it's not a wide range or collection of famous tracks from all 6 films as I'd had hoped. But now that I think about it, I think it makes sense (sadly) to have only focused on the music from the Original Trilogy since the game is set only during Episodes IV, V and VI (Galactic Civil War - Rebel Alliance vs Imperial Empire). I can't really point out any few off the top of my head but I do know that lots of original score is featured in the game but it's not John Williams composing the game. It's actually Richmonder Gordy Haab and his orchestra is none other than the world famous London Symphony Orchestra (the orchestra who helped make the Star Wars Soundtrack for the Saga with Williams as composer). It's nice that we hear iconic masterpieces but also see that Richmonder has composed new tracks specifically for this game which takes it into a new direction but not in a bad way since we still get that suspense and sci-fi feeling.

It wouldn't be righteous and true without using the iconic sound effects from the saga, wouldn't it? Hearing the different sound effects for the blasters help the different class of weaponry stand out and so does the blast bolts from the vehicles and spaceships. I've always loved the sounds in Star Wars especially the screech of the infamous Tie-Fighters and it's firing sound along with the zooming sound of the famous X-Wings. I'm glad that this wasn't forgotten as without these, there is no recognition. Plus we get the common "scream" sound effect played sometimes when other players bite the dust (you know, the death sound effect that's used in films).

 

Cinematics are great and they show off a good and stylish view whether it's the Tie-Fighter/ X-Wing being called into the fight or Darth Vader/ Luke Skywalker entering the battlefield. We get a good cinema like camera shot of how dramatic entrances should happen instead of a cutaway or slide transition and there and then it then change with no sense of explanation how they came into place.

Seeing our 4 main worlds which feature the desert sands of Tatooine, the white snow landscape on Hoth, the endless forest of Endor and now the planet Sullust (a lava world where that character "Nien Nunb" is from in Episode VI) and there's an upcoming map of the Jakku world which is set in the upcoming Episode VII.

   

It's said to be released on December 8th which is a week before Episode VII's release. One good thing about the game is that there are around 12 multiplayer maps which hold up to 40 online players and feature several different sectors of the planets instead of seeing the same map for all the different gaming modes (like in Call Of Duty).

Sadly there is no Story/ Campaign to this game which is one of it's heaviest downfalls and limitations. Many of my friends including me who have been hyped for this game for over a year since it's teaser debut at E3 2014 and then this year's short game play vid, thought we all agreed on the same sad fact on what this game was missing. Besides no Campaign (even if we were to play or feature during several battles/ moments in the Original Trilogy), we are unfortunately limited to just planetary based combat which means no taking this action into space which is what Star Wars is most famous for. It's disappointing that this wasn't included in the game but then again, I'm trying to cope and understand that the developers must have thought that it was best to not add this in yet since it wouldn't help a possible sequel to outdo the prequel plus they can only put so enough detail into this already.
But there is a Co-Op/ Single Player Mission mode called Survival where you can team up to do training or survive waves of enemies if you think you're skilled enough.

I'm glad we did get Fighter Squadron mode, which is basically dogfights in the air. It's rather tough to control, let a lone get the kills perfectly but it's got me hooked on it. I can't decide whether it's better to see it in Third-Person or to switch to First-Person and feel like I am in the cockpit itself with the limited window to seek out my targets (it's like I'm the actual characters seeing it from their point-of-view in the film).
The other modes are all based off of similar modes in Battlefield including Blast (Team Deathmatch), Walker Assault (Rush), Supremacy (Domination), Cargo (Capture The Flag) etc. They all range from quantity of players (10, 20, 40 players), time limits/ kill counts and locations of the planets. Good thing it's not just one mode repeated over and over and over and over again. Though I do find it tough to win some modes (mainly Walker Assault) as the Rebels compared to playing as the Empire.

The controls are simple and similar to any shooter game which includes Left-Trigger to aim, Right-Trigger to fire, Left Analog stick to run and Right Analog Stick to aim (other buttons vary on console).

The game is essentially a formula of run, get shot, respawn and repeat... I can't make that it's stand out issue since every shooter is like that especially Call Of Duty and even Titanfall. It's very hard for me to not lose my sh*t when taking longer to level up compared to most gifted players in any shooter game I play on my Xbox One mainly due to my low skill on getting kill streaks or making my kill score greater than my death score haha. I still enjoy it all and it's a sensational Star Wars game that makes us feel as close to playing the actual Original Trilogy as possible. We just haven't got the whole shebang.
What we do have are some creative mechanics such as unlimited sprint when pressing down on the Left Analog stick, all aims have a scope or magnification instead of using Iron Sight. But mainly we have cards which are unlockable and customisable including soldiers. The cards use time to recharge and once unlocked they can be shared with other players by selecting other team members card sets (you can also spawn on team member's location on the battlefield). I think that's a good quality which doesn't restrict us to ammo and instead limits us to over-firing and requires recharge time which I believe is a much better and understanding feature. Plus there are power ups on the map which reward you with either powerful weaponry or abilities to call in a hero/ villain or spacecraft for you to control.

My overall opinion and rating for this game is a reasonable 8.5/10.
I do agree and stand by what I've said including the disadvantages and limitations to this highly anticipated game. Many of my friends are still hesitant to give this game a shot or buy it for the full price since like most games these days, it's like a scam of purchasing half a game and then waiting for  (DLC) or Season Passes to come out and extend the experience instead of including everything when the game is released (like the prequels).
I do hope that a sequel or future Star Wars game can bring forward this same amount of detail or entertainment and I am enjoying this game at the moment along with Fallout 4 (though it's hard to juggle them both evenly).
I say give this game a shot since it's great for any Star Wars fan even if it can become fairly repetitive very easily.
3 Weeks now till The Force Awakens! I'm gonna write up a review on both Trilogies before seeing the film. Stay tuned!