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Star Wars Battlefront II: A New Hope. A Gamers Review.

The Star Wars Battlefront franchise established its name in the early 2000s when the games were released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. What a time to be alive that was. The prequels were in full swing, The Clone Wars were just getting started on Cartoon Network and Star Wars was at the peak of its popularity with the Millennial generation. So, when we heard the news of Star Wars Battlefront being reborn and heading for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, naturally we were all excited. But once we popped the disk into the consoles, we were left wondering “Is this the same franchise that provided us with countless hours of fun so long ago?”. Star Wars Battlefront was a disaster. It almost ruined the franchise and left a lot of gamers sour.

Star Wars Battlefront I was incomplete when it was released. There was no story/campaign mode for single player gamers. The multiplayer mode was at the very least bland, with minimal characters and game modes. The game also only featured characters and maps based off the original trilogy, which alienated fans of the prequels and sequels (yes, there are fans of those eras). EA was flat out lazy. When you pair this with EA’s reputation of under producing games to then later force players to spend more money on numerous DLC packs (downloadable content), fans lost trust in the franchise. This is evident in many of EA sports franchises such as Madden NFL, Battlefield, and most notably The Sims franchise. Although many games are using microtransactions to make more money, many of the most popular games that offer a variety of game packs are free these days, most notably Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone. EA still charges $19.99 for the Star Wars Battlefront II game. Alessandro Fillari for Gamespot also mentions this in their review,

“Battlefront II plants itself in the same territory as free-to-play games, with much of its content and characters tucked away behind progression walls and randomized loot crates. This is an especially disappointing reality for a full-priced release.” Alessandro Fillari, Gamespot.com.

Although we agree here, I personally think his score of 6/10 overall is a bit harsh for the game.

This takes us to Star Wars Battlefront II. When I heard that there was a sequel coming out, I already had doubt in the second installment before it had even been released. I was wondering how is EA going to mess this one up? From my personal gaming experience, I believe Star Wars Battlefront II is a major improvement to its predecessor, but many previously devoted fans chose not to purchase the second game after the disappointment and disaster around the first installment.

CAMPAIGN MODE

Being provided with a campaign mode at all has been a huge improvement from the first installment, but let’s take a closer look at it. The Campaign mode on Star Wars Battlefront II is actually pretty good. It changes up the pace of the story by switching between third person shooting missions, where you navigate the map and take on the empire head-to-head with various weapons, to straight out dog fights in space. Flying Tie fighters and X-wing aircrafts in space is a nice touch to keep you on your toes while keeping the game fresh, because how many more first or third person shooter games do we really need?

In the story mode you play as Iden Versio, who starts as a high-ranking commander for the Galactic Empire. Since the story takes place right after the events of episode six, Return of the Jedi, the empire falls after the death of Darth Sidious and has left the empire desperate and looking to take the galaxy down with it. Iden Versio sees the error in the empire’s ways and pretty soon into the story she defects to the rebel alliance. This story setup allows players the opportunity to get to play both sides of the war, which I’m sure will be appreciated by some fans. One of my personal gripes is that the story mode itself is more on the short side.

Campaign mode score: 7.5/10

SINGLE PLAYER MODE

Single player mode is pretty standard. It consists of three modes. Battle Scenarios is a mode where you can customize games to play against the AI. You can also customize all the rules and choose which side you would like to play as. In arcade mode you can complete certain missions and objectives with special characters from both the light and dark side. There is also a pretty standard practice/tutorial mode. These are great additions to the game but can get stale and repetitive rather quickly.

Single player mode score: 6.6/10

MULTIPLAYER MODE

This is the games bread a butter. Multiplayer is vastly improved from the last installment. EA has listened to the fanbase and has diversified the game by adding the characters and maps from both the prequel and sequels to the game. One of the biggest flaws of Battlefront I was the lack of iconic characters such as Kylo Ren or Yoda being playable in the game. Battlefront II fixes that with modes like Supremacy, which is a capture the flag type game mode, that allows you to pick era of the franchise you would like to play in.  Another online game mode is “Heroes and Villains”. If you ever wondered how Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Kylo Ren would turn out, or what Luke Skywalker vs Darth Maul would look like? Then this is the game mode for you. You can battle with Star Wars most popular and iconic characters using lightsabers, blasters, as well as use the force to fight your way to victory in a 4v4 battle royale.

David Jagneux describes this in his review for IGN, “What’s great about Battlefront 2 is that it lets you play with all of its toys, no questions asked. Every character class and playable hero is available from the start, and the tedious unlocking grind from launch has been completely removed. Luke, Vader, Boba Fett, Rey – you name them, they’re all here.” David Jagneux, IGN.com. David gave the game a solid score of 8.8/10.

Multiplayer mode score: 10/10

This brings me to the conclusion. Star Wars Battlefront II is a very good game, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a great multiplayer game with a few single player modes to throw into the mix. When compared to the first Battlefront to come to the new generation of consoles it is a massive upgrade. I am usually hard on EA as I am not a fan of many of their games, but I have to admit that they have done great job capturing the essence of the original Star Wars Battlefront games for Xbox and PlayStation 2, which is something that many companies have had a hard time doing as of late, even with superior gaming consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series One being released. You have to give props where they are due. Star Wars Battlefront II has my full recommendation and stamp of approval, it’s a fun game whether you are a huge Star Wars fan or are just looking for a diverse online/offline adventure.

Final Score: 8/10 with a great multiplayer mode!