Wednesday, October 21, 2015

First Impressions: Star Wars Battlefront Beta


Give yourself to the Dark Side. 

    My first impressions of the Star Wars: Battlefront Beta were surprisingly pleasant. Immediately after jumping into the game I had the familiar Star Wars: Battlefront feeling of being in the middle of a chaotic battle between the rebels and the empire. The game aesthetically feels like SWB but how the does game play hold up? Overall I'd say the game play holds up very well albeit a bit stripped down from previous games. I went into this experience thinking it was going to be a Battlefield game with a Star Wars paint job. Luckily I didn't experience that during my four hours of playing the beta. 



Some AT AT and AT ST Action

   Running through the various available game modes during the beta we have: survival, walker assault and drop zone. Drop zone is similar to territory mode in Call of Duty. An escape pod will land on the battle field and each side must attempt to capture the pod before the other team gets to it first. If a pod is captured it will spawn power-ups for the winning team to use and a point will be scored. The first team to reach 5 points wins. This mode is simplistic but it was wonderful for getting into a battle and just having  a great time. The battles were chaotic and hectic; however, it was so satisfying to blast a few storm troopers. There were some new quirks added to the game to keep it fresh and to give Battlefront a modern twist. Weapons like the cycler rifle and thermal detonator are now cards that have a cool down between use rather than a set ammo count. Battlefront also seems to lack a class system however character customization and equipment load outs have been added.

  Load out screen, with a Pinocchio bug. Y'know, it's a beta.

   As seen in trailers however, classic battlegrounds such as Hoth and Tatooine will return. Space battles will not be present, during launch, but there will be a vehicle only mode when the game releases. Hero characters will also be making a return. Depending on the map, hero pickups will be available allowing the user to play as a hero character from the Star Wars universe such as: Luke, Vader, Leia, Han, Boba Fett and Emperor Palpatine.  

Ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid

   My experience with the game during beta was pleasant. I can't complain too much about what I played but I obviously can't say with any real solid idea if the game will be good or not. A short beta with only three modes is a taste of what's to come. I think Battlefront is on the right track; However, there is no denying that this $50 season pass will turn many people off and is probably going to add some of the missing content I mentioned. The paywall is cheap and that's not even mentioning the ridiculous deluxe and special editions of the game. For what it's worth this game could've been handled much worse, and from the gameplay standpoint I'm pleased with what I saw. So here's hoping Star Wars is handled with care, films included. In case you haven't, go check out that trailer. 



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