Alright now with all the noise out there before release I still picked up Star Wars Battlefront II.
Why?
Well it a Star Wars shooter and I like Star Wars, even
though I was a bit disappointed with the
first game.
Battlefront II is still a first person shooting online PVP
game. That is the biggest draw. You can play through battles from the prequels
and into The Force Awakens. These fights can be 8 or up to 40 players. They can
be on land with troopers or in space with star fighters. It has all the PVP one
wants and needs with a Star Wars skin draped over it.
This time around there is also a single player campaign. You
play as Iden Versio the leader of the Imperial special forces unit Inferno
Squad. You start off during the battle of Endor and play through the battle at
Jakku. One can easily guess what happens to Iden during her adventures, well
unless you are dense, have never seen a movie or read book. Ever. Yup,
eventually Iden joins the rebellion/ Republic and fights the remains of the
Empire. It was no surprise and a twist that anyone could/should see
coming.
Story aside the single player campaign is alright. It
functions a tutorial and gives you something to do for a few hours. It is short
and there is little to no replay value. If this is what you bought the game for
then I’m sorry. It is not long enough to be worth the cost.
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| Dumbest plot point in the single player. |
PVP in Battlefront I
This is where the action is and where the frustration
begins.
I have a love hate relationship with the PVP in the first
Star Wars Battlefront. There is no balance and that is stupidly frustrating!
The more you play the more you unlock abilities and weapons. This leads to
opposing players being able to shoot you just a few times and kill you. While on
the opposite side I could unload a barrage of shots into a player and do very
little damage. You could shoot a heavy blaster into the face of an enemy and he
doesn’t fall. He shoots you twice and you die. It made playing wildy not fun
most of the time.
Well what about
Battlefront II PVP?
Yup the same problem in PVP. I have been advancing the heavy
trooper and still can unload into an
opposing player with a heavy blaster and he barley takes any damage. Then he
shoots me no more than three times and I die. It makes no sense. I know I need
to unlock all the fun little abilities and weapons to make my guy better,
but….. if I hate playing or get 1-3 shot killed all the time why bother. I’ll
never kill enough guys to wrack-up the points to unlock all the fun stuff to
make my guy better.
This is my experience with the game and I know two other
guys that have the same problem. Either this is just what Battlefront games
are, or it is just three of us that have an issue all the time.
 |
| Shriv! Best part of the single player campaign! |
What about other PVP stuff?
When a PVP match is going well it is awesome! When your team
is more concerned with wracking up kills for points instead of
capturing/defending objectives…it blows!
As you run through the PVP battles you can unlock other
troop, ship, vehicle and character options. These are marginally better to
pretty damn good. I have seen Luke, Rey and Kyo run the table and muderize
swaths of players. It almost seems unfair, but when they show up I just run to
a different part of the battle to avoid them. I have yet to do any vehicles,
outside of the space battles where you have to play in star fighters. I am so
busy trying to wrack-up points for my heavy trooper I don’t want to spend any
on vehicles or heroes. I see people always using this stuff so it must be great
to drive or control various characters in battle.
There is always the ever present annoying players who just
refuse to play the mission. You know the types, but that is every PVP game
though so it is a complaint about people and not the game. It does effect game
playability as missions can be lost early and fast due to colossal asshats not
playing the fraking mission!
There is a niggling issue for me with unlockable characters
in PVP. If I am fight the droid/Separatist forces on Naboo and Kylo Ren shows up
to start wrecking face it really bugs me. This is just from a Star Wars cannon
bit. The same if Rey shows up on the Death Star. Bossk appearing on Star Killer
base. This is just a nerd complaint, but it really seems stupid to do this.
What else?
There is an arcade mode where you can face off against bots
instead of humans. This seems ok until you realize the enemy bots are smarter
and better than most PVP humans.
There are co-op and vs. split screen modes for one on one
action. I’ll pass on this but it is an option for players.
The loot box issue
There was this whole credits, loot box and unlocking special
character issue. It had and still has players panties in a bunch. Personally I
find the loot box option bad. It feel like a mix of ad development, money grab
and pay-to-play scam. I am not concerned with unlocking special characters. I
don’t care how many credits it takes to unlock Yoda, Chewie, Darth Maul etc. If
I’m bored I might eventually unlock them.
Why no characters Ian? Well they are played in 3rd
person and I am no fan of that in a first person PVP battle game.
Yeah so there are loot boxes you need to purchase to get
better gear for your troopers, ships and characters. This is just drek. You get
credits for playing and spend those on boxes that have random gear. Now it
looked like it was going to be that is you spend human money, then you could by
better boxes than using the in-game credits. That or spend human money to
unlock characters faster. This money grab offended people and all manner of poo
was slung at EA.
This money grab/ pay to play better is crap. It has since
been halted by EA. Plus they lowered the in game credit cost to unlock
characters. Did they need to do this? Well to try and put out the wild fire of
bad press before release…yes. Yes they did.
Instead of all this stupidity, EA could have just developed
a better game. I mean this is a Star Wars PVP shooter. It is going to sell. Why
try to turn it into a money grab after shelling out $60 plus dollars for the
game? You know you gain XP for PVP
battles. You level up, but what does it give you? Well the chance to get better
(and wildy random) ability cards for classes by buying loot crates. It is a
drek system for damn sure.
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| Random crap found in loot crates. There had to have been a better way than this! |
Why not have the classes level with game play? Why not have
skills unlock as trooper, ship or special characters gain XP? You know like make
it worth your time to really play a class to get the best stuff. Instead it is
just play anything to get credits so you can buy loot with random shit in it hoping
to get a ability for the class you like to play.
Thoughts?
The controls, graphics and sound are pretty damn tight!
The solo campaign is mediocre and short.The PVP is fun but can be wildly frustrating and unbalanced.
The 40 player themed battles look great and toss you into the stuff from the movies.
The XP leveling system is tied to the whole loot box system and that is just a hot wheel of random garbage! Anyone who reads my blog knows how I feel about wildy random stuff.
The loot crates are just an utterly crappy bit of business and poor game development.
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| Heavy troopers look so cool, but they just don't seem to kill as much as they should. I mean a guy with a blaster pistol should totally kill him with two shots! |
If you are a big fan of the first Star Wars Battlefront ( or
any of the Battlefront series of games ) then you will love this game.
If you are a Call of Duty guy, then you will probably not be
a fan.If you are a gamer and love Star Wars it might be worth your time, but you have been warned.
I have a real love-hate relationship with this game. It could have been incredible. It should be incredible. However, the need to spend real or game money on random shit in hopes to get better stuff is just that. Shit!
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