Next month, EA will be releasing one of the most anticipated Star Wars games in recent memory. Star Wars Battlefront is an EA DICE developed reboot of the original game and is already poised to break sales numbers when it hits stores a month before the box office debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
With the PS4 beta expected to start on October 8th, we decided to give a few of our thoughts on the overall experience. Does this game live up to early expectations or is destined to disappoint? Keep reading to find out.
Richard Bailey Jr. – Editor-In-Chief
When EA finally revealed the first gameplay footage from Battlefront earlier this year, I walked away impressed but not yet sold on what this title had to offer. While I gave games like Titanfall and Evolve favorable scores in the past, I knew that this trend of multiplayer only games was just beginning and I personally feel that as consumers we definitely deserve more content for our money.
After spending a few hours in the Star Wars Battlefront beta, I can confirm that the game is fun and will certainly satisfy players who live for action-packed multiplayer experiences. I started my gameplay session by participating in the co-op survival mission on Tatooine. This is pretty much similar to Gears of Wars Horde mode, but with the major difference being that your facing off against AT-ST’s, TIE fighters, and elite stormtroopers. Players can seamlessly transition between first-person and third-person views on the fly while navigating through the map. One thing that you’ll notice right off the back is just how beautiful this game looks and stays faithful to the overall source material. Once the action takes place, it was fairly easily to wrap up each wave quickly. It’s worth noting that this may not be the case in the final build as there will be 15 waves of enemies as opposed to the five that I experienced in this beta.
The second half of my gameplay session consisted of several matchups in both the Drop Zone and Walker Assault modes. I personally found the Walker Assault mode to be the most fun because of the prospects of playing as a Jedi after leveling up. While there are issues with constantly respawning in hostile territory, this does add a bit more chaos to the experience and motivates you to work with your teammates to achieve better results. Most multiplayer games require that you play with sociable and knowledgeable players by default, and the same rule will apply to this title when all is said and done.
With so many positives about this game, the one area that I’m still heavily concerned about revolves around the amount of content that will be in the final version of the game. While I do expect EA to have an aggressive strategy for DLC, I’m already starting to question if large audiences will still be playing this game by February of next year. It may be too early to tell exactly how all this will turn out, but luckily we won’t have to wait too much longer now to find out.
Jakejames Lugo – Senior Editor
The beta for EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront game has shown me that things are developing much better than I had expected. While I was skeptical about how Battlefront might turn out after hearing the constant negative chatter online, playing the beta helped put some of my fears at ease. DICE is definitely doing a lot of things right for the next evolution of the Battlefront series. Not only are the visuals incredibly polished and look amazing, but the gameplay is also solid in every way I wanted it to be. As expected, my time with the beta didn’t go without noticing a few things that still need to be worked on before the game is finally released.
It’s easy to draw comparisons to EA’s Battlefield series after playing Star Wars: Battlefront. However, my experience in the beta felt like a mixture between the speed of the Call of Duty series and the strategy found in Bungie’s Destiny. Battlefront is still an objective based game at heart, but I also felt powerful as an individual solider. Running alone on the map far away from my team still got me killed, but I wasn’t completely helpless if I decided to do so.
The two game modes in the beta, Drop Zone and Walker Assault, were fun to play online with other people. However, I wish there was a way to bring more than one person with me as a party online. The inability to bring a whole group of friends with me into online matches can be disappointing, especially when so many other shooters now allow me to do so. There will be other modes for online multiplayer in the final version, though the two I played in the beta did offer many hours of entertainment.
The only major thing I found annoying while playing the beta was the spawn points during battles. Many times I would find myself spawning into the crosshairs of an enemy or orbital strike. You could choose to spawn on another player already on the map, but this is highly situational and isn’t always safe. While the spawn killing didn’t happen too frequently, it still happened enough times to become noticeably irritating during most matches. Despite my grips with the beta, EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront is looking to be a solid game for everyone that waited a long time to play a new entry into the series.
This concludes a few of our thoughts on the Star Wars Battlefront Beta. This PS4 open beta starts on October 8th and is expected to debut on the Xbox One shortly thereafter. Star Wars Battlefront launches on November 17th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Have you had a chance to play the beta? Please feel free to let us know how your experience was in the comments section below.
