Kanata's and Panakas in Battlefront II's beta battles written by Tom Midgley Embark on an endless Star Wars action experience from the bestselling Star Wars HD videogame franchise of all time. Experience rich multiplayer battlegrounds across all 3 eras - prequel, classic and new trilogy - or rise as a new hero and discover an emotionally gripping single-player story spanning thirty years. No-one’s more uncomfortable about operating on children as I am. But with the brief window into Battlefront II’s gameplay that the beta afforded, I’ve decided to analyze what was shown even now in the game’s infancy. On second thoughts I’m going to retire the surgical metaphor now for the sake of taste and humanity. This first post is going to take a critical look at the worlds and the locales we got to cover in laser burns during the beta as well as the new play-styles that the game introduced us to. So what did the beta show? Essentially online multiplayer and offline splitscreen. Could they have shown some of the scripted action in the story mode? Yes, but people looking for insight into the game’s newly-minted narrative will buy this game regardless. What we DID get was the reworked gameplay and structure that DICE are bringing to course-correct their previous shot at the Star Wars saga. Online multiplayer took the form of three modes: 'Galactic Assault' in the city of Theed, Naboo 'Starfighter Assault' around Fondor, an Imperial shipyard and 'Strike' in and around Maz Kanata's Castle on Takodana. 'Galactic Assault' was decidedly not very galactic but introduced a much more objective focused en masse assault. 'Starfighter Assault' brought back the dogfights and evasive manoeuvres of aerial combat, but with reworked controls and wrapped up in a much more cinematic style. Finally, 'Strike' gave us a fairly standard capture the flag mode but with a more frenetic pace. All in all, the aim here was for DICE to show us that the new classes, cards and game modes were worth returning for, and shelling out more Republic credits than even a Toydarian could turn their trunk up at. So here's what I think worked and what should be sent to the spice mines of Kessel. 'Galactic Assault' - Theed, NabooTheed is beautiful. Even from an objective point of view. It’s Naboo’s capital, grandiose and immaculate. Until the war arrives on its mile-long porch that is. Right from the start there’s great touches to the map like seeing civilians leg it when the troops arrive (What? No peck on the cheek or lucky handkerchief for Clone Trooper 33-4799?), or even seeing the previous clone garrison led away at gunpoint by battle droids. However, a few more flourishes with the level design would have been nice. For instance, there’s very little verticality to Theed. I don’t think DICE can use the excuse of Naboo’s Neighbourhood Watch for the remarkable number of locked doors and inaccessible buildings. Instead, specialist snipers have to crane their head into the main thoroughfare. Which might have been a better challenge if it weren’t for the belle of the ball MTT rolling along at a snail’s pace and blocking line of sight for everyone and everydroid.
Moving inside the palace brought a more tactical play, but at times it felt like more of the same firefights from outside. A gun emplacement or two for the defenders or some secret tunnels or paths through Phantom Menace hotspots would have shown some progression and bumped up the difficulty curve.
The match does have a nice level of sequential awareness in that performing poorly as a defender taking out troops, only makes later stages harder as enemy reinforcements ramp up. I think for a truly exceptional performance a team-wide boon like extra points or an additional AI hero (*cough* Panaka *cough*) would have added some nuance and some variety to each play. Perhaps something as simple as a stack of crates placed for cover in particularly nasty spots.
'Starfighter Assault' - Imperial Shipard, FondorThis mode saw A LOT of improvement in my opinion. Aerial combat always felt very much like an afterthought in 2015’s Battlefront and too much of it was focused on pick-ups and simplistic controls. This felt very far from the dizzying feats of flight we see onscreen in the saga. In addition, the absence of mixed aerial and ground combat really stung considering it formed such an amusingly chaotic part of the original franchise. But now DICE have created something that really captures the cinematic spirit of the movies, and have made the gameplay challenging enough to feel satisfying when you clip an A-wing’s… wings. Most notable in the design changes are the improved level structure and flight controls. Evasive manoeuvres are now all down to you. No longer mapped to a single button and directed with a flick of a joystick. Now the pitching, rolling, yawing and other piloting buzzwords you know are in your hands. This feels like a much more intuitive control scheme and any failure or success I had from my flying skills (mostly crashing failures) felt earned. However, a few dodgy collision detection issues while darting through Fondor’s ‘Staff-only’ areas were a little annoying. Especially, when you’d see that you were pancaked by a tiny antenna 5m away from your ship.
The overall level structure is where I think this Starfighter Assault has improved the most. In contrast to my views on Galactic Assault, the fight over the Imperial port of Fondor, feels like a deleted scene from the original trilogy. Admittedly one that none of the big stars were bothered to turn up to shoot perhaps but the quasi-narrative and visual spectacle certainly approach the saga’s quality. Easing players in with a simple dogfighting section is an obvious move but in addition we’re given satellite turrets and cruisers moving around the map. These add to the experience and distance it from the simpler, unimaginative days of the previous game’s fighter mode. When the cruisers go down we get the kind of fun space combat that last year’s Death Star DLC briefly conjured up for paying players. Much like the famous trench run, the bombing run through Fondor’s reactor core is tricky to navigate but somehow open enough for brief moments of panic as TIEs come screaming at you. At this stage, the role of each class of ship really becomes crystallized as rebel fighters and interceptors keep their bombers safe, while the nimblest Imperial ships weave defend the core and TIE-bombers fire away at the unprotected. But again, during all this there’s additional objectives with the Rebel corvettes and AI Y-wing squadrons helping flesh out and detail an already impressive bit of game design. While I only got to the final stage of this mode twice, the frenzy around the docking clamps and the ‘boss battle’-esque Star Destroyer, felt like DICE might have actually had a little fun making this part of the game. The Rebel battleship jumping in was a nice touch and although I felt it didn’t really threaten Imperial players, the dynamic changes to the level still work. Fondor feels like a level that can go either way very quickly with the desperate fight over objectives and yet still feel like a very cinematic and satisfying level to play. But seriously, cockpit view is vomit-inducing. Don’t try spinning. It’s not a ‘neat trick’. 'Strike' - Maz Kanata's Castle, TakodanaNow, I saved this baby until last because I honestly think this is the return to form that DICE needs for its levels. Especially in ones as tightly focused as Maz’s Castle on Takodana. Let’s begin with the environment because by the Maker, this is a gorgeous looking level. Areas from Episode VII? We got that! Varied terrain? We got that! Verticality? Sneaky passages? BUSHES?! We got them all. The layout of the Castle itself is the real centrepiece here, but the wooded gauntlet that First Order troops must run the artifact down is a very strong contender too. With so many paths through the mixture of machinery and forest, your head needs to be spinning like an Astromech to stay alive. The foliage helps obscure players without actually providing cover so anyone using the specialist’s macro-binoculars can get some cheeky headshots through the green. In terms of more solid cover, the hills and gulleys can only keep you safe for a few feet before exposing you to the open again as anyone who stays still for too long will soon learn. And for any desperate soul wanting to make a beeline for the waiting shuttle there’s still the shoreline path should a clear home run ever seem like a tantalising option (it isn’t). But Maz’s fortified cantina is where it’s at. I got major chills the first time I wandered down to the basement where Rey’s vision unfolds and holing up in the Cantina lets you take in some of the detail that’s been lovingly added there. But it’s the gameplay that derives from the castle’s design that really impressed upon me. First off, the doors. With so many entrances to the castle, winding corridors and stairways, invading and defending the fortress is understandably challenging. Defenders have to watch multiple approaches and those infiltrating it must find a way around the Resistance squatting inside, ready in wait. What really helps turn this from a short burst of cat and mouse and into a trying firefight is the copious cover all around. The useable cover scattered throughout the cantina is vital to the aesthetic but more so for a lasting experience when playing on the map.
The rooftop presents a useful tactical advantage for Resistance player and a nice variety to the gameplay, but I found it a little arduous to make use of without a jet pack. I’d like to see better access added to it in the future if possible, just to keep defending players on their toes a little more. The approach beneath the flags is instead much more tense, requiring you to keep an eye on the main doors as well as the demolished wall segment, both making easy flanking opportunities. The layout of this entire map combined with the spawn rates makes for a level and a style of play that has quickly become my favourite. The way that it evokes each of the new classes’ abilities is exactly why it made sense to be sitting pretty in the beta, at no point does it ever feel swayed too heavily toward either side and you can enjoy playing in any way without feeling out of place. As a last observation it would be great to see air combat added to the mix and destructible elements to the castle, just to emulate the castle’s devastation in Force Awakens a little more and make things a little more dynamic. And then give me a playable Finn so I can watch BFF Poe get MVP. 'Arcade' - Solo/Co-op
As you can probably tell 'Strike' and 'Starfighter Assault' were what really stood out to me and where I had the most fun. But it was still massively satisfying to return to a game like Battlefront especially to such beautiful locations with fresh features.
What I'll be focusing on in my next post are the people behind the blasters. Also in front of the blasters, and wounded on the floor, and floating through space and running from Darth Maul. That's right, with many new classes to play with and an arsenal of new gear, there's plenty for me to plug and plenty for you to play. Plug & Play. ... That's, this blog. That's what I'm doing here. Plug & Play.
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Tom MidgleyI play, design and write about games when I'm not hoping for someone to pay me to do these things. Archives
October 2017
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