Star Wars Battlefront II: The Dark Side of the Franchise.

I can’t remember a time when I was told by so many disparate people to not play a game. To be clear I don’t think the controversy surrounding Battlefront 2 is unjustified as the trend towards including what amounts to gambling in nearly every AAA title feels like a massive step backwards for the industry. More it’s the fact that the game itself looked fun, even with the microtransactions and loot boxes taken into consideration. So I went against everyone’s advice and bought a copy of the game thinking that, at the very least, it’d be worth it just to play another campaign in the Star Wars universe. Whilst that didn’t turn out to be the highlight I was hoping it to be the multi-player has been surprisingly fun, if marred somewhat by the loot box bogeyman.

The campaign centres on Iden Versio a member of the elite Inferno Squad, an Imperial Special Forces Commando unit, formed after the destruction of the first Death Star. She was on Endor when the second Death Star was destroyed by the rebels, splintering the Galactic Empire. The Emperor’s death triggered a secret contingency plan to ensure that the Empire retained control of the galaxy: dubbed Operation Cinder. Iden is then sent on a set of unusual missions to prepare for it when it becomes clear that the mission will be far more sinister than anyone planned for.

Battlefront II, like its predecessor, makes use of the Frostbite 3 engine which once again provides for some absolutely stunning visuals. Of particular note is the lighting which is simply without peer in any game I’ve played this year. Beyond that it’s impressive the amount of stuff they’ve managed to cram into every level and set piece, both in the campaign and the multiplayer. Those pretties do come at a cost however and whilst my near 3 year old machine was able to run everything on high @ 1080p I’m sure anything beyond that would’ve turned the whole affair into a slide show.

The core game remains largely the same, retaining the star card system and reworking the hero/more powerful classes to use a “battlepoint” system that allows you to buy them once you’ve accumulated enough of them through attacking other players, achieving objectives or, funnily enough, straight up dying enough times. Progression is, unfortunately, inexorably tied to the loot crates which drop star cards and crafting materials you’ll need to level up your class of choice. You can buy these crates with in-game currency you earn through playing however so you don’t have to spend money to get there but I’ll be damned if a bunch of people didn’t do exactly that. The same game modes make a return as well with the trademark 40 on 40 battles being the go-to favourite of many players. An “Arcade Mode” was introduced to get you used to the various non-standard classes, something which can be rather painful to do in the multi itself. All in all it’s pretty much the same game as Battlefront was with the progression mechanics all mixed up in a microtransaction hell.

Combat feels the same as it did in its predecessor, meaning that aiming down sights does nothing and the third person camera gives you the spatial awareness you’ll need if you want to be at all effective. Yet again it took me a little while to get used to it, my FPS tendencies that had been bedded in by Call of Duty and Destiny 2 needing to be shaken off before I felt like everything had clicked. Of course the power level between me and my foes was immediately apparent; fights that felt like they should have been even turning out to be anything but and I couldn’t go 2 steps without a sniper removing most, if not all, of my health. As I learnt the maps and started to progress a little this started to happen less often but it’s unfortunately obvious that those who’ve opened their wallets have a distinct advantage.

You see how you level a class in Battlefront II isn’t through playing them, no you level them by crafting star cards for them. Each of the cards you craft (or receive through loot boxes) adds to your “card level” for that particular class. Each of the cards has 4 power levels, each of which provides more benefits than the last. You can’t, however, craft the best card right from the get go. No instead you must craft a bunch of lesser cards (most of which you’ll likely never use) before you can unlock the next tier of upgrades. This means your best bet is to focus on a single class and craft a build that you feel most comfortable playing for a long time. After then you can start fleshing out the other classes like the upgraded troops, vehicles and hero characters. If this is sounding like a lot of work it most certainly is. I’m about 6 hours into the multi and my assault class is card level 10 with a few others around the 2 or 3 level. This hasn’t stopped me from being somewhat effective (I do about average it seems) but its hard to deny that a disproportionate number of those at the top are ones who’ve splashed a bit of cash around.

Worse still this also has a limiting effect on how you can play as the “upgraded” classes, vehicles and hero classes can feel woefully underpowered when you go from your preferred, card levelled class to them. Even if you do manage to get enough battle points to spawn one of them it’s quite likely that someone has already done the same, locking you out of playing one of them. Of course you could spend some credits to unlock another hero class (ranging in price from 5,000 to 15,000 credits) but, yet again, that’s an advantage that someone who’s shelled out cash is going to have over you. It’s possible that these issues are somewhat magnified due to my relative tardiness in getting around to playing Battlefront II but, honestly, systems like this that reward you with just flat out better gear incentivize all the wrong things in titles like this.

It’s a right shame as the game is actually playable this time around and, honestly, quite fun. Whilst there are still issues with matchmaking, like a lack of team reshuffling between matches and the lack of a leavers penalty, there’s at least a relatively healthy community on PC now. No longer do I have wait ages for a spot in the single galactic war match, hoping that I end up on the winning team so I can farm some easy credits for an hour or two. Nope instead there’s always multiple games cranking and, on average, there’s a 50/50 chance of finding yourself on the winning side. It even got to the point where I figured I should finish the campaign, just for good measure, but honestly felt that I’d much rather enjoy playing a few multi games rather than going back to it.

The reason for that is, whilst parts of the campaign have their moments, it just falls somewhat flat from a story perspective. It’s a highly predictable one for starters, following the typical “bad guy realising they’re the bad guy” trope which makes it hard to really connect with anyone in it. Like most multiplayer focused games it’s also mostly an extended showcase for the levels you’ll be playing later, loosely stitched together with fragments of a story so there’s a reason for you to visit all of them. I didn’t finish it in the end but, honestly, I had most of the story played out in my head already (and a quick trip to the wiki shows that I was pretty close to the mark). All in all, whilst it’s commendable that EA DICE listened on this one particular thing they could have at least put just a tiny bit more effort into it.

Star Wars Battlefront II is a great game that got itself mixed up in the wrong crowd. When it comes down to it the flagship game mode, Galactic War, is a bunch of fun, capturing that feeling of being part of something much larger than yourself when you’re playing it. However the whole progression system being heavily tilted towards getting you to shell out for loot boxes means that the overall experience suffers greatly as a result. EA DICE may be making steps towards fixing it but we all know what the end game is here: placate us long enough so that the idea of paying for loot boxes becomes palatable again. Honestly it’s a right shame as beneath all of this is a great game that begs to be played, one I know a lot of people would enjoy.

Rating: 7.0/10

Star Wars Battlefront II is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One right now for $59.99. Game was played on the PC with approximately 7 hours of total play time.