The original Battlefront was critically acclaimed, smashing 5-star ratings across the board for its first-person battle mechanics and the absolute emersion into the star wars universe. After the amazing reception of the first game the sequel was released within two years and once again blew fans and critics away. The second instalment followed along with the squadron of the 501st the elitist of the Clone (and later, storm trooper) squadrons. But this time around with glorious space battles, more detailed maps and even allowing characters to play as some of their favourite Jedi. Overall the series was a hit and had Star Wars fans begging for more. So naturally they released the next Battlefront game, Battlefront: Renegade Squadron 3 years later as a PSP (Play Station Portable) exclusive thus granting the series a swift death with most of the fans giving up on the franchise. This didn’t stop Lucasarts and “Rebellion” from blasting out a second handheld-only title “Elite Squadron” which has you play as the force-sensitive clone trooper known as “X2”. Sadly the days of fun objective-based gameplay and snow speeder dog fights were over. The epic downfall of the series could be accredited to Lucasarts ditching the developers of the first two games, Pandemic Studios who were sadly shut down by EA (Electronic Arts) in 2009. So the chances of us getting a modern and proper return of this series looks pretty slim right? Well (NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS!) they were until E3 2013 when developers DICE Entertainment (with collaboration from EA) announced their involvement with a reboot to the franchise simply titled “Battlefront”. Along with this they featured a short 30-second teaser that sparked excitement throughout the entire Star Wars Fan Base.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wquKeip3lo
DICE and EA left fans waiting for an entire year before releasing a second wave of information at E3 last year. In this 2 minute documentary-like clip the narrator says “we at DICE now have the opportunity of a lifetime to make the Star Wars game that, as fans we’ve all dreamt of playing.” This statement rings true with the in-game footage they are showing us, with the incredibly detailed new look of the snow speeders and environments. This is only early test footage and is only going to get better. Although EA doesn’t have a great track record for showing accurate early footage, you just need to look at the test footage released for Watch Dogs (2014) compared to the actual content in-game. Despite this DICE has a pretty solid record for games that not only look great but play well with smooth mechanics. Mirror’s Edge, released November 2008, is probably DICE’s most popular release and it being their best example of how capable their team really is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yKv45X_OIo
“We are building the game that we as fans want to play” is the tagline for the new Battlefront website which shows they are really trying to capture and improve upon what fans loved in the first two games. That being said what do the fans have to look forward to?
Bigger Battles
With the huge leap forward in online multiplayer games over the last 5-8 years not only in popularity but also in the quality of the games themselves. Battlefront fans can definitely look forward to battles that mirror those of the movies and the original games, but on a much larger scale. Some of the most memorable scenes from the first game were flying around the giant Hoth environment in a snow speeder and whizzing between the AT Walkers and working with your teammates to take them down. Not only have we seen images reminiscent of this in the test footage but DICE has hinted at all of this and more.
Choose your side?
“Fight in epic Star Wars battles on iconic planets and rise through the ranks playing as the heroic Rebellion or the evil galactic Empire.” Is a quote found on the DICE website that has lead fans to speculate whether there will be in-game moral based choices? Although this idea has never been touched on in a Battlefront game and definitely doesn’t seem like it would fit to this style of game, DICE may be able to bring this new mechanic in without disrupting the feel of the original style gameplay. Although it is more likely they just mean by this that players will be able to choose which side they can play as, which is a feature prominent in the multiplayer and instant action modes of the original Battlefronts. But this would be an interesting turn for the series.
Land to Space Battles
For anyone who has read up on this game, then this is most likely the feature that will excite you the most. Imagine fighting in the classic Hoth battle (I know I keep using that example but anybody who played Battlefront II would understand) and you could jump in a speeder and just fly directly into the amazing space battles of the originals. This will not only add another dimension to the gameplay, but it will also allow for even more objective gameplay. Imagine a capture the flag game where players must have a mad dash from their giant ships down onto the surface of Endor where they fight it out to retrieve the flag. Then dogfighting their way back up into space to score.
Now if you’re as excited as I am, you can’t wait for more information. Well good news, the 2014 E3 trailer finished with “See more in Spring 2015” and the EA website has confirmed that Battlefront will be at the Star Wars celebration (http://www.starwarscelebration.com/) in Anaheim, California. That’s not even a month away! But until then you can pick up Star Wars: Battlefront II on steam for just $9.99 if you haven't played it already.
We look forward to what DICE has in store for what they claim to be “The game all the fans want.”