Friday, June 19, 2015

Star Wars Battlefront Impressions


Ever since the reveal that DICE was working on a new Battlefront game I knew this meant "Oh boy... is gonna be Battlefield with star wars skins" and I was kinda right after watching the E3 demo...

Now I want to state I love Star Wars... just like any fan out there, this franchise means a lot to me and has influence my life immeasurably; I know Battlefront was asked by plenty of people for a long time... I played Battlefront has well back in the day and I though it was pretty good, it really was like playing the battles in the universe of star wars.

When EA acquired the rights for the franchise to develop games, many immediately reacted negatively due to EA´s controversial business practices... I was willing to give them a chance and for the most part I though they were going to make a game like Battlefront with DICE but I thought they would name it something else instead; of course they called it Battlefront because of the fan reaction to it and the outcry, so in terms of business stand point is a good move I didn´t though of.

But why am I talking about Battlefront you ask? Well maybe because I WANT to be exited about this game, I see potential for it to revitalize the star wars games once again into something modern and great... but instead I see missed opportunities and a quick cash grab because of the new movie coming out latter this year, Let me break down what is missing from the game:


-No Space Battles: Now what is there that we see always in star wars? Space battles right...? well we are not going to dogfight in space, only on local planets... BIG missed opportunity right there: there is no need in my opinion to remove a feture that was included in Battlefront II and that worked so well there.


Is like Taking away the open world in a GTA game if you ask me, they could have made it into the game but either they just didn´t wanted to or the time restriction forced to team to cut it out completely... this takes away much of my wins for this game. It doesn't matter how many gimmicks and elements they incorporate for ground battles... space battle should have been a must.

-No Clone Wars: Battlefront I and II included clone wars battles... regardless of how you feel about the prequels, the clone wars are a part of the star wars mythos, they happen so when you take away ANOTHER feature that was included from the originals you are basically making the game feel like much less.


This would have included more planets and maps to extend the universe, was this done because of peoples poor reaction to the prequels? because clones vs droids is boring? did people complaint about clone wars in the original Battlefronts? because of time constraints? Truth to be told, it sounds like developers though they were adding by subtracting here, but the fact that this is excluded is very fishy to me.

-4 Planets Only: That is the extent of the planets you will be able to battle on in Battlefront, with only 14 maps... assimilate this well, this means that there is going to be much less than what was available in the originals.

This is quite sad considering that this is nearly 2 generations after the first entry and it kills much of the new factor... we will be seeing the same planets many times, the same fauna and flora  in various maps, it will become boring quickly.

-No Campaign Mode: For me this is the ultimate loss; granted they have reveled a "mission" mode witch can be played single or co-op both online and local split-screen and that alone is a good addition and I am grateful that there is at least something for us single player fans.

But here is my problem, the original had a mode called "conquest mode" and indeed this wasn´t a story driven mode witch is not something that EA had to do necessarily but It could have at the very least a campaign driven by cannon events in the star wars timeline, that alone would have been a great feature with objectives to complete and making you feel like the soldier you are playing has is a war hero for the rebellion... or the empire.

I am not trying to say "STAY AWAY FROM BATTLEFRONT!" but I do think we should trend carefully with it, I do plan to pick it up because the stuff that is in here looks very good indeed. I guess in overall all I can say is, the game looks great but what isn´t here available makes me wander what could have been.

Take care guys, and may the force be with you...

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