The release of one of this year’s more anticipated shooters has come across as pretty divisive. Understandably since, after all, Star Wars: Battlefront is lacking in areas that previous entries to the series and even some of this years other releases aren’t. The game has almost nothing resembling single player outside of some training missions and a lacklustre horde mode, and what is present in the multiplayer, while fun, is a little light. The game doesn’t come across as something that was built for the ground up as a multiplayer shooter. Instead, it feels like an exceptional multiplayer portion of a more fully featured game. Does this mean the game is bad? Not by any stretch. I’ve actually had quite a bit of fun with my time in Battlefront. What it does mean is that I just wish there was more to dig into in DICE’s latest shooter.
One thing you’ll notice about Battlefront right away, is how gorgeous it is. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic in the least to say that this is one of the best looking games this generation so far. From the lighting, to the particle effects, the realization of Star Wars locations, not to mention that the game runs at a solid sixty frames per second, Battlefront is no slouch. At least on the Playstation 4 which is where I’ve been playing the game. On top of this, the game sounds amazing. Obviously, with a property like Star Wars, sound design is important and DICE have done a great job at making the game sound exactly like the movies. The design is one of the best things about Battlefront and makes for a truly atmospheric shooter. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll likely gush over the obviously lovingly crafted environments and character models and maybe even get a little tingle every time a Stormtrooper lets out a Wilhelm scream.
Once you’ve gotten past the impressive visuals of the game though, you’ll start to recognize some of it’s shortcomings. Battlefront is through and through a multiplayer focused shooter. As such, how much enjoyment you’ll glean from this game is directly correlated to how much you like playing first person shooters online. Know going in that while there are some single player options, they aren’t very much fun. Like Battlefield, Battlefront is a much better time if you have familiar companions to communicate and coordinate with. Especially in the modes that take advantage of the game’s larger maps and allow for ground infantry, air vehicles and heroes all at once a la ‘walker assault’ one of the game’s more inventive modes. This game type has you either attacking or defending AT-ATs in between rounds of what basically equates to domination. Outside of this, the game’s modes are mostly standard fare. Team death match, and capture the flag are both here (albeit under the names of ‘blast and ‘cargo’). There are several other modes in the game, but these ones are undoubtedly where you’ll spend your most time. Nothing about them is particularly groundbreaking, but the action feels good enough to make playing around in the game’s limited maps over again less monotonous. Other game types like ‘Heroes vs. Villains’ involve you taking control of a hero or villain character, like Darth Vader of Han Solo, among a team of other heroes, fighting a team of different heroes or villains. On its face, this sounds alright, and the hero characters are fun to control - they’re mostly simplistic third person lightsaber wielders or a character with a stronger gun - but when everyone is special, no one is and this game type works more to point out that there really isn’t much to playing as the heroes. The same goes for ‘Fighter Squadron’. The idea of taking to the skies to partake exclusively in dogfights sounds alright, but the air vehicles are somewhat simplistic, and when that’s all you’re doing, it’s hard to ignore the game’s shortcomings.
Star Wars Battlefront is at its absolute best when the different styles of play are all in the mix. When there are forty people running around on the battlefield, a few TIE fighters and X-Wings having it out in the sky and Darth Vader running around choking people out with his mind, it can get a pretty chaotic. That’s what’s fun about Battlefront. Unfortunately, in a mostly multiplayer focused shooter, there just aren’t enough modes where this is happening. I found myself mostly sticking to ‘walker assault’ and being that there are only about four maps to a game type, fatigue may set in quicker than you’d like. Still though, there is fun to be had in the game. The shooting feels good, the game looks and sounds amazing, and it manages to scratch that Star Wars itch with its near perfect filmic representation of the source material (outside of the fist-bumping Storm Troopers). On one hand, I suppose its not the worst problem to have that I just wish there was more of the game, but on the other, EA’s solution to the problem seems to be in content they’ll release later next year. In the season pass. For the low low price of seventy Canadian dollars. But that rant is for a different time.