Re: Star Wars Battlefront Review
Joseph Zyiuahndy
The level design is not your average FPS level. Yes it has the various required elements but it is rather constricted by the source material and the size needed for the scale of the battles. As such, we get incredible lush foliage and startling snow, but we do lose a bit of a competitive edge when playing. Sullust on Walker Assault ends up with two or three flash points that are death funnels and the scale of the height means that vehicle play can be a tricky exercise in not accidentally dive-bombing into the arse of your own AT-AT.
Each hero or villain can take a substantial amount of damage, while having three specific, super-charged powers, limited only by a cool-down timer. The Hero Hunt and Heroes vs. Villains modes make the stars the focus of the action, the first pitting seven imperials or rebels against a hero from the opposing team, the second squaring heroes and villains off against each other with support from ordinary troops. The first team to eliminate all opposing heroes/villains wins the round.
Editor's note: As explained last week, Polygon chose to review Star Wars Battlefront based on time spent with the title via EA Access, which provided 10 full hours of the full game to subscribers starting last week. To get a broader range of input with a game aimed at a massive audience, we tapped Polygon editors Justin McElroy and Dave Tach, who exhausted their "Access" periods and then some.
You could think of Supremacy as Battlefront's neutral state. It's based on the mode of note from its modern military cousin, and it sports an amalgam of everything the game has to offer. Vehicles, power-ups, starfighters, heroes, and villains materialize in as equal measure as anywhere else in the game.
Your options in the atmosphere, as on the ground, are trifling. You blast, barrel roll, and (if you're an Imperial) boost through a frenzy of weaponized starlight. Keeping your distance isn't easy, and you'll likely die just as often, if not more so, as you do on the surface. Like on the ground, you can switch between first- and third-person at any time.
Instead, the game has you build a hand of three 'star cards' from those you've unlocked as you level up. The first two of these cards can be filled with equipment such as grenades, jump packs, and anti-vehicle weaponry, while the last lets you pick from a number of modifications to your blaster, which when activated can, for example, improve accuracy or stop it overheating for a short period.
The lack of a rewarding progression system normally wouldn't be an issue if there was a large pool of maps in rotation, but again this is where Battlefront stumbles. In the two big game types there are only four maps, and while they're large, well designed spaces, you'll not be surprised when you start to feel a bit burnt out after playing them for the umpteenth time. On top of this there are nine smaller maps used in varying combinations for the remaining playlists, which could be classed as a decent amount compared to other online shooters, if only they weren't confined to modes that you've very little interest in playing.
Building stormtrooper armor and weaponry for the 501st made me put this particular game on a pedestal. This was a disastrous error to make. Taking the game solely for what it is, I like it decently enough. But I was really hoping for a much more involved experience.
Stormtroopers see out of their buckets via 3D holodisplays which could have created a tangible difference to the two "teams." Imagine if choosing the Empire meant that in 1st person you'd have an almost claustrophobic, red-tinted, "computer-assisted" display full of Aurebesh characters, with a rebel criminal profiler identifying the names of your targets based on whether you knew their real names (their usernames could be called illegal "aliases"). This would make up for the camo the rebels sport which makes them practically invisible most of the time. Then the rebel team would feel extremely open, colorful and beautiful, instead of the only difference being which weapon each side starts with.
people should just stop crying about the season pass and dlc and just start having fun with this awesome game - its an absolute blast ^^
it sure is no time sinker and not even half as richt in content and customization as BlackOps3 but it is graphically stunning and simple pure fun to play, easy to pick up even for players that are not so good in online FPS - if you have some friends to play with in coop its amazing, alone sure it wears out fast I admit, but you should not play online FPS games alone in general, just go find a clan - its so much more fun ^^
Never had plans to buy this day one as i knew it was bundled with the star wars ps4 we had on order for kids xmas gift(3rd ps4 in the house now..) but after playing it for a bit i might ask the wife to get it me for xmas as it is a huge amount of fun and what dice have done visually is stunning, playing in 3rd person(never 1st person) i cant help but stare at my character outfit and how it gets covered in dirt/snow and stuff...if your not sure try and get some more time with it before you buy or even better ask for it as a Christmas gift, you wont be disappointed.
And if anyone from DICE is reading this PLEASE make next years battlefield entry BAD COMPANY 3
Swedish developer DICE's achievements with its own Frostbite engine can't be overstated; Star Wars Battlefront is a high watermark in terms of visuals, and the studio's established audio excellence has found an exquisite match in Star Wars' original sound designer Ben Burtt's fizzing lasers, honking droids and roaring star fighters. When it all comes together, it's nothing short of astounding. The planet of Hoth is dusted with a pure white snow that crunches under a stormtrooper's foot, while the rocks of Tattooine bask in impossible desert heat. Endor is the real prize, though, its swaying ferns and towering pinewoods as incredible a sight as the current generation of consoles have mustered to date. The detail's so rich you can feel your lungs filling with air that carries the taste of laser-burned bark.
Beyond that, though, Battlefront can end up on shakier ground. Hero Battles are wonky, wayward attempts to gift players the ability to be Luke, Leia and Han Solo, or, if they're fighting for the Empire, Vader, Boba Fett or Palpatine. It's the one area where Battlefront's exquisite toys lose their sheen, whether it's in the clumsiness of their combat - the slick lightsaber battles of Raven Software's Jedi Academy are a distant memory - or in the heavy-handed execution. Given how much attention's been lavished on the blasters and star fighters, it's strange that the voice acting falls short: hear the lack of conviction in Darth Vader's performance and you'd be forgiven for thinking Hayden Christensen had reprised his role.
There are more maps coming down the line, of course, starting with a set from Jakku that bridges the original trilogy and The Force Awakens, and followed, by way of an expensive season pass, by a stream that'll surely be inspired in some way by the new film. Given DICE's track record with post-release support, through which the competent if flawed Battlefield 4 has blossomed into one of the richest shooters currently available, there's every reason to believe that Battlefront can evolve over time from a solid shooter to an excellent one. The problem is, there's a prohibitive cost to buying into that promise right now - and given how wilfully shallow this blend of shooting is, there's no guarantee players will stick around for when, or if, that time finally comes.
Fans of the Star Wars: Battlefront series have had a hard go of it. The original two games were crafted by the late, great Pandemic Studios for the original Xbox and PlayStation 2. These titles were always derided as mere clones of Battlefield, even as Battlefront 2 emerged as one of the premier non-Halo Xbox Live games. Once Pandemic was purchased by EA, LucasArts reached out to Free Radical, the developers of the Timesplitters series, for a third entry. That game was eventually scrapped, and the series has had to live on through leaked footage of what could have been and a few uninteresting PSP entries. When EA acquired the exclusive Star Wars game license, everyone knew that a new Battlefront was coming, and from the start many just assumed that DICE would perfect the old formula and release a Battlefield spin-off in the same vein as Battlefield Hardline. What has resulted instead is a stunning Star Wars audiovisual experience that loses all luster as soon as you pick up the controller.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is off to a bad start. The game launched to Mostly Negative reviews on Steam, with only 34% of the over 2,000 reviews being positive. That's around the same level as the disastrous The Last of Us Part One PC port released in March, and it's for the same reason: poor performance.
Campaign groups several battles together in a set order loosely based on the historical campaign of either the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War. As Episode III had not been released at the time, the Clone Wars campaign ends with the Battle of Kashyyyk. Footage from the five films then released are used as cutscenes between battles.[6] The player starts the campaign as either a member of the Separatist army or an Imperial Stormtrooper. Around halfway through the chosen campaign the perspective switches to the Clone Troopers or Rebels. To maintain continuity, missions prior to the battle of Geonosis pit the Separatists against native forces only, and for the first two missions the super battle droid is unavailable, replaced with a standard battle droid.[6]
In Galactic Conquest, the player uses strategy to take control of planets and dominate an area of the galaxy. First the player chooses a map configuration based on conflicts from both eras of Star Wars history.[3] Some maps start both sides evenly while others favor one faction. Next, the player chooses which faction to play as. The game is played in turns, with the player starting first. The player can select an enemy-controlled or neutral planet to attack. After selecting what planet to attack, the player is able to activate a bonus from one of his already owned planets (if any). Each planet provides its own unique bonus, but must be captured before the player can use it. Bonuses help the player in battle by impeding the enemy or assisting the player's team. If one side manages to win four battles (not necessarily in a row), they gain access to their faction's Secret Base bonus. Secret Base bonuses are very powerful and can change the course of a game. They can be used on any enemy planet, except for the enemy's Secret Base. The game is completed when one faction controls all planets on the map.[2]
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