EA's first collaboration with the now Disney-owned Star Wars franchise marks the beginning of a longer partnership. EA won the exclusive rights to develop Star Wars games for mobile, consoles and PC for ten years.
Over the previous two decades, we've been blanketed with Star Wars games of all types. Many were average, some were terrible, but there have been some seriously incredible titles in among the clutter. 2003's Star Wars Battlefront was one of them - a franchise now revived by EA and developed by DICE, famed for Battlefield.
Pandemic Studios developed the original Star Wars Battlefront over ten years ago. DICE's 2015 Battlefront marks the third entry in the series, and serves, in part, as a reboot. If you're new to Battlefront, it is a multiplayer-focussed third and first person shooter, in what EA touts as the "ultimate Star Wars experience".
Both myself and Jonathan Dollison have previewed DICE's take on this beloved franchise. Battlefront also enjoyed an open beta a few weeks back, serving over 9 million people.
I found the beta to be good fun, but also a little on the simplistic side. I acknowledge that EA has some responsibility to serve fans of the franchise who might not typically jump into first person shooters - the complexity of Battlefield is perhaps best left to the core crowd. That said, EA have tweaked the game since its open beta, adding bullet drop mechanics to certain weapons and adding precision weak points to some of the game's vehicles - both of which should serve to extend the game's skill cap.
Some of Star Wars Battlefront's key features include:
- Up to 20 vs. 20 multiplayer matches
- 12 multiplayer maps
- Walker Assault pitches 20 Rebels and 20 Imperials in an attack/defend scenario, destroy the AT-AT walkers before they destroy your base
- Fighter Squadron is the game's aerial dogfighting game mode
- Supremacy is another 20 vs. 20 game type, reminiscent of Battlefield's base-capturing Conquest mode
- Cargo is similar to Battlefield Hardline's Blood Money mode, tasking players to collect and capture cargo before the enemy team
- Droid Run tasks teams of six to capture and control 3 GNK droids
- There's no single-player campaign, but it features missions that can be played solo with bots, online in co-op, or locally with split-screen
- The Battle of Jakku DLC map ties the game into Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
- Iconic Star Wars vehicles are available to control, such as AT-AT walkers, AT-ST walkers, TIE fighters, X-Wings and even the Millennium Falcon
- Randomly spawning power-up tokens allow you to play as hero characters, such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo and Boba Fett.
- You can customize your soldier utilizing difference alien races from the franchise's rich lore
- Customize your combat loadout with 'Star Cards', which grant three special abilities for use in battle
Star Wars Battlefront is available now in the US for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a November 19th release date for Europe.
- Buy Star Wars Battlefront on Amazon US ($59.99)
- Buy Star Wars Battlefront from the Xbox Store ($59.99)
Are you going to pick up Star Wars Battlefront? I might have to just because, you know, it's Star Wars.
