Serious Casual Gaming Fun

That may seem somewhat contradictory, so let’s explain a little bit of what is going on in the world of Star Wars Battlefront (2015).

It has been just over a month since the game came out, and we have a lot of pleased players, and some extremely pleased, actively playing the game. EA has put the game on sale for the holiday, which should get even more new players into it. Contrariwise, there are many people who have given it negative reviews and ratings, on every major retail site which sells it or reviews it. There seems to be one common thread to the negative reviews: Great graphics and sound, but not enough content and depth for a great game. On sale for about $40 US, the price becomes a lot more attractive for what we get.

Now, even through these negatives, the game gets a lot of positives. The number one, absolute, universal success is the game’s visuals and sound. It scores a perfect 10 for recreating the images and sounds of the movies. One of the best looking shooters out there period, and especially for consoles, and probably the best looking Star Wars game ever. One of the reasons we play games is for an immersive experience, and Star Wars Battlefront gives us a chance to live out our dream of being in the Star Wars universe. Fighting a battle as one of the soldiers, or sometimes the heroes, is absolutely amazing.

So let’s get back to that. The game play that we have looks and feels great, is fun, and for Star Wars fans, is irresistible. The joy of playing a fun, easy to pick up, shooting game with perfect Star Wars scenes and action, with a true feel of being in, is not going to get old soon. Having all the classic vehicles in play, a staple of the Battlefront series, is also wonderful. The X-Wings, Speeder Bikes, Tie Fighters, AT-AT and AT-ST Walkers, even the Slave One and Millenium Falcon, all add to the feeling of being in a real battle in the movie universe.

Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader and other fights involving the heroes and villains of the movie, add to that sense of being in the movie universe. The game modes which focus on the heroes specifically add to the enjoyment of living out the dream of being a powerful character fighting in a major battle, and dominating the lesser enemies.

What about the negatives? I’ve addressed some of them before, but the key complaint is that the game doesn’t have enough content. We get some great maps and game modes, but for some people, that isn’t enough variety to keep them interested in playing the game. It can be hard to get into the heads of those who feel this way precisely, but I’ll try to break down what the game does offer, to give you a feel for whether or not you are going to be one of those who isn’t going to be happy with this game. Or at least, what it has out right now for the price.

Fans of the predecessors of this game, of Star Wars Battlefront II, are disappointed that the new Battlefront doesn’t have some elements from that game, even though it never promised to deliver them, or even try to be just an HD remake of the 2005 title. Fans of the Battlefield series were hoping for a version of Battlefield set in a sci-fi universe (which in many ways, was what Battlefront II tried to do). DICE deliberately chose to make this new game its own take on a Star Wars battle game, rather than being a clone of anything else. For Star Wars fans, that is a bonus, because it includes more elements which are true to the movies than a Battlefield-based game could have delivered. Want Sci-fi Battlefield? An updated 2142 (2143?) would not only deliver on that experience, it could do so without needing to shoehorn in elements of a cinematic universe and be a better battle game as a result.

Now, I’ll address more of the missing elements later and elsewhere, but as this isn’t Battlefront III (a cancelled direct sequel to II), we shouldn’t be surprised that some things didn’t carry over to the new game. Battlefront II had stronger single player elements, but times have changed, and many players prefer — especially for long term play of a game — to focus on multiplayer gaming. Does the new Battlefront offer enough multiplayer content to keep players interested? Is there enough to do in this game to justify having it and playing it?

The number of worlds and maps the game offers can be confusing. There are only FOUR worlds at release (Endor, Hoth, Tatooine, and Suluust), with Jakku added for free for a total of FIVE. That is a small number of worlds to play on by any measure, and it absolutely limits the variety for the larger epic game modes which only get one map per world. There are also ten small maps, usable in the smaller game modes, with seven maps for two game modes (Drop Zone and Droid Run), three more for the smallest game modes.
That’s a total of fifteen maps, which is a pretty good map count by the standards of many games. Many don’t go above a dozen maps at release. We expect, now, that DLC will add many more maps for newly released games, and nowhere is that expectation more intense than for this game. Its predecessors offered a good dozen or more worlds more than we have, and while there is no reason not to expect them to appear in the new game, they aren’t available yet. For now, we must play with what DICE has ready for us.

Is there enough to do in the game? One thing that players want to do is rank up and unlock things. But for a game offered to Star Wars fans, if it was too hard or took too long to get all of the classic weapons and devices unlocked, the game would be frustrating. That is not the case here. About a month of play will give even casual players the time to reach the ranks needed for all the key unlockable items (rank 25 for the DL-44 Blaster Pistol, as carried by Han Solo, and rank 32 for the Bowcaster, carried by Chewbacca). There are many more cosmetic items to unlock, and achievements to do, as well as the challenges to perform for bonus points, so you aren’t going to run out of game reward goals soon. The upgrades for all the items will take a long time to get as well, though you really only need those which you use the most in order to get good use from them.

This essentially turns this into a sort of arena shooter, where players all have essentially the same choices for weapons and gadgets, and are free to make whatever selections they prefer. Playing time and rank do offer an advantage over completely new players, but it is actual game skill and experience, not unlocked gadgets, which offers the real edge. In short, skill matters here.

For casual players, though, it is important that while shooting and fighting skills do matter, the learning curve to use the starting guns isn’t extreme. It won’t take long to pick up how to use them, and the weapons you start with are good enough to use forever. The game’s Star Card devices give all players a chance to dominate encounters, and the objective game mode play gives every play a chance to play a useful role, even if they don’t have Jedi-like gaming reflexes.

This mix of skill and simplicity makes the game accessible and fun for both new gamers and experienced shooters. The bonus of playing in the Star Wars universe only makes that element better. The shooting offers chances to use your skills, exploit the various gadgets and tools provided in interesting combinations, and face exciting challenges in battle. The game mode’s focus on objectives makes raw killing skill less important than knowing how to go for the objectives successfully, and that makes the whole game more enjoyable.

The rush of getting new unlocks and rewards is always a factor in game enjoyment, but it isn’t the only thing. There will be enough things to unlock for this game to maintain that interest for a very long time, plus new things added to the game later. But it is the game play itself which is the core of the fun of the game. It has to be fun, to make the challenge of unlocking things a reward, rather than a grind.

One element of Battlefront that makes it fun and casual is the lack of respawn delay. There is little penalty for dying. You may have to fight to get back to the position you were at, but you won’t be stuck out of combat for very long. And if your Partner is still alive, you get to rejoin combat even faster. This game tries to keep you in action, without much reason for long pauses or delays. Unless you really want to just take in the scenery, which you can do. It does look very nice.

One thing I’ll mention as a negative is the limited amount of character customizations. It isn’t an essential part of game play, but we don’t have a huge number of cool options right now. Fortunately, I don’t see these as being hard things to add later, and I see a lot of players now rocking the coolest looks available, so I see that as a future goal — collecting all of the clever and movie-immersive custom looks to use in the game.

Positives: When you buy a game, you don’t buy it for what it DOESN’T have, but for what it does offer. Five big maps can be enough for fun, if they are good maps, and these are. How many times do you end up playing on the same favorite maps over and over in some other game? If you can enjoy a map in a 24/7 rotation, then surely you can enjoy five really awesome maps for quite a while. The ten smaller maps require you to play and enjoy the smaller game modes. But a lot of other games ONLY have small map sizes and game modes. Infantry-only combat can be a lot of fun. The shorter games are also good when you don’t want to spend as much time playing, but still want to have a good experience. The small maps aren’t reduced areas of the bigger one, but are instead their own location, set up specifically for their game modes.

The limited number of guns has an advantage in making them balanced. All fill a distinct role, where they are better than the other weapons, but they are also all blaster weapons, with similar characteristics. You choose which one best fits your current mission in the game, and can change them every time you respawn. The number of Star Card devices isn’t huge either, but it is quite good enough to give you a wide range of useful combinations of the two devices you can pick. Add in the choice of Charged Star Card benefits and your Trait, and you really do have decent, balanced choices to make for how to equip your character in the game. The selections aren’t complex either, so you aren’t bogged down in a lot of details. You can quickly swap out your choices between games, and be ready for whatever playstyle and goals you have set.

DL-44 Blaster Pistol overpowered? I agree that it is a little more powerful than others in close range, but not so good that it utterly dominates. The other close range weapons can compete against it. The feeling that it was too good was partly caused by it being unlocked with the Deluxe edition, and now that more players have it and the other weapons, it no longer seems to be quite so powerful. I still think it could use a bit more overheating, dropping the number of shots you get to take with it, so that a very good player won’t be quite as apt to rush a group of enemies with it and take them all out.

More is not always better. In this, Battlefront could be considered a throwback to the older era of games. The pick up Power-Up devices are a clear case of this. Rather than allowing you to have access to the more powerful weapons and devices as a character loadout, you must acquire them on the battlefield. All players, even new ones, have full access to these, and this does a lot to level the playing field for new players, and those with less skill. Not all the pick up devices are easy to use, but all are more powerful than the usual weapons and offer an advantage. As you can only carry one, there is a definite impulse to use it quickly, so you can get another and continue the fun.
What about the future? Yes, you’ll have to pay for Season Pass for the DLCs, but they will add more content to the game, and in game play terms, it is that content which is most missed. The Battlefield series has run with about 10 maps on release, and another 20 (or two-thirds of the content) in the DLCs. Will Battlefront do something like that? We have 13 (or 15 with Battle Of Jakku) maps to start, so would that mean 39 (I’d round up to 40, one extra makes a round number) or 45 maps? If that turns out to be the case, that is a LOT of maps for a multiplayer game. But how many will be big world maps?

That is harder to guess. At the low end of two worlds per DLC, and four DLC packs, that is only 8 more worlds. I’d guess that there would be at least another two worlds, for a total of 10 more, or 15. This means a minimum of 8 to 10 smaller maps as well, but more of those size are also definitely possible. At the really wimpy end, 16 maps total additional in paid DLC, for a total map count of 31, would be comparable — but I think they can do better. On the higher side, a total of 45 maps, with at least 20 worlds, would be very good, and entirely possible if the DLCs can pull off doing 15 good worlds, and there are that many worlds which are detailed in the Star Wars movies and universe. Not all worlds will need two small maps for each big map, while some worlds could stand to have more small maps to provide details from the movies and universe, which are available but not yet shown (such as Jabba’s Palace from Return Of The Jedi).

There are lots of possibilities, but one thing which should be expected: the quality of the maps is not going to drop. They will be amazing renditions of the worlds of Star Wars, and great for game play.

The price we pay for games now includes the cost of DLC content as part of the full game. We don’t know yet, because EA and DICE haven’t told us, exactly what the future expansions will bring. That makes paying up front for the Season Pass a hard choice. But I believe it is also the essential choice in the long run. You aren’t going to buy and enjoy the base game without also wanting the expansions when they come out, and the Season Pass is the way to get them.

Now, that is all about the positives, which are pretty good. But there are some problems.

The game’s matchmaking isn’t perfect, and that can become frustrating at times, both waiting to get into a game when there aren’t enough other free players to get a game to start, and imperfect balance and network connections (lag and latency) make game play frustrating. Fortunately, it usually isn’t so bad that you can’t play, and especially when in prime gaming hours for your region, it isn’t hard to find a game quickly. EA will have to keep on this, though, to make sure that it continues to work and works better in the future.

For new players, the fact that you will be facing maximum Rank 50 players who have all the weapons and Star Cards as well as good FPS skills can be frustrating. If the game matchmaking puts good players on both teams, that matters less, but when that doesn’t happen, the game play can be very unbalanced. It is possible to score 30:1 KDR or more for the best players, and new players don’t have the stuff unlocked to make that a lot easier (although still not easy, average players even with the same items won’t do so well consistently).

Do you like playing a few favorite maps over and over in your favorite games, or do you need more scenery in order to avoid boredom? While I’m quite willing to believe that DICE will give us enough great maps with the Season Pass to fill out the worlds and maps for enough variety, we only have five worlds and fifteen maps right now in the base game. They are great maps, though, and that can make a difference. Check out the videos and see if they look exciting for you.

I’m not bored at Rank 50, with all the good stuff unlocked. I still have cosmetic stuff to get, but can play much more now simply to enjoy play rather than seeking new upgrades. The game holds up well for me, and there are a lot of other players out there doing the same thing. The single player elements are light, but become more interesting when you play coop with a friend — nice when you want to go one on one or stand side by side in a fight, rather than being part of a bigger battle. The small game modes really work well for a group of friends playing together, able to coordinate a whole team and, hopefully, dominate their game. I’d love to see more stuff, and hope there will be more free goodies, but the Season Pass should validate the greatness of this game.

As long as EA (or DICE) doesn’t mess things up.

Let’s all wait.  Obi-wan, you’re our only hope!

Another Look At Blasters

Let’s go over the weapons again, in the order in which you can access them. All weapons have a best use and play style, so you should match your weapon to your preferred playstyle. Or, especially when using a weapon for a challenge, adapt your playstyle to fit the weapon you are using.

First, you start off with the E-11 Blaster Rifle for the Imperials and the A-280C Blaster Rifle for the Rebels. These are actually fairly comparable weapons, which is good for balance, but they are not identical.

These fit into the typical assault rifle role — fast firing, accurate weapons, with a wide effective range but neither overly powerful up close or at a distance. Both offer exceptional accuracy at range, which is pretty important for starting weapons. They have very low shot spread, so your shots will tend to hit where you are aiming, and low recoil. Pretty much laser-beam accuracy weapons.

Both also offer good optics, especially good for first person view for shots at a distance. The A280C fires faster but does less damage than the E-11, leaving both with roughly doing the same amount of damage and taking a similar time to kill. At long range, the A-280C has a slight edge in both accuracy and in cooling, giving you a better chance to actual score kills at long distances. The E-11 has a high damage per shot, however, which can reward accurate shooting faster. Both benefit from headshots, but the E-11 will win a headshot duel up close.

You can unlock these weapons for the other faction at Rank 8, which is nice for flexibility, but not necessary unless you really love one of them and want it early on. Otherwise, you are better off unlocking an entirely new weapon. Still, there are only so many weapons to unlock at each rank, so you may as well take them eventually.

I’ll emphasize again that these weapons have a nice combination of range, good optics, and killing power, which makes them good for combat at all ranges. They remain viable throughout the game as a good choice when you aren’t going to stick at one range or combat role.

If you have the Deluxe version, you will also have the DL-44 Blaster Pistol, which otherwise requires rank 25 to unlock it. I’ll mention this again for Rank 25, but if you have it at the start, it gives you a good alternative for short range combat. It has a lower fire rate than the blaster rifles or the DH-17 pistol, but does much more damage, at least up to 20 meters, and thus is superior for close quarters fights. It suffers at longer ranges, and it is the least accurate blaster.

Rank 3 opens up two new weapons: The DH-17 Blaster Pistol and the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster.

The DH-17 is a short range weapon, but within its 25 meter best range, it is a bit faster to kill than the two starting Blaster Rifles (E-11 and A-280C). It quickly drops to being very ineffective at longer ranges, essentially worthless above about 30 meters. You’ll be hard pressed to get a single kill at 40 meters or more, even against a target which isn’t moving. Use this for fast close quarters combat, where it could kill in two headshots.

The DLT-19 Heavy Blaster is optimized for long range shooting, but is still decent up close, if not quite as lethal as the above weapons. It does less damage per shot up close than the Blaster Rifles, but fires much faster, giving it almost the same killing power. At long range, though, it comes into its own, because the damage does not drop off much at all at a distance. It lacks powerful optics to make long range aiming easy, but it is very precise and you can expect your shots to hit where you are aiming. It does have some random recoil, but it is nearly even, which means it is easy to keep the shots roughly on target in sustained fire.

The accuracy of a lot of the basic weapons in this game makes that line about Storm Trooper precision fire believable. If you have decent aim, it is pretty easy to hit your targets with all of these blasters.

Rank 5 brings the RT-97C Heavy Blaster. This is somewhat similar to the DLT-19 in its role, both in damage and fire rate, but it offers nice optics for easier long range accurate fire. It offers an interesting mix of advantages and disadvantages, compared to its counterpart. While it does slightly more damage up close, it kills no faster at a distance. Its shot spread (accuracy) is worse than the DLT-19, and its recoil is worse, albeit something you can manage with practice. If you are hip firing, you give up the advantage of the nice optic, and that is where the DLT-19 works very well.

Rank 8, as mentioned above, lets you unlock the basic Blaster Rifle from the other side. It also gives you the first (and so far only) Shock Blaster (shotgun), the CA-87. The CA-87 fires a rather massive blast which spreads in a cone, and very quickly drops in damage. You have a reasonable chance of a solid kill at up to 15 meters, and the spread will damage multiple enemies at a distance, and it is a pretty sure one shot kill for in your face shots. It overheats quickly, giving you only three shots before you have let it cool down. This makes it hard to use for sustained fire. The Focus Fire Star Card has an impressive effect on this weapon if you can aim well, as it apparently “chokes” the fire pattern, making an accurate hit at a distance able to do much more damage.

Rank 10 gives you the T-21 Heavy Blaster. It has no optics, which is a weakness for long range accuracy, which is a shame as it, like the other two heavy blasters, is very effective in terms of damage at long range. It has strong recoil and a bit less accuracy (shot spread) than the lighter blaster weapons, but does very high damage (like the DL-44) up close, and if you can score head shots, it can one shot kill at close range (10 meters), and its high damage makes it pretty decent over a wide range despite its lower rate of fire. The lack of optics means you can work the weapon using hip fire without much disadvantage.

Rank 14 gives you the SE-14C, a Blaster Pistol which fires five shot bursts. While its damage per shot is relatively low, its fire rate and burst fire means that you can score a kill in one burst up close. So if you can aim well, this can be most lethal in close combat. It does drop off at a distance, but could kill in two bursts, if you could hit your target. But as with the other pistols, it doesn’t do well for accuracy at range, so don’t expect to use it reliably to pick off targets at a distance. It also has very good cooling, which is good for sustained combat.
Rank 17 brings you the very nice EE-3 Blaster Rifle, which fires three shot bursts. Its damage per shot is relatively low, like the SE-14C. Its three shot burst will not kill without a headshot, but you can spit out two bursts fairly fast, and that will kill at close ranges. It delivers more damage than the other blaster rifles, but only in bursts, rather than continuous fire, so you can’t hold down the trigger and blast away to exploit this power. At a distance, however, its damage holds up better than the other blaster rifles, making it possible to take out enemies at longer ranges before they can kill you — if you are accurate. It does overheat fast, though, so it is harder to use in sustained combat, especially close range battles.

Rank 21 gets you the T-21B Targeting Rifle. This is a refined, modified version of the T-21. It does slightly less damage and loses its automatic fire – it is a single shot weapon. But it gains very nice optics, which makes it good for first person aimed long range shots. It can kill in two shots up close, but that isn’t its strength. You can take enemies out in three shots at any range, and have the ability to make very accurate shots at very long ranges. It has both low recoil and low shot spread, making it the most accurate weapon at long range. Its cooling isn’t as good as the T-21, and you will not be able to take out quite as many enemies at once, which is a disadvantage in close combat. Final point: this is a long range blaster, and you shouldn’t try to engage enemies at all up close if you can avoid it.

Rank 25, again, it the last rank which unlocks blasters. For those without the Deluxe/Ultimate package, you get the DL-44 Blaster Pistol. This weapon rocks for close range combat, allowing one headshot kills or two hit kills at up to 20 meters, which is pretty impressive. Its fire rate is a little lower than most other blasters, but the damage is high enough to still leave it one of the two most powerful close range weapons (along with the CA-87). Its cooling is good enough to let you get away with six kills at close range (more if you can score headshots) if you don’t miss, but the damage drop makes it much less effective at a distance. But not ineffective, as the damage is still fairly good, it is the accuracy and recoil which make long range shots harder.
All weapons can be affected by the use of the Charged Star Cards which alter weapon powers.

Cooling Cell lets you shoot for a few seconds without overheating, and this benefits most the weapons like the CA-87, EE-3, and DL-44 which overhead quickly. The T-21B can also benefit, if you have targets exposed and you can shoot accurately enough — you can usually pick off one or two targets before overheating anyway.

The Ion Shot is intended to let you take out vehicles and droids more easily, rather than enhance the weapon against other soldiers. All weapons can take advantage of this.

Focus Fire greatly improved accuracy (that is, reduces shot spread), and thus has the most benefit for blasters which are relatively inaccurate. The DL-44, SE-14C, and CA-87, and even possibly the DH-17, which are less effective at range due to inaccuracy, do well with this. The T-21, EE-3, and RT-97C also become much easier to use at range with this enhancement, as while they are not too bad on accuracy, they aren’t as good as the more precise weapons. And used with the already high accuracy weapons, it makes them truly laser-beam aiming accuracy devices, subject only to recoil.

Explosive Shot doesn’t alter accuracy, or fire rate, but it does increase the power of the shots. By adding some explosive damage to the shots, direct hits are more effective, and even misses will do good splash damage. All weapons can benefit from this, with higher damage weapons getting a greater advantage, but high fire rate and accuracy at a distance being even better for using this to deliver long range killing power. It is really hard to not use this one once you have it available, as long as you can afford the charges to use it.

The Traits for the most part affect other elements of game play other than the power of your blasters, but the Scout at level 3 is an exception. By keeping you off the minimap when you move or shoot, it makes it easier to flank enemies and get in shots first. But at level 3, it also resets your weapon heat when you make a kill. That makes the highly lethal but high heat weapons much more effective. It does take a good kill streak to hit this, but once you do, you can keep on killing easily.

The Bounty Hunter and Sharpshooter offer benefits for your Star Cards when you get kills, not your primary blaster weapon, but they can make it easier to use those supporting tools to make up for the shortcomings of your blaster. The Pulse Cannon or Cycler Rifle give you a long range option to support short range weapons, and explosives can help anyone in close combat.
So, which weapon should you use? It is easier to first group the weapons into categories based on their role, as that is essential for deciding how you are going to fight in the game, and thus which weapon type is the best fit.

Flexibility means Blaster Rifles. All three of them are good at any range, with good optics for precision first person long range shots, and enough firepower and accuracy to be lethal at close ranges. The E-11 and A-280C are your starting weapons, and I would consider them the baseline, standard, normal blaster for this game. The E-11 is a little better in close combat, the A-280C a little better at a distance, where a higher fire rate and accuracy mean a better chance to score hits, even though both weapons do roughly the same damage per second. The EE-3 trades some close range power and overheating for long range advantages with burst fire (which rewards accurate aim), so is a better pick if you are going to do more shooting at long range, especially aimed shooting.

Close Range is dominated by all the Blaster Pistols, plus the CA-87 Shock Blaster. In terms of effective range, and the potential to use them at a distance, the order is DL-44, SE-14C, DH-17, CA-87. But the CA-87 can become powerful at range if you use Focus Fire. The DH-17 and CA-87 may as we not be fire at ranged much over 30 meters, as they perform very poorly at a distance. Up close, the order for quickest killing power is CA-87, DL-44, SE-14C, DH-17. But in accuracy, the DH-17 and SE-14C are quite good, while the CA-87 in effect doesn’t need accurate aim as such because it fires a cone of lethal energy, making it the most reliable one shot kill weapon at point blank range. The DL-44 is good if your aim is decent, but even with careful aim you may miss shots at moderate ranges. Fortunately, its damage per shot is high enough to make up for that, most of the time.

Long Range is dominated by the Heavy Blasters, plus the T-21B Targeting Rifle. All are decent at short ranges, but not quite as effective as the other weapons. They make up for it by delivering the most damage at the longest ranges. The DLT-19 and RT-97C are solid fast firing weapons which can send enough damage to an area to make it difficult for enemies to move without taking some hits, but if aimed well can kill at a distance. The T-21 and T-21B offer more precise, aimed long range lethality, but still do decent damage up close, albeit with a slower fire rate. The T-21B gains a better optic and more accuracy over the T-21, but loses some close range damage and cooling. The DLT-19 has an edge in hip fire, especially in third person view, as it has low recoil and shot spread and thus can kill well at a distance if your aim is true. The RT-97C, on the other hand, comes with a better optic and despite losing some accuracy, is easier to aim at distant targets, which can make more controlled aimed fire with it more effective.

Now, how about the weapons wielded by the Heroes and Villains in the game? These might look like the standard blasters everyone can get, but they are much better. Han Solo’s custom DL-44 is a good 50% more powerful than the standard model. Leia’s weapon is a beefed up — roughly 50% again — E-11. And Boba Fett uses a special EE-3 which does 50% more damage at close ranges, but actually scores about double damage at long ranges, making it extremely effective as a sort of sniper weapon. They have special abilities, too, which work well to enhance their weapons even above this degree of advantage. The Jedi and Sith don’t bother with blasters, but a light saber is an instant kill against any normal soldier.

One question for many players is which blaster is actually the best. By design, they should be balanced, each filling a role which makes it best in some area, worse in others. But the DL-44 is possibly overpowered. But maybe not. While it does good damage, it is not an automatic — you must press fire for each shot. So despite having a high fire rate, it can be hard to actually achieve it in practice. It is also the least accurate blaster, and its good damage drops off quickly with range. Still, enjoy it while you can. If DICE evaluates it as being a little too good, expect it to be reduced in power to keep the game fair and balanced.

That’s all, folks. The 11 kinds of blasters in the game fill out the niches of combat, so just pick the one which fits how you plan to play.

Angry Joe has reviewed Star Wars Battlefront, and he is angry at EA for ruining the game. I doubt anyone is surprised at that. It is what he does, dress up in nice costumes and vent rage — often shared by many players — at games. He also points out, multiple times, that Battlefront is one of the best looking games out there, one of the best games for Star Wars fans, and really not something any Star Wars fanboy would want to miss. It is just that EA could do even more with it than we’ve got so far with the initial release.

I’m a Star Wars fan, and enjoyed this game’s predecessors, especially Battlefront II (yes, don’t worry about the numbering, this is like those movie reboots). I’m not tired of playing this game yet, nor bored with it, even though I do wish for more content. One reason that I play games is for the immersive sensual experience. The adrenaline rush feeling of being inside the action of a movie, in a life or death situation, with breathtaking scenery and amazing shots, moves, and victories. This game gives me that. Turn off the HUD, and you will be watching game play which looks and feels like it belongs in an actual Star Wars movie.

DICE has a winner here. The people who want that experience are not going to be disappointed playing this game.

So if you are a Star Wars fan, or want to play the best looking shooter and like science fiction action, get this game. You’ll have fun and it will be worth your money.

It probably will even be worth your money with the Season Pass. Because the game does need more content in order to maintain variety and interest, I don’t think that is going to be an optional purchase for fans of this game. There is no real reward for getting it before the first DLC is released (or at least, two weeks before for the early access), but unless the DLCs are way below the standards of the release game maps, they’ll be worth the money. We just don’t know yet how good they can be.

Until that point, what do we have to keep our interest? There are a lot of game modes, and Four large world maps and nine small maps in the release, plus one large and one small in Battle Of Jakku. So five large epic maps and ten small ones for battlegrounds. Good thing that they are pretty awesome maps, because in terms of numbers, this is way less than most multiplayer games at this price point. Far less than any Battlefield game, or Battlefront II. The DLCs are essential to expand play variety. I expect some free material as well as the paid DLC, but DICE hasn’t yet offered us a clue as to what the future content is actually going to be like.

The map realism is part of the reason for the limited variety. The scenery is taken from actual locations used in the movies and from the movies themselves, and you can reproduce shots from the movies within the game engine. The sound is also taken from the movie, and is also pretty much perfect. Has anyone ever done movie authenticity as well as this?

Ranking up and unlocking items is another thing to chase. The carrot of new shiny stuff, especially if it is powerful and useful in the game, is a strong incentive to keep playing until you get everything you want. It should be good for a month or two of play, as you go after not just the obvious useful weapons, but also the decorative collectable sorts of items and achievements. This kind of thing can keep you playing even while you are still learning the skills to be good, or at least not incompetent, at the game.

There is a learning curve too. The weapons do require skill, but the combinations of Star Card devices, weapons, and clever moves, as well as map tactics, adds enough complexity to make the effort to master this game feel like fun, not work. The ranking up aspect is also pretty much fun, as you really don’t have to do too many things you wouldn’t otherwise do in normal play in order to rank up fast.

The bigger game modes tend to be more popular. In rough order now: Walker Assault, Supremacy, Fighter Squadron,Turning Point, Drop Zone. While Drop Zone is a smaller map size, the action tends to be more focused as in the big epic game modes, and that makes it feel a bit closer to the epic scale of the action in the game. The other, smaller game modes do offer variety, and that is important too. You sometimes want to take a break from the hard-fought tactical battles, and do something a bit lighter. These smaller modes especially lend themselves well to playing with friends. I’d especially recommend Droid Roundup (Droid Run), Cargo, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs Villains. These also make use of the two smallest maps (Imperial and Rebel bases), which use areas not otherwise used in the larger game modes.

In short, there is enough to see and do in this game to play for a long time. You’ll get your money’s worth if you stick with it.

What’s Missing?

I’m not going to hit Angry Joe’s points one by one directly. There are a lot of reviews pointing out things which could be improved. So here is a short list:

• Weapon and Character unlock content.
• Single player play, especially the lack of a campaign story.
• Good but limited number of maps. Mentioned above, because you’ll notice this quickly, and don’t know what future DLC will bring.
• Imperfect multiplayer game support, especially for community play.

There are 11 Blaster weapons in the game. While this may seem like a small selection compared to the wider offerings in the Battlefield games, it is actually quite sufficient. You really don’t need more than one gun which fills a specific role, and all blasters share the same basic ballistics, so you don’t really get to vary those for more variety. There are a lot of devices and weapons from the Star Wars Universe (and previous Battlefront games) which could be added, but many of them would be Star Card and Power Up pick up weapons. A number of those aren’t in the game yet, and will probably be part of the 20-something items we get in the DLC. In yet another way, we are stuck waiting to get the complete (Ultimate/Deluxe/Season Pass) version of the game.

Character customization could use more options, especially for the Imperial side. Just taking off the helmet and choosing a hairstyle isn’t quite enough variety. Besides, I’d rather look at more cool helmets and armor/equipment sets than faces, for the usually faceless Storm Troopers.

Oh, quick note: the Deluxe version, for an extra $10, gives you three weapons you unlock in a few weeks — two in the first week of play, and one after a while. The unique content are Emotes — actions you can take to show off for other players in the game, but which don’t affect combat. Nothing cool like a couple of extra custom skins, or something of real value when playing the game. It is just a pretty expensive short cut kit otherwise, and not really worth it if you are going to play this game regularly.

Single Player. Will you play it much after completing the sparse offerings? Or even play it at all?

The stuff which is there isn’t bad, but it is short. The Tutorials offer some pretty nice mini-stories, which tend to last about three to five minutes. Nice little appetizers, but not a meal (or a campaign).

The Battles are just standard multiplayer games. Except they are essentially offline, with AI opponents, no rank up or credits, and as a result end up feeling pointless. They do give you a way to play without Internet, which can be useful sometimes.

Survival is just a simple, survive waves (hordes) of attackers, game mode. It is pretty short too, and its only good side — and it is a pretty good one, since many games don’t do this — is its cooperative partner mode which supports split screen on console.

But the limited number of maps and scenarios really brings single player down. Battlefield has never been known for its campaigns, and Battlefront II’s campaign was really a string of single player Battles, with the results affecting the next one (or defeat forcing you to retry in order to continue). Its strength was a very solid story and voice acting, with some nice cut scenes, to make you feel that your actions in the game were actually an important part of the movie universe.

Couldn’t they come up with a comparable story and do the same thing with this game? The Clone Wars storyline obviously can’t be lifted whole, and we’d be more likely to root for a Rebel storyline than Battlefront II’s mixed loyalties, but something could be done. Even as a DLC, it might be worthwhile from a player’s standpoint. The art, script, and voice acting could cost a bit. I found the Battlefront II story to be replayable, simply because the story was pretty good. The bit where you get to take the heroes and use them in your battle (scripted based on results and situation) adds to the movie feel of the story.

Long term play, though, is going to be multiplayer. I can see why EA focused on this, because a lot of people are going to look at things like Tutorials and Survival and think “I don’t need that to know how to play.”

Multiplayer maps are amazing in quality, horrible in quantity. With only FOUR maps at the start for the big modes, plus Jakku, there simply isn’t enough variety to avoid eventual boredom. The beauty of the maps and the great game play on them can make up for this for a while, but eventually, having so few maps is going to hurt. We need to see new places, and if the game doesn’t eventually come with enough of them, it may not survive. That would be really bad, because the game design is simply amazing. The best movie scenery in any game so far. If the DLC come with four BIG WORLD maps each, that would be enough to make this work. I mention this because Battlefront II is still playable, though the loss of the multiplayer servers does make more work for players to get together. A game which is still played after TEN or more years is definitely a success, and I hope that DICE and EA won’t drop the ball on this element for Battlefront.

How about the way Matchmaking finds games for you? Or on bad days, doesn’t find any. Or in between, drops you in games with RED connections (bad ping), with no warning until you join?

The use of matchmaking systems rather than server selections is a design choice, and when it works well (and it does do so often enough in Battlefront), you get a full match with a good variety of players each time, and fairly fast. The speed does matter. Battlefront doesn’t keep you out of the action long waiting to find a game, or to respawn after you die. For players playing without a group of friends, this is totally awesome.

The game won’t start without enough players for the game mode. So if there is a mode you want to play, even if you have a few players or friends willing to join in, but not enough other players are available, you are stuck waiting. The matchmaking is designed not to put you in games which won’t fill up, though it can (and you can lose team mates who drop out at the start too). You also can’t avoid getting matched into a game with a poor connection to you, with resulting difficulties in actually playing.

The Challenges encourage you to try more game modes, often only for the three wins you need for the bonus score, but it is enough to make it worth doing. But not if you can’t find other players to play with.

The top, most popular modes are pretty reliable for getting players. But the other modes are there to enjoy, but it would be nice if we could be assured of actually being able to play them. Even if it starts with too few players to do it, I think it would be better than keeping players waiting forever.

The Partner system avoids any worries about squads and team organization, which has its positives. The biggest is that you only need one cooperative player to work with, rather than three to five, so staying organized is easier. You can still play with friends in parties, but you can’t spawn with them. The respawn system makes it easy to stay in the action as long as either you or your partner can stay alive. There is no respawn delay in this game, so you aren’t stuck waiting and watching a long while if you die.

But there are no team voice communications either. I’m sure that friends forming parties will have their voice chat running outside the game, which is fine. But there is nothing in the game to let you talk to other players. You can use emotes — if they notice you and realize what your gestures mean. On PC you can use text, which is OK, but not as fast as talking. Given that the objectives tend to be pretty clear in this game — go for the nearest marked target — that isn’t critical for game play, but it does affect the cooperative, community side of multiplayer.

Community gaming. Playing with friends is a big part of online multiplayer games. It is a large part of what keeps the best games going and going, even long after release. In order for this to work, the game has to offer players a way to actually play together. And optimally, to both play ONLY with selected friends, or with special rules. Or just to explore maps without actually playing the game by the rules at all, sandbox style. Machinima movie makers really love that, and the visuals in this game would give that some spectacular potential for amazing videos.

We don’t get any of that yet. Making private matches is probably not too hard to pull off, and I can’t see DICE being against doing it, but they aren’t available now. Custom private SERVERS — games that any player can enter, or which are persistent and available to a group of players even if all quit for a while — offer a way for players to get into games with known, predictable pings (and thus online performance). The downside of both of these is that the online progression system and game play is geared to full games. Any private games may have to give up player rewards in exchange for player freedom.

A compromise would allow private games which meet the open game requirements to still score rewards, and thus allow players to advance while enjoying more freedom and choices of play style and environment.

This is a game which is designed to appeal to casual, movie fan players as well as serious FPS gamers. But organized or even informal matches with friends (or against groups of other friends) do add to the community element of the game play. Players are more likely to keep playing games when they get to share the experience with their friends.

If EA and DICE would say “Yes, we are going to add private matches/games,” we would both know and could patiently wait. Or they could say no, and we’d know that the way multiplayer is now is how it is always going to be. I’m hoping for a positive result here, but until then, the game is missing an element which really could benefit and expand the multiplayer community. After all, the main reason we play games is to have fun, and to do that, we need the freedom to play as we like.

On to some short stuff:

Space Combat: We have Fighter Squadron, and I think that a setting either on an airless planet or above an asteroid field would work with it, giving us a space environment. Battlefront III’s (cancelled) concept of an integrated space and planet layer system, where fighters could take off from Endor and defend the Death Star (or attack it) sounds exciting, but the scale of it frankly might require the equivalent of Planetside 2 to support the environment, both in map size and player count. Cool idea, hey? But Battlefront II’s space combat really didn’t work well as purely multiplayer (it needed AI players to fill roles and be targets, but so does Fighter Squadron), and it rewarded attacking the Star Destroyer far above actually fighting other players in space. And you don’t really get map variety in space — only the choice between Clone Wars or Rebellion. Still, maybe DICE can come up with another vehicle-heavy mode which can work out well, to add variety.

The equipment mix and classes in Battlefront II were derivative from Battlefield 2 (by design), and the new Battlefront eliminates all that in order to make it feel like its own game. And also to make it feel more true to the Star Wars universe. People who worried that this was going to be Battlefield 4: Star Wars won’t be disappointed. Those who wanted that, sorry. That isn’t what either DICE or many players wanted. The basic classes were designed to be roughly equal but different. You are supposed to be able to emulate them via your weapon choice and Star Card selection in Battlefront. And that is close enough, for the basic classes.

What we don’t get are the more exotic, more powerful characters. These worked sort of like the hero power ups, but the characters weren’t as powerful as the heroes — and there were more of them available on the battlefield. An officer, with some team supporting abilities (like Leia or the Emperor). A more powerful soldier, with a power-up weapon like the Arc or Chain blaster (these weapons might appear later). A cool element was that your character’s appearance changed to reflect your new ability, as long as you stayed alive. You got to be a Bothan (stealth) or Wookie (reusable Blaster Bow), and so on. This sort of thing also could still be fitted into the game, either with map pickups or Star Card customizations or such.

No Prequel content. That is a downside for player variety, as there are a lot of good hero and villain characters in the prequels, as well as weapons and planets. Of course, more Jedi, that is a given with the era. But we can expect some new ones of those along with the new movies. Maybe we’ll get to see Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade from the expanded universe, but we are sure to get some cool things along with the new movies.

The Prequels would be, in essence, a whole new game with new maps and characters. You couldn’t mix and match both eras together. You would have to choose which one to play, right at the start when joining a game. With Battlefront II’s server system, that wasn’t a problem. But the new Battlefront’s progression system doesn’t lend itself easily to tracking your progress both as a Droid soldier and a human (or at least live alien). The necessary content to flesh out another era would be the equivalent of a couple DLC packs at least, if not a full expansion. The vastly improved map visuals and models pretty much doom the more flexible expansion that the older games offered. Could DICE make a prequel expansion? Or could they add it as DLC?

It is a lot of maps and new content. The key reason to do it is that, with the new movies coming out, there might not be another chance to have a good game based on the cool elements from the first three Episodes. You also get more Jedi combat and heroes that way. But they aren’t as popular as the original trilogy, and won’t really help tie in with sales from the new movies. If you want this, you are going to need to be pretty persuasive and get DICE and EA to find a way to make it happen. Possibly, paying even more money for this game.

The price is a big issue, to many people. But the fact is, a lot of games now in their complete (deluxe, ultimate, etc.) package are $110-120 US. The use of DLC to extend the life of a game and allow for follow-on content to come out after the initial game-engine and core release is normal. It is too late to complain, the change has already happened.

I’m a Star Wars fan. I love the Battlefront experience. The game has the potential to be, with more DLC content, free or paid, to be a really great game. Not just a great Star Wars game. It is up to EA and DICE to make that happen.

Star Wars Battlefront comes with 9 maps, according to EA. But the map situation is complicated. Not all maps are available for all game modes. There are only four world maps: Tatooine, Suluust, Hoth, Endor. There are also only four BIG maps, used in the big game modes: Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Fighter Squadron. Turning Point is likely to also be restricted to these big maps.

Of the nine smaller maps, six work for Drop Zone, one of the other popular modes. The other three are available in the smaller game modes, such as Cargo, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs Villains. Blast falls in between these.

The Battle For Jakku adds two more maps, one of which is a big one suited for Walker Assault. That brings the number of big world maps up to five. That is, only 5 world maps for the game’s epic game modes.

The original Star Wars Battlefront (2005) and Battlefront II offered far more world maps to play on. The default play mode, conquest, is handled in the new Battlefront game with the Supremacy, and presumably Turning Point, with Walker Assault offering a variation on the theme which still needs a large, open world map in order to play.

So, what worlds are out there?
Hoth (included, ice wasteland)
Endor (included, forest)
Tatooine (Mos Eisley) (included, desert)

We get Suluust and Jakku for new worlds, which is a nice addition, for a total of five.

Dagobah (spooky swamp)
Felucia (exotic marsh)
Geonosis (wild plains and hills)
Kamino (high tech city and lab)
Kashyyyk (Wookies!, forest and village)
Mygeeto (frozen, crystalline city)
Naboo (fields and city)
Utapau (arid sinkholes)
Yavin 4 (jungle with ancient temples)
Rhen Var (ice city with ancient ruins)
Mustafar (industrial volcano)
That is 11 additional worlds drawing on the game’s past. Of them, though, three or four are pretty much tied to the Clone Wars period, but certainly are adaptable. If we got all 11, that would bring us up to 16 big world maps.

But wait! There are some smaller, interior map locations also potentially usable.

Corusant (Jedi Temple) — an interior fight in a very large structure
Death Star — interior corridor fight in a huge ship, could be big enough to bring vehicles in
Mos Eisley — city street fight on Tatooine, good for Heroes vs Villains and such
Jabba’s Palace — ancient fortress with dangerous traps. If we got the neutral Gomorran Guards as a threat too, it could be quite interesting
Polis Massa — research base on lifeless world
Tantive IV — the interior fight of Princess Leia’s ship
Bespin — fight among the platforms of the cloud city

7 additional iconic locations. 11 plus 7 is 18, which is more than the promised 16 maps for the DLCs. But there is room for additional free DLC content to allow these to see use in the game.

The maps in Battlefront are spectacular, especially for Star Wars fans. Scenes from the movies can be reproduced in near movie quality within the game. Having more worlds appear in the game would help fill this out.

But will we get them? The current crop of maps gives use 4 worlds and, effectively, 9 + 4 = 13 map layouts using them. The use of smaller map configurations with different details does offer variety, but doesn’t really solve the problem of the shortage of large world epic maps, for the bigger game modes. If we, instead, got two worlds per DLC, with two small and two large maps per world, that would leave us with a final count of only 5+8 = 13 large world maps — far fewer than the previous games, and much too small a count to really allow enough variety.

Now, depending on how they count maps, we could actually get a bit more than that number of SMALL maps. If there are two worlds per DLC, they could offer 4 small maps — two locations each — and still have two large maps. It still would leave the problem of not enough epic game mode maps to play, but at least the smaller game modes would have plenty of variety — 9+1+16 for 26 total small map locations.

Based on The Battle Of Jakku, we could potentially get 16 worlds, with both large and small maps for each.  A total of 32 new play areas, with some being subsets of the larger map.  A total of 11+32 for 43 in all, which would be nice.  As someone who likes the larger, epic maps, this would be ideal.  They could give us even more smaller maps, if they want to get in a few more special locations.

Of course, we could get those in the paid for DLC, plus three free worlds, and make up for that shortfall. We don’t know yet how much will be offered.

One thing which could be cool would be a space (asteroid and shipwreck/debris) map for the Fighter Squadron game mode. It is nice to fight over planets, but it would also be nice to have a scene set in space, just for the visuals.

Star Wars Battlefront Beta Results: Excellent! But Is That Good Enough?

The Beta is over now, and a huge turnout of fans got to play it. Like the Alpha, it offered good game play and no serious problems for those trying it out. We got to try three different maps, each with their own game mode. EA extended it a day, and people played to the very end. This is very encouraging for the
success of this game.

It has a lot to live up to, in order to be an amazing Star Wars game. As the successor to 2005’s Battlefront II (which makes the naming/number convention confusing, but it isn’t a direct sequel so it can’t be Battlefront III either), fans of the 10 year old game will want to so a wonderful, modernized version of the classic. Star Wars fans in general, and those who take in the new movies, will want a game which gives them a good movie-like experience. And action arcade FPS game fans are, as always, going to want great shooter gameplay, with balance and tactics as well as action.

Movie franchise games have often been failures or lackluster. There are a lot of competing pressures on the game creators, to fit into the cinematic universe, while still delivering a good, and possibly even original, game. It is kind of like cooking on Cutthroat Kitchen. The fans (customers, judges) want three things: a good cinematic looking game, good game play, and an experience true to the source.

Battlefront looks very good, with smooth visuals which should deliver a 60 FPS (or faster) experience on both current consoles and PC. The game play is fun, albeit tied to multiplayer shooting action in all cases (even the solo survival emulates this feeling). We get the iconic vehicles and characters from the movies, and the combat style seems to stick fairly true to the movie universe.

In doing the last, it drops the Battlefield-style class roles and equipment from Battlefront II. Every player is free to equip their soldier with whatever selection of equipment (that they’ve unlocked) as they like. The items available so far are all combat equipment — offensive and defensive — which any regular trooper might be expected to have. Special heavy weapons cannot be included in your kit. Nor can repair or healing tools, but the health system eliminates the need for them anyway. Get away from combat for a short time, and you will recover completely. Living to fight another day depends more on your skill at evasion than your team mates assistance, but it fits the movie universe better. Nobody is crying “medic” or “man down” like a modern battlefield. Blasters just don’t leave combat wounded lying around, they kill.

All the special heavy weapons must be picked up on the battlefield. The drop locations often have to be earned, by taking key points or other battle accomplishments. This is also how all vehicles are accessed, including the powerful AT-AT walkers. And it is also the way in which the hero characters, like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, get into play. There are patterns to how these things are obtained, but it isn’t quite as easy to figure out as simply finding vehicles parked and getting in them, or Battlefront II’s giving you the option to respawn as a hero after earning sufficient scores.

On the positive side, the semi-random placement does make it more likely that players will be able to get access to these powerful features, rather than having a few ace players always dominating the roles. The fact that you can carry a useful pickup around until you get to a good, safe location to use it can also help, as it avoids the “use it or lose it” effect of powerups in some other games.

The basics and the big picture: We get seven game modes and twelve maps at release, with more to come in either future free releases or paid DLC. What we’ve seen so far is solid — three maps, three game modes.

First, Tatooine survival. The classic survive waves of AI attackers game, which is a staple of coop game play, works well here. The Beta limits us to one map and limited waves compared to the final game, but with enough maps and more scenarios, this kind of thing could be solid. Survival is easy to get into, and a good way to play with a friend rather than being part of a larger match.

Second, Drop Zone on Sullust. Capture packages which are dropped randomly on the map to score, a nice fast paced infantry oriented combat game. The randomly placed objectives give clear goals for both teams, but there is a solid secondary element of simply controlling useful terrain points to help your team secure the next package.

Third, Walker Assault on Hoth: The scenario from The Empire Strikes Back, the rebels must stop the AT-AT walkers from advancing to the shield generator, while the Imperials must get through. The situation is unbalanced, as it requires good team work for the rebels to have any chance, while the Imperials simply have to slog on and survive in order to win, but the fun is in the details of the battle, not whether you win or lose. Desperate fights to hold the trenches and secure the key stations in order to deliver (or prevent) a succesful attack against the walkers are the critical elements of the game.

All three have solid pacing, making it easy for most players to be frequently engaged in game-changing firefights. The respawning system also usually puts players back into the action quickly. All in all, it is simply a lot of fun to play.

We are getting 12 maps to start, plus two free ones shortly after release. That is pretty good, compared to the 18 base maps from Star Wars Battlefront II, as there will be four DLC expansions which will add additional maps. I would guess 4 each, to bring us to an ultimate total of 30 battlegrounds. Not bad, if they are decent to play on, and there is a lot of potential with new game modes and the possibilities with new weapons and scenarios using these maps.

All these are pretty good points, which is a good sign for the success of the game. But not everything is quite so perfect, and there are some bits of bad and ugly to deal with.

Bad: The random spawns can put you either into an immediate engagement (and likely death) before you have a chance to orient yourself. Or you can appear on the far side of the map from the action. You can use the Partner spawn to join one other player alive on the battlefield, and that helps, but isn’t always the best location. Spawn point logic can be improved, but both Battlefield and the original (2004 and 2005) Battlefront games offer actual choices for spawn locations when entering or reentering a game.

The Season Pass is $50, but as with Hardline and unlike Battlefield 4, it has four DLC packages instead of five. That means you only save $10 vs the $60 standalone price, rather than $25 vs the $75 five DLC price. Now, Battlefield 4 offered a “free” DLC for many buyers, so many players only got four additional paid-for expansions, but it still is a reduction in the relative value of getting the Pass rather than purchasing separately. If the idea is that most serious players will have the Season Pass, it has to be worth enough to make it the obvious best way to get the full game. Otherwise, many players will get play a wait and see game with separate DLC purchases, and leave a divided community of players.

There is no story campaign, nor anything like the galactic conquest game mode. Both are mostly single player game play, using AI run bot soldiers to fill in what is otherwise a regular multiplayer style engagement (albeit with some special modifications and objectives). While it was possible to play the conquest mode one on one against another player, it simply wouldn’t work to expand it beyond that — you’d never get the players to stay together throughout the entire multi-battle campaign. But any single player story would need to work both for game play and with the Star Wars source material, and Battlefront really isn’t suited to retelling the story of the original trilogy, nor its sequels. The Jedi Knight/Academy series worked far better for that sort of thing. Would we really play a new campaign, or replay it? Especially if it was, in essence, just a series of multiplayer game modes with progress tracking?

Maybe. But multiplayer gaming tends to get a stronger following and more active players in the long run than single player play. The cooperative survival can be run solo, but also works with friends.

The Ugly: The beta didn’t really give us a solid look at how the social side of multiplayer play would look, because its matchmaking system made it hard to join a game with friends. That shouldn’t be the case once released, but it is hard to be sure. The Partner system is a clever way to allow you to play with a friend and stay close to the action, without the tactical and balancing issues that come with Battlefield’s squad system. Battlefront 2004/2005 didn’t use either squads or partners, and that worked OK, but you could pick your spawn point and try to meet up with friends.

A lot of multiplayer play is essentially solo, lone wolf play. We don’t always have time to hook up with our friends for a game, but want the joy of fighting against other people rather than programmed AI opponents. Star Wars Battlefront will work perfectly for that style of play. Find a random partner and just start engaging the enemy.

But often, and very often for the best multiplayer games, we want to actually play with, and coordinate with, our friends in the game. Even if they are ones we just met, it is one of the key social elements of the game to be able to communicate with and join with players in your party, and be on the same team. The Partner gives you only one other player as a secure respawn point, which is OK as far as that goes. But if you can’t either join a game and be on the same team as your friends, or be able to locate them among all the other players on your team, it can be hard to actively play together.

This gets back to the spawn choices. For some game modes, either Partner or Random is probably sufficient. But being able to make some sort of tactical choice about your place on the battle map improves both game play and team (and friend) coordination. If there aren’t specific controlled locations to capture as spawn points (as in the older Battlefront games), we could perhaps have something like Attack (near the enemy objective) or Defense (near the objectives you need to protect), or Base (if the mode has entry areas for the teams). For the Walker Assault, we could spawn near either the Walkers or the control stations as a preference, rather than entering at a randomized location.

Without some sort of system to help keep both teams and friends coordinated on the map, the game risks breaking down into a series of exciting, but ultimately unengaging and random battles. Battlefield and the original Battlefront both give players strong ways to coordinate, both by reinforcing key locations and by keeping friendly team mates working together. If the new Battlefront fails in this, it may fall short of being a truly awesome game, and a true successor to its namesake.

There will be no private matches at game launch, and those are also pretty important for both serious game players and fun non-competitive game play and creativity.  I can’t see DICE and EA ignoring the value of these.